Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

Since many here seem to know and love Stars! I'll just ask my questions here!

<i>1. Factories and Mines: What are their respective purposes? I presume that Mines mine Ironium, Boranium and Germanium from the surface of a planet? Factories?</i>

yup, mines pull minerals out of the ground, you can only operate as many mines as your race's population settiungs allow, but you can build as many as you want up to that planets limits. Factories are the same only they generate additional resources instead of minerals.

<i>2. Resources: What are they, how are they generated and what are they used for?</i>

Resources are your population working, curency or credit, it builds stuff and you can allocate a portion of it to research. Part of your resources are generated by your population, most are generated by factories. You can see how much either will generate by looking at your race file.

<i>3. Minerals: Planets each have a certain concentration of the various minerals, but are these minerals ever depleted by mining, or is it like in SEIV where mineral miners, etc do not actually deplete the planet's supply of whichever mineral?</i>

The higher a concentration(the diamond on the mineral graph) the more of each mining will pull up, minerals do deplete over time. The solid bar represents how much of that mineral you have currently. The genesis device will reset a planets mineral concentrations randomly once they are depleted(if you chase down the mysterious trader that is)

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

Actually one of the Stars sites (I forget which one) had a full copy that he had permission to offer. It was an earlier version but I think it was still patchable forward.

The serial numbers for nultiplayer are getting hard to find but there are conversations with the owners to fix that problem also.

There is a Stars usenet newsgroup which is very helpful.

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

I can still remember the happiness I felt when that 3.5'' floppy arrived in my mailbox!! I played Stars! relentlessly, sometimes printing out maps of my empires to take to work and study. I have fond memories of launching mineral packets at enemy worlds and creating gigantic minefields.

There was a patch that made the graphics even better, and actually pleasant to look at. Unfortunately my 3.5'' floppy got corrupted and I never got around to replacing it.

I wish I could find Stars! for sale again.

While waiting for the new version, Stars! Supernova, I discovered a 100-turn demo of a neat little game called Space Empires IV. I played it and was blown away. I decided I HAD to have the game IMMEDIATELY.

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

"While waiting for the new version, Stars! Supernova, I discovered a 100-turn demo of a neat little game called Space Empires IV. I played it and was blown away. I decided I HAD to have the game IMMEDIATELY. "

Me too! Stars! was my very first 4x space game.

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

My first was probably an oldie called Empire, back when I got my first computer, a 286 with a CGA monitor, shortly after I got married. After that, I think, was the original Reach for the Stars.

Wonderful memories!

Getting back to Stars!, I spent countless hours with that game. Wow--I could conquer the galaxy! All that great gameplay on a 3.5'' gloppy disk! I think I remember there being an email mailing list for Stars! players. Strategy endlessly debated, potential improvements discussed, etc.

There was eventually a Stars Supernova website that I used to post on from work. With screen shots, features described, etc. We were so passionate about having the game see the light of day! But the developer--it was a 1 or 2 man operation--was not able to find a publisher, so the story went. So the game died.

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

My first game really in the genre was also Empire, but like in the late 90s when I found it in my employer's old computer stash. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

Actually, it was a 3-man team. They did manage to find a publisher, unfortunetely the publisher put the game on the back burner, so to speak, and never released it. Even more unfortunately, the original team couldn't afford to buy back the publisher's rights and find a publisher who was actually interested in releasing the game.

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

I have an original copy of Stars that is in mint condition. I played it mb a few times and lost interest... it was too far over my head for my casual interest at the time.

How much $$$ is someone willing to part for it?

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

So is there actually a finished version of Stars Supernova out there somewhere?

Re: OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources
 

From everything I've heard, no there is not.