SE1 was briefly available for free, I think around the time that SE4 first came out... I might have it lying about somewhere, or maybe Fyron does... Basically the universe was one huge grid of sectors (no systems or warp points! Though I think there were storms you could hide in), and all planets that were not homeworlds were occupied by primitive civilizations that you had to conquer before you could take the planet. You couldn't design ships, and I don't think you could research either, but instead you built ships with predefined combat strength. There was no AI, so you had to find someone else to play against. Pretty primitive, huh? Though I do like the "primitive civilizations on every planet" idea... hopefully we can mod that into SE5
