SE IV = Starfire (even > Starfire!)

[WendellM]

I quite enjoyed the old 1979 Starfire pocket edition when I bought it in 1981 (along with my friends - we often built quick fleets to battle).

While I passed on Starfire II & III, I was introduced to their contents when I bought the boxed Version of Starfire in 1984 (which included SF II: Starfighter material) and the strategic-level New Empires (which included a massive overhaul of SF III: Empires) in 1985. A few Nexus articles and mailed errata corrections in 1986/7 refined this system into what I consider to be an excellent mix of detail and playability. My friends and I played a few campaigns with these rules.

Though I bought them, 1992's revised edition of Starfire and 1993's Imperial Starfire seemed to add more overhead than the effort was worth (IMHO). While I read them, my friends never bought them and I never tried to play under those rules due to the paperwork.

Now with SE IV, I can create my own (modified) Version to closely replicate what I consider an excellent 4X "paper" game: Boxed Starfire/New Empires c. 1987, even against AI players. I can even make any changes that I think might make it better... I heartily thank the Malfadorian programmers for this recaptured opportunity!

Anyone else here with a Starfire connection?

[Fred]

Wendell,

I own the boxed Starfire and New Empires set too.
Simply the best (especially on a tactical scale) board space strategy game around. I spent more time creating new ships than actually playing this masterpiece

AFAIK the SE series was heavily influenced by Starfire, and this gives us the best computer 4X game around. Thanks to Aaron and his team for this game.
Y 2000 was really a wargamers dream year: WDK2K, Combat Mission and SE IV. All games from small independent companies.

Fred

[markgame]

Wow, Starfire... I also had the boxed Version and the expansion from the 80's. I was especially impressed with New Empires. I even spent some time writing a program in Basic to mimic the game mechanics so the game could be played on a computer, although I gave up at the thought of trying to build a workable AI.

[Seawolf]

Bah! Starfire!! next you will talking about Star Fleet Battles!!

------------------
Seawolf on the prowl

[Narlotep]

FYI, Starfire is in its Fourth edition, which includes streamlined/rationalized tac and strat rules, and there is also a new product available that simplifies the empire-building portion even further. Plus several software shareware products to help with the designing and number crunching.

Check out: starfiredesign.com for more info.

Narlotep

[Azathoth]

Yup, I was an original Starfire owner too. It was the best 4x paper game I ever played.

Always kept looking for a good conVersion to PC play for it on the web. Then, a couple weeks ago, I came across SEIII. Excellent! ...and I was just in time for SEIV. The Series pretty much is Starfire PC to me. I love it.

Good job by Malfador. Excellent open endedness. And nice gaming community that supports the product which makes it even richer. Bugs are bugs, but it also looks like MM/Shrapnel is ready to patch most problems quickly.

Good game.

[Psitticine]

I remember Starfire too. In fact, one of the first things I ever programmed was a BASIC program ("Starfire Shipyard"!) that you could use to design ships and print out those cool alphabetic definition strings.

I tried to follow the Starfire link from MM's page a while back. I don't remember what interfered - a lost network connection or some such - but I should really go back and try it again. I'm curious to see what's new since I played!

[G-top]

Here is their web page:
http://www.starfiredesign.com/starfire/index.html

[great.throwdini]

ack. whatever possessed the good folks behind starfire to specify white text against a background image in PNG format?

and not set a contrasting background color for the page(s) to fall back against?

so much for using NScape 3.x to speed up my Internet experience

[Dutch]

I had wondered what happened to Starfire and the SDS. Thanks for posting the address/url.

Starfire was a great game (even if I didn't play it much). I had/have the original pocket edition(s) (all 3), plus the 3rd edition, ISF, etc. I have only played the demo for se4, as of yet, but it really does feel like a computerized Version of SF/ISF.

Dutch