Reach for The Stars

Reach for the Stars, initially, was a breakthrough game released by SSG in the very early eighties. Despite the dating of the game, it was fresh and innovative as space games were concerned, and spawned the concept of the “4X game,” where the basic goals are all the same: explore, expand, exploit, and, if necessary, exterminate.
While primitive, Reach for the Stars is still a classic empire-building game set in space. The first task the user is charged with is exploring his or her surroundings, starting from the random launching point.

The map is a classical hexagon array of space, with standard space obstacles on some of the tiles (stars, moons, etc.) There were up to four players also vying for the same territory, so exploration and technological research had to begin fairly early. The game could be played with multiple human opponents, or with AI. The AI in this particular game is almost flawless and aggressive, and will be a challenge.
After exploring the potential of the surrounding areas, colonization had to begin. The player was limited to a few ships and a little money in the beginning and each ship was one of three classes: scout, transport, or war ship. The duties of each ship is quite self- explanatory, each having strengths and weaknesses. The scouts were quick, but were good for only scouting. The warships were powerful, but could not carry colonists to other areas of the galaxy, and the big clunky transports could move anything, but were poor offensively or defensively speaking. As with most simulation and strategy games, building the right combination of parties was essential.
After colonizing planets and exploiting its minerals or other resources, the user could amass more money. Money was used for technological upgrades to ships, such as more speed, or better offensive. It could also be used to purchase more ships or defensive missile bases and other industrial abilities. The game is half economy and half war, and the turns are structured into a development and movement phase to reflect this. The first part of each turn consists of choosing what each colony is to produce for economic value, and the second portion of the turn allows you to position ships, wage war, and conquer opposing lands.
Overall, this turn based strategy was well ahead of its time and laid the ground work for some of the excellent games we see today. The graphics are very good, but as a simulation, it still has superb value. The replay ability is great, if you can defeat the AI the first time, and the fun factor is sky high. I love it and I’m sure you’ll love it too!