In KSP, you run the space program of Kerbin, a small planet populated by amiable green Kerbals. Next is Kerbal Space Program ( KSP), a game that finally emerged from beta earlier this year after a lengthy gestation period and is available for PCs and Macs for $40. (You also have the option of multiplayer action.) Want to visit the Orion Nebula, or gaze on the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy? No problem-assuming you survive the journey.

Elite: Dangerous successfully retains most of the elements that made the original great, but now, rather than an arbitrary collection of fictional stars, players fly around a beautifully detailed representation of the Milky Way, based on real stellar data. Players could fly from star system to star system, trading goods, mining asteroids, or engaging in space piracy as they accumulated cash to upgrade their spacecraft. The original Elite was released in 1984, and pioneered vast procedurally generated environments and the kind of open-ended “sandbox” game play that’s now common in many modern titles. Released last December, this is a reboot of the Elite game series by one of its original creators and is available for PCs, Macs, and the Xbox for US $45.

Now, fortunately for would-be pilots, there are a number of new spaceship-based games available that have the added bonus of being particularly rewarding for those with a scientific or engineering bent.įirst up, there’s Elite: Dangerous. But in the 1990s, the rise of first-person shooters and strategy games pushed spaceships into the background, although entries like the massively multiplayer game Eve Online kept the genre alive. Titles like Asteroids, Defender, and Galaxian dominated arcades, while home systems saw big sales for games such as Cosmic Ark and Elite. In the early days of video games, players often found themselves flying spaceships. Elite: Dangerous, players have the option to mine the rings of gas giants for resources-or pirate from those who do.

Space engineers star system asteroids