StarMiner

You will traverse across the solar system collecting ore from asteroids, planets, moons and if you're lucky enough to catch one, a comet.

StarMiner Beta/Demo V0.1 (c) 1999 Robb Bates

This version of StarMiner is just a demo. When you run it all you will see is a cockpit dashboard and a rotating spaceship. This is just to give you a taste of what StarMiner will be.

You might have to turn up your contrast a bit as I have yet to implement a page flipping routine. There are other minor bugs. The menu doesn't work.

Although efforts have been made to ensure program stability, I cannot be held responsible for problems arising from use of this program. By laoding the program, you release me of any liability.

At the controls of the XYZ (name to be determined) mining vessel, you will traverse across the solar system collecting ore from asteroids, planets, moons and if you're lucky enough to catch one, a comet. You then determine which planet's inhabitants will pay the most for the ore you've collected and if it's worth the hazardous journey. You'll have to watch out for pirates and interstellar obstacles.

The ship will have a certain fuel capacity. An XYZ converter will slowly change the fuel into energy and store it in the XYZ capacitors. You will be able to use this energy to fire your lasers, power your shields and make manuevers. You can also charge your XYZ hyperjump drive to make jumps between planets. If your shields get hit, or you fire your lasers too much or make too many high speed manuevers your energy will be drained. If your energy gets drained to the point where the converter cannot make up for the loss, your hull will be hit. Too many hits on your hull will destroy your ship.

Once you've collected enough money, you can buy better converters, shield generators, lasers, etc. And if you strike it rich, you can even get an XYZ interstellar jump drive which will allow you to jump to another star system.

Please feel free to send any ideas for this game to me. If they are in the spirit of the game and easy enough to incorporate, I'll add them.

Here are some of the ideas I have right now:

Automatic drills: Deposit these on asteroids and planets to excavate ore which you can come by and pick up from time to time.

Ore processors: Processes ore into refined material. You can hold more of the refined material than the raw ore.

Ore to fuel processor: Converts ore to fuel for your ship. Save on refueling costs.

Computer: Your ship has a computer that requires software, which you can upgrade, to run various functions of your ship. You will have to choose which software to put in your computer because it only has so much memory. You can buy such programs as Navigation, Targeting, Long range scanning, Short range scanning, etc.

Engineering: The various system components in your ship might break down from overuse, damage during a firefight and just plan poor workmanship. You might want to carry some spare energy conduits to replace those that blow out.

Any ideas, questions or bug reports may be sent to me at

[email protected]

with StarMiner as the subject line.