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This is certainly a long shot... this game has evaded my searching for years and I would love to have this mysterious game named once and for all.

  • It came out prior to 1997 (possibly earlier this is just when I discovered it)
  • It was a turn-based (hot-seat) game
  • It was set in space with a dozen or so planets
  • At the start each player chose their 'spaceship' with some being faster/more fuel efficient while others had more capacity. (One of the spaceships looked like a brain)
  • The focus was finance / strategy. You would buy/sell resources. The value of resources would go up/down like a stock-market.
  • Your turn would end when you ended your go or decided to travel to another planet.
  • Depending on your spaceship some planets required several hops (if you wanted to get from planet A to B you may need to go via planet C thus taking an extra turn)
  • Mid turn you could be intercepted by a NPC who requests your help. Promising payment 50/50 chance he would rob you if you decided to help.
  • The demo version would end after a fixed number of turns
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    Was this a BBS game? Any of these ring any bells? reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/2q1pbt/… May 24, 2017 at 23:55
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    It maybe have also been ported as a BBS game but I only remember it as a local (windows) game. Thanks for the link but unfortunately it doesn't look like it's any of those May 25, 2017 at 0:06

1 Answer 1

17

I'm guessing you're talking about Gazillionaire Deluxe. It's a space trading game that came out in 1996, supported multiple players, and set in a universe with 7 planets. Notably on this screenshot taken from Old-Games.com, one of the spaceships looks like a brain:

Gazillionaire Deluxe spaceship selection screenshot

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    Wow!!! You are 100% correct, thank you sir! Without exaggeration I've wondered what the name was for years! May 25, 2017 at 9:24
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    Gazillionaire was actually kind of a rip-off (or at least a "recycled idea") of Spaceward Ho!" for (initially) the Classic Mac that came out years earlier (1990 vs. 1996)
    – tofro
    May 25, 2017 at 10:55
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    @tofro Not really. Spaceward Ho! is 4X space game, a genre that got its start on computers with Reach for the Stars in 1983. Gazillionaire Deluxe is a space trading game, a genre that goes back to 1974's Star Trader.
    – user722
    May 25, 2017 at 16:43

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