September 26, 2004

Noctis. Ever wanted to just fly through space and see the universe without worrying about space pirates, giant alien insects that want to lay eggs in your head, or the occasional rampaging warrior race? Noctis basically puts you in the role of a space tourist with a small ship, a camera, and over 70 billion stars to visit. It also lets you share your discoveries with other drifters. Not bad for a 1.2 MB DOS game.

  • My God! It's full of stars! Or not.
  • Aw, man. The whole point of space travel is to meet other races, steal their technology, and subjugate them to our will. Well, that's what my alien overlord father told me. You know, before he died penniless in that alley behind Pizza Hut.
  • People they come together People they fall apart No one can stop us now 'Cause we are all made of stars -Moby
  • /worthless derail
  • Noctis looks pretty cool. Gonna have to find some time to try it out.
  • I played that game for a long time now but it really needs an update. The main programmer has long promised one but it never comes. Maybe what he need's a collaborating team.
  • Tried it out tonight but could not get it to work... even looking at the manual. I got as far as selecting a star, but can't make the ship move. Also I can't figure out what's with the menus on the ship's wall, as they're difficult to read since you have to be standing in the right place.
  • Yeah, the menus and controls are terrible, but once you get a hand off it you can get a lot of fun. But I must admit, this game requires a lot of imagination (calvin&hobbes-like) to enjoy. And after a few visited stars it becomes difficult to find interesting things. Yet you can visit the forums (linked above) and get your interest renewed by what other players have found.
  • You can find some interesting things, like transparent planets, inexplicable pyramids, ancient craters, or ice mountains towering over lifeless plains. If you have the patience, you can head out to the galactic rim, or even hunt down rarities, like the wall of stars, habitable worlds orbiting uninhabitable stars, or even just habitable worlds in bizarre places in general (Once found one out past where Pluto should have been). Still looking forward to Noctis V, though...
  • what is the night? an emptiness we see as dark but which must be shot through with light out there are hung the myriad stars all far removed from mortal wars
  • That was beautiful, beeswacky.