Clones
A page for other games directly inspired by Stars! as opposed to games like Master of Orion (and FreeOrion!) which while cool, are merely Stars!-like.
All developers of Stars! clone projects are invited to create and maintain Stars!wiki articles related to their programs.
Developers may also contact the Stars!wiki adminstrators to obtain a Namespace for their project.
Cosmic Crises
Written by Ed Kolis in Java, Cosmic Crises is a semi-playable work in progess. It is not intended to be a 100% faithful Stars! clone; rather, it is intended to be a new 4X game inspired mainly by Stars!, but also by other games such as Space Empires and Master of Orion.
Stars! Autohost forum thread: [1]
CraigStars!
Written by Craig (sirgwain), CraigStars! is a hobby project in C# client/server Stars! clone. The interface and look and feel of CraigStars! is as close as possible to the original, with a few changes to take advantage of new technology. His aim is to create a more flexible copy of the original Stars!.
FreeStars
- Last Updated: 2004-06-08
FreeStars is a project to write a clone of Stars! The first goal is to make it a fairly close copy (to the game play at least, look and feel is not as important). (at sourceforge)
Étoiles
- last updated: November 17th, 2008
Étoiles is a client for FreeStars, the Stars! game clone. It is written in Java and needs a Java 6 (or greater). Étoiles is launched via WebStart(you just have to click on the link from the page to start the latest version). First version (0.1) contained only the technology browser. Current version (0.2) looks now more like the original Stars!, but it is not yet complete. WIP [2]
Frontier Project
- Last Updated: 02/02/06
Frontier was started in the summer of 2003 on a whim by Brandon Bergren and Jeff Hoogeterp, Originally planned as a stand-alone clone of Stars! Frontier was released under the GPL sometime around July 2005 and is now a client for Freestars. (at sourceforge)
GStars!
GStars! is a client for FreeStars using wxWidgets. It aims to be the best graphical clone of Stars! (at sourceforge)
Hilton's FreeStars Client
Hilton plans to use a richer diplomacy system including technology and map trades (via heavily encrypted subspace channels), various levels of peace and alliance, etc. It also uses a modified XML format for the game files(compatibility unknown).[3]
My Own Stars!
A feature-full FreeStars! client developed in BCB (Borland C++ Builder) aimed at allowing users to individualize their gaming environment without affecting standard gameplay. (at sourceforge)
ZStars!
By Zardov, ZStars! is a FreeStars client in Visual Basic 6 and Revolution 3d engine (2d + 3d graphs). He is making the map (and map gui) in 3d, trying that emulate the look the gui of Imperium Galactica 2.[4]
Freestars 2.x
Initiated by Omnivore, Freestars 2.x is an attempt to create a 'modder friendly' open source 4x game system in Java using RuleSets, such as the planned Stars! 2.6jrc3 clone RuleSet, to specify game mechanics.
HxNova
Written by Chase Kernan (ck_drknes), HxNova attempts to recreate the classic strategy game of "Stars!" using the highly portable language of haXe. Its drawn a lot of its inspiration from the Nova probject by Ken Reed as well as the Freestars project.
It hopes to differ from these projects with a more friendly flash UI has well as more adaptable server-side run time (php or neko running on Apache). Most of this is made possible through haXe, which can be compiled to Flash, JavaScript, PHP, and Neko.
While not everything is going to be implemented right away, the idea is to allow expansion wherever possible to make adding those features easier (ie Minefields/Packets).
Nova
Written by Ken Reed, Nova started out as a simple hobby exercise in C# and .Net and has since grown into a playable game. Ships can be designed and built, planets can be explored and colonised, cargo can be moved from A-to-B, populations grow, mines generate minerals, races can be designed (although only JOAT is implemented at the moment), battles can be fought, etc.
Stellar Legacy
- Last Updated: 2002-12-10
The main goal of the Stellar Legacy Project is the creation of a free version of the famous and beloved strategy game "Stars!" (tm). "Free" means that the source code is freely available to everyone and that everyone is free to modify and change the game in a way he likes. While we started with the intention of creating a stars! clone our current goals are a bit different since we found during the development process that stars! has certain limitations we would like to overcome.
Thousand Parsec
Thousand Parsec is not a game by itself but rather a frame work for creating a similar group of games. Some games, such as the demo game MiniSec, are developed by the Thousand Parsec developers themselves. Thousand Parsec draws ideas from 4X games such as: Stars!, VGA Planets, Master of Orion and Galactic Civilizations.