Never played Starshatter personally, I have heard complaints about the quality and support of the game.

Played this a little bit and think it is quite good. Got me thinking i might have to install this again soon and play.

For some reason it was really addicting. Really felt like how space combat would be. You could enter atmosphere and bomb an airfield and fight in atmosphere, then afterburn out and return to your carrier in space. Pretty cool.

AFAIK the game is no longer supported, and the digital download is no longer available from Matrix games.

I remember looking for it, and it's pretty much been taken off the market short of buying a used hardcopy. Oh well.

Hehe, I'm happy 'cause I've got this game and I can say: it's awesome! It's the most realistic future navy simulator I've ever played :]

And if somebody really want - I've got demo (downloaded two years ago from their site!) of it and I can host it.

traker or diomedesbc, wanna try multi?

Yeah. But I prefer fleet operation. I remember jumping to enemy system (not sector, system), destroying border defensive stations jumping to other sectors of system and destroying all enemy ships. Systems are quiet big 😀

3331 if you give me a link to the demo I will gladly host it here for everyone. I tried looking for it a while back and could never find it.

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/25977457/StarshatterDemo.exe (I had problems with uploading it here)

;]

I wish you can play multi with demo ^^

link not working ❓

Hm? For me it's working.

Its in the download area now: StarShatter Demo

Long shot

But as I have a valid key, does anyone have the installer that Matrix had or point me to it? I asked their tech support and they said they never sold Starshatter, yet I got the license key for it

Hate to break it to you, but Matrix games won't even support it (as you found out.) and short of questionable methods, to be frank, Starshatter doesn't exist on the internet. Ive looked high and low, and they did a fantastic job of removing all traces of the full version.

I believe that you're good at seeking but I think I'm better. I was seeking for 4 months and I found demo in internet. I found full version too :]

And there is big site about Starshatter called Starshatter Mods.

Wonder what happened to them. ❓

They have indeed. I got an e-mail saying I can get a refund and to delete the demo if I'm playing it

I'm iffy about using 'questionable methods', but as I got proof of purchase would it be allowed?

EDIT: LOL they removed it due to their patch (apparently) breaking the game/complaints about it

Starshatter was one of the better spacesims out there - not that the competition is very tough - an amazing effort by mostly one man. It probably also sold like crap. What do you expect, when you combine an extremely nerdy subject matter (space!) with a realistic approach (realism!) and then try to support it all by yourself?

It would have been great if the developer had released the source code, as SS was a really cool platform for space combat. Technically outdated, the game runs quite poorly even on modern systems.

Awhile ago I contacted the guy who made Starshatter regarding purchasing the license to his engine to make a game. Unfortunately, the price was/is beyond my limits.

I may still have his information if anyone is interested, however. I still have a lot I'd like to do with a good space sim engine.

EDIT: Just looked - nada. Too bad 🙁 He wanted somewhere in the upper thousands, if my memory serves me correctly.

Also, first post! Hi everyone. 🙂 Glad to see this community thriving!

Back when the space sim group on Usenet was busier the author used to post regularly under the name "Milo". Seems to gave gone off the radar since then.

Well I know his name, which is pretty easy to find. Beyond that I think he moved.

I wonder if this game is in "abandoned" status now. It can't be purchased in any way, so it could be, but the abandonware sector was alway something like a gray area.

I can't see it being anything other than abandoned, by both its publisher and lone developer. Why it was abandonee, I'm wondering if we'll ever know.

Awww. Of course it's his baby and he can do with it what he wants - but open sourcing a game (minus assets, usually) is a great way to ensure it doesn't fade into obscurity.

It's really sad, as Starshatter had the potential to be the Falcon 4 of space sims. All it needed was some more polish and bug fixes.

Yeah, he used to post on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.space-sim way back in the day. I miss those days with Bill, bret, brad and gang! The Flame Wars were fun as hell!

I've had Starshatter since it came out, but I never really got into it. The flight model and control scheme were pretty user unfriendly, and it was pretty much on rails, which I loath in a space sim.