Trying to find the first sci-fi game I played

[EariosRandomness]

When I was young, I played this game that I downloaded via a browser (I had never heard of Steam before, and I'm pretty sure it's not on there anyway). I'm trying to find it again, but I can't for the life of me remember its name. Here's the details I remember:- It took place over an entire galaxy.- You could buy a ship, but not design it.- There were orbiting, artificial rings around some planets that served as starports.- You could analyze and look at the details of stars.- It came out before 2005. That's all I can remember. If anyone can help, thank you.

[sscadmin]

Was there any combat or trading in it?

[McAule]

Elite series? Privateer? No?

[EariosRandomness]

There was combat and trading in it. I also remember that it had its own website. Also, it had a top-down view, like looking at everything from above.

[McAule]

Escape Velocity: NovaNAEVTranscendenceStarflight - The Lost ColonyEpoch StarUr-Quan MastersEpiarEndless SkyStar NomadVoid of Darkness Can't think of more. Some of them might not be the ones you described, but just in case. Could you provide more details perhaps?

[ExpandingMan]

I seem to remember Space Rangers (http://store.steampowered.com/app/214730/[/url] having planets with dockable, artificial rings, though I could be wrong. I think they've done a couple of re-releases of it, so I'm not quite sure when it was originally released. I rather doubt it was before 2005 though.

[Bouitaz]

Conquest: Frontier Wars?

[McAule]

3030: Deathwar?

[nozmajner]

Hmm. Freelancer did have literal small docking rings as the way to land on planets, but on the other hand, I won't call it's setting the whole galaxy. Neither it had star analysis.

[McAule]

Hmm. Freelancer did have literal small docking rings as the way to land on planets, but on the other hand, I won't call it's setting the whole galaxy. Neither it had star analysis.And it wasn't top-down as an OP stated. Flatspace 2 perhaps?

[Pinback]

And it wasn't top-down as an OP stated. I must be missing some thing here but I can't see where the OP said it was 2D? (see it now, need my eyes tested post 4) I go with one of the EV Nova series http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/[/url] as it tends to be the answer in a lot in these can't remember threads.

[EariosRandomness]

I think it may have been NAEV. Thanks for the help, everyone.

[McAule]

No problem matey.