Nomad Download (1993 Simulation Game)

A human astronaut was sent by the OESI (the Organization of Earth's Special Intelligences) on an exploration mission. The ship gets stranded in the orbit shortly following the launch, due to a malfunctioning engine. The protagonist is rescued by Granger Tinker Brin O'Keef, a member of the galactic Alliance, which fights a highly advanced mechanized race known as the Korok, whose goal is to destroy all life in the galaxy. The hero decides to join the Alliance and help them in their battle against the Korok.

Nomad is a space exploration, trading, and combat game. Its basic gameplay mechanics revolve around trading with various alien races(based on bartering rather than currency), as well as defending the ship against hostile crafts in an action-oriented space combat. Compared to other space simulations, the game is more story-driven, featuring scripted conversations with characters and information-gathering. The game world includes several hundreds of planets and eleven alien races. The player-controlled ship can be customized with weapons (such as missiles), loaders, shield generators, engines, scanners, and jamming devices.

You're the pilot of a spacecraft launched from Earth in order to protect it! First off, you encounter a furry llama looking creature, Brin O'Keef, who tells you of the Maka Bola - the base for an anti-Korok movement. The Korok are a machine race who are attacking our space. They are led by the Master Computer Robot - a twisted piece of machinery that has started attacking people. There are many races united to fight them, and you are the representative of the Human race!

Save the Universe, of course!

You have some inventory you can trade and you should! You will need missiles and other equipment to enhance your ship. You can get anything from blast shield boosters to jamming devices, etc. All these will make your ship stronger, and you can also improve it by accessing the options under the Engineering menu. You can trade for most things you need, like new parts and equipment. The bots come in very handy for exploration of alien terrain. You'll try and obtain things from planet surfaces too, and you'll need bots to do it.

Trading isn't the only method to obtain the necessaries. You'll be awarded different things after successfully completing the missions found in the com net, and you can salvage parts from the ships you blast to pieces. Yes, you get to shoot!

But don't forget about your main objective - to stop the machine aggression.

As you talk to different species, you'll discover that an ancient civilization built the Korok machines; but when the builders disappeared, the Master Computer Robot broke down. There are four old Korok machines out there that can help you; so don't simply destroy all the robots, try talking to them. If they're not evil, they'll talk back to you.

So far I've only finished the game one way: I tracked down the Master Control Robot and destroyed his ship. There are supposed to be other ways to finish the game, but I haven't discovered them just yet.

I found no walkthrough, but I don't think this game really needs one. If you wish to find out more before playing, you might look at the TXT file, because it has all the conversations that appear in the game. You could find this useful.

The game deserves a 4 IMHO. It has a solid story, good enough graphics, plays nicely with the keyboard, has sound (though it could be improved upon) and is fun.

What more do you want?

Quite unknown and superb game in the same time. You don't see those every day, don't You? Anyway, Nomad is much like modern Elite. You'll have to do Your best to survive in space by both combat and trade while You search for the origin of an unknown civilization that brought the hyperdrive technology to humans. Quite a game with some small turndowns. You'll definitely enjoy this one if You like Elite and Privateer!

One of the most overlooked classics of all time, this is essentially Starflight with a much more developed and interesting plot (although with less sophisticated details and interface): an alien ship that mysteriously crashed into earth suddenly gives mankind the hyperdrive technology. As captain, you must pilot the craft into unknown worlds to find out its origins. Despite ridiculously simplistic combat, the game has many memorable alien characters and trade goods. It's also very non-linear, and there's *plenty* of dialogues and sub-plots.

I almost forgot about this one! But then I saw someone requesting it on IRC. Well well, I uploaded it for him and he told me how GREAT the game would be. So I checked this game out once again - and yeah! - he's right. A little bit like Starflight, maybe more like Star Control (2) and a bit of Frontier. An alien spacecraft crashes on the Earth and you set out as captain of the repaired ship. Just after leaving Earth you're greeted by a nice furry alien, you find out about the Alliance and the evil Korok and you're right in the Game! Uh - wish I'd discoverd this treasure before - lying around on my Harddisk for months... A definite MUST!!!

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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Navy Strike, Birds of Prey, MechWarrior 2 (Limited Edition), Aces of The Deep, Megafortress, Panthers in the Shadows, Silent Service 2, Battlehawks