Urgent message from Space Patrol Dispatch:

Lost contact with our 5 outposts near Sirius Sector.
Hostile activity has been detected.
We can only spare one ship: the SPV Orion.
Your mission:

Good luck, Captain.

Space Cruiser Orion is a text-based strategy inspired by a classic game from the mainframe and later 8-bit era. It's a fun way to spend a coffee break, and with its unified navigation and combat mechanic it can also teach the use of polar coordinates. Fly among the stars, fight invading aliens, rescue science!

The title is a reference to a cult classic TV series. Bonus points if you know!

If you're not familiar with the original, it may not be clear how to play. See the player's guide (also included in the package).

As of 21 May 2019, the game is only missing small things. Bugs might also still exist. See inside the package how to contact me for support.

As of 23 September 2020, the Linux console edition also has its own homepage.

Download

To play the game, just unpack and run. On Linux you'll need the SDL_net 1.2 library installed. Note: the game doesn't actually connect to the Internet.

System requirements

You need both mouse and keyboard to play this game.

Credits and license

Space Cruiser Orion is available under the MIT License (see included file).

Game made with sdlBasic. The runtime itself is free software under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

All assets are under a Creative Commons Zero license:

Special thanks to the sdlBasic community for inspiration and encouragement.