Outpost

Outpost is a space colonization strategy game created by Sierra and released in 1994 for Windows 3x and Macintosh.

As in many other science fiction classics, Earth will be destroyed by an asteroid, and humanity decides to launch a space colonization mission. You are, of course, the leader of this mission.

The difference between Outpost and other titles is that Sierra decided to hire a real scientist, a NASA employee called Bruce J. Balfour, to design the game as realistic as possible. Unfortunately, realism does not always translate into great gameplay. For sure, it's not an easy game, but if you are the kind of gamer that likes to read a manual, this is a fascinating and engaging title.

Initially, you have to send probes to different star systems to identify the one you want to colonize. Once you have chosen the planet, you can start building your base in a way similar to SimCity or Sid Meier's Civilization (or better, Alpha Centauri). You have plenty of structures to choose from, divided into surface and underground facilities, which shows the game's complexity. You will also need to mine the planet to extract materials. Having a constantly growing population will be the primary goal, even if you can also count on robots to perform many tasks.

Once your colony is strong enough, you can start thinking about launching other missions or even terraforming a planet.

Outpost was really a very advanced game for the year it was created. Unfortunately, Sierra decided to release it too early; the game was full of bugs, and the studio did not even develop some features mentioned in the manual. That's why it's remembered as one of the "buggiest" releases ever in the history of video games. Despite this, it was a good commercial success.

Now it's time also for GamesNostalgia users to finally play this game. Just one suggestion, don't forget the manual!