"Hey, there MUST be other games like this somewhere", I thought to myself back in 1996 when I was five, while playing Operation: Inner Space for 5 hours straight after starting. Back then I didn't have a computer, so I was just poking around random cds at my cousins' home, some of which were full of demos and shareware, with a fading hope of finding something thrilling. Turns out that game was the only one worthy enough to be remembered from those days at my cousins'. It really addicted me, I couldn't stop playing it 'til classes started.
So there's the deal. You control one spaceship, which you have a pretty big starting selection to pick up from. They range from starfighters to spacepirates to space-sharks-with-lasers to fuzzy bears to flying saucers, but you can actually customize one using a separated ship factory applet, which has some extra features and can let you design one from scratch.
Then you go inside the infinite space of... your computer looking for adventures. The game uses the directories, subdirectories and files in your harddisk to generate the levels, which vary from space-races to duels until death, all while capturing icons which are converted to credits that will be used to upgrade your ship. There are a good amount of weapons and other kind of enhancements to let your ship become a lethal force.
As you grow stronger, you will catch the attention of other factions of ships, who will try either to help or destroy you depending on your attitude towards the space community. There's even a law-enforcer faction who will bug you if you try to go on a rampage to destroy all the life in the universe, but all the ruckus really adds to the fun. Taking into account the time when the game was made, the AI was pretty nice and annoying.
Sadly, I couldn't remember the name of this game 'til some time ago, when thoughts of it suddenly flashed in my memory. Even to this day I consider it a good time killer, with a great nostalgia value. Quite stunning that they didn't stop selling it yet. Official site here.
