Space Rogue

Taking place within the Far Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, Space Rogues main story revolves around the player characters efforts to pursue a career and undertake long-range goals beyond his immediate mission. The game features elements of a role-playing game, like the much later X Rebirth and Elite Dangerous. It is notable for being the first game designed for Origin by Paul Neurath, who went on to found Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Looking Glass Studios). Rogue can be considered as the spiritual predecessor to Origin's Wing Commander series. The press release for Space Rogue stated that it is "the first of its kind in science-fiction/3D space flight simulation. An ORIGIN Cinematic Experience", implying that Space Rogue was originally meant to be a series of its own ('Ultima in Space'), before later on Origin turned to the Wing Commander series instead. In 2016, Night Dive Studios reacquired the rights and re-released it.

• Title — Space Rogue • Developer — Origin Systems • Publisher — Origin Systems Wave Brain (PC-98, X68000) Night Dive Studios (digital) • Producer — Dallas Snell • Programmer — * Paul Neurath • Mark "Adam" Baum • Steven Muchow • Ned Lerner • John Miles • Designer — Paul Neurath • Artist — * Keith Berdak • Jeff Dee • Denis R. Loubet • Platforms — Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, FM Towns, Classic Mac OS, PC-98, X68000 • Released — 1989 (Apple II, C64, MS-DOS, Mac)

The player takes on the role of a crew member aboard the Princess Blue, who was sent by his captain to investigate a small derelict spacecraft, the Sunracer class Jolly Roger. While he is on board the Jolly Roger, a group of aliens called the Manchis attack the Princess Blue using their Vulture class ships, destroying it. Left only with the Jolly Roger, little money, and no ties to anyone, the player can decide his fate from there. He could engage in piracy, hunt bounties, become an interstellar merchant, or become embroiled in the interplanetary politics.

The game is played switching back and forth between a traditional top-down style role-playing game (e.g. Ultima) and a 3D space combat simulator (e.g. Elite). Visiting starships, space stations, outposts, planets, and so on. The player is able to travel from one solar system to another using the ancient Malir Gates' wormhole, a form of 'Star Gate'. A minigame of travelling through rings must be successfully completed before the player can reach his intended system; a failed minigame will cause an aborted interstellar travel. During the 3D space flight part of the game, the game offers 3 points of view: first person, third-person, and cinematic. There is also an arcade game called "Hive!" in the bars, that can be played by the player. The gameplay is a 2D top-down shooter, with the player moving on foot, attacking the incoming Manchis. The ship in the arcade game resembled the Sunracer class ship featured in the manual that came with Space Rogue. After completing five levels, the player can win money which can then be spent in the rest of Space Rogue.