The Space Adventure Simulator

The crew of the ship will give you most of the instructions or commands when needed.

Text commands:

You can speak to any officer by using 'sci', 'nav', 'com', 'sec', 'med' or 'eng'.

'i' will give you an inventory of the ships hold.

'log' will show you the ships log, where all significant events are recorded.

'gas' will harvest gas from a star or gas giant, but only after you have received a report from the science officer after moving into orbit.

'map' displays the navigation map where you can choose a new planet to orbit.

'jump' displays the navigation map where you can choose a new system to jump to.

The main console can be switched between a green or blue colour scheme with the commands 'blu' and 'grn'.

The key to the game is building up a good supply of resources in the ships cargo hold.  Some of the gases are particularly useful at the start of the game when your ship is weaker.  Helium gives you extra shots from the laser cannon while methane provides fuel for your battle thrusters, and will help you to avoid attacks during battle.

Without oxygen you can only visit planets or moons with an atmosphere and without nitrogen the crew cannot upgrade the ship or solve medical dilemmas.

Nitrogen + Platinum and Gold are required to upgrade the ships sensors, which makes locating enemy ships easier during battle.

Nitrogen + Platinum, Gold, Silver and Aluminium are needed to upgrade the ships laser cannons. 

Metals and special objects can be found on planets and moons, or found in the debris fields after a battle.  Gases can be harvested from gas giants or stars.

The main adventure begins when you get blown up for the first time.  Like Groundhog Day, or 12:01, the story is a time-loop, each time you lose the story progresses a little until the main game begins properly on the fourth attempt.

To complete the main mission you will need to acquire the right items.  There are also several side-quests that can be completed before or after the main mission is completed.

You can use the NMI button to skip these first goes, but make sure the "Thinking" page is finished before each skip.

The battles are turn based and are a bit like Battleships.  Each enemy ship is contained within a 5x5 grid that is obscured.  When hit, the enemy will be revealed and can be hit repeatedly until you run out of shots.

If the enemy moves after being hit the security officer will re-scan the area and the process begins again.  The bigger enemy ships require more hits to destroy, and get more shots to fire at you, so it's important to employ a bit of strategy.  Being lucky also helps.

Good luck Captain!