Gather round children, I want to tell you a story. A long time ago (but not necessarily in a galaxy far, far away), there was once a game called Universe II by Omnitrend Software. This game attempted to do something quite ambitious; it endeavored to create a complex, open-ended science fiction universe on the limited capabilities of a 16-bit computer. Squeezed onto three 3.5-inch diskettes, this program did partially succeed in creating such a venue - at times you actually could believe that you were inhabiting the dynamic alternate reality of 2105. Nevertheless, due to technology that was not quite up to the job (one megabyte of memory and no internet!), the game never did entirely reach its full potential. Alas, sci-fi gamers were left with little more than a taste of what might be possible in the future….
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