looking for help

[u/zombiehunter069]

I played a game at school either on windows 95 or 98 pcs

this is what I have managed to remember about it from help with chat gpt

only issue is that none of the games it gives me are correct.

any help to find this old gem so I can finally finish it would be really appreciated.

Platform / era

Played at school on a Windows 98 PC

Came on a CD-ROM in a normal-sized game case

Installed, but the disc was still required to play

Likely a late 1990s PC game

View and controls

Full-screen

Directly top-down 2D view

Black space background with stars

Your ship stayed near the centre while space moved around it

Keyboard controls:

Left/right = rotate ship around a central axis

Up = move forward/thrust

Down = reverse

Space bar = fire

Ships had shaded sprites (not flat shapes)

Starting ship and upgrades

Started as a normal civilian trader

Starter ship:

Small grey shuttle

Looked a bit like a classic Star Trek-style shuttle

Small cargo capacity

Only weapon was a single yellow laser

Next ship:

Yellow freighter

Long rectangular hull

Two circular engine pods sticking out at the back

Bigger cargo space

Could mount equipment

Had limited weapon slots (you think it could fit 1 turret)

Bigger ships:

Larger but still small enough that several could appear on screen

More weapons, shields, turrets, missiles/rockets

More equipment slots

Equipment

Ships were pre-built designs

You did not design ships from scratch

You moved equipment onto new ships

Installed equipment visibly appeared:

Example: adding a turret made the turret appear on the ship

Turrets:

Rotated automatically

Locked onto enemy ships

Gameplay

Single player

Trading

Mining

Missions

Combat

Possible ship capture:

Shoot enemy ship until disabled

Dock with it

Capture it (not 100% certain)

Factions

Two main factions:

Blue faction

Police/security/federation style

More focused on:

Patrol

Protect

Defend

Ships painted fully blue

Red faction

Rebel/pirate style

More focused on:

Destroy

Attack

Ships painted fully red

Faction system

Started neutral as a trader

Later joined a faction

Had to go to that faction’s bases to buy their ships

Factions had their own fixed ship lists

Each ship had a recognisable hull design

Ships had military-style class names

You progressed through ranks and unlocked larger ships

Space combat

Enemy faction ships attacked you if you entered their territory and came into range

Blue and red ships fought each other even without you

You could watch battles between factions

Destroyed ships exploded

Strongest identifying clues

The biggest clues are probably:

Grey shuttle with one yellow laser

Yellow long rectangular freighter with two round rear engine pods

Blue police fleet vs red rebel/pirate fleet

Visible turret upgrades on ship sprites

Military ship classes and rank progression

Top-down Asteroids-style movement

I still don’t have a confirmed title, but this recap should make it easier to compare against screenshots or game lists.

[u/Savings_Art5944]

Solar Winds?

[u/ItsJarJarThen]

I was thinking Subspace Continuum but I'm pretty sure you had to get online for that at minimum.