OT: Any idea where I can find Stars! resources?

[Renegade 13]

I know people are (for the most part) preoccupied with the SE5 demo, but I was hoping someone could point me towards some resources for the original 1995 Stars! I'm having a little trouble getting past the basics, and looking through a couple tutorials would probably lift the veil of my ignorance. Normally I'd be able to find such things on my own, but oddly enough, Google will not search for the word "Stars!" with the exclamation mark included. As such, I get millions of results that include the word "Stars" and nothing that relates to the game!

[crabby]

http://www.starsfaq.com/

Might be something on their that will help.

[frightlever]

Stars! rocks. IMO it does resources better than any other game of its type.

[Wade]

Where can others download 'Stars!' ? I do not see the game download at the mentioned site.

[Atrocities]

You have to buy Stars still.

[LordAxel]

and goodluck finding it. I searched for a long time and found a complete copy. Its hard to find bc it was primarily a download then regist code game. Your best bet is ebay on a similiar site.

[Renegade 13]

From everything I've heard, no there is not.

[Renegade 13]

A complete version of Stars! is easy to find if you know where to look. Now, to legally obtain a copy, that's a little more complicated.

Since many here seem to know and love Stars! I'll just ask my questions here!

1. Factories and Mines: What are their respective purposes? I presume that Mines mine Ironium, Boranium and Germanium from the surface of a planet? Factories?

2. Resources: What are they, how are they generated and what are they used for?

3. Minerals: Planets each have a certain concentration of the various minerals, but are these minerals ever depleted by mining, or is it like in SEIV where mineral miners, etc do not actually deplete the planet's supply of whichever mineral?

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure I'll have more later. Any answers will be greatly appreciated.

[Suicide Junkie]

Factories increase build rates, much like additional people do.

Mines increase the rate at which you dig buried minerals up into surface minerals.
There are a fixed amount of minerals which you can see by the length of the darkened mineral bar. The percentage value/concentration is how easy it is to extract them with your mines.

[Hugh Manatee]

Since many here seem to know and love Stars! I'll just ask my questions here!

<i>1. Factories and Mines: What are their respective purposes? I presume that Mines mine Ironium, Boranium and Germanium from the surface of a planet? Factories?</i>

yup, mines pull minerals out of the ground, you can only operate as many mines as your race's population settiungs allow, but you can build as many as you want up to that planets limits. Factories are the same only they generate additional resources instead of minerals.

<i>2. Resources: What are they, how are they generated and what are they used for?</i>

Resources are your population working, curency or credit, it builds stuff and you can allocate a portion of it to research. Part of your resources are generated by your population, most are generated by factories. You can see how much either will generate by looking at your race file.

<i>3. Minerals: Planets each have a certain concentration of the various minerals, but are these minerals ever depleted by mining, or is it like in SEIV where mineral miners, etc do not actually deplete the planet's supply of whichever mineral?</i>

The higher a concentration(the diamond on the mineral graph) the more of each mining will pull up, minerals do deplete over time. The solid bar represents how much of that mineral you have currently. The genesis device will reset a planets mineral concentrations randomly once they are depleted(if you chase down the mysterious trader that is)