Space Station Manager is an award-winning space station construction and simulation game. In many ways it is like the old Pirannah game SkyBase, but it offers much more flexability, and more engaging game play.
The first version of Space Station Manager, or SSM as it's often called, was written by Kai Peter Backman in 2003 (I think), and was a finalist in the Independent Games Festival of 2004. It was distributed as a shareware program, and generally received good reviews and acclaim. For a time, the forums for the game saw a lot of activity. By 2006, the game had gone through several versions, and had adapted the Orge rendering engine. Also in 2006, the primary programmer (Backman) had taken on a new job that took up most of his time. Unable to devote much time to this project (now renamed ShortHike), he made the game open source in September of 2006. Something went amiss after that. I don't know the entire story, but apparently there were problems with the instillation scripts, and ShortHike would never correctly install. So far, this problem has not been solved, though I'm pretty sure some people are working on it.
ShortHike and SSM are now in a state of development limbo, and have been for some time. Supposidly the program was going to resume active development in October of 2007. The official web site still says to wait until that date for new updates. I find that very telling, given that this date passed quite some time ago. ShortHike and SSM haven't yet fallen into the category of abandonware, but they seem to be heading that way. Still, in the world of open source programming, this kind of thing can happen. So, the fate of ShortHike is unknown. Neither the instillation program nor the source code are available, so new users need to keep using an existing version of ShortHike, or like me, use the last stable release of Space Station Manager.
Given that this program has fallen off the radar, getting support for it can be quite difficult. I didn't discover this program until August of 2008; I think I discovered it too late. Most of the web sites that covered it have lapsed out of existance, or have been deliberately taken down. I've done what I felt was a fairly through search for resources on this fun program, and came up with the following:
By examining these sites, you can find what you want to get started. The final version of SSM can be run in Windows XP, and can probably run in Vista. I haven't tried to run it other operating systems (via emulator), but it can probably be done.
Unlike most games, Space Station Manager isn't loaded with action. It is more of a puzzle game, where you try to find the optimum arrangement of space staiton components while keeping your station's resources moving smoothly. It's a game where it's necessary to think ahead, and consider what will happen if you add "just one more module" to a station. Sometimes that one module can throw off the power grid, or create a thermal bottleneck that causes problems elsewhere. Or worst of all, it may require an additional crew member to function correctly! And adding an additional crew member may require expanding the life support grid, which may in turn require additional power and thermal regulation, and so on. And sometimes you need to consider the cost of modules as well. Problem solving skills and forethought are a must.
This is a thinking game. So fire up that grey matter and see what kind of space station you can cook up!
