Yeah, the Colossus was badass, and the Sathanas Juggernaut as well.  The mission where you first encounter the Sathanas was frightening, the struggle to take it down amazing, and then you find out that there are MORE of them, and LOTS MORE of them.

Aw, man! I only got to play the demo for Freespace 2! Anybody know where I can find a real copy, online or off? I really want to play it! :(

I predict Starbreeze Studios will announce they're working on a "re imagining" of Wing Commander this year. :D

The license agreement for FS2 allows you to copy the game.  Seriously.  It does.  Also, Volition has released the source code to the game, since THQ didn't buy the license from Interplay when they bought Volition.  This has led to the creation of the Freespace 2 Source Code Project, which has updated the graphics engine considerably.

I actually acquired my copy of the game at Big Lots in 1999 for $10.  I couldn't believe my good fortune at finding what I consider to be a AAA title for that price in the same year as the game was released.

^Heh, one of my friends is a Big Lots whore. I was immensely jealous when he found Psychonauts for six bucks. I have been looking for the game for about a year now and can't find it used anywhere except eBay.

If anyone is interested, Allegiance can be played for free. It's a terrific multiplayer game, although the learning curve is a bit steep. The thing I like most about the game is there is strong mix of strategy and teamwork.

http://www.freeallegiance.org/

Yeah I'm gonna have to go through the Freespace 2 source code project. Perhaps playing it will satisfy my hunger for these games.

I think if a new space sim from a big name developer was marketed correctly, it could do very well...the genre has to get re-vitalized sometime. It's not like 2D games, where the advent of 3D pushed them aside...that makes some sense, though of course there's still a place for 2D games.

But a space sim could be just like any other videogame on the market today, if they did it right.

Well, NetDevil is revitalizing their old Jumpgate franchise with the new Jumpgate Evolution. Seems to be a bit of a side-project while they work on the new Lego MMO, though.

The X universe games are also continuing the tradition. I just wish they didn't use that nasty copy protection method on their disks. The method they use has been known to actually DAMAGE certain DVD burners and cause stability issues within Windows.

The games are still around, they have just become quite niche.. It ain't the 90's anymore, that's for sure.