The Third Doctrinal War -- Stardock, Reiche/Ford, and Star Control

I loved the combat in SC1 as well, as someone who played a lot of Space War with friends in arcades. But you can play that exact same combat, with the same ships plus additional ones, in stand-alone modes in the other Star Control games too.

SC2 is one of the greatest games of all time - if you haven’t invested in it, you really should download Ur-Quan Masters, especially given our similar taste in games.