Prospector R197 (2014): a roguelike in space: fly a scout ship through an unexplored sector, land your away team on alien planets and get rich enough to retire.

• About the game
• Keyboard controls
• Saving your game
• Tips
• New player's guide
• Playing in the browser
• Manual
• About this version

About the game

Prospector (Matthias Mennel, 2008–2014, written in FreeBASIC) is a roguelike in space. Megacorporations pay freelance prospectors to map an unexplored sector: you command one scout ship with a captain, pilot, gunner, science officer and doctor. You fly between stars, scan planets, land an away team to map the surface, collect resources and biodata, and sell it all at the company offices of the three big stations. You can also trade, hunt pirates, become one, take missions or dig for the ruins of an extinct alien race. Fuel, oxygen, hull points and your crew's lives are the resources; the game ends when you retire rich (or die).

Everything is generated: the sector map, star systems, planets with their weather, monsters and caves, stations and their shops. Special planets hide unique dangers and stories.

Keyboard controls

Essential keys

Saving your game

• S saves and quits (answer y), as in the original; press a key on the last screen and the page starts again at the title menu, where Load game continues. Loading removes the save, as roguelikes do.
• The game also saves each time you dock at a station (the autosave option, on by default).
• Saves, options, key bindings and high scores are kept in this browser (IndexedDB), together with the window layout and the Sound switch.
• Export save downloads them as one file; Import save loads such a file. New game deletes everything stored in this browser. Private windows and "clear site data" delete the saves: export first.

Tips

• Sell early and often: maps, biodata (inspect plants and corpses) and resources go to the company office in a big station.
• Watch fuel: dock at a station to refuel, or scoop fuel from a gas giant. The status bar warns when it is low.
• Scan (s) before you land: atmosphere, gravity and temperature tell you whether helmets must stay closed and how rough the landing is.
• Keep an eye on oxygen on a planet; walking onto your ship refills it.
• Your away team equips the best gear it owns by itself. Bind a good gun to your sniper in the crew roster (A).
• Binoculars, lamps and sensor sets do not stack: one of each is enough. Jetpacks are needed for every crew member, a hover platform carries five.
• Stations shoot at pirates: stay friendly with the companies unless you mean to turn pirate.
• Retirement assets bought at a station decide your final score and ending: plan for them.

New player's guide

Your first flight

1. Title menu: New game. Pick a ship (the Light Scout is the all-rounder), a captain and the offered crew; Enter takes the defaults.
2. You start next to a small station. Press #: the ship flies to the nearest unvisited star system.
3. At a star, s scans a planet, l lands on one (pick it with the cursor).
4. On the surface press # to explore. Pick up what glitters (,), inspect plants and corpses for biodata.
5. Before oxygen runs low press <: the team walks back to the ship and launches.
6. In space > flies to the nearest station and docks. Walk into the company office to sell your map, biodata and resources.

Staying alive

• Hull points only come back at a station repair shop; shields recharge by themselves.
• Gas clouds and anomalies damage the ship. Wormholes jump you across the sector but can hurt too.
• On a planet, set tactics (T) to defensive when the team is weak, fight from range (f), and heal with medpacks (h).
• In space combat keep away from plasma trails, and flee (R) at the map edge when outgunned.
• Crew morale drops with low wages, deaths and crowded bunks; unhappy crew quit when you dock.

Getting rich

• Company offices buy map data, biodata and resources; prices differ between the companies.
• Trade goods between stations in your cargo bays; the Light Transport starts with cargo.
• Pirate ships carry bounties. A pirate career is possible (start with the Pirate Cruiser) but the stations will shoot at you.
• Buy a better hull when you can: your modules and weapons move over to it.
• Retire at a retirement office when you have enough; assets bought there make the ending.

Playing in the browser

• Prospector is played here in the browser (ruzzoli.de/roguelikes/prospector) with its own tiles and sound effects.
• # (or ~) explores: on a planet the away team walks to the nearest unseen area and stops on messages, nearby hostiles and any key; in space the ship flies to the nearest unvisited system.
• < on a planet walks back to the ship and launches; > walks to known stairs, tunnels or portals. In space > flies to the nearest known planet or station and lands or docks.
• Enter opens a menu of every command of the current screen, grouped, with its key. E lists your equipment with a cursor; Enter on an item shows what you can do with it.
• Windows: Map, Messages, Status (the game's sidebar) and Inventory; menus and questions appear over them. Tiles switches to the game's ASCII mode; Sound turns the sound effects on (off at the start; the game's volume is in = configuration).
• The 2011 manual (PDF) is linked from the Help page.

Manual

The game's manual by Matthias Mennel (version 1.1, 2014; some keys changed later, the lists above are current): open Manual.pdf.

About this version

• Based on Prospector R197 by Matthias Mennel: the Google Code svn trunk at r197 (2014-12-28, code.google.com/archive/p/rlprospector) with the data files of the author's R197 release (R197prospector_l.zip).
• Our changes (FreeBASIC → WebAssembly with an own graphics driver, explore and stairs walking, command menu, item menus, windows, sound, bug fixes): github.com/memmaker/prospector (first commits = the untouched source and data).
• Credits: game by Matthias Mennel (zlib licence); graphics by David Gervais and Deon, used with their permission.