History VideoGame / Orbiter

** The sound mod only plays sounds while in cockpit view, and then only sounds you'd expect to hear from that perspective: engine noise, cabin ventilation, pilot notifications, et cetera. In third-person view, all you hear is Strauss' ''Blue Danube'' waltz, in a rather nice callback to ''[[ASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. There is a built-in MP3 player that allows you to play other music. You can play such songs as ''Killer Queen'', the Imperial March, the theme for ''Apollo 13'' and many others in-flight.

Make no mistake, Orbiter is no fast-flyin' laser-shootin' space sim. Think of it rather as ''VideoGame/MicrosoftFlightSimulator'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Anime/{{Planetes}}''.

!!This game features the following tropes :

* AbsentAliens: Unless you're counting the mods based on ''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/BabylonFive'' or other [[TheVerse verses]], which feature the ships of the various non-human species from those movies and TV shows.

* {{Two-D Space}}: Very, very averted.

''[[http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html Orbiter: The Free Spaceflight Simulator]]'' is a [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness diamond-hard]] realistic SimulationGame [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin involving spacecraft and spaceflight in general]]. It was created by Cambridge tutor Martin Schweiger for educational and entertainment purposes.
The simulator has been in development roughly since 2000, and the latest stable version is 2010 P1 (Patch 1), released on August 31, 2010.

** Really, you can set the date to be whatever you want. Also you can use technology across every era of spaceflight, from early spaceflight technology (the Vostok and Apollo programs) to modern tech (the Space Shuttle and Ariane programs) to speculative tech or tech in research and development (the never-implemented Orion engine, the VASIMR engine, solar sails) to advanced tech from ScienceFiction shows and movies (''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/BabylonFive'', ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''...)

Make no mistake, Orbiter is no fast-flyin' laser-shootin' space sim. Think of it rather as ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Anime/{{Planetes}}''.

* XMeetsY: ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'', without exaggeration.

The [[FreewareGames game is freeware]], so if you feel interested in it and [[NintendoHard aren't scared by a steeper learning curve]], you can [[http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html grab it here]]. In addition to this basic game pack, there are literally tons and tons of (equally freeware) fan-made mods that expand the game in virtually every way: Adding new launchers, spacecraft, spaceports and space bases, scenarios and campaigns, texture and graphic updates, even entire planets and solar systems, and new [=HUDs=] for the ship's onboard computer... They can be found [[http://www.orbithangar.com/ here]], [[http://www.orbiterfrancophone.com/index.php?disp=home here]] and [[http://orbiter.dansteph.com/ here]]. And don't forget the XR series [[http://www.alteaaerospace.com/ here]]!

* CoolStarship / [[CoolStarship Cool Spacecraft]] : Way too many to list...
* GameMod: The main draw of the game. There are literally ''hundreds'', and many of the more high-profile ones are considered by the community to be essential parts of any Orbiter install, to the point that it's just assumed as a given that any new user will have downloaded them.

* InterplanetaryVoyage

* QuicksandBox
* SpaceBase (of the non-villainous planet surface variety)
* SpaceStation: You can even build one!
* {{Terraform}}: in add-ons that replace some of the default planets and moons with terraformed versions.
* WideOpenSandbox

** The sound mod only plays sounds while in cockpit view, and then only sounds you'd expect to hear from that perspective: engine noise, cabin ventilation, pilot notifications, et cetera. In third-person view, all you hear is Strauss' ''Blue Danube'' waltz, in a rather nice callback to ''[[ASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. There is a built-in MP3 player that allows you to play other music. This troper has played such songs as ''Killer Queen'', the Imperial March, and the theme for ''Apollo 13'' in-flight.

* [[{{BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesN-R}} Better Than It Sounds Video Games]]

** The sound mod only plays sounds while in cockpit view, and then only sounds you'd expect to hear from that perspective: engine noise, cabin ventilation, pilot notifications, et cetera. In third-person view, all you hear is Strauss' ''Blue Danube'' waltz, in a rather nice callback to ''[[ASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.

** The sound mod only plays sounds while in cockpit view, in third person view, there's silence (except in atmosphere), aside from the classical music playing.

* LatexSpaceSuit

* {{Terraform}}

* AsteroidMiners: The TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture [[Series/RedDwarf JMC]] Mining Company in scenarios involving the Delta Glider Mk IV.

''Orbiter : The Free Spaceflight Simulator'' [[http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html is]] a [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness diamond-hard]] realistic SimulationGame [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin involving spacecraft and spaceflight in general]]. It was created by Cambridge tutor Martin Schweiger for educational and entertainment purposes.

** Really, you can set the date to be whatever you want. Also you can use technology across every era of spaceflight, from early spaceflight technology (the Vostok and Apollo programs) to modern tech (the Space Shuttle and Ariane programs) to speculative tech or tech in research and development (the never-implemented Orion engine, the VASIMR engine, solar sails) to advanced tech from ScienceFiction shows and movies (''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/BabylonFive'', ''{{Stargate}}'', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''...)

* FasterThanLightTravel: The game uses strictly Newtonian physics, not accounting for relativity, so it is theoretically possible for a ship to exceed the speed of light with standard rocket engines. However, the truly ridiculous amount of fuel you would need makes it a practical impossibility[[hottip:*:Unless you turn on the 'Unlimited Fuel' option]]. This doesn't count the more fictional mods that DO feature some FTL.

The [[FreewareGames game is freeware]], so if you feel interested in it and [[ItGetsBetter aren't scared by a steeper learning curve]], you can [[http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html grab it here]]. In addition to this basic game pack, there are literally tons and tons of (equally freeware) fan-made mods that expand the game in virtually every way: Adding new launchers, spacecraft, spaceports and space bases, scenarios and campaigns, texture and graphic updates, even entire planets and solar systems, and new [=HUDs=] for the ship's onboard computer... They can be found [[http://www.orbithangar.com/ here]], [[http://www.orbiterfrancophone.com/index.php?disp=home here]] and [[http://orbiter.dansteph.com/ here]]. And don't forget the XR series [[http://www.alteaaerospace.com/ here]]!

Make no mistake, Orbiter is no fast-flyin' laser-shootin' space sim. Think of it rather as ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''{{Planetes}}''.

* BetterThanItSoundsVideoGames

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: As hard as humanly possible for a layman-accessible Space SimulationGame.

** Really, you can set the date to be whatever you want. Also you can use technology across every era of spaceflight, from early spaceflight technology (the Vostok and Apollo programs) to modern tech (the Space Shuttle and Ariane programs) to speculative tech or tech in research and development (the never-implemented Orion engine, the VASIMR engine, solar sails) to advanced tech from ScienceFiction shows and movies (''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'', ''{{Stargate}}'', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''...)

* AbsentAliens: Unless you're counting the mods based on ''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'' or other [[TheVerse verses]], which feature the ships of the various non-human species from those movies and TV shows.

* GameMod: The main draw of the game. There are literally ''thousands'', and many of the more high-profile ones are considered by the community to be essential parts of any Orbiter install, to the point that it's just assumed as a given that any new user will have downloaded them.

* FasterThanLightTravel: The game uses strictly Newtonian physics, not accounting for relativity, so it is theoretically possible for a ship to exceed the speed of light with standard rocket engines. However, the truly ridiculous amount of fuel you would need makes it a practical impossibility. This doesn't count the more fictional mods that DO feature some FTL.

** Really, you can set the date to be whatever you want. Also you can use technology across every era of spaceflight, from early spaceflight technology (the Vostok and Apollo programs) to modern tech (the Space Shuttle and Ariane programs) to speculative tech or tech in research and development (the never-implemented Orion engine, the VASIMR engine, solar sails) to advanced tech from ScienceFiction shows and movies (''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'', ''{{Stargate}}'', ''BattlestarGalactica''...)

* AbsentAliens: Unless you're counting the mods based on ''StarWars'', ''StarTrek'', ''{{Babylon 5}}'' or other [[TheVerse verses]], which feature the ships of the various non-human species from those movies and TV shows.

** Really, you can set the date to be whatever you want. Also you can use technology across every era of spaceflight, from early spaceflight technology (the Vostok and Apollo programs) to modern tech (the Space Shuttle and Ariane programs) to speculative tech or tech in research and development (the never-implemented Orion engine, the VASIMR engine, solar sails) to advanced tech from ScienceFiction shows and movies (''StarWars'', ''StarTrek'', ''[[{{Babylon5}} Babylon 5]]'', ''{{Stargate}}'', ''BattlestarGalactica''...)

* FasterThanLightTravel: The game uses strictly Newtonian physics, so it is theoretically possible for a ship to exceed the speed of light with standard rocket engines. However, the truly ridiculous amount of fuel you would need makes it a practical impossibility. This doesn't count the more fictional mods that DO feature some FTL.

* AsteroidMiners: The TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture [[RedDwarf JMC]] Mining Company in scenarios involving the Delta Glider Mk IV.