Play Star General Online

Game Overview

Star General is one of those old-school MS-DOS strategy games that still holds up if you like deep, methodical space warfare. You pick from seven alien races—humans are fine, but the Khalians with their fast, fragile ships are way more fun—and start conquering star systems one planet at a time. First, you’ve got to blast enemy fleets out of the void, then drop troops onto the surface. Mess up either step, and you’re stuck grinding away at some backwater system for way too long.

The terrain actually matters here—nebulae slow you down, cosmic strings act like space highways—and the AI doesn’t just rush you mindlessly. Research gives you better ships, but it’s straightforward (only four tiers), so you spend less time micromanaging tech trees and more time figuring out how to flank that massive enemy dreadnought. Some races get wild special units, too, like the insectoid Swarm’s boarding pods that latch onto ships mid-battle.

It’s basically Panzer General in space, but with fewer turns spent waiting around. If you like your strategy games mean and lean, this one’s a hidden gem.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".