LEARLO  This piece of software has been taking 80% of my gaming time since 2005. Addictive? Yes, indeed. It happens more or less in this way: you beat some levels at normal, then go up and up to Expert. Then you discover that you are facing the first A.I. in the world where "I" means "Intelligence" and not "Incredible dumbness". Then you get kicked real hard. And again. And one more time, even harder. You want revenge, so time for new tactics: retreat on a green star, attack from there and swamp the enemy. Not enough, need more ships earlier. Then balance for a while, capture some ships in a blue-purple binary system, then go. Finally: victory. But this was playing with greens, what would have happened with reds? Not to mention the random galaxies: with some of them you really can't win... maybe.

Oh, right, this jewel works perfectly fine on computers three generations old: another demonstration that advanced graphics is mostly a way to disguise the absolute lack of good ideas.  
(Version 1.15.3)

GKOSTHEIMER  This is a simple but deep game of strategy with beautiful intuitive controls and stylized graphics. You could think of it perhaps as a cross between "Risk" and "Go". It is highly addictive once you figure it out. Unfortunately, the online manual and guides don't spell out the basic rules of the game very clearly and I ended up discovering important details by fooling around with the easy levels. Most importantly, you need to realize that you must aim to *capture* enemy forces by isolating them before defeating them. Defeating a position which offers escape routes allows (almost) all of the defeated forces to restrengthen immediately and to regroup. That same fact can be exploited beautifully for defensive strategies. I didn't warm to the real-time aspect of the game and ended up using the "pause" button systematically to play it more like a turn-based game. I'm sure books could be written about this game and its strategies, but the developers should start by improving their documentation first. As it is, it may take a new user some effort to appreciate this wonderful game despite its simplicity.  
(Version 1.15.1)

NON_PC  Yawn. This may have been worth 20 bucks 15 years ago. But, all you are really doing is funneling ships around. Try it for yourself but, don't get your hopes up. No way I'd ever pay a dime for this.  
(Version 1.14.2)

CORTLAND  Haven't played the game, but why does EVERY shareware game claim to be "addictive" and "fast paced?" Synonyms, people, synonyms!  
(Version 1.13.4)

IRNBRU001  This shareware version is pretty crippled. I can't be sure how the full version would be. This shareware version is only fun for about 4 games.  
(Version 1.1.2)

THE EMPEROR  Fun idea and good type of graphics. Although I didn`t got the multi function available (I don`t think anyone was online).

But online it seems quite fun.  
(Version 1.1.1)