I originally posted this as a comment on the Solar Trader page, but it occurred to me this is worthy of an actual official blog post.

Despite my delays in completing my code, Robert hung in there and recently we made a couple huge steps forward.  Since the first Alpha version we posted a year ago, here are some of the very cool things added.

1. Encounters have been dramatically enhanced – requiring a refactoring of that code.
2. Encounter refactoring has been completed
3. Additional encounters have now been added – since they are now much easier to add.
4. Background music added
5. Indicator lights
6. Added shipboard rats, cats, fires, cigarette smoking,  on ships, as well as cats
7. Updated generate location code (better placement of space encounters)
8. Assorted bug fixes

Next steps:
1. Update / Clean up space encounters with new encounter coding approach
2. Test, Test, Test – make sure version is stable.
3. Keep adding additional encounters / items / etc. as we think of more clever things to play with.
4. Include bombs (MaoCorp agents may attach a bomb to your ship if you pose a big threat to them) with its own mini-game.
5. Release next Alpha copy here for folks to do more play testing.