> There is no set path, allowing players to switch freely between mining, ship-to-ship combat, and alien diplomacy. The broader plot of the game emerges slowly

This reminds me of Star Control 2, aka The Ur-Quan Masters

> The game influenced the design of numerous other games for decades after its release.

And in SC2 wiki page I see this:

> Once Reiche and Ford conceived Star Control 2, they would draw large inspiration from Starflight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_II

Never played Starflight before but seems right up my alley as SC2 is one of my favorite games

Edit: Just finished reading the rest of the readme. Very cool! I honestly knew nothing about Forth (just that it was a programming language) and now I want to play around with it.