[geeks] Somewhat OT: old game?

[Mouse]

>> [...] one of the planets was named "14 Coli" (which, incidentially,
>> is something I didn't get until years later).
> I don't remember the planet names (and don't get the joke if there is
> one there)

"E coli" with the E converted from hex to decimal.

> but there were VGA Planets and Master of Orion about that time.

Hm, looking at Wikipedia....

VGA Planets, according to Wikipedia, is not it.  That was multiplayer
(and was much slower; the one I played could complete a few games in an
afternoon).  In the one I played, the computer played all other races,
factions, empires, whatever they were called.

Master of Orion is closer, but the screenshot in the wikipedia page
looks both too elaborate (in the main-screen graphics) and too simple
(in the text) to match what memories I have.

If those are representative of games of that era, what I'm looking for
probably was later, maybe late '90s?  Context indicates it definitely
was before the turn of the millennium (I didn't have access to that
place after about then).

					Mouse