I have just discovered the 1984 classic game 'Elite', and it has easily skyrocketed into my top 15 games ever list. I can't believe I had never played it before. I can definitely see where Wing Commander got a lot of it's mechanics from. Sure it's old clunky and it's graphics are not too great, but there is something genuinely wonderful about it. And so I just want to urge anyone who is interested in games like Wing Commander or Freespace to check out this gem of history. There are probably posts like this before, but oh well, I just love this game.
http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/index.htm

wel yeah we knew this already
you played star control yet ?

No I haven't. Haven't heard of it before.

be enlightend http://www.gog.com/game/star_control_1_2

i wouldnt say that star control is elite but the two are damn close

the whole of the universe on a floppy

For the time, Elite as groundbreaking. My husband's fave game for many years was [url=http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/GAMES:Elite]Elite Plus[/url]

Looks like a remake is in the works. I found this Kickstarter page. .. Oh they made it already! I'll have to tell Tom about this!

Looks like Elite has its own fan community too I hadn't realized that. I will have to keep an eye out for it then because DH would probably love it too
Thanks for the good word!

SC 2 is possibly the greatest game EVAR. Bar none. And I don't like space based sandbox games.

its not exactly the same as elite
but the two play in the same kind of similair sandbox universe

star control is bit more involved

space trading games are the best.

Congrats on the discovery :)

Have you tried Oolite and Pioneer then?

http://www.oolite.org/

http://pioneerspacesim.net

And while Spaceengine isn't really a game it features procedurally generated galaxies, stars and planets - also available for free (check the videos!)

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mootV7Iqa34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSH8zkAIosE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3H6nPvC-PQ#t=14

Download:
http://en.spaceengine.org/

My husband did try Oolite and liked it, but the old computer he was running didn't very much (it has died completely since then, so now we are sharing my more recent machine until we rebuild his.) I hadn't heard of the other two but I will be sure to let him know about those.

I just read a bit further about the remake and then saw its horrible cost & specs! Can't do that anytime soon unless our lives improve a great deal. The other thread about their decisions isn't happy either, so I am very happy you have pointed out these alternatives!

Ouch.
I really hope your financial situation will improve, and i wish you both good luck in the future.

Another two games you might want to keep an eye on is 'no man's sky' and 'limit theory'. - although these games aren't free:

Limit Theory:
http://ltheory.com/

No Man's sky - a timed ps4 exclusive - but will arrive at the pc eventually.
Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtmEjqzg7M

Homepage:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/

Before you look into Elite: Dangerous, look for the other threads here about it. They've turned it into an online-connection-required game; sort of an MMO...

which can be cool and kinda fits the them of the game
400 billion stars is all very impressive but now instead of just meeting AI you can meet entire federations build up by other people

the idea is staggeringly ambitious

Do you need a joystick to enjoy Elite?

Google star control 2 ur-quan masters. It's free and better than the original - small but essential UI tweaks etc.

In top 3 best ever, easily.