NamelessFragger: Hey, it's a Starflight fan, with a name derived from the game, no less! (While I never played or even knew of the game until sometime shortly after playing SC2:UQM since Starflight always gets mentioned on the official forums, it's better late than never.)
That reminds me-I need to finish up the first game already (Amiga version in particular; the Genesis/Mega Drive remake changed up the gameplay so much that it gives me whiplash), but never got around to it. I'd even Let's Play it, but I don't think I could make it exciting enough.
Veloxi: YAY! :) As much as I loved Star Control 2, it owed so much to Starflight 1 and 2 that those are all-time favorites. :) Welcome to the party. :)
I prefer some of Starflight's aspects, such as the whole training-a-crew-to-handle-various-tasks thing and the general feeling that you were going on more of a general expedition until you learn about the Crystal Planet making suns flare in a systematic fashion.
On the other hand, the Starflight races just don't seem to have quite as much personality as the Star Control ones to me, which probably sways me that way more aside from having played SC2 first. It could be because they don't have unique fonts for dialogue, their ships all look identical save for when you scan then, there's no voice acting (though the original IBM PC DOS version of SC2 didn't have voice acting either), or maybe that I just find the SC2 dialogue funnier or more touching.
Ultimately, though, there's no denying that the Starflight series paved the way for Star Control II. I've even noticed that Paul Reiche III was involved with both, and perhaps other developers were too.
(Now, if I can find complete Amiga copies of the first two Starflight titles...Genesis/Mega Drive versions are rather common on eBay, but home computer versions are harder to come by, especially complete...and when one does show up, it's usually the IBM PC original with the more dated graphics and interface.)