The game has been widely praised by both contemporary and modern critics, and is one of the earliest instances of a sandbox game. The broader plot of the game emerges slowly, as the player discovers that an ancient race of beings is causing stars to flare and destroy all living creatures. There is no set path, allowing players to switch freely between mining, ship-to-ship combat, and alien diplomacy. Set in the year 4620, the game puts players in the role of a starship captain sent to explore the galaxy.

A fully revamped version of the game was developed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. Originally developed for DOS, it was later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64. Starflight is a space exploration role-playing adventure video game developed by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts in 1986.