This is the story of the ultimate dream. Man's dream. A dream of escaping from the confines of his own planet. A dream of freedom within his own universe. A dream of reaching the stars.
The first frontier was Earth's gravity. Their first target was to reach the moon. Powerful rockets soon challenged this frontier. However, another barrier soon faced them: the restriction of traveling at the speed of light. For many years, research was undertaken, until Man's ingenuity created jumpgates. These devices allowed spaceships to travel many millions of light years in one leap. Now Man's exploration of new systems and universes could begin.
Colonization of new planets was difficult. Adverse planetary conditions, difficult terrain, and the shipping of materials made building difficult and very expensive. Again, research and invention supplied the answer. A powerful robot was created to terraform the planets and construct colonies. Once the terraformers had completed their work, the colonies were ready for man to live in, and many settlers traveled to new lives among the stars. As the years passed, Man spread through many different star systems.
But, during this passage of time, the terraformers began to develop their own intelligence. They began to think for themselves. Secretly they began plotting against their creators. Suddenly they turned and attacked, plunging man into the most deadly and destructive war ever fought. Man's far-flung colonies were taken by surprise. Many were destroyed in the first attacks, and soon the terraformers were preparing their final attack--on Earth itself. Only a small group of brave pilots saved the Earth from annihilation by tricking the larger terraformer fleet into chasing them through a hidden jumpgate. Both fleets disappeared, never to return, and the jumpgate was destroyed.
It took man over five hundred years to recover from the destruction brought by their attackers. Five hundred years in which Man once again was confined to his home planet. But the dream never died. For ten generations, scientists struggled to regain the stars, and eventually a new type of spaceship was created. This ship, better known as the experimental shuttle, is the first ship in which it is possible to bridge vast interstellar distances without the use of a jumpgate. The prototype is now ready to be tested.
-- X-Beyond the Frontier Intro
Don't worry, I tried very hard to not include any spoilers in this entire site. Finishing a game or puzzle is so much more satisfying without a walkthrough! Besdies, there are many ways to complete this series of games--many roads to victory. Seeing the story play out is a better idea than my telling it for you.
In the year 2912, while testing the experimental shuttle's revolutionary jump drive, you, Kyle Brennan, unexpectedly wind up in the middle of a battle between alien races. Your ship, badly damaged, could be destroyed by the slightest hull damage--and you have no way to get home, as the jump drive was damaged in the experiment.
A profiteering race, the Teladi, offer to help, and provide you with navigation information, a small shield, and a few credits to get you started in trading. The captain of the Phoenix in Seizewell expects you to repay him--with interest. He sees you as a profit opportunity.
You're also encouraged to seek out the Argon, a race with which you are initially identified.
You will encounter four other races in your travels: the Split, the Boron, the Paranid, and the mysterious and menacing Xenon.
Stick around in Seizewell for a while. Learn to identify the Teladi stations by sight--they have distinctive shapes that can be distinguished even in the dark. Familiarize yourself with your shipboard navigation system as well.
Dock with a Solar Power Plant and buy as many Energy Cells as you can afford (a good purchase price is between 5.60 and 10.00). Sell them at a profit at any other station (save the Teladi Trading Station and Space Equipment Dock) at a profit. Try selling at another station rather than taking a loss. Repeat this process until you start churning a regular profit.
As soon as possible, purchase the Singularity Engine Time Accelerator and Tactical Navigation System. These are necessities for completing the game in a timely manner (while you're still alive). Buy a few cargo bay extensions to increase your profiteering potential.
When you feel up to it, start arming yourself. Not only will you be able to fight off the Xenon when they turn their attentions toward you, destroying Xenon and certain pirates in Split and Paranid space is the only way to gain their trust.
At some point you'll get bored with trading everything yourself. Hire a TL-class transport (they usually hang around in systems with shipyards) and dock at the local shipyard. The cheapest station is always the Solar Power Plant, and it's not a bad starting place for owning your own business in the X-Universe. Other stations, however, allow you to leave a bit of starter money and purchase transports to do the necessary purchasing for you, and all you need to do is swing by and pick up the profits once in a while.
I've only got two for you. The rest require searching until you find a decent price. The game includes a dynamic economic system based on supply and demand, so prices will fluctuate. I've tried to associate a reasonable price to each item; if the item is available at a trading station or space equipment dock, that's a good baseline, and what I use on these pages.
These follow a simple principle: buy some energy cells at the power plant, then empty and fill your cargo bay at each station in the list. You should be able to make a decent profit with each of these. I've sorted them in the order of general affordability.
There are several items you can add to your ship to make it better suited to particular tasks.
These items you can find and trade anywhere in the X-Universe. They are produced and purchased by every race.
There are some higher-risk items available, as well:
Agricultural products are in some way converted to foodstuffs (or illicit drugs). Each race has a specialty or two in agriculture, but each only consumes a single foodstuff.
Each race has a foodstuff required by almost all factories in their controlled sectors.
There are two drugs which are almost universally illegal in the X-Universe: Spacefuel (distilled liquor from Delexian Wheat) and spaceweed (a narcotic hallucinogen). Get caught in any sector with Spacefuel and you could lose your cargo, reputation, and/or your life. Spaceweed is perfectly legal in Teladi space, but don't get caught by other races with it in your cargo hold. The same goes for the swamp plant, which is what spaceweed is made from. If you can deliver them to pirates, however, they are willing to pay for these goods.
Only the Paranid have a luxury item.
Once you get enough money, you can start purchasing space stations that can do the hard work of making money for you, leaving you time to build your reputation around the galaxy or blast the Xenon to bits. You can purchase almost anything; here's the full list of the stations you can buy.