Wildcatter '82

A game for charter pilots. Operate a small spacecraft beyond reliable infrastructure. Fly. Land. Trade. Salvage. Survey. Carry people. Get home.

CHARTER PILOT SERVICE / SHEET 1

Charter Pilot Service

Wildcatter ’82 is an open-ended spacefaring game about operating a small spacecraft rather than merely flying one.

Every world has gravity. Cargo has mass. Fuel, heat and momentum matter. Land badly and the ship remembers. Pull wreckage from caves, ferry passengers, trade between settlements, survey unknown ground, salvage what others left behind and decide for yourself what is worth the risk.

FLY — Newtonian movement, gravity, planetary descent, atmospheric heat, fuel and physical landings.
WORK — Trade, salvage, surveying, passengers, contracts, recovery and frontier infrastructure.
RETURN — Expeditions change as you go. Places remember what happened. People and factions react. The work only pays if you get it home.

The work pays. It pays those who return.

OPERATING PRINCIPLES / SHEET 2

Operating principles

01 · Every world pulls.
Gravity is not decoration. It governs approach, descent, escape, cargo handling and survival.

02 · Cargo has mass.
What you carry changes how the Kestrel flies.

03 · Nothing is just scenery.
Cores power machinery. Cables move wreckage. Settlements use goods. Caves contain systems, not treasure rooms.

04 · The world does not wait for you.
Trade shifts. Factions move. Places change whether you are there or not.

05 · There is no prescribed solution.
Understand the system. Decide what matters. Improvise.

PILOT’S CHECKLIST / SHEET 3

What you can do

• Fly manually through gravity wells and planetary approaches
• Land anywhere terrain permits
• Trade between settlements and markets
• Tow cargo, cores, wreckage and machinery with the ship’s cable
• Explore caves and subterranean installations
• Recover salvage and black boxes
• Survey planets and cave systems
• Transport passengers and specialists
• Use ground vehicles and rover access where the ship cannot go
• Establish frontier claims
• Deal with pirates, Tide activity and changing local conditions
• Follow contracts or ignore them entirely
• Reach one of four endings, then begin future runs from less predictable systems

AIRCRAFT DATA / SHEET 4

The Kestrel

The Kestrel is not a fighter with cargo space bolted on. It is a working spacecraft.

It carries freight, passengers, survey equipment, salvage, rover hardware and whatever else you can physically drag home. You will learn its mass, limits, handling and bad habits.

FIELD MANUAL

The flight manual

A full period-style manual is included with the game and can be opened in-game. Flip through it as if you pulled the book from beside the terminal.

ABOUT

About Wildcatter ’82

Wildcatter ’82 draws from Elite, Frontier, Gravitar, Oids, Asteroids and the strange severity of early computer games that expected players to learn how a machine worked.

It is interested less in making space easy than in making it understandable.

OPERATIONS

Report for duty.

wildcatter82.com  · Wishlist on Steam: coming soon

A paperw8 game. © 2026 Keith Bugeja.
Fly well. Gravity is not your enemy. It is the game.