Wing Commander eventually gave rise to 2003's Freelancer, which paired the spaceship combat and tales of square-jawed heroism with vestiges of a sandbox, free-to-roam universe and a semi-persistent multiplayer, shared galaxy mode. Star Citizen, initially announced in 2012, is, on paper, a natural progression of concepts Roberts has been exploring for some time. Those fondly-remembered DOS titles are as famous for their full-motion video cutscenes starring Mark Hamill and some lion-men as they are for their cosmic dogfights.

The first, and simplest, one, is that it's a sci-fi simulation, combat, trading and to some extent roleplaying game from Chris Roberts, the lead designer of Wing Commander, the 1990s series of PC spaceship games. Well, that's a question with a least two answers. If you already know the ins and outs of this most unprecedented tale of crowdfunding, spaceships and controversies, it will be of little use to you, though please do help to cast more light on the affair in comments below. This piece is intended to break down a complicated situation for those people and others like them. Note: I've had quite a few people who either don't follow games closely or only heard about Star Citizen relatively late in the day ask me to explain it to them.