Full Thrust

Sometimes when I want to play a game like space ship combat its just that, space ship combat, any set from the over 50 I have. And sometimes it is a specific set of rules. I don't just want to play any space ship combat game. Once in while a game becomes the definition of the type, like Dungeons and Dragons does for Role Playing. For me that game is Full Thrust. Introduced to me back over 20 years ago it was the go to game for space combat from across the pond in England. Easy to learn and with a fun buckets of dice combat mechanic it proved popular here as well. But the shine came off the diamond a little while after. There were balance issues with the construction system. It could be min/maxed without some guidelines. And the implied setting was near future so the ship building system couldn't do Star Trek or Star wars very well. The Fleet Books revisions helped with some of the short comings. The scale of the game was task force sized (about 6-10 ships) and I wanted to put larger fleets on the table. So the game was shelved and I went on to other things. But recently I have had a craving to play it again. Returning to it I see that some new versions have popped up on the net.

The original creator Jon Tuffley has a rule book that brings the basic game up to date called
Full Thrust Remixed  the plain vanilla version.

A group of Australian gamers wrote their own version update with permission of the author
Full Thrust Cross Dimensions  a few added spices.

And also a dedicated group of tinkerers again with the OK of the original writer have theirs
Full Trust Continuum   or the bat crap crazy with add everything and the kitchen sink edition.

And another group of gamers with their own take on the everything added update.
Full Thrust Warlords  

Full Thrust, so there may be some better, but I don't think there are any more popular.

Don't worry this will all make sense soon