Steve Pederson designed and programmed this game while still a student at UCLA, where he was majoring in Radio Broadcasting.
Game Designers Workshop successfully sued Edu-Ware Services for copyright infringement of their "Traveller" pen-and-paper role-playing-game. As a result, EduWare suspended publication of the game and its sequel, "Space II," and replaced the two with the Empire space trilogy, based on an original role-playing game system.
The minimum system requirements were 48K RAM, Applesoft (Applesoft ROM recommended), 5-1/4 inch disk drive.