Starflight works great on my XP using DosBox. http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1
MuonBoson
Starflight I and II would be my pick. Probably the graphic precursor to all space strategy gaems. It had everything: humor, interaction, mystery, discovery and at different levels. It was totally immersive and intelligent, almost literary. Some of this team went on to StarControl, but clearly SF was a team effort.
The best game of all time? Starflight I and II! Any game that remotely resembled it, I've bought, including GalCiv. I've just started playing it and I have hopes. To me what made those games great is the same thing that great literature has: a sense of total immersion in another universe. They created this, despite primitive graphics and animation, by making it impressionistic. That is, your mind filled in the gaps of reality. Again the comparison to literature, I've never seen a science