Not to be confused with Pioneer Spacesim, the remake of Elite 2, a free online game https://pioneerspacesim.net/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago

Pioneer space sim https://pioneerspacesim.net/ Crashes when entering multiple star systems for me. Source: almost 2 years ago

I found the flight mechanics of Pioneer space sim to be realistic. https://pioneerspacesim.net/. Source: almost 2 years ago

Fans of the game have made games - see pioneer. https://pioneerspacesim.net/ - this should give you an inkling of what is possible compared to what you might wish. Source: over 2 years ago

Probably Elite. Specs are sadly below the minimums for the modern incarnation of Elite Dangerous, but Oolite and Pioneer are free open-source takes on the first and second games of the series that are worth suggesting to him even if it doesn't help get you a present. Source: over 2 years ago

I played a PC game called "Osmos" (http://osmos-game.com/) like back in 2012 or so. It has all this electronic ambient music as the soundtrack. However, the soundtrack is not created for the game. Rather, the soundtrack is a selection of pre-existing tracks already produced by a few electronic music artists. The link above is one of my favorites. Source: over 1 year ago

You can physically demonstrate orbit with some fabric stretched over a frame, but I really think video games are going to be your best friend here. Osmos (Free demo, $5 full) is a great starting point that uses simplified gravity in two dimensions. Orbit (Free app, $5 on Steam) is another, similar game to introduce orbit. Once you've graduated to three dimensions, Universe Sandbox ($30, $20 on GOG) will really... Source: almost 2 years ago