A 'top-down 2D rotation engine' method is what I used for my Starwars game. As I never released it, I thought I would share what has been done so far. As it is, the game is still challenging, playable and finishable. I planned to add lasers to the tie fighters and Falcon but other things got the better of me. Still, this game is enjoyable for the challenge factor alone! Today I added some WAV file voice effects to make it more authentic. I hope you try it:
http://www.qb64.net/EscapeHoth.zip--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not working too well here for me using .942 on Ubuntu 10.04 - I see a window (changed it from fullscreen to the windowed style - I have a dual-head system with TwinView, and fullscreen spans both monitors - ugh); with a starfield and the ship, but I have no keyboard or mouse input - "w" doesn't accelerate the ship, and the mouse movement does nothing (rotation, based on the code comments). My x-window session is useless at that point, so I have to login to a separate virtual text console to kill the process.
If possible, can you work out where things go wrong?
Galleon, a bit rough around the edges, but I'll admit, it's challenging and fun. The music is distracting as well as zooming, but that makes the game more tricky. 
Trying for the 4th time....
EDIT: Yay! Reached the randenvous point! But, the game didn't end. I had to kill myself to exit the game. ESC button?
Well, I did say it wasn't finished. The zoom is extreme.
