o7 is a menu-driven space exploration, trading, and fleet management simulation that captures the feel of classic 1990s space sims, rendered in a persistent burnt-orange-on-black CRT aesthetic with scanlines, screen glow, and retro monospace typography. There is no flight stick, no joystick, and no cockpit view. Every action, from jumping across the galaxy to outfitting a ship to deploying a surface rover, is performed through on-screen menus, making the game fully playable on touchscreens and compact displays alike.

The galaxy is procedurally generated from deterministic seeds, containing roughly four billion star systems, each with its own arrangement of stars, planets, moons, asteroid belts, rings, and occasional Guardian alien sites. Because generation is seeded, every star, body, and market is reproducible and consistent across sessions. A Full Spectrum System scanner reveals undiscovered bodies within a system, after which a detailed 3D orrery displays real-time wireframe orbital mechanics for planets, moons, stations, and your own ship. Surface probes map landable worlds and generate survey reports covering gravity, atmosphere, temperature, elemental composition, and biological or geological signals.

Trading and the economy are central to progression. Every populated station hosts a commodity market whose prices reflect the system economy type, security level, and faction affiliation. Players can run legal trade routes, sell exploration data at cartographics, deal on black markets in anarchy systems, and use built-in market analysis tools to identify profitable runs. A material trader allows exchange of raw and manufactured materials needed for engineering and synthesis.

Mining covers both space and surface operations. Ring hotspots and asteroid belts can be mined from a ship using limpets, while landable planets support surface mining via a deployable SRV rover. A refinery and mining screen manages bin allocation and material yield.

Ships are fully customizable through a Coriolis-style outfitting system with category-based browsing across core internals, optional internals, hardpoints, and utility mounts. A shipyard allows purchasing, storing, switching, renaming, and transferring ships. For players who want something bespoke, a custom ship, carrier, and station builder offers modular construction. Resident engineers appear in high-tech and industrial systems and can apply blueprint upgrades up to the tech level of their station, improving thrust, shields, frame shift drive range, and more. Guardian technology can be unlocked by scanning blueprint fragments at alien sites, granting access to advanced modules.

Fleet management includes buildable fleet carriers with logistics, interiors, and guilded status, along with crew quarters, multi-crew support, and fighter hangars. A ship co-pilot and localized radio chatter provide ambient cockpit atmosphere and can be toggled independently.

Colonization lets players establish colonies on planets or station ports that generate passive credit income over time, with population, infrastructure, happiness, and growth stages to manage. A station builder provides additional infrastructure options.

The interface is strictly menu-driven with a tiered navigation bar grouping Explore, Station, Commerce, Fleet, Industry, and Commander categories. The 3D galaxy map supports route plotting, bookmarks, jump-range and fuel verification, and name-based global search, with filters that persist across sessions. A status header continuously reports current location, ship, rank, and discovery progress.