The original game was written by Dave Kaufman in BASIC and information about the game was published in "People's Computer Company" newsletter in 1974. Here is a Python version of the game (work in progress, there could still be bugs!).

The game code was printed in 1975, in the wonderful book What to Do After You Hit Return. I think this book still has a huge education potential. BASIC games from the book like "Star Trader" are quite complex. They use lots of processes/algorithms/rules instead of data (graphics, audio, text -- it was a game designer Chris Crawford, who introduced the concept of process intensity in the games). Still, it's possible with the help of the book to understand how "Star Trader" works and how to make your own, better version of the game.

Wouldn't it be great to see someday modern version of "What to Do After You Hit Return" with Python (or Lua, or ...) code?