Stars! was originally published in 1995, written (I assume) in C, with one of the design parameters (from what I have read) that it should could be stored on a single 3½" disc, and could run fully in memory alongside Windows 3.11 on a PC with only 4 MB RAM. Yes, that is 4MB RAM, computers have come a long way since then.

It is not surprising if the code simply does not exist any more. After all, how many files do you have from 1995 or earlier (other than fonts) ?

The creators are not making any money out of the code any longer, and Ron (the administrator of AutoHost) has their permission to hand out serial numbers for Stars! for a token fee (2 US$, the lowest amount PayPal allows to be transferred).

There was a drive to find the funds to buy the code etc. for Stars! SuperNova after development on that game ended, but at that time Empire Interactive (who held the copyright on the graphics, among other things) wanted too high an amount for that to be funded. I don't remember how much were talking about, but I think it was on the order of US$ 300.000,- or more.