X-COM: Interceptor (1998)
Simulation - Strategy

Publisher	Microprose
Developer	MicroProse Software, Inc.
Series	X-COM

The game is set in the year 2067, where the Earth's resources are all nearly depleted. To avert the slow decay of civilization, the major corporations of Earth turn to the stars - an area of space known as "The Frontier" - to find the raw materials they so desperately need.

Unfortunately, some old "friends" were already in the neighborhood when the corporations arrived... the powers from the "first alien war" 1999, - and they have plans of their own for the resources of the Frontier. Plans that could very well mean the end of the human race.

In X-COM Interceptor, the player takes command of an elite force that has been created to fight the aliens in space. Unlike previous games in the series, the game is primarily a space combat simulator, with the player flying starfighters to protect the human corporations set up to gather resources in the Frontier. The player also acts in the role of X-COM commander in the region, managing bases, resources, and the organisation's financial standing. The player also needs to capture and research alien technology in order to improve human technology and discover the reason for the alien's interest in the region.[1]

X-Com Interceptor, although released as the fourth game, was actually set before X-COM: Apocalypse, thus making it the third game in the chronological order.