Traveller or Star Frontiers?

[Breakdaddy]

Rats! Beaten to it! And even back in the early '80s you could find programs for generating star system data on a computer (two versions that I recall, one for the TRS 80 and one for the Apple ][ +).

The Auld Grump

Pretty sure they had a version for the Commodore 64 too way back when.

 

[Taluron]

I looked over star frontiers when it came out, hoping that it would be D&D in space (D&D! In Space! How cool would that have been?

There is a DnD in space now - Dragonstar.

 

[Staffan]

There is a DnD in space now - Dragonstar.

We've had D&D in space since 1990 or so. It's called Spelljammer.

 

[Thunderfoot]

As to the original question - Traveller was more popular....
That being said, I played both and LIKED both, but for different reasons.
Star Frontiers is a great quick and dirty game that CAN be played in a long term campaign. But its best charm is a series of small adventures with a group of reoccuring heroes - not unlike the original Star Trek series. (It was only later that they started incorporating running themes.)
Traveller was a very solid rules base and was incredible at allowing meta-campaigning. The fact that you could run a military, civilian, merchant or mercenary campaign was the greatest part of its charm. However, the character generation process was a bit wonky at times. Though it didn't happen often, it was (at least theoretically) possible to have your character die during the generation process, which I have heard actually happened and I am sure was more than a little frustrating.
They both had their own charm, and both had their own problems, so I wouldn't trash talk either.