So I tried about a half dozen times to try SC2 yesterday, but every single time that first Slylandro probe wastes me. I can't hit the darn thing to save my life and have a very hard time turning the ship to keep aimed at the probe. Is there a trick to this or am I just awful?

No, just run from them. I'm probably much further than you are and still don't fight those probes. They're meant to be hard. Running away is always a good option until you get some experience in SuperMelee and have access to better ships, or have upgraded your flagship.

Thank you very much; I'm so used to the hand-holding learning curve of modern games that it would never have occurred to me to run from the very first opponent you run into. :) I'm sure I'll enjoy the game a lot more now that I understand this.

SPOILERS

The spathi ship you pick up early is pretty good at chomping through those probes, but it may take some practice. Try to torpedo the probes while running away at a slightly slower speed than them, accelerating away only when the thing's lightning gun is about to get into range.

Don't despair zqadams...you'll eventually discover an elegant way to deal with them once you talk to to some other alien races.
And don't get discouraged by the high learning curve -- SC2 is tough, but it rarely is cheap. Pay attention to the conversations you have with alien races (I kept a notebook by my side to keep track of coordinates and such) and remember to save as often as you can.

SC2 is best played like this -- "Hmmm, I wonder what will happen if I do xyz?" -- save before you do that! Fly to that location, land on that planet, etc...and see what happens. If you get killed, if its worthless, or whatever...just reload and try somewhere else.

Really until you get far enough into the game staying and fighting is rarely worth the effort or cost. You gain a little money from the salvage depending on the ship, but that money goes right back into funding replacement crewmembers or ships or whatnot.

And once you lose too many crewmmebers they get scarce and start costing more! So I advise you to guard your resources carefully.

After a while (you'll know when) you'll feel much safer about engaging in combat on more equal terms.

Gotta respectfully disagree here. At 550 RU (the most of any ship) killing probes in the early game can be quite beneficial. Fwiffo is faster, more maneuverable and has a longer ranged weapon than the probes, the only way you should take damage in a Spathi vs. Slylandro battle is if the ships spawn next to each other or if one of those dastardly planets sneaks up on you.

That's true you can take them out with Fwiffo. But I just finished SC2 and:

1) I didn't trust the Spathi from my SC1 experience and so I killed Fwiffo. Woops! :-p

2) I was not so good at melee for a loooong time so when I finally did access to another Spathi ship I still found it hard to kill the Slyandros.

So I just ran for it haha.

I'm an expert at Super Melee and have been playing it for more than a decade but I STILL avoid combat in SC2 until I have a mega upgraded flagship and can just waste anyone easily.

It's almost never worth it to engage anyone (this isn't immediately apparent to new players, though - eg: threatening the Melnorme, etc). That's one of the few complaints I have about SC2, but I guess it's at least something different from other games.

The fights are FAR easier once you add some engines and manoever jets. Before that, you turn so slowly that you are completely at the mercy of quicker opponents. Esp. since they'll avoid getting in front of your guns.
(A very nice surprise, too : The computer opponent really adapts to your ship's payload, i.e. not getting in front of your big gun, not launching fighters against AA guns...)

I really find it ridiculously hard. It's almost impossible to win a fight against these probes and there's no way I can outrun them. You people who have suggested we run away from these fights in the beginning, how is that even possible?

It's so sad because I do like the little things I've seen of this game so far. I think they should have stuck with turnbased combat or something like that.

EDIT:

Well, it seems the game is hard from the beginning if you do the wrong things in the wrong order. (Which is a really stupid but old school way to introduce people to the game "correctly"). After following the first steps of a walkthrough I actually managed to make it to another star system and back in one piece. It seems that if you do not take over the base orbiting earth - the game will make every effort to stop you. One obvious proof of this is that every time you try to travel through hyper space you will be intercepted by the impossible probe. After getting control of the starbase though, the probe rarely shows up at all.

Not the best game design by today's standards, but hey, this game comes from another time. Been playing for an hour now and although I haven't come very far I must say the game grows on me. So do the controls. I actually don't mind the arcade battle segments as much now (still think they're the weak point of the game though).

So -- the suggestions all above say, "run from them". How the hell do you do that? Here I am trying to return to Sol from my first extra-solar expedition and I can't because this thing's in the way. It always catches up with me on the interstellar map, and slaughters me in combat before I can even try to use my thrusters.

Here's a few tips on starting out with the game:

-Recruit Fwiffo ASAP! Seriously, the Spathi Eluder will keep you alive for much of the game. Fights may be slow because you have to keep running away and spitting B.U.T.T.s at the enemy, gradually wearing them down, but the speed will keep you alive.

Especially against that damn Ilwrath Avenger you're forced to fight after helping the Earth space station...I don't know how the hell I killed that thing once with the Earthling Cruiser. Probably just dumb luck with the two torpedoes. (And two torpedoes are all you get before it mercilessly BBQs you because of the slow energy recharge rate and slow movement speed.)

-The first thing you should upgrade on your flagship before anything else are the thrusters. They'll help with fuel efficiency in HyperSpace and also help keep away from the Slylandro probes a bit better, though you likely won't be able to outrun them regardless, just keep them from closing distance.