Star Control

The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult classic following. Based around a space combat game modeled after Spacewar, each of the three games adds to this a strategic or adventure game. Star Control II is frequently cited as one of the best games of the 1990s.

= Star Control =

The first of the series, Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict , featured the basic Spacewar-style mêlée combat (as it was called, even though the ships actually fired projectile at each other) engine as well as a strategic game with a three-dimensional cluster of stars as the terrain. There was no real story component to the game, aside from a cursory background story explaining the existence of two Military alliance of alien races at war, the Alliance of Free Stars and the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. However, the main attraction to this game was the well thought-out Spacecraft design, resulting in a highly effective balance between the two sides.

As in the later games, the various races ships have widely differing appearances and abilities. The ships sizes, maneuverability, and speed vary; in addition, each ship has a distinct primary weapon and secondary ability. For instance, the Ur-Quan Dreadnought has a powerful main gun and the ability to launch independent fighters; while the Mmrnmhrm Transformer has the ability to change between two forms, one with a short-range laser as its main weapon and the other with long-range guided missiles.

Star Control was developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade. It was released for DOS and Amiga in 1990, followed by a Sega Genesis port in 1991. Simpler versions were also released for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. A fan-made scenario creator is available. The Genesis version was notable in that it led to a lawsuit between Accolade and Sega of America. At the time, Sega regulated the release of third-party Genesis software through a licensing process, which Accolade had bypassed. Although the lawsuit was settled in Accolade s favor, Accolade later became a licensed developer for the Genesis.

= Star Control II =

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters (officially II , but often written as 2 ) is generally regarded as the best of the trilogy and the reason for the series devoted fanbase. It added a large number of species and ship types to the already diverse cast and replaced Star Controls strategy-based full game with an exploration-oriented space adventure game that included the mêlée combat of the first game, as well as resource-gathering and diplomacy.

Interaction with the various alien species was a chief part of the adventure game: the backstory of both the species from the first games and the new ones were fleshed out considerably. Each had its own conversational quirks, music, and display font as well, bringing out its particular character. In mêlée, Star Control II maintained the originality of ship design from the first game, extending the strategic possibilities of the combat section greatly with the addition of a multitude of new ships. A two-player mode was available, consisting solely of the ship-to-ship combat.

To many, the game s strongest aspect was its atmosphere. The plot, requiring the player to make discoveries and connections independently, occurred within a huge game world featuring numerous extraterrestrial life species, a vast number of star systems to visit, and dynamic events depending on the actions on the player. This openness formed a strong impression of freedom, giving the player the feeling that they were in interacting with a realistic universe instead of merely pitting their wits against those of the game designers.

Star Control II was written by Toys for Bob (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for IBM PC compatible; it was later ported to the Apple Macintosh, and the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The soundtrack of the PC version was written with an Amiga (by using a program called Protracker) even though the game itself never became available as an Amiga conversion.

Star Control II was highly influenced, both in story and game design, by the games Starflight (1986) and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (1989) developed by Binary Systems and released on a variety of platforms by Electronic Arts.

David Brin s science fiction series about the Uplift Universe universe is often mentioned as inspiration for the Star Control universe as presented in Star Control II .

See also: Star_Control#The_Ur-Quan_Masters .

= Star Control 3 =

While Star Control 3 retained the adventure/combat combination of the second game, there was less diversity; it was limited to the combat and exploration. Although some believe the third game is good enough in its own right, many players found Star Control 3 a disappointment after Star Control II . In particular, the illusion of freedom found in the second game was missing.

SC3 had fewer ship types, a confusing 3-D computer graphics interface, and computer graphics and music many regarded as poor. The adventure game was also criticized as having a plot far less complex which failed to maintain continuity with the second game; furthermore, significant portions of dialogue text were directly copied from Star Control II , and some quests repeated those in Star Control II exactly. The majority of these problems likely stem from Star Controls original game designerFred Ford and Paul Reiche IIInot being involved in any stage of the project. Despite some recurring ship designs, the majority of new ships showed lack of imagination displayed in those found in the previous games, with some even closely resembling those from SCII . The computer artificial intelligence for the mêlée section was unpredictable, sometimes employing tactics that would make the battle unwinnable (by flying away from the player in a faster ship, for example). The redesigned mêlée engine was difficult to use (especially when in pseudo-3D) and compares poorly to that of SCII in terms of strategic play.

In a feat of krypto-revisionism, many fans of the two earlier games have decided to simply ignore SC3 , retconning it into never happening.

Star Control 3 was developed by Legend Entertainment and released for MS-DOS and the Macintosh in 1996.

= StarCon =

StarCon or Star Control 4 was the final attempt by Accolade to profit from the franchise. Few details are known, as Accolade cancelled it in the development stages; however, the Harika had been confirmed as a returning alien race. It was to be played largely from the third-person point of view, much like first-person shooters, and gameplay was similar to Psygnosis Colony Wars series of space-combat games or, to a lesser extent, LucasArts X-Wing computer game series series of games.

= Star Control: Timewarp =

Created by fans of Star Control , Timewarp is a re-implementation from scratch of the game s mêlée engine enhanced with more modern rendering (computer graphics) technology and a large number of new ships. The project is intended to form the basis for an adventure game to tell a story in the Star Control 2 universe. While the original Timewarp is no longer under active development, a code fork called TW-Light was launched in order to craft a faster, more stable codebase. As of June 2005, the TW-Light project was in the process of developing a script-based adventure engine. The Timewarp in the title is not intended to suggest time travel plot elements, but rather indicates that the story will progress as if the events of Star Control 3 never happened.

= The Ur-Quan Masters =

The Ur-Quan Masters (UQM) project aims to port Star Control II to modern operating systems. The project began in 2002 when the original creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III released the source code of the 3DO version as open source under the GNU General Public Licence. It is currently at version 0.4 [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php], and can be considered to have accomplished its goal.

While the UQM code is relentlessly being developed by a talented group of SC2 fans, a second group of professional musicians called The Precursors took upon themselves to create new, high-quality musical tracks and remixes of the originals.

= Star Control: Interbellum =

Star Control: Interbellum is a novel written by William T. Quick set in the Star Control universe. It was first published in 1996, shortly after the release of Star Control 3 . Many fans were disappointed upon reading the book, as several details in it were inconsistent with those of the games, especially those dealing with the depictions of some of the alien races featured in both.

=Races from the Star Control universe=

=External links=

*[http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,41/ MobyGames entry on the Star Control series] *[http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/ The Pages of Now and Forever fansite] *[http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ The Ur-Quan Masters] *[http://timewarp.sourceforge.net/ Star Control: Timewarp] *[http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/ Precursors: Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters Remixes] *[http://uqm.stack.nl/wiki/ The Ultronomicon], a dedicated Star Control Wiki *[http://www.toysforbob.com/ Toys for Bob], Game developer s website *[http://www.tgr.com/weblog/archives/000358.html Tea Leaves], spoiler-free review and retrospective of Star Control II