Slashdot Mirror
Star Control 2 Released Under the GPL
Jagasian writes "The classic computer space adventure role playing game known as Star Control 2 has been officially ported from its obsolete mono-platform source code to modern multi-platform C++/SDL source code. The game is open source, and compiles and runs on Linux! The alpha release binaries are available for download now!"
This is so cool. This game is awesome. Those that haven't played it should!
I can only suggest the great wealth of links located at dmoz. There's pretty much everything you need to learn about the series and then some.
Finally we have the source to do what I've always wanted to in SC2.
Annhilate those goddamn space harpies. OOOOOH I hated those with all of my Ur-Quan might. WHY THOSE SPACE WENCHES WILL QUAKE IN THEIR BOOTS when I uhh, get my hands on that source...
(proceeds to downloads and launches fighters for good effect.)
We used to play this game as a drinking game in college. During melee play, the loser would drink. It became so much more interesting when drunk players would have a Pkunk yell "idiot," "moron," "dork," "worm," etc. at them. Things sometimes got heated and hilarious at the same time.
Now if it were network aware so that two people wouldn't have to huddle onto the same keyboard (or one person with a joystick), I would be a happy man indeed.
Incidentally, the full game had some of the best humor I have ever seen in a game. Truly timeless.
It's too bad SC3 sucked so much.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I don't know if you actually read this stuff, but great job Paul and the folks at TFB! I know what a large pain in the ass this must have been to complete.
And good job to all of you helped through SourceForge.
I can get rid of my floppy/zip DOS bootup combo with its freakish combo of memory managers and drivers. I spent two days putting this jerry rig together just so I could reminisce.
When I was in first year, we picked up this game just before midterms... My entire floor lost about a month to it!
Now, they hit me with it again, at the most intense point in my year!... Oh, the carnage...
I wonder how many cool articles like this get pushed aside for the never ending anti-MS crap.
On a side note: Given that it's Open Source, I wonder if they'll accept mods to it? The CG FX in the 3DO version was excellent, but I'm curious what the modern generation of 3D artists today could do to update the artwork in it. As silly as it sounds, I know some peeps that'd probably jump at the chance to create their own 'art-pack' for that game.
"Derp de derp."
this really was one of the most fun games i ever played.
the story ROCKED. i don't play games much normally but star control 2 sucked me into it's fun world and destroyed my life for a short period of time.
what made star control so fun was the awesome story for one player play and the melee mode where two players could select ships and just duke it out. it had sorta of an adventure game and action game put together. although during playing one play game you could set the computer to play for your ship battles
Wow, this is totally awesome! I was just thinking about SC2 a few days ago, too!
I don't play too many RPGs, but I was drawn to SC2 after I tried it at a friend's place. It had everything. Great races, good story, and incredible music. There are still tunes from that game that I can't get out of my head. I hum them regularly.
SC2 was really something special, and I'm thrilled to see it's coming back.
someone care to do a review/comparative with doom3?
not
the person who started doing it : Chris Nelson ( http://slashdot.org/~Lumin Inverse/ ) is a good friend of mine here in college. I remember him first telling me about making a game back in freshman year during a CS class. Heh, never thought it would get this far. Go Chris! Brilliant!
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
I mean, wtf? Are they bundling KDE with it?
I remember playing Star Control 1 on my Amiga 500 back in the day. Amiga had the best port!
...this is one to play. "Star Control 2" stole from the very best, "Starflight", and included a great deal of combat options for the adventure impaired. A real delight.
I used to love this game, we played it all the time when i was in high school...the Chmmer (which reminded me of a modified X-wing rocked)...then there was the big green Urquan ship with the little fighting pods you could release...and the Korah, which shot the big spinning Chinese stars...awesome game...the story was pretty cool (although could take a while), but I was all for the Melee mode...
shoot..what was the name of the Ship where it's special weapon was self destruction???? was it Bonsai, or something else? Bonsai might have been the pilot's name...hmmmm, i forget...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
...for a Game Boy Advance version of this game.
jason@oliver:~/quarantine$ chmod 700 uqm-0.1-linux-static.she $ ./uqm-0.1-linux-static.sh
.tgz package and I can't find one in ./ dir. I really can't work without it.
jason@oliver:~/quarantin
-== The Ur-Quan Masters installation ==-
Hi, I'm your friendly neighbourhood installation program.
I will make you very happy, but first, we've got some business to take care
of.
I need a content
the
If you don't have it, please press CTRL-C and quickly get it, before I get
swapped out.
Otherwise, please tell me where you've hidden it:
Bye.
----[%snip]----
What the heck?
My
Limekiller
Chris Nelson is the main person responsable for the port; Fred and Paul (known among SC fans as "The Creators") are not very involved wit the port. It's a port of the 3do version, not the PC version - meaning that there's speech, and the 3do music (the pc music can be enabled with a commandline switch, though). That also means that the wonderful ending of the PC version is not implemented yet, but it probably will be. It's currently alpha, and there are quite a few bugs - it's actually impossible to win due to collision-detection issues, but I've gotten extremely close to the end. There is also a project underway to create new versions of the music; some of the original authors of the music are involved. The developers don't plan on making any major changes to the game (this should come as a relief): this release will focus on fixing all of the bugs, but otherwise staying as true to the original games as possible. The main ways in which they are straying from the real game is by integrating the 3do and PC versions a bit; the same story, and most of the same graphics, will be used. The name, "The Ur-Quan Masters", has to be used instead of "Star Control" due to trademark issues.
So, download it and *enjoy the sauce*!
"But really, I think life is just a game of Mao Nomic." -Purplebob
I usually lurk, but had to make an account for this occasion..here's my take.
Star Control 2 is perhaps one of the finest space exploration games ever made, which in itself is an unfortunate but highly defendable opinion simply because the number of similar games in the last decade can be counted on one hand. Many other games have similar traits, or implement their respective characteristics with much greater finesse, but so very few have the triple-threat of exploration, combat, and humour, with a double helping of back-story and plot unravelling thrown in just for a balanced intellectual meal. Many fans of SC2 (and loathers of SC3) would say another important feature, or rather omission, is that there is no colonization involved. Your mission is to seek out new life in order to liberate your own, not clutter the galaxy with fleshy pink bipedal mammals. Why devalue the property?
The 3DO conversion of the PC game was done by Crystal Dynamics, and they will forever have my respect for not getting a single thing wrong. Any and all changes were made for the better, enhancing the game to 120% and bringing it into the fold of higher technology. The control system was further simplified from keyboard pecking to the minimalist selection of three buttons plus two shoulders of the 3DO pad. The menu system was replaced entirely with graphics instead of text, and most efficiently combined all three planet scans into one action! Yay! Also the planet lander windows were greatly enhanced for size and visibility, though it is still impossible to cross the north or south pole of any planet. And who can deny the coolness of the huge foldout starmap? That is, if you were lucky enough to get a complete copy of the game with map intact.
Naturally the graphics have a greater colour depth, and are truely a treat if you can experience them with an S-Video cable. Usually in a CD-ROM version the added storage space for extra additions like FMV and bad voice acting is a horrific experience, but the treasure of this game is the amount of time, effort, and obviously big bucks that was poured into dubbing every single line of dialogue in full aural regalia. No corners cut, no drunk actors, no scratchy sound mixers, this is giving the characters LIFE! And sweet mother of mercy, YOU CAN FAST-FORWARD AND REWIND EVERY CLIP! Who can spare six minutes to hear an Utwig whine about his favourite shroud being at the dry cleaners? We've got a galaxy to save!
If you're anything like me (and I'm a big demographic, so you probably are), music makes all the difference to the enjoyment of an adventure and of life in general. The 4-channel Amiga MOD's of the original have a lot of charm and nostalgia for me personally, and indeed most of them are fully intact, but at a higher sampling rate. It's really the new remixes that make you boogie and bounce in your chair, rockin' across Hyperspace, or exploring the cold vacuum of a lifeless planet that's WAY too far from the nearest starbase.
The full beauty of Star Control 2 is in how well it plays. Whether it's your first time exploring, or one of dozens where you know the star systems by memory, the time spent adventuring feels well spent, even when the game might come to a sudden but not unexpected end. Best of all, it leaves you hungry for more after the final credits roll. Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford created something splendid here, and their names join the hallowed elite of game creators. There is much much more to this universe, both in the past and the future. Only time will tell if more faithful chapters in the story of our Captain see the light of day, or perhaps they may delve into the past of the Milieu and Precursors.
I recently just converted some machines at work to Linux, so this is a big bonus for an RPG fan like me.
Be prepared to spend a couple of minutes installing this...
Im installing this under windows and for the past 10 minutes it has been installing the THIRTEEN THOUSAND png and ogg files !!!
So much for packing it all under one file...My FAT table is going to crap on me...
Who is this Karma guy and why is he bad ??
Most of the comments are about this becomming open source.
:-)
I'd just like to say that the game was _really_ good. The things you could make the aliens say, the races you would meet in space where so imaginative. The gfx was also really good. In the sense that it fitted 100% together with the sound and game atmosphere.
This game is the reason I restored a 386. So I could play starcontrol 2.
I cannot wait for this game to be compiled on my linux box
-- Make software not war
In my opinion the news item isn't emphasizing enough that this is still an alpha. Not everything is working yet and crashes are still frequent.
The real fans will still like it, but for the full experience, you might want to wait for at least a beta release.
We actually thought it was to early for a Slashdot announcement, but I guess it was inevitable. The timing couldn't have been worse though, as for some (probably malicious) reason, a large number of files from various SourceForge web sites seem to have been deleted.
Also worth mentioning is that the source for this port came from the 3DO version, and not the PC version (this means there are differences, such as spoken dialogs), and that the final release will include (optional) remixed tracks by the original artists.
*enjoy the sauce*
Serge van den Boom
from the Ur-Quan Masters core team
This is by far one of the funnies games I've ever played. It's funny that even today I was talking to a friend about it and how cool it would be if it became GPL.
:)
And some say dreams don't come true!
This is great news, Star Con 2 is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. The 1 on 1 space combat is just exceptional.
I hope the team that is doing this will eventually put in some kind of TCP/IP based network play, because that would just be super fun.
Because of the (presumedly) low system requirements, this will make a great 'light' game to play on your system. Something you can run for 15 minutes just for some fun during a break.
---
I support spreading santorum
And I was going to pass this year. Oh well.
this is absolutly awesome!
SC2 is really one of those games that makes you lose a month at least because of it's great story
So yea. Check it out.
Wah!
not many game developers can claim of such a loyal fan base
/ (b.t.w. there is an annoying ad before you get to the "real" page, click on "continue" to get through)
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/petition
from the page: "Sign this petition if you would want to play and BUY another Star Control game created by Toys For Bob"
"Approximate number of people who have signed the petition: 4476 "
Note that if you still have your original copy of Starcon2, it is possible to play it under Windows XP or 2k, with full sound, by running it under DosBox, an MS-DOS emulator.
Ironic that this bit of news gets posted to Slashdot not two days after I finish playing through the game!
SC2 still is one of my top favourite games ever. It is trully a timeless classic and work of genius that is still fun to play even by todays standards. This is a truly wounderful peice of news. I am unspeakably happy
Time for some Ur-Quan to die a most horrible death! I enjoy blasting Ur-Quan with Spathi BUTT Missles...So much fun.
Err...That doesn't sound right...
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
Star Control 2 has been officially ported from its obsolete mono-platform source code, into shiny new obsolete multi-platform source code!
Hip hip hooray!
At least it's better than tux racer.
Anyway, Top Google result for the search I just did for "star control 2":
- News: Star Control 2 Released Under the GPL - Slashdot - 37 minutes ago
Google is awesome."I have a good idea why it's hard to verify programs. They're usually wrong." --Manuel Blum, FOCS 94
Star Control 2 always felt a little like a ripoff of Starflight and Starflight 2 to me. If only the similar projects behind those games would be as successful!
With the source code out, I will now be able to find out why the Melnorme turns purple! Then I shall conquer the universe!
Take-off every
I spent much of my childhood playing Star Control 1 with my best friend. We used a single keyboard playing on separate sides long before multiplayer gaming was a standard practice. Those moments stand out as some of the best gaming moments of my childhood, and I can't wait to check out the port of Star Control 2. I've actually never played it, but I'm assuming it's in the same flavor as 1, so it should kick ass. If anybody out there hasn't checked out star control, you should. It rocks!
A musician without the RIAA, is like a fish without a bicycle.
Starcontrol2 was pretty primitive. I admit I have not played it since I was in 6th grade but it seemed like a simple program that was no more then a few hundred k at the most. Very atari-ish. Xannon and commander keen were both alot better in my opinion from this time frame.
http://saveie6.com/
Melee mode is largely unchanged, with perhaps only the addition of a few new ships. But "full" mode is a whole other beast; where SC1 was a strategy-oriented game, SC2 is a story-driven RPG. You can still have the computer auto-resolve combat if you're not arcade-game-inclined.
What do i do when i lose my lander? They don't seem to sell them at the starbase.
Damn. Stupid lander.
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
for those like me who are into nostalgia.
Now, if only EA/Origin would let us work with Wing Commander: Privateer and Microprose with Master of Magic...
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
I've never heard that before.
I LIKE IT!
I'm going to add that phrase to my vocabulary if no one has (tm)ed it yet.
"Mono Platform" pretty much says it all doesn't it?
It's why I don't run OSX. It's why I am trying to get off Windows. Why should I be constrained to mono platform?
I wonder if the same "all your Pods are belong to us" hack works in that version (one can dream).
As long as I don't have to look at a starchart to load the game up I'll be happy. I remember there being a Creative Labs card a few years ago (8+?)that went into an ISA slot that "emulated" a 3DO so you could play it's 3 wonderful games on it.
One last question reamin for me, was there ever a point to the "Rainbow Planets" at all (since it's been what 6 years since I played it)? Ah the good times.
I tried to think of a good sig, and this wasn't it.
Too bad it doens't work too well under XP (no I don't try very hard either). Maybe that's why I was given it for nothing :)
I can't play E&B (closest thing i can think of) anyways since I'm poor and have 26.4 connection. (Not that it matters since I think it's the most boring game ever, might as well call it Space & More Space)
I tried to think of a good sig, and this wasn't it.
I'm always surprised at how much people seem to dislike it.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
...and it shows. It was a steaming pile. All of the bad graphics, none of the charm.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
The star systems containing the rainbow planets made a large wedge pointing to the core of the galaxy. It was a long 'quest' in the plot, and didn't give much reward beyond the nice pickings. But really cool nonetheless.
Starflight was released in 1986. It featured CGA graphics (EGA later?), diplomacy, 80 star systems, 5 races, simple trade interstellar and planetary navigation and a plot that games today can't touch. Published by Electronic Arts.
Starflight II: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula, released in 1989, this was a worthy sequel. It featured more star systems, more sophisticated diplomacy, VGA graphics, moderatly complex trade and additional plot elements. Published by Electronic Arts.
Star Control, published in 1990 was a pretty cool melee game. It offered a few ships you could fly around, develop strategies for and have realtime battles with either against an opponent or an AI. Published by Accolade.
Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters, published in 1992, was what Starflight 3 should have been. It had many elements of the starmap of Starflight, many of the underlying plot elements and game engine of that series with the Star Control melee combat grafted on.
Starflight 3: Mysteries of the Universe, yet unreleased, is an Open project with many of the original Starflight crew, Binary Systems, aiding in consulting or programming.
Here's what I want to know: Is there any official link between the Starflight and Star Control families? Was there swindling involved? Was I deprived of a Starflight 3 I would have paid double for vs. a Star Control? Why oh why? As far as I'm concerned, the Open Starflight 3 will be great, no matter what, but the real Starflight 3 that seemingly "almost was" would have been worthwhile.
Apologies for the long rant it took to get here. Any responses appreciated.
Pardon me, I think I hear the Uhl whispering in my head.
One of the best things about SC2 was the thumpin' music. My friend had the Gravis Ultrasound card and the music totally ROCKED! In the PC version, the music was done in Amiga MOD format, a four-track music system based on sound samples. It was amazing what could be done with just four tracks. MODs were featured heavily in the demo scene for a while.
c .shtml.
You can imagine how pleased I was to find the music in MP3! Grab them here: http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/3do/musi
excuse the rant. caffiene has yet to be digested.
This might be a valid excuse, if you, or a different AC, hadn't posted this exact same rant earlier today. Several times.
If it's a different AC, it says something about you that not only do you post the same thing as someone else, you use the same excuse as they do, all the while bitching about conformity.
If, on the other hand, all of these posts were done by you, drink a caffeinated drink already.
-Terralthra...
http://happypenguin.org/news?id=3139
The game is 10 years old - play the original and tell me it feels older than six or seven. Seriously, it ran on a 286 (but faster on a 386), had nice VGA graphics (pretty advanced at the time), and digitized music (mod). That was completely unheard of - if games had music, it was adlib, and the pc beeper was still being used with regularity. It was the first game to support the GUS. I still have my GUS in an old computer just for playing SCII (sure, it had SB support too, but the GUS's hardware mixing sounds much better.) SCII was EXPANSIVE. The install was almost as big as Doom which came out years later.
Of course, being "advanced" isn't what made the game great. The game was great because of every single thing in it. It had simply the best story/plot of any videogame ever made - funny, inspiring, deep, suspenseful. On par with a good sci-fi novel. The aliens were damn cool. All of them. Noble and flawed heros, salesmen and scoundrels, tragic tourtured villans. The music and artwork were outstanding. The gameplay was fun, involving, diverse and never dull or repetative (the way far too many RPGs are).
It is unarguably the best game ever in it's genera - one of the best videogames ever on any list, and in my completely non-humble opinion, the best videogame ever written. It will probably the best that will ever be written (unless Toys for Bob makes a legit sequel, in which case, it could be topped).
It pains me terribly that there are people out there that have not played through this brilliant, amazing piece of work. Their lives are lacking in ways that they can't even begin to imagine.
I truly believe it's one of the worlds great tradgedies that there aren't more quality space-RPGs. There is SO much area there to explore, yet so few games are produced in that genera. It's really quite sad.
The GPL version is pretty damn functional considering it's the first alpha release. Give it a whirl - or if you haven't played it before, wait until you can get a version that can be played to completion.
... "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the w
Isn't that a bit like constantly fitting new engines into your car, but never driving it anywhere? People who obsess over operating systems usually do so because they have nothing more interesting to do with their computer.
this is the ONLY game on the Sega Genesis I could tolerate...
if I can play this again...(and in an even BETTER format then before) - awesome...
God, I love emulating games I used to play in childhood, like MAME, TI994/A and stuff....WOO HOO!!! - nothing like running an AMD Thunderbird 1200 at 4.33 MHZ throttled down.!!!!
RB
----------
ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
I STILL play and replay this game ad infinitum.
I bet there will come mods GALORE to this game.
I foresee kissing my all traces of Windows good fragging bye, as knockoff mods of this game start to proliferate...
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I loved your joke, and sent it to friends. ;-)
Ignore the trolls here, I have kissed a girl and played Star Control, so I know it is possible that you are married
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I really enjoyed SC3. The "realistic" aliens (which were models, if my memory serves) were a huge step up from the toonish visuals of SC2. (Not to downplay SC2, king of games, at all.)
The colony management was definately different from SC2, and until you make the obligitory fueling stations and shipyard construction bases on a few planets, you're set to go.
There was so much to do, and so many aliens to find, that I don't think I ever got them all. Unfortunately, I think the Ur-Quan spin-offs (Kohr-Ah) were one of the ones I couldn't get to. And some, like those slow-talking dimwits, the Doog, just drove me nuts.
Regardless, there were a heckuva lot of cool, fun ships in the game.
I just bought an old computer to play the DOS version!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I did go out and buy an old computer JUST for this game... I recently moved to school (thus leaving behind many of my old 386, 486 and Pentiums). During one of my procrastination breaks, I had the urge to play StarCon2.. I found DOSBox, but it would periodically crash for me.
Races?????? But there are no difference between the races! That's what my teacher told me!
I was in 11th grade when SC2 came out. There were a lot of SC1 fans in my school, so we were all aware of its impending "release." Of course, like many income-deprived 16-year-olds, that just meant we waited for someone to get us a pirated copy. Five floppies, if I recall correctly. Even downloading ISOs takes more effort.
Well, I played the game for only ten minutes before I decided that I would not make a copy. I would go to the store that very day and buy it off the shelf. I'd beg my parents for the money if need be (didn't have to =). There was simply no way I could live with myself otherwise.
A game that gives me so much enjoyment; that constantly surprises at turns with the authors' wit, style, art, and code; that achieves a balance that I've rarely seen before or since. How dare I insult them by by ripping off their hard work? It makes so little sense that it's nauseating. It would be like meeting [insert celebrity: say, Carmack] and gushing about how you love their [whatever] and then mugging them in the alley when they leave. After all, they have plenty of money in the bank.
I have not stolen a piece of software since then. Even those who don't think piracy is "wrong" cannot escape the fact that it's usually crass, ungrateful, self-centered, and unattractive. Especially if you ended up enjoying or benefiting from the software.
Isn't it ironic that SC2 is now Free Software? Well, only somewhat. That the project exists shows the game's immense popularity -- yet sales were dismal. From Accolade's perspective, the product was not too successful. Paul and Fred leave Accolade, and the license gets farmed out to a second-class subcontractor... resulting in the abysmal Star Control 3.
---
Dum de dum.
Freedom is not the license to do what we like, it is the power to do what we ought.
Yay geek!
I might be a moron or something, but how does this compare to Master of Orion? (Please consider that MOO2 can he had for a mere $10...)
Why, in MY day, Star Control 3 was 10 megs. And that was FULLY installed!
Whippersnappers.
I think I remember playing this game in the early eighties. Maybe on the Apple ][ or something.
:/
Uh... was a fun game. Maybe next we'll get Flight of the Valkyrie released in source. Or Temple of Apshai?
Codifex Maximus ~ In search of... a shorter sig.
What I'd like to see in a space game is exploration like in Nomad, one of the most underrated space sims I've ever played. It was a little game released by GameTek back around when SC2 came out, and it was extremely good. Came on 4 floppies, ran on a 286, and had some quite high quality sampled voice in various spots (no music though). The most stunning feature overall, however, was the 3d - the entire game was realtime rendered, polygonal 3d. The planets were texturemapped spheres which you could orbit, and spacecraft flew around in 3d space. The combat engine was rather pathetic, but was still fun. You could purchase different types of worker 'bots' and send them down to the surfaces of planets to harvest materials. You also could get jobs from various planets to go rescue stranded captiains, help ships in battles, steal information from enemy planets using spybots, and tons of other stuff. It was gigantic. Something in the range of 1000 unique planets, ~16 races, and a gigantic nonlinear plot that I never managed to completely unravel. And best of all, it was fun. I still play it from time to time. One of the producers went on to make games like Subspace & Infantry and is now one of the executive producers for Sony's Everquest games.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
This was one of the best games ever, long have I kept my 3do around simply for this game. The graphics were fantastic 10 years ago, the sound was unrivaled, the dialog, and storyline are (in my opinion) still unmatched. This game was created when gaming seemed more pure... It's a breath of fresh air to get it out and play it once every so often ... how surface and cliche' the game appears - and how deep the rabbit hole actually goes.
This makes me happy, perhaps it will help to spur game makers out of the "wow, it's fast and cool... look at the graphics and sound... whee!" toddler phase - and perhaps put focus back on the story.
Then again...
Actually, about two years ago, I had a maddened craving for some SC2 action. My old disks were long gone, probably somewhere in my father's bin of obsolete computer stuff - and certainly not handy. So I poked around some on the Web.
I was thrilled to find that Accolade was actually actively still selling the game. They'd taken the whole thing, along with scanned versions of the docs, and packed it into one self-extracting ZIP. For $10 or $15, you could download the game (at 10 meg or so). It worked just fine, and my nostalgia trip was more than worth the money.
Their webpage seems sorta screwed up at the moment, and I don't feel like taking the time to research the details - but I loved the idea. It would be nice if more gaming companies would package older games into downloads and sell them over the Web. Their costs = 0, and they squeeze a few extra marginal profits out of the business. At our end, it becomes a lot easier to find vintage games.
Of course, this whole OSing (is that a verb) of the code rocks, and I'm thrilled to see the game perpetuated and potentially improved. Not that you could do much to make it better.
*happy campers we are*
FWIW, the map is here. Now I'm gonna spend all night on a 13 year old game...
Bleh!
It was in full 3D and you could have full 3D maneuvering during your battles! I love the ships design and weapons.
I was just looking up info on how to make this game work on XP last week...and I found out that the port turned into an open source project...great news!!! I love this game....From the Pkunk to the Druuge...damn..this is gonna bring back memories...
I know lots of you are wondering what Star Control is all about, if your still curious, download the game and check it out.
There's also a lot of details available here:
The Star Control 2 Site
Karma: Good Enough for a +2 Bonus It Seems (Moderators, stop me before I troll again!!!)
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
Did you read on toysforbob.com that they tried to sell the Ultron on eBay? I'm pissed I missed that auction. That could have really fixed my life.....
Do you inspect a roller coaster everytime you ride it?
...after the game was released free on a CD by some computer mag with a bunch of other games a few years ago. I snapped it up, of course. Interestingly, it was cracked to remove this. (Even using the star chart, I still screwed up sometimes.)
I love that game. The one thing about the game I didn't like was that it ended every time I played it. I wish the game were longer somehow.
But now it's coming back and probably better. That's a pretty cool Giftmas present if you ask me. Although I've already read there aren't to be any major improvements, I know there are people out there who cannot resist changing things. I think the most interesting thing that can be done would be to update or write a patch for a more adult version and of course update the graphics. They were awesome at the time but the time is now, not back then so I think a lot can be done.
Did I mention I hope there is an internet melee thingy added? I didn't? Well I meant to...
When you arrive at Earth and you see a mysterious ship heading towards you?
Man, I jumped so high when the Ur-Quan music blasted out from my speakers I swear I must've grown at least 6 inches that day!
my Amiga friends and I were hopeless SC2 addicts, many a star battle was fought. campaign was way too boring for us though, we just had to go instant action, all the way, all day long. I cannot remember all the weird stuff anymore, I recal a ufo with no intertia that a certain friend of mine could win ANY battle with (because he would fly in, fire 1 shot and teleport out - very very long boring battles but he could always win that way) yeah rockin' game. need more new games which act like old games. and with out 1000mhz machines they should run 200x smoother!!!! (pfft, but these new games run like smog)
I can't believe nobody has mentioned TimeWarp yet. From their website:
/. =P
* A fan created project that intends to create a science fiction war / exploration game based on the Star Control Universe.
* More specifically, the idea is to ignore the ravages of The Third One and create a worthy successor to Star Control 2.
* It currently sports a fully functional, 8-player melee engine with all the ships from Star Control 2,Star Control 3 and a slew of wholly original creations.
* The Melee game supports two-player games over the Internet or a LAN, with future plans to allow 8 or more players in a single game.
* It's also got Gob, a game of survival with custom ship upgrades.
* The full single-player game is in development.
* It will make you irresistible to members of the opposite sex.
I've tried it myself and coming from an old sc2 fan i'd say they're getting something. I'm sure they could use some help too. Hopefully they wouldn't mind the extra hits from
Unfortunately, the project was put on ice and never completed; the Accolade development studio was acquired by Infogrames and it gradually shut down over the following few years.
The project itself was quite ambitious and well received by many of the early previews. It was not being developed as a strategy game, though, so it could have sat oddly with some of the old fans. I think the game had a lot going for it, considering it was done by the same company and the designers of previous Star Control games.
In the end it became just another fatality of the games industry battleground.
Still, it's nice to see that the legacy of the series lives on. Long live Star Control!
Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant
rpm -i starcontrol-blah.fishcakes.rpm
a h.fishcakes.rpm
or better yet...
rpm -i ftp://ftp.sourceforge.net/pub/rpms/starcontrol-bl
anyone?
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I remember buing the 4 disc original. What most of you probably don't remember was that the firm who was developing SC2 "leaked" pirate copies to the BBS.
At some point of the game (not melee) these copies would constantly crash. Something that I believe was a good hit to the 0-day warez d00dz. However, after seeing the pirated copy briefly by my friend, I had to buy it!
The graphics were awesome and compared to SC1, the game had changed radically! It was now more of an adventure - more races, more battles and extremely cool music! I have tested atleast 3 programs that extracted the music from the game. Found some Finnish artist as well (Riku Nuottajärvi).
What this copy is missing is the starmap (original copy protection) where you can find the big suns (cool stuff always near the big suns). And some slashdotter should release the list of rainbow planets, I'm not searching all five I found again!
Oh! Sorry, Google knows everything!
Rainbow planets. 996.0 . 904.0 Groombridge 039.5 . 745.8 Beta Pegasi 766.6 . 866.6 Beta Leporis 468.1 . 091.6 Zeta Sextantis 602.0 . 297.9 Gamma Kepler 283.6 . 785.7 Epsilon Draconis 862.5 . 700.0 Alpha Andromedae 853.4 . 879.7 Gamma Aquarii 714.6 . 508.3 Gamma Reticuli 543.7 . 827.0 Epsilon Lipi Quasi space portals. Quasi Normal 530 . 528 775.2 . 890.6 502 . 460 318.3 . 490.6 476 . 496 409.0 . 774.8 488 . 538 973.5 . 315.3 516 . 466 567.3 . 120.7 448 . 504 565.7 . 971.2 468 . 464 921.0 . 610.4 520 . 514 011.1 . 940.4 492 . 492 005.0 . 164.7 476 . 496 611.1 . 414.3 520 . 540 584.4 . 621.3 544 . 532 036.8 . 633.2 506 . 474 190.9 . 092.6 Alien homeworld locations. 197.8 . 596.8 #1 Umgah 400.0 . 543.7 #1 ZoqFot 056.2 . 800.0 #7 WarpPod 052.2 . 052.5 Pkunk 277.6 . 867.3 Aqua Helix 253.5 . 835.8 Thraddash 074.5 . 835.8 Chenjesu 241.6 . 308.7 Spathi 290.8 . 026.9 Shofixti 422.1 . 198.6 Vux 412.5 . 377.0 Syreen 946.9 . 280.6 Druuge 650.0 . 937.2 Utwig Bomb 856.0 . 086.8 Utwig 571.5 . 253.7 Orz 372.1 . 261.9 Object 570.4 . 979.5 Vux Beast 022.9 . 366.6 Ilwrath 600.8 . 263.1 Deep Children 629.1 . 220.8 Juffo-Wup Beta Brahe Special PodHope nobody is going to Canada this time!
I go test if I can sell landers in this version, too..
--HarriI remember buing the 4 disc original. What most of you probably don't remember was that the firm who was developing SC2 "leaked" pirate copies to the BBS.
At some point of the game (not melee) these copies would constantly crash. Something that I believe was a good hit to the 0-day warez d00dz. However, after seeing the pirated copy briefly by my friend, I had to buy it!
The graphics were awesome and compared to SC1, the game had changed radically! It was now more of an adventure - more races, more battles and extremely cool music! I have tested atleast 3 programs that extracted the music from the game. Found some Finnish artist as well (RikuNuottajärvi).
What this copy is missing is the starmap (original copy protection) where you can find the big suns (cool stuff always near the big suns). And some slashdotter should release the list of rainbow planets, I'm not searching all five I found again!
Oh! Sorry, Google knows everything!
Rainbow planets.
996.0 . 904.0 Groombridge
039.5 . 745.8 Beta Pegasi
766.6 . 866.6 Beta Leporis
468.1 . 091.6 Zeta Sextantis
602.0 . 297.9 Gamma Kepler
283.6 . 785.7 Epsilon Draconis
862.5 . 700.0 Alpha Andromedae
853.4 . 879.7 Gamma Aquarii
714.6 . 508.3 Gamma Reticuli
543.7 . 827.0 Epsilon Lipi
Hope nobody is going to Canada this time!
I go test if I can sell landers in this version, too..
--HarriOh wow. I think I just sent emails to like 20 people filled with all caps about this. Wow.
Plus, the real beauty is that with it open-sourced, now the "Full Game" mode from the original can be added in! Yeah!
I just downloaded and installed the windows version. What the crap? The game comes with like 100000000 .png files. That's insane!! I proceeded to look at some of these png files to see what was up. Most of them are almost exactly the same. I'm sure that the original DOS version did not come with as many image files in order to display graphics. It had an algorithm which it followed and proceeded to use drawing commands to draw things on the screen. All these png files make this entirely too bloated.
At least it works.
Hey, if we got Starcon2 where's Starcon 1?
3 I have on CD, so you don't need to release that.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Does anyone remember the game Elite (followed by Frontier and Frontier First Encounters)? Now THAT was a space sim. It would be impossible to visit all of the worlds and, yet, it still fit on no more than a couple of disks for FFE. It was just one of those games with limitless options and no need to follow the storyline if you didn't want to.
I spent many a day trying to save up for the badass ships. The satisfaction of smuggling slaves without getting caught was just so...great.
They're all shareware now, by the way. You can find them at http://www.eliteclub.co.uk.
I won't comment on the game itself other than to say that it brought back some great memories of playing the original but they really need to pack these files. It took longer to install than it did to download.
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
Perhaps we shall make a call for old software to be released as Open Source/Free Software. This can give the authors and companys a boost.
All new postings and users since november 21 have been lost, but the Ur-Quan Masters Forum is online again. To prevent repetition, we've moved it to here , and we should have daily backups now.
Serge van den Boom
from the Ur-Quan Masters core team
At some arbitrary point in the past, Accolade put Star Control 1 and 2 on CD-ROM. They even disabled the copy protection so you didn't need to consult the starmap each time you wanted to start the game. IIRC the boxed set was $20, purchasable at local mall game stores. Also, the folks at "The Pages of Now & Forever" put together a Star Control 2 buying guide...
That reminds me... OT, but did anybody ever buy the Ultima I-VI compilation on CD-ROM? I wanted that so badly. Was it everything an avid Ultima player dreamed about?
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
I'll see your Morrowind and raise you Quake (the original, and still the best). RPGs are great fun, but for sheer time-wasting, prep'ing for a clan deathmatch on a Quake DM level could take a week just to sort out team tactics. An entire generation of students from a prominent UK university where I studied lost many early hours to that one. Some allegedly made the UK national team but failed their degrees... <sigh> :-)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Go to the Star Control Timewarp to see a group of people trying to make, from scratch, a worthy successor to Star Control 2. It currently has a working Melee game, and the full single player game is in the works.
Well, long after my map got destroyed, I could still start the game because I knew stars were at which coordinates from memory. Best game EVER. Are there any other exploration games that come anywhere near SC2?
do not read this line twice.
you'll be thrilled to note that this is actually port of the 3do-console version, with SPEECH, remixed musics & all. i've been lusting for after this baby for years.. as it's pretty damn hard to find 3do console+this game for sale around here i'm VEEERRY HAPPY.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Ah, now we know.
Kissing drives one to Star Control.
Can someone from the dev team please tell me why they decided to base the graphics on OpenGL? I really don't get it, what is it about SDL's 2d API that people don't like? I've seen a few other projects that use OpenGL just to draw sprites, and it really puzzles me.
In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.
Short answer: no, it was kind of a letdown; the main problem was that the compilation had to compete with my memories of my first run through those games.
At the time, I felt that if I played through the older Ultimas, maybe by the time I was done I would have enough hardware to play Ultima 9. I tried playing Ultimas 1-3, and couldn't force myself to get into any of the games, despite having gone through them in the past. Ultima IV was a little closer to the mark, but even then, I didn't feel like I was playing my way through an epic-- rather, I was just spinning my EGA wheels, and taking a lot of notes for no particular purpose. I didn't try Ultima V, having remembered how long that game took to finish!
I imagine Ultima VI would have been OK, but still would have appeared short. Even now, though, the call of Ultima VII is impressive, and I may yet replay it. That was one of the finest games (in four parts) to ever cross my path... you don't often find attention to detail on that scale in video games.
That same sense of "scale" is exactly what prevented Ultima IX from redeeming the Ultima series. While the attention to detail was there (just as it was in Ultima VIII, don't forget), the world itself was far, far too small, in all respects.
Now, if only someone would re-make Wasteland... it aches for the Fallout engine!
Anyone home? It's FIRST ALPHA RELEASE.
Stop whining and get the damn SDL-Mixer, then play the game. Will you? After that, show some respect for the authors instead of trolling us with trifles.
Thanks.
frungy frungy frungy!
Careful...The link exits through Mattel to a goatse.cx pic on someone's personal page. Dirty trick.
Don't forget to visit the discussion board and the channel 44 forums
I've been playing for the past 3 hours, and running only this my CPU(P3-500) has been at 95%.
Great info. Thanks for the reply!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
YOU is getting very tired.
Dear Emily:
I collected replies to an article I wrote, and now it's time to
summarize. What should I do?
-- Editor
Dear Editor:
Simply concatenate all the articles together into a big file and post
that. On USENET, this is known as a summary. It lets people read all the
replies without annoying newsreaders getting in the way. Do the same when
summarizing a vote.
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