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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!"
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 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."
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.
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 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.
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.
Wow, a 12 year old game made it to Linux?! Sweet, maybe soon we'll be able to play Pong!
Kidding of course, I remember playing this at my psycho neighbor's house and it really is a fun game. We set the video output to a heavy metal soundtrack and recorded it on VCR to make our own Star Control rock videos... does that qualify for some sort of geek-wannabe award?
-FF
SQUEAK, the Death of Rats explained.
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!
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!
It's a completely different style of game. SC2 is a 2D Space/Adventure game where you have to solve a puzzle.
The graphics are not all that if compared to today's graphics, but the Aliens (yes, you have to interact with all kinds of whacked up aliens) are incredibly fun. I remember laughing out really hard in the middle of the night playing this game.
It's hard to describe. You got to play to understand.
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!
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.
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
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?
Must not forget Master of Orion (Microprose) and X-COM: UFO Defense (Microprose). Might as well throw in the whole Wing Commander series, too (WC1 & WC2 + their expansions, Privateer, Academy and Armada... leave WC3+ alone).
MOO, MOM, and X-COM are among my favourite games of all time... I still play all of them on a regular basis.
It didn't "emulate" a 3do, it was a 3do..
3do was founded by trip hawkins (of EA fame) as a company that would liscense out the hardware to whoever wanted to manufacture it. Essentially it would have eliminated the number one geek gripe about consoles - proprietary hardware. The system was to be "open", as far as development was concerned.
Panasonic, Goldstar, Creative Labs took up the challenge (there were others too), but not seeing any of the software liscencing pie, wound up charging upwards of 800$ for the earliest units. By the time they came down in price, it was all over.
Of course, it wasnt to be merely a gaming console, either, but the elusive "convergence" device. Video CD, Audio CD+G, PhotoCD, etc.. VideoCDs utter failure in north america also contributed to its death.
There were other neat design features that frankly didn't work. Like daisychained controllers. Player 2s pad plugged into Player 1s. Thing is, if Player 2 was winning, Player 1 could easily unplug him..
Still, it has its place in history. It was the first console solely based on CD, and it did have more than 3 good titles.
A lot more, if you count vivid videos 3DO porn line-up.
I still fire mine up from time to time to play the most accurate arcade translation of Street Fighter II, Samurai Shodown. If not for the pricing, it really could have had the position the PSX eventually took.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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.
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
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
Star Control 1 was a basic, but cool space fighting game, which had asteroids-style action and some over-complicated strategy/planning phases. Star Control 3 was also a good game, carrying on the StarCon2 tradition of a vast universe with diverse, interesting, and well scripted characters. I prefer StarCon2 to 3, however. The third in the series focused too much on animation and too little on gameplay.
Anyway, it's a fantastic series, and I'm glad to hear that the best of the bunch still hasn't been forgotten.
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 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.
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 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...
FWIW, the map is here. Now I'm gonna spend all night on a 13 year old game...
Bleh!
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...
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 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.
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.
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.
If anyone reads this could you spare a mod point?
The development team didn't want this announced yet because there are still some major bugs/omissions in the alpha. The intro animations are not there yet, the game is a bit unstable (especially during dialog which has lots of colour/pallete action eg. starbase when power is low at the beginning, sylandro homeworld), the collision detection is only implemented as bounding box at the moment which has some nasty sideeffects (one of which makes it impossible to win the final battle unless you play as "cyborg").
Having said this I've played it through to the end again, so it's definately possible. Just save often.
Also, if there are any new potential players out there, this game takes major time to complete and is a huge challenge compared to many games. I'd imagine it would be almost impossible to get anywhere without any background/instructions, so I suggest you CHEAT. Yes, search the net, find a walkthrough... this game will not leave you feeling empty as it will be challenging enough to complete even if you know what you're supposed to be doing. The walkthroughs will probably seem cryptic anyway until you discover the intricacies of the story along the way. Playing it through again I shamelessly downloaded cheats and maps because although I love the game it would simply take too long to rediscover, and I don't have the time.
For potential new players I stress again : If you don't mind a challenge and enjoy humour in what you play this game is worth it...
Great info. Thanks for the reply!
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