The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Then if I do say so myself, you are in for one HELL of a treat! The 3DO version is the first version I played, then I went back to the DOS version - and well yuk.. lol
It was not the same thing. You people who never played the 3DO version, and are worried if it 'butchers' the game, have NOTHING to worry about! Everything done in the 3DO game is true to the series, and just enhances the hell out of the game :)
 I still have the CD right here if you need some proof, just come on over to my house lol ( sadly the battery back up in the 3DO is shot though.. that's why I am looking for this new version ;0 )

Indeed.  Many people have expressed doubts about the 3DO version, but I also think it to be superior and it should prove everyone wrong when the port is perfect.

Also, about your dead 3DO battery, it should be fairly replaceable.  Open up your 3DO unit with a screwdriver (be careful) and look for the NVRAM backup battery, see if you can pop it out, and get the model number of it.  Then see where you can buy it, and replace it.  Hopefully it will work out fine.   I have 2 nearly-10-year-old 3DO FZ-1s and both of their batteries still work.

I much prefer the 3DO version too, it adds so much to an already great game.  I also have an original 3DO, and the battery is still fine in mine too.

I wonder why my battery died 8( I bought the first version of the 3DO, it cost me 700 bucks.. lol

It was worth it when Star Control 2 was released though :)

A friend of mine bought it at that, and gave it to me as a Christmas present 2 years later.  Maybe you just got a bad battery with it?

I have no clue, I have SNES carts from 1992 that still save data, but the 3DO refuses to keep a charge lol
 I *did* manage to beat the game again, because I was showing it off to my friends but it took 12 hours to do, I wanted to show them everything, not hit the rainbow planets right away and destroy the game LOL

Hey..there is a suggestion... how about moving the locations of the Rainbow planets.. it would give old players a reason to explore again! :)

I'm looking forward to trying out the 3DO version of the game

No need to move the rainbow planets. I haven't played this game in so long that i don't remember where they are....

I actually have no idea what the differences between the two versions are.  Could someone clue me in a bit, or give me a link to somewhere that might explain it?  I always assumed the 3DO version was beefed up in some way, but never found out.

As far as I can remember, the biggest difference is in the music quality, and the fact that everyone has a voice.  Every race has it's own distinct, and (in my opinion), very fitting voice.  Basically the 3DO is better overall.

You can find my description of the main differences here: http://uqm.stack.nl/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Gendiscuss;action=display;num=1036626380

There are some smaller differences between the two games such as different Outfit and Shipyard screens, different menus etc.

I believe the 3DO version also has better looking graphics. I tried the PC(DOS) version, for a minute. My thought was yuk! This looks terrible compared to the version I've played on my 3DO! I thought the PC version looked considerably more pixilated. I'm assuming the graphics in this port will look like the graphics in the 3DO version since that is what they are mostly porting the game from. I sure hope so anyway. If so, I think anyone who has not ever played or seen the 3DO version is in for a real treat from the graphics improvement too!

Ahhh, ok. I just read on another thread that OpenGL is going to be an 'optional' way you can use to render the game. It contains a couple techniques that will make the game appear less pixilated. Great news!

Thanks for the info.

I've gotta smack myself for not using the Search first now, though.  :P

I've only ever played the 3DO version of SC2, though I've attempted to play the DOS version on my PC...  Always shuts down after I answer the questions right!  I HATE that feature!  Why did they do that with DOS games?

Anyway, I still have to say that the Starbase graphic is STILL one of the prettiest graphics I've ever seen in a game.

I also played this wonderful game on the 3DO many years ago, and man, I still can't believe that it is actually gonna be available again!!!!  This is one of the greatest games of all time, as I am sure we all agree  ;D  

I wish I had some computer skills besides the ability to play games, lol, so I will wait patiently for this to be available for the masses and then I will lock myself in a room for as long as it takes to play through this treasure again.

Thanks a zillion for making this available again.

I came within inches of spending almost a hundred dollars to buy a 3DO on EBay.  The reason ?  You guessed it : To play SC2 and hear the cool voices of the characters.  Thankfully, announcement of this project reached me in time and I just began hawking classicgaming.com waiting for more news :-)


PS - Mika, all you other developers : for what it's worth, I'm behind you on the "just-get-it-working" mindset.  Just that you've all put it to common filetypes insures there will be significant additions to the game.

Edit: Bah, this was already discussed.

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OK, I guess I'm going against the stream here, but will there be an option to switch the voices off and just play the game with subtitled dialogues? I have a pretty rough idea about how video game voice acting was around the 90's, and I don't want to hear it if it sucks. Notice that I said IF. I haven't heard it yet.

Also, you read dialogue about 10 times faster than any organic being can say it aloud, and you can skim a text in a few seconds to determine its content, and then read the details at your leisure. This makes for a more relaxed playing environment, as you don't have to listen closely for relevant information all the time.

So, dev guys, please make the removal of subtitles and playback of voiceovers an option, if it's possible. :D

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And don't settle for generic fonts - the races had their unique text fonts in the PC version, see if you can preserve them?

Not much to really add, but I definitely did drop a few bucks on a 3DO to only play Star Control 2.  I think its definitely better than the PC version... though the original's music will remain forever the better because it came first.

The 3DO version would have been hands down the definitive version IMHO if they hadn't forgotten and left out the "outtakes" from the end of the PC version.    :-/

They are preserved, don't worry.

Take a look at the screenshots: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

Don't worry - this is not 'cheezy' mid-90's voice acting, this stuff is good and fits the game perfect!

I think options are best though, some want the voices, which I feel add so so much to the game, because each voice sounds different, not just looks different with text fonts..you can hear and 'feel' the evasive nature of the Arilou, you can feel the bitter Yehat... you can feel the pain of the starbase commander as he explains to you how it felt to look up at the blood red slave shield.. :)
Oh and erhm... the sex scene is classic with the voice LMAO

And then some want text, so I think there should be the option to play it in non-enhanced mode for the old skool players !:)

So um options good , forcing people to play one way = bad

:P

The voice acting is definately good for a game.  I think the original 3DO version go an award for that or something...  I know it made it get good ratings anyway.

It's a GREAT version.

I also think randomizing Rainbow Worlds (and the quantity/locations/environments of all other Worlds/Stars) would put a bit of replayability into the game. Not a lot, but definitely some. For me, a lot of the original satisfaction of the game (beyond meeting races and gathering hints about what to do/where to go, which really can't be randomized) was exploring worlds for mineral content. It takes a lot of the satisfaction out of starting a new game if you already know precisely where to go to gather all your Melnorme Trading Credits and Exotic minerals.

Adding randomness to the locations of the Rainbow worlds might work, but then you wouldn't have that neat-looking arrow that points towards Groombridge and the centre of the galaxy.

Wow, look at all the old posters in this topic... one of them even has my patented Fot as their pic.  Oh wait, that was a pun.  Hehe...  Fot as their Pik?  Hehe...   ;D

Hey, which reminds me...  I've always called the one in the back the Pik.  But now wherever I go, people seem to call it the Fot, because of the argument the two in the front have about which one is the Fot.  Did Paul or Fred ever confirm which of them was the Fot?  This would simplify things alot.

It's in the source:

src/sc2code/comm/zoqfot/zoqfotc.c

That reads from left to right.

If they added a optional 'randomize planet/star stats? (y/n)' feature to the game, and suggested that only folks who've already won the game use this feature, I'm pretty sure that'd already take into consideration that the setup of the galaxy isn't how it was pre-plotted according to the story.

But again, they'd still have to keep the location of Artifact Worlds and Alien Home Worlds consistent, to match the spoken dialogue.

Speaking of the Zoq-Fot-Pik, I'd always wondered about the Zoq. (The green female one on the left.) She looks somewhat plantlike, I wonder if that's intentional, (as in, she's a plant-based life form!). I suppose she could also be some sort of beak-less duck-like creature as well, if you look at her body differently. Kinda like one of those bunny/duck optical illusions.

I seem to recall that she threatens to blow spores at some stage, so that definetly puts her in some sort of plant category. Of course, she could be a vegetabilic duck.

Omni, I imagine people will be saying the same things about us someday : "Look at those oold people who used to post here before UQM 2 came out... That Omni-Asmana and the rest of them, same pictures as us, but whatever happened to them?"

Technically, if Ur-Quan influence extends as far as Sol (on account of their slave shielding)... shouldn't Sol be inside their acutal sphere of influence?  I guess not... as they consolidated their fleet in the war against the Kohr-ah.

A Hard difficulty setting for the game could place Sol closer (or inside) another race's sphere of influence.

whatever

Either way, it opens up the possibility for cordial relations between the Zoq and Supox.
*envisions a crisis as the Zoq migrate to Supox space and the former-Zoq-Fot-Pik become the Fot-Pik and their entire civilization starts to come apart at the seams without the Zoq to balance out the triad, and a side-quest for Zelnick to solve this problem*

Cordial relations? Well, what do you mean by cordial? I think the Supox and the Humans get along pretty well, as to the Humans and Zoq... unless you mean, say, cross-pollenating.

Hard difficulty! That's brilliant! But wouldn't defending the star base from Ilwrath Avengers regularly become kind of tiresome? Maybe you should be able to station up to 12 ships which fight as awesome AI at the base to protect it while you're gone from occaisional Ilwrath, Slylandro, and possibly other things.