The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Can I download it anywhere semi-legally, or is some big corporation who don't even know what they own still clinging onto their wallet for dear life?

Short answer: maybe.

Long answer: Depending on where you are, downloading a copyrighted work without the copyright holder's permission may be allowed, even though the act of distributing this work is illegal. Atari (who apparently has the copyright) doesn't seem to be making much of a noise about high-profile abandonware and emulation sites distributing SC1. Check the laws in your country and use your favourite search engine.

So is this one of those things where you know where it's possible to download, but you can't tell me? :p

Any idea how big the file would be?

Forum rules (and possibly copyright law; I am not a lawyer, so I'm not sure) prevent me from posting links to copyrighted works that are being distributed without the copyright holder's permission ("pirated"). However, I can tell you that Star Control 1 is only 600 kB or so (depending on compression).

In the long run, learning to use Google (http://www.google.com/) effectively would help you a lot.

Yes... I - think - I - will - learn - to - use - Google.

Btw, I heard the PC version isn't actually as good as the Genesis/Megadrive version (which I played). D'you know if that's true?

I remember noticing that the combat seemed to be twice as fast in SC2, which threw me a bit - I had enough trouble beating the computer in the first one!

The Genesis version is quite slow; SC2 runs at the same speed as PC SC1.

SC1 is available in a lot of different versions:

• Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum: These three versions are all heavily cut down from the original, have horrible graphics, sluggish and most un-Star-Controllish combat and a 2D grid-based starmap that makes even less sense than the rotating 3D one. Recommended only for historical research.
• DOS: Fastest version (on a 286 or up), good graphics (on VGA), decent music (on Adlib or MT32) and horrible sound effects.
• Amiga: Slightly slower than DOS version, good graphics, music and sound effects.
• Genesis: Slowest of the 16-bit versions, but still playable. Good graphics, music and sound effects.

Personally, I'm more familiar with the PC version, but the Amiga version is kind of nice. The graphics seem to be the same on DOS, Amiga and Genesis, although I suspect the Amiga version may have less colours in some cases (it looks pretty much the same to me). SC2 seems to use the Amiga/Genesis SC1 sound effects and victory ditties (and recycles the Amiga intro as the Ur-Quan theme!) and the PC graphics (with some minor modifications).

MobyGames has a lot of info about SC1 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/star-control).