The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Is the pc version or genesis version better?

And what about the 8-bit ports?

All the 16-bit SC1 versions look the same, more or less. The primary differences are in speed and sound.

Genesis SC1 is very slow, but has better sound effects (the same samples were also used in Amiga SC1 and SC2) than PC SC1 (beeper, Adlib or MT32 sound effects). PC SC1 "feels" like SC2 (same speed et.c.), but has horrible sound.

I'd like to confuse the issue by recommending the Amiga version instead (not as slow as on Genesis and has the best sound).

The 8-bit versions of SC1 are, to put it briefly, horrible. Gameplay is slow and feels nothing like the Star Control we know and love, the graphics are awful even by 8-bit standards (the Amstrad CPC version seems to be converted from the Spectrum version, which suffers from the limitations of the machine), almost half of the ships are missing (and the Mycon are on the Alliance, WTF?). Finally, the strategy section has a starmap based on a square grid that is even more confusing than the spinning map in the 16-bit versions.

Wait a minute, there was an amiga port of SC2?  So what were all the systems SC1 and SC2 on?

"Amiga SC1 and SC2" = "SC2 and Amiga SC1", not "Amiga [SC1 and SC2]". Actually, I've heard a few people insist that an Amiga SC2 exists, but I've never seen it or seen a reference on any reliable site to it.

One more question.  Why was the combat slow in the genesis version?  Was it bad porting or was it like the situation with the doom on snes and genesis, that it couldn't support it fully.

The story I've heard is that there wasn't enough time before the release date to optimise the Genesis version properly.