The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Hello, figued I'd introduce myself to the community... Hello :D

I just bought guild wars, oblivion, and battlefield 2... they have all been uninstalled and shelved since I found the masters of ur-quan (I barely even played oblivion for more than a couple hours!)...   I have wasted 200$ on all these new games since all I play now is masters :D

It's bringing back so many memories playing this when I was about 10 years old, and it's still just as fun as it always was!

Just wanted to send my thanks to the team for making this awesome game available, and for free! I would have much rather paid 200$ for this game than the other 3 I mentioned before...

I'm so glad I found out about this port... it has rekindled my passion that I'd thought I'd lost for gaming..

Yeah, this is definately one of my top 5 all time games myself (prob #1).

BTW, how is Oblivion?..I've been thinking of picking that up myself.

it's really cool, but unfortunately has been shelved since I only have time for 1 game :D

I may re-start playing again in 6 months/1 year after I beat masters a few times :D

I got all hopefull until I read...

Dang it. Is it possible for someone who didn't play this game back in the day to enjoy it now? Or are we all just a bunch of old gamers reliving the past.

well I've been playing a ton of old games from when I was younger,...


the only ones to hold my attention for more than 10 mins are this and chrono trigger.... So I'd say once you get used to the resource gathering method it will be fun for anyone....

The best games cost less then a dollar  ;D

Well, I only played SC1 which I got on a CD with bunch of old Sega games and I WAS STUNNED with how great that game was. Then, when I was surfing on abandonia site couple a years ago, I found SC2 and though "Well, it must be a great game if it is anything like SC1". And, it is a great game. Anyway, I joined the sites forum and found out about this, so downloaded the game and didn't regret it. I must thank to all that made this game and recreated it and hope that this is not the end of SC saga. Thank you  ;).

Oblivion ROCKS!!!

TES is the only game in the world whose music consistently comes close to precursors in quality. Jeremy S is truly one of the great authors, for truly the greatest (IMO) series of games ever made.

Funny, since I don't consider Jeremy Soule a great musician myself. He ran out of steam pretty early in his game music career, and all his stuff these days sounds uninspired in comparison.

There's no doubt he's got great skills and musical equipment, but it seems he's making so much music these days that he's forgetting the love and attention that every piece of music he composes needs. Oblivion's music sounds great initially, until you start notice the flaws, and then the whole thing comes tumbling down. Compare it with his Icewind Dale soundtrack, which was one of his last great soundtracks, and you can see how far he has fallen.

I have a personal policy of hardly ever paying more than $20 for any game. With the risk of running this off topic I'll add that it dispoints me that a movie which can entertain a crowd at a time (albiet for about 2 hrs at a time) starts out costing <$20 but a video game which entertains one person at a time (multiplayer aside) costs >$50 to start with. It's like the value for a new video game is just not there comparitavly. But oh, how I love them.

Surely you play games (on average) more than 5 hours each? Counting hours of fun/buck, I'd say the games win hands down.

Are you remembering to calculate in cost per hours per person including re-views. How many times have I seen Princess Bride? How many times has your little sister seen Little Mermaid? How many times have we sat around in a group (multplying the value) watching Holy Grail or Napolean Dynamite? Check your math, buddy. New video games at $50+ have a hard time competing in that arena.

It's kind of a moot argument.  Movies are, by default, going to sell much, much more than most videogames.

As time progresses and gaming becomes more "in" this is changing.  But movies are still a much bigger industry.  Keep in mind, too, that nearly all movies went through a theatrical screening FIRST.  Movies have made half of their money before they even come out on DVD.

Direct sale is all games have, and unlike movies that continue to sell long after their release, most games slip into comparative obscurity once the technology surpasses them.

I'm willing to bet that many more people are still purchasing copies of the Princess Bride than people who bought the Star Control 2 repacks...

And on top of that, many movies have entire marketing campaigns built around them, from soundtracks to comicbooks to happy meal toys.  Again, games tend to stand alone and have to make all their money in one, very specific, place.

All that aside, even with multiple reviewing with friends, I'm willing to bet the 40 bucks I spent on Xenogears (80 hours of gameplay) went a lot farther than, say, any one favorite film of mine.

Oh, and you forget, we can replay games, too.  That's not a feature exclusive to the movies.  Kind of a hard point to miss considering 90% of the people here are just replaying SC2 again and again. ^_~  Oh, and did we forget that these games are often also MULTIPLAYER?  How many extra hours have we eeked out of games like Streetfighter and Smash Brothers simply beating our friends around?  Doesn't this make games equivalent to movies in nearly all "calculate hour value" respects? ^_^

My views are, in this case, based on personal experience and will probably not reflect your social life. You may have a point with the Little Mermaid, though, guesst. :) Still, I'd maintain that even at 15 person-hours (my estimate) and a cost of $15, it's a dollar an hour, and that's pretty much the best case. In my adult life, I don't think I've watched a single movie more than twice. Most of the $50 games I have I've spent more than 50 hours on, although there are exceptions (Z springs to mind, but that's still about 20 hours; making it $2.5/h worst case). However, the multiple-user bit works both ways; e.g. Curse of Monkey Island has been played through over and over by my sister and her friends, too. I'd say your relative values may be skewed if you watch movies in groups but don't play games in groups or lend them.

However, the most noticeable difference is that, in both the cases of games and movies, there are some that you just keep coming back to over and over again (I have no idea how to estimate the amount of time I've used playing SC2/UQM, let alone the time used on related activities, but it's huge). Others you look at once and forget.

Also, the price varies a lot; UQM, for example, is great VFM at its current price. :D Of course, you can get movies for free, too, on TV.

The individual differences overshadow the differences between movies and games, making a comparison pretty meaningless. Differences in social dynamics make it impossible to generalise from one group to another.

I have played many GOOD video games that costed below 10$. Deus Ex, Sid meier games, Fallout tactics, Hitman 47, starcraft etc. Oh if you want NEW games then that's another thing. But new games aren't always the best. Thus if you would want good games that aren't new they would cost less then a movie and honestly I like games more then movies. Like  movies, games can be replayed.

That's how I got most of my games. See a good game, almost get a heart attack from the price, wait a few months/years and forget all about it, then find it in a bargain bin, buy it cheap. There is only a few games on my shelf that I paid full price for, and the rest I found in bargain bins. Same goes with DVDs btw...

I played SC1 (Amiga) at a friend's place back in the day, but didn't 'get it'. I had forgot all about it until I came across some thread on a forum saying StarControl 2 was the best game ever. The name didn't ring a bell at all, I googled around and found PoNaF, then UQM.
I'm not that interested in the game itself though, I just wanted something to redesign so read all guides and material I could find, then I just ran through the game. Breaking the time limit would've made me very frustrated, I much prefer games without much sequences (that you can't write meaningful walkthroughs for).
What I enjoy about SC2 is the universe description, so I don't think I ruined it for myself by 'cheating'. In a similar way I find the starwars universe interesting and don't care much about Luke's journey. Luke to me is just a guide of sorts... a method to present the universe.

I agree with you, movies have a much better way to finance themselves. Very few games had a chance at merchandises ...

But it's weird how even average games cost more than cinema tickets... :(
And I feel cinema tickets are overpriced.

Also: I just unpacked some old boxes and found at least three repacks of SC2 (one of them as part of the "oh so loved" SC3)
And I never bought a copy of "Princess Bride". By the name I'd guess it's a chick flick, but I've not heard of it before.

*snort*

Okay, looked it up and read the IMDB entries (English and my mother tongue).
Nope, I do not know the film, and I've never heard of it before...
But then I've only been 9 when it went to the cinema, and likely 11 when it aired on TV. At that time fantasy was not my interest (and still is only marginally)....

So, unlucky example... :)

From 8 years in the future:
I played Star Control 2 super-melee at my cousin's and blasted through the Star Control 3 single player campaign.  But I never tried the SC2 single player campaign before now.  Does that count?   ;D

Great Scot! That was heavy!

I hadn't heart about it at all until I found it looking for games in the Ubuntu repository around 2007. It seemed appealing right away because of the large world and open game play..