The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Someone probably already made a topic about this, but I'm too lazy to find and grave dig it.  Nonetheless, I would still like you to vote.  If you vote "other", tell me how you found it. thanks!  :)

From the Linux Game Tome (happypenguin.org), or a similar site - I don't recall exactly.

I had StarCon 2 back in the old DOS days.... actually, I still have the Disk for PC. My only regret is that I misplaced the original map that came with it with all the stars of interest indicated on it. I have yet to find a map on the net that was as simple and effective as the original.

Then a few years ago... I wanted to play Sc2 again, I even had it running on DOS Box before UQM showed up. But with the speech packs and 3DO videos, UQM caught my interest more than the original.

You mean this (http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=79428&d=1184369991)?

I played Star Control 2 first, and those times (sorry for the cliché expression) I searched Google for "star control 2 fansite." This site wasn't there yet, but, what did I find, when I returned years later? UQM.

I don't remember-it was a long time ago.

What I do remember was that UQM 0.4.0 was the latest version at the time, and that I may have heard of the project earlier, but shied away because I thought that, being a remake, it would have significantly altered some of the game mechanics, graphics, etc. like other remakes do.

Well, I gave it a shot, and soon I was kicking myself for never playing this game earlier. It soon managed to edge out the likes of Magic Carpet 2, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex as my personal greatest game of all time, and that is no small feat.

Sure enough, I had embraced everything about the game and became yet another member of the fanbase, plotting to do things like take over the world with Fwiffo plushies(which I still need to do), ravage everyone's eyes with glowy bits, make emo people wear masks and robes, and other sorts of crazy things.

I found UQM through a combination of random events. I first found Starcon-sort-of3 and thought it was amusing enough to look for the prequels. I couldn't find them any where [except for dos-based versions which I don't plan on messing with] until I found UQM, which I found through the Ultranomicon. When I first played SC2, I was amazed at how much better it was than its supposed sequel.

Oh, and about plush Fwiffos, I think an Ur-Quan beanie baby would be really funny. A children's show featuring an Orz and an Umgah would be even funnier, especially if the Orz would stomp around in its combat suit every other episode. Then there could be an Orz action figure.
As you can see, I could go on about this stuff forever.

no... the original on paper had all the sites of interest marked differently. normal stars were just circles, stars that had interest in it (like artifacts, rainbow worlds or home worlds) had lines around the circle like a sun. The map was only black and white.

Came in handy to look at while in-game... It was the size of a poster.

Oh, so I guess the other one is 3DO's or something. I'm not much of a Star Control historian... :P

Wait, it showed where the rainbow worlds were? I thought that was meant to be secret. :o

That's not the original map, that's the "Deluxe Map of HyperSpace", included with the hint book and Star Control Collection. In any case, the PoNaF SC2 files section (http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/files/sc2.shtml) has what you need and more.

Heh, I don't see an option of "I migrated from the Pages of Now and Forever."

I wonder what the percentage of curmodgons to youngins would look like, curmodgon defined as someone who played SC1, SC2, hated SC3, congrigated on the PoNaF and got excited at the announcement that the code had been released.

I still have my old (now corrupted) bunch of disks for SC2 lying around. Back when I was in high school, there was a group of us who were totally hooked on the game. Sadly, my disks (as well as Windows' ability to run them correctly) conked out around 2001 or so, and since then I had been fruitlessly trying to get the game to run again until a friend told me about Abandonia. The blurb about SC2 there linked to this site, and I came to check out UQM for the first time mere days after v0.4 was released (which was the first version, as I understand, that was playable from start to finish; a happy coincidence, to be sure).

Why didn't I search the net for SC2 earlier? An excellent question, and one that I can't think of a satisfactory answer for.

SC2 was actually the first Starcon game that I actually played. It inspired my friends and I to try to hunt down a copy of the original, which we also played for a bit. While I had a great deal of appreciation for the additional backstory presented in the SC1 manual, I really didn't care for the actual game all that much. Of course, a few years later I played SCn3 from start to finish, and came away pretty underwhelmed, but that seems to be pretty universal for those who played SC2 first.

It's worth mentioning that even now, 15 years later, SC2 remains situated in my Top 20 games, if not Top 10. If only more games got it right in the way that SC2 did.

I guess that's what it was... but I didn't get the hint book, only the map. I still have the cd, might even have the Star Control Collection box somewheres, I'd have to look around for it.

I was fairly young when my brother introduced me to the game.  I played SC2, and I tried to play SC1 but couldn't figure out the rotating starmap.

I actually still have SC1 in a box somewhere.  I should play it.

I used to play SC2 back when it ame out. A few years back I was experimenting
with DOS emulation (DOSbox, DOSemi) and went looking for a copy
of SC2 on-line. I stumbled across the UQM website and was thrilled.

I found StarControl for the Sega Genisis and after Buying a Genisis just for StarControl i was hooked from day one, in fact i used to have to hide my game from friends visiting or that is ALL we would do and nothing would get done.

StarControl 2 was a God Send when it came out, then the 3DO version.

StarControl 3 was ok but sucked play factor wise, the story is what makes it incredible and playable.

Oh I have to share my story here, embellished beyond reason. (Hello again everyone by the way).

My SC exposure was through the original games.

I was introduced to Star Control I by a friend many years ago. I had the good fortune of spending maybe 2 years playing that game ad nauseum before SC2 came out. I thought SC1 was awesome at the time and got a lot of pleasure from the strategy game. The best thing about SC1 was that it hinted at a sumptuous back story.

Anyway so fast forward to 1993 and traveling back from Europe through Singapore I saw, at Changi Airport, a game called STAR CONTROL II. Yikes! I had to have it. So with my parents' credit card I paid the $35 (cheap! in NZ games cost $100).

Oooh I had the torment of 9 hours on the plane back to NZ with the manual. I must have read it 5 times.

So I arrived home and quickly found that I needed a starmap to play this blasted game. There was NO starmap. So I had to write to Accolade to send me one - and they did! BUT, when the rest of my family arrived back from Europe, it turned out that my brother had also purchased Sc2 at Changi Airport! So we had a starmap.

In any case, before that had happened there was a hint in the manual which let me get into the game without the starmap. "Virginis" (I think). So I started the game about 300 times until the code worked for me.

Okay so that doesn't really answer the question.

As for UQM, I didn't find it till much later - maybe 0.5.0. So I had a horrible 12 years or so punctuated by the frustrating SC3. I went to the effort of resusitating an old 486 just to play the game. My girlfriend was not impressed by the extra hunk of junk taking up space in the bedroom. Too bad!

So luckily, after a random internet search, I stumbled across UQM. Was able to lose the 486 and have been happy ever since.

So I guess the last sentence was all you needed...

So UQM saved your relationship. :P
That's one we haven't heard before. :)

Hmmmm she's still not happy about the UQM time.  "You run tournaments now? Oh jeez"
God help her if a sequel ever comes out

Did she ever play the game herself? If not, why not?

She had a crack at SC2 on the 486. She got quite far into it but eventually the kohr-ah just caught up with her. She was so exasperated by the unseemly end that she gave up and won't try it again. And, I think she found it a bit slow at times and found the screeds of text ponderous. I think it must be said that it is very much a boys' game.

LoL  ;D

I can imagine the bickering and nagging this must have caused. Hey, a guy’s gotta put his foot down once in a while, and SC2 is as good a reason as any!