The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Are 1 and 3 comparable to 2?

Also, can you only get 1 and 3 on teh compujter?

1 and 3 are computer only, as far as I know.

I really liked one, though it is a very different game from SC2.  It's a war-strategy game, with the same tactical system as SC2, and it covers the Hierarchy War (the war that everyone talks about in the game).  Neat game, I wasted hours on it.  Any chance of a SC1 remake, you guys? ;)    

SC3 is not nearly as good as SC2 (though I still think it was a better then average game).  Basically, they listened mainly to the fans that didn't like flying around in Hyperspace or Resource gathering, and so you left without much to do other than fight and talk.  There is now some research and colony mangement, but they don't add much to the game.  Getting fuel is a pain (rather then buying it, you have to wait for it to accumulate).  Also, a lot of the story additions are either not well thought out or are truely wierd.  Some of the new races are good, I think,  and the puppet-work was decent.  I actually played this game first and then played SC2 (I got the collecters edition with all 3), and then 1!

Any, those are my opinions
-Will

I believe SC1 is also for the Sega Genesis, although that version is different.
I should try getting it, there's a place near to me where they have a few copies for $10 or so.

The thing that I remember about the Sega Genesis version was that the sound was AWESOME.  I played that version before any other Star Control game, and it ruined them for me -- the Adlib sound support in SC1 was embarrassing by comparison (no offense intended, TFB guys) and the MOD format only supports samples of around 8kHz, so none of the melee ditties in SC2 have the really thunderous bass that I remember from the Genesis version.

Then again, memory is a funny thing; I could be completely wrong.  Nonetheless, I always thought it would be cool to "beef up" the ditties and make them sound worthy of modern audio hardware, but it is beyond my meager capabilities.  Maybe I can rope one of my musician friends into reproducing them from scratch with higher fidelity.

I'm still trying to find places that sell the collector's edition with all 3 in it, oh well more searching over the net. Wheeee!!!

SC1 and 3 are both fun games in their own way, but they're not as great as 2. Still, they're definately worth playing.

I played SC1 on a Genesis emulator... I agree that it's definately louder, but it's not better. I never liked the sound on Genesis games much at all really. It never sounded as good as the PC or SNES.

The Genesis emulators don't translate all the sound correctly sometimes, though they do a really good job.

:rant: I just found Starcon Collection and 3 being sold all together and got outbid by a freak who wants to pay US41.00 for the whole thing, damnit all. :rant:

SC1 for the Genesis is pretty good as far as simple strategy games go. It isn't the holy grail of simple strategy games but it comes close. The spinning star map is too clunky, for one thing.

Star Control 3, for those of you who don't know (which isn't many, I imagine--it's a topic of much debate), was not produced by the creators of the first two games, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III.  Accolade latched onto the success of the Star Control franchise without really knowing what to do with it, and were trying to phase those two out of the equation, so that they wouldn't have to pay them royalties anymore.  SC3 was created by Legend Entertainment, a group of Star Control fans who happened to be the highest bidder.  Think of it like a fan-created sequel.  It doesn't hold up to the standard that the other two games set, but it's interesting to see how they answer the questions posed in the other games.  It's generally accepted that the way the story goes in SC3 is NOT how the creators intended, so it's treated more like a fan fiction than a sequel.

At least, some people treat it that way.  Others treat it like a travesty, but I think it was quite a good game--even if it doesn't live up to the others.

If you like SC2, I think you owe it to yourself to try SC1.  Besides the melee battles, its a different game, but I still enjoy it a lot.  Besides the Genesis Melee being slower than the PC version, the Genesis version is the better one.  Comes with extra scenarios to play too.

SC1 came out on the PC, Genesis (with expanded full game senarios), commodore 64 (with the mycon on the alliance) and something else. Go to www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol for more information.
I've been trying to get my old copy of SC1 to run in windows, but if I run it straight it runs at like 3000x speed, and if I use dosBox it runs a 1/4x speed (spartan mode). Is there a way to fix it?

What version of DOSBox are you using?  I found that the latest version works very well with SC1... though it does seem to emulate it at the "average" speed of computers back then as opposed to the best possible speed for the game.  Then again, maybe I'm just used to SC2's speed...

If the mycon were with the alliance, then who did the hierarchy get?

The one thing that bugged me about SC1 was that when you found precursor upgrades they just went on the ship. So you could get, say, a battery regeneration upgrade on a Shofixti, or even worse, an Umgah (regerates whole battery at once even without the upgrade). Why wouldn't you let me bring the this upgrade over to my Terminator so I can shield for as long as I want?
Just seems silly, though it does simplify play (you don't end up shuttling upgrades around - you just use them).

And i preffered it that way, death_999
I would have hated it, if my friend would have come down with his evershielded Terminator. Thus none had a choice.

And only this way neverending battles could have been avoided because both sides made their ships perfect).

CU!

I meant it didn't make sense. I didn't mean that the game would be better.
However, some upgrades would not be so unbalancing. And if they were implemented right, even the energy upgrade on a Terminator wouldn't be too killer (e.g. by diminishing returns, so you would actually be better off putting it on, say, an X-form or even a Cruiser, which don't have so much power to begin with)

Actually, in SC1 for the Commodore 64, there were actually fewer ships on each side, so they kept the sides equal just by cutting ships out.  I can't remember which ones were in the final version.

1 Yes.  3 No.

The 8-bit versions of Star Control had some really odd fleets.

Star Control on the Amstrad CPC has the following:

Hierarchy: Ur-Quan, Ilwrath, Androsynth, Umgah.
Alliance: Chenjesu, Earthling, Mycon (!), Yehat.

I think the Spectrum and C64 versions had the same ships, but I can't seem to get my C64 emulator to run right now.

The guide to alien ettiquette was annoying. The original disk version of Star Control came with a code wheel. To answer prof zorg's question you had to line up all the words he said on the wheel.

I like SC3. I don't think it was anywhere near as good as SC2, but it was an interesting game nonetheless.

Except that it's so easy to accidentally bypass the plot and screw yourself up forever that it's not funny. Also, the computer AI is godawful.

in melee, my friend and I gaped in astonishment as (on Awesome difficulty!) watched a Kohr-Ah and a Dreadnought (low on crew so it wouldn't launch fighters) bounce off of each other at a little angle, turn AWAY from the other ship, fire, re-ram each other, bounce away, fire again, re-ram the other ship.... Either one could have wrecked the other if it had simply stayed FACING the other when it fired.

This ended when the magnetic nature of the kohr-ah blades finally caught up with the dreadnought and did the poor fool in. Then the Kohr-ah hit the planet and died.

Oh, and the ship designs were very erratic. Some are quite good. Half are absolutely terrible.

Most of the ships are designed well?

Well, let's see...
Owa: good
Clairconctlar: good. Someone around here says it's ineffective. I disagree.
Herald: good aside from the problem of the pilot having no more information than the enemy... when do you fire?
Harika/Yorn: maybe a little too fast at turning? Still, not insane. Good.
K'Tang: not bad in principle, but the AI was incompetent at using it. Those mines are insane. Used properly, the Crippler can become essentially invincible to any ship with less than, say, 18 crew. I'd call this a serious issue.
Doog: Absolutely terrible (regeneration is too rapid, auto-aim gun NAILS short-ranged ships)
Ploxis: worse (way too powerful all around)
Vyro-Ingo: Others have reported ever dealing damage with this ship. Based on that testimony, I decline to give it an absolutely terrible rating. Still, it has this major problem doing damage. Its defenses are surprisingly solid due to the indestructible warp wakes.
Exquivan: There are several ships that will never be able to defeat this. This is annoying (I don't like it about the chmmr either). However, it is neither too powerful nor underpowered, if you discount the many ships which do not pump out enough damage to ever break through the blockade... Serious issues.
Daktaklakpak: lame. If its attack is about as restrictive as the zoq-fot-pik attack, it should at least do comparable damage. The mines are not AS bad as the K'tang mines in terms of balance, just because an enemy can wade through them a little... This ship sucks too much to exist, and the only tactics which make it at all powerful are too boring to be conscionable.
Xchagger: pretty generic. SLOW turning, lame secondary... powerful punch... not an unbalanced ship, but low value. Good enough.
Lk: the phasing shield is amusing, but the ship is too slow to transit through the enemy and make a break for it with any reliability... the firehose stream makes at least light damage to the enemy very likely. Good enough. Could use a little extra speed.
Total:
good or better: 5 (Owa, Clairconctlar, Harika, Xchagger, Lk)
serious issues: 4 (Exquivan, K'Tang, Herald, Vyro-Ingo)
bad: 1 (Daktaklakpak)
terrible: 2 (Ploxis, Doog)

So the median here is "has serious issues"

Anyone wish to re-rank these?

I was introduced to Star Control when my friend rented it for the Sega Genesis.  I followed up by buying it for the Amiga.  The Amiga version is quite good, and emulates just fine on a windows PC.  One more option.

I've seen many people ramble about how bad SC3 was, but I have never seen the game and cannot seem to find what the plot was.  The precursor vessel was annigilated(sorry, I had to) when it blew up the Sa-Matra, so what do they fly in?

SC3 sucks badly. At least in my opinion. I tried it yesterday, and even melee seems f***ed up somehow. Not to mention the hideous appearance of half the aliens. The Syreen do NOT look like that!

If anyone wants to try it, the game can be found at The Underdogs. www.the-underdogs.org, search for star control.

Hmm. Well, I know melee can be switched to 2D, and I did so at once. It still feels weird somehow.

Not a real Starcon fan? SC2 is, along with the Fallouts, my favourite game of all time. However, I do NOT like SC3, although I'll try to keep playing it a bit more (see what the story's like).

Star Control 1 came out on the sega Genesis.

I have a rom of it if you like, just email me

Here's some my analysis on some of the SC3 ships in  Melee
Herald: Just worthless, despite it's cloaking it has hideious turning made it difficult to hit faster ships not to mention too little damage for how much it cost to fire.
Owa: Just intresting variation of Earthing Cruiser just better
Clairconctlar: Good hit and run ship but, it's too darn annoying to fight with
Doog: Very unbalanced with it's regeneation and impossible to kill with ships that lack firepower
Ploxis: This ship is just too cheap with it's tracking missles and reflection ship
Vyro-Inro- Desptie, what many people here say this ship has some potental thought I have to admitted it's attacking shield is nearly-useless, it's gravity wreaks are it's real weapon they are vritial indestructible only the FRIED destroy them making them effective for defense. But, strangly enough the wreaks inflict massive damage if emeny ship runs into them and sometimes repeals them violently away.
Exquian: somewhat weak since it's too defensive
Dak: This ship it's for too limited in capaibles other then running away making them a pain to kill
Xcaggers: A cheap rip off of Yehat Terminator without shields, crappy turning and speed
LK: Most innovate SC3 ship sadly, It's phasing ablilty is quasi-useful and it's rapid firing gun can do damage but, lacks range
Colony ship: inferior to SC2 Precursor ship and it's buggy with it's defensive guns and can crash if two colony ships in melee uses and has fairly rapid missle attack
K'Tang: The strongest SC3 ship, it's primary attack is somewhat short range but, plumbes anything in short order and not to mention having the most effective mines.

One gripe about SC3 melee - the AI. Playing against a Spathi with a slower ship is pure hell - the damn thing will NOT come into weapon range for minutes on end, not even with a tug by a Chmmr tractor beam. This seems to be both an AI problem as well as something being wrong with the zooming. Maybe it's perfect considering the cowardly nature of Spathis, but it's really annoying to have to basically fly around for 5 minutes unable to do anything other than wait for the Spathi to come at you.

But the other ships do it too. I killed loads of K'tangs with an Earthling Cruiser  because they just flew away from me and dropped mines.

Here's how you use the tractor in 3:

wait until the enemy is coming roughly toward you (albiet on the other side of the screen.)

tractor for JUST a second or two.  If you do this right, the enemy will start going very very fast.

DO NOT tractor again.  What has occurred is that now the ship is going so fast it can't change its velocity at all.  It will turn, but it will keep going the same direction.

Now, set up an intercept course and laser them.

NOTE: this won't work on humans because humans are smart enough to turn around 180 degrees, and the AIs arent.

Hmm, and SC2 was what then? Could balanced be the word?

If I can beat a Spathi easily with a Chmmr in SC2, then I should be able to do it in SC3, too. The Spathi tactic of 'run away' makes no sense, since it can't escape the battlefield and it's simply pissing me off with no chance of beating me. The AI command 'Avoid getting shot at at all costs' would make tactical sense if escape was an option, but in a closed battlefield it simply makes a boring fight.

It's perfectly understandable that the Spathi would rather run than fight.  But it also makes those fights INCREDIBLY BORING.

Any game for which there needs to be controls the player has over the AI (press F11 to force the enemy to attack) in order for the game not to end in a stalemate has some AI issues.

This link works, but the file is not found.  Does anyone else have a location to get a copy of SC3?

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Star+Control+3

Like I said, "file not found" at the-underdogs.  Do you have another site?

Nope, it's working.

(http://www.hot.ee/unigolyn/underdog.gif)

On the previous link, click 'here!' under Where to get it, and on the following page, click 'click here to start the download'.