UQM got a mention at PA today (3-1-03).  Not in the comic; just in the news, where Tycho heard about it and got it.  Here's the link.  And here's the bulk of his comments about it:

I went to Sourceforge because I had read somewhere that The Ur Quan Masters - essentially, Star Control 2 without the Name Star Control - was out there and available for download. Star Control 2 (and Starflight II, obviously) are games I recall with such fondness. I had initially written "extreme fondness," but I removed it because, really, what would that look like.

I grabbed the files for it, which are available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and BeOS (for some inexplicable reason). They've done a great job and it will only become cleaner and more sensible as time goes on. If you've never experienced SC2 before, keep in mind that the last time I played this was on a 386, which ran it silky-smooth. This was when we thought two hundred and fifty-six colors was rather a lot of colors, maybe too many for our liking. I know you aren't supposed to care about graphics if you're a real gamer or something but graphics are really important. How important they are is a personal consideration, so whether or not this'll float your boat is something I can't say. Do give it a shot, though.

Unfortunately, I don't believe he mentioned anything about it being an alpha.

[that]

The point-defense laser is supposed to work just like the Earthling Cruiser's version; when you get real close to an enemy youcan fire it non-stop or something.  I never use it, so I'm not sure.

Put some Dynamos on your ship too.  As was talked about in another topic, the Dynamos don't become obsolete when the Shiva Furnaces appear; putting them together works pretty well.

Earthling Cruisers work well fo me against the Slylandro Probes too, but it's difficult.  Even though I do that trick (run away from them, then when they're chasing me turn around and fire two missiles), sometimes I'm too far for the missiles to hit them before they blink out.  Do the missiles go forever in the original? (AKA is it the collision detection bug again)  I can't remember.  Anyways, don't try to get too close to the Probes before firing your missiles; when the Probe starts using electricity, they'll just eat the missiles right up.  =/

You've contacted the Zoq-Fot-Pik and not contacted the Kohr-Ah yet?  Speaking of the Kohr-Ah, they're not to difficult with a main ship that spazzed out; one shot a piece takes like 20 of their crew.

[no other choice]

Yes, there is a "strategy guide" (more of a resource) wriiten by Paul and Fred themselves (I think), and it does contain all the info on the worlds.  As far as I know, they're all pre-set; no random generated moons or anything.

I posted it on my website if you wanna download it and look over it to help you out Bwahaha (I'm not laughing).  My server isn't Windows based, so use the link below exactly or you'll probably get a 404.

http://www.dszone.org/Files/RESOURCE.TXT

WARNING: This resource contains everything you need to know about the game and how to beat it.  Only download it if you're like Bwahaha and making a utility, or if you are completely stuck and have no other choice, or you'll completely ruin your playing experience.

You're right.  Infogrames now owns the Star Control name, but TFB owns all the creation and design of the game.  So this project is fine and dandy since TFB gives the coders their support, as long as the name "Star Control" doesn't show up in UQM anywhere.

I thought about asking them just if they had any plans to use the name in general.

Unfortunately, their website and various shootoffs therein are a bunch of disorganized messes when it comes to tracking down just a plain customer service e-mail address.  They have addresses galore to send troubleshooting problems to, and one for problems about surfing the webpage, and bunches of 800/900 phone numbers for game help, but no e-mail address just for asking questions about the corporation.

The message about Slylandro Probe spawning got lost in the forum crash; anyone still have the bulk of it?  Or can any of the programmers repost info on it?

The only big difference between the two is that UQM is a remake while Star Flight 3 is a fan-made sequel... Star Flight 3 is more or less the "Timewarp" of the Star Flight universe.

Probably Star Flight 1.  Haven't played either of the Star Flight games myself, but a friend of mine enjoyed them.

[IT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN]

IT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN

Thanks.

Yeah, OggDrop is basically a cute GUI wrapper around oggenc, which is pretty limited in what it can accept as an input file (namely, 44,100kHz/16-bit/little-endian PCM files) so it's ease-of-use comes with a fairly big caveat..

If you need a more general-purpose editor/converter, take a gander at Audacity; I will personally vouch for it's ability to export MP3 files as WAV and OGG, I have no idea if it can handle WMAs, however..  (don't have any)

Seeing as how I use Goldwave for all my audio editing, an .ogg plug-in for that would be nice.  Anyone have any idea where to find one? (no, I hjaven't tried Goldwave.com yet.  If they have it up there, then I'm sure I'll get to see what my foot tastes like when it's in my mouth)

I wonder if there is a genesis emulator with network play like ZSNES.

Gens (it has Kalliera for server support).

Even if you liked SC1 and have never played SC2, I think you'll enjoy SC2.  It may be a bit less direct, but it's not difficult at all to get the hang of.

However, I find that maxing them out is a waste of RU. If you fill up all slots but two you will be able to run from all ships (the Slylandro probe doesn't count as it can always catch you).

Actually, if your thrusters are maxed out, the Slylandro Probes can't catch you at full speed.  Which means if you're running for a long distance in Hyperspace, and get a good enough lead to have no problem dropping into a system while the Probe is still way back, you can potentially never have to fight him.  This was very important for me when I started because I couldn't beat the Probes without a lot of effort and until I got a lot of ships; even though I can beat them, only having the Tobermoon to take them on early on means a lot of dying.  Especially cause you only have a small window of oppurtunity to damage Probes with Earthling Cruisers thanks to the MX Nukes' disappear length and the point at which the Probe starts zapping you up.   :-/

Once the second alpha comes out, theoretically with the Spathi collision detection fixed (which I hear is already done), I might be able to not worry so much.

The remixes will definitely not be .mod; I'm positive.  More than likely, they'll be .mp3 or .ogg (wanna confirm that norg?).  When it comes, I'm sure they'll code all around player capabilities in the spots .mod's are reserved for right now or else the remixes wouldn't work either, but that basically means you won't be able to switch .mp3's in place of .mods until the final, or whichever version the remixes potentially get plastered on with.

.mod (and .xm, .it, .s3m, and others just so you know) are (and based off of) the Amiga module music file.  They're similar to midis except they come with their own samples in the file.  A specialized player is required to play them (though they're pretty easy to find).  They're entirely different files from .mp3's, .wma's, .ogg, and others; those are recordings.  Since the game likely has an internal .mod player to play those mods, renaming an .mp3 file to a .mod file or something similar would probably jack the game all to pieces.

Yes, it did that in the PC version.  I'd just blow all the power units up, then site in one spot and let the leftover fireballs and green things smack me, usually killing whatever Pkunk Fury I had at the time, but it made it safe to bring my Precursor Ship in.