Nice video of what's to come.  I like the retro touches like the starmap and the dashed lines around planets for finding the moons.  Don't forget to make the starmap searchable too.

Just out of curiosity, would the marauder's ring of fire go in all directions, considering the 3D environment?

Was it the Kohr-Ah (black Ur-Quan)?  The game itself has a time limit, until sometime in 2159.  If you can, load an older save and try to progress through the main plot faster before they start taking over.

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_II_Gameplay_FAQ#Is_there_a_time_limit_to_the_game.3F

I was shocked too when this happened in my first playthroughs.

Thread title was a little misleading...but voted for you guys none the less. Looks like fun!

I concur.  I don't know why you're comparing Yargis to the third game in the Star Control series, unless you plan on using puppets with very limited movements.  We don't speak of it and it is not considered part of the SC canon established by Toys for Bob.  TFB had nothing to do with that game.  For more info about this, check out the PONAF site.

The video on the site certainly reminded me of Star Control in the sense that the player is controlling a ship in 2D space with a variety of ships.  I watched a couple of your YouTube videos.  The idea of a level editor, ship customizing and different multiplayer modes would be very appealing to SC fans.  Keep in mind, Star Control is more than just ship combat; SC2 is known for its witty and fascinating character dialog, space exploration, negotiating with aliens and helping them in order to forge alliances and just how unique each of these aliens are and a very diverse and unique soundtrack just to name a few.  Have you played through The Ur-Quan Masters?

I gave you a thumbs up on Greenlight too.  Good luck and congratulations on being featured on the news and reaching your $10,000 goal on Kickstarter.

I'm afraid the Paul connection is old. Note the Atari party: "Accolade"

That's possible.  If I recall, Infogrames took ownership of Accolade which in turn, would become owned by Atari.  Though there was another document where "Accolade, Inc" was listed as a possible upcoming purchase of Accolade.com for $50,000 (Docket# 306).  It is also listed as "only offer received".  Either Accolade is making a comeback, or another company bought the domain which also happens to be named Accolade.

I definitely agree that GOG helped raise interest for Star Control, and DRM-free too.

Thanks, Gekko.  We posted within minutes of each other

Right now, it's all "video game politics".  It's not necessarily going to be anyone's next project.  It's just nice to hear that someone else can have a stab at Star Control and that Paul will be involved somehow when it does.  We just need to be patient, that's all.

[Docket #305]

The Atari auctions are now over.  Bankruptcy information for Atari's Chapter 11 filing is available through public documents:

1. Go to http://www.bmcgroup.com/restructuring/Docket.aspx?ClientID=316
2. Click on any docket#.  There are over 300 documents available.

Some of Atari's assets have been listed, including Star Control:
Docket #305 (Notice of Successful and back-up bidders with respect to the auctions of certain of the debtors' assets)


And check this out:
Docket #296 (Notice of attempt to assume and assign certain executory contracts)


While this does not mean that a new Star Control game is coming, at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that the rights are now in the hands of people who are fans of the first two games and that Paul is involved somehow.

Stardock CEO, Brad Wardell, wrote about the auctions without mentioning the titles: http://forums.littletinyfrogs.com/446878#replies

What are your thoughts about this?

Yes, that certainly does look familiar.  It's the planet lander.  It's a nice looking 3D model.  Did you create the planet's surface as well?  This is a good step in the path of game design and you're starting young too.

Does ST2 refer to "Star Trek 2" or something else?

Ever since the release of Jenga World Tour for the Wii/DS, people have suspected Atari's financial difficulties.

Yes, they still own the Star Control trademark.  Although, when Star Control 1 & 2 was released on GOG, Atari still owned the trademark.  Does that count as a "use"?

THQ filed for bankruptcy too.  The video game politics can be mind boggling at times.

If they're willing to sell the rights of Pong and Missile Command, I'm sure they'd be willing to sell the Star Control trademark.  It's really up to them and whether or not they can negotiate a fair price.  It would be really awesome of TFB could get it.  They'd finally be able to make a proper Star Control game and use the name.  The next challenge would be to convince Activision to publish it.

Try pressing F11.  It switches between full and windowed mode.

Anyone else been on this endless search?  I'll find something really close to this but it will be so underdeveloped/buggy/unsupported that it isn't worthwhile.  But I'll even pay for it.

Oh yes!  I have experience with Java, C#, PHP, Perl and VB.  Keep in mind, I'm no professional.

To be honest, I have always had issues with C/C++, especially when using headers other than STDIO.h, Math.h.  I heard lots of good things about Eclipse, but there are alternative IDEs that have given me better experiences.

I really like Visual Studio and its ability to create Forms and debug.  I use PHP when creating dynamic web pages.  For PHP, I normally use an IDE called PHPed (commercial).

I think education and workplace politics really shape what programming languages people learn.  It makes interviews more stressful because employers want specific skill sets, and there are so many qualified people out there who may not have it directly, but have transferable skills that can be used to achieve the employer's goals, which Employers ignore.  For example, if one can learn Java, one can also learn C# or Ruby.  Then there's extra certifications that make things even more complicated.

There really is no "ultimate" language.  What people learn really depends on market demand and what people learn in school.  People can be self-taught.  Languages are continuing to evolve.  If people want to be a programmer as a career, it's really a risky business.

My desktop and laptop both have Windows 7 on it.

I used to be a Mac OS X user until I entered college, where I got a Windows laptop for my courses.  Apple made the transition to Intel CPUs and my PowerPC quickly became obsolete.  Since then, I've been using Windows 99.9% of the time.

I do use Linux with VMware Player for testing stuff and deploying servers for personal projects.

Spam is always a problem.  Just look at my stats for my blog:


It's insane!  More than 95% of internet traffic is spam related!  The majority of IPs are repeat spammers, so you can look it up on Project Honey Pot and see how often their IP comes up.

And I still get those e-mails about ad space and SEO optimizations.

Getting some needed sleep.  Check if all this end of the world talk has affected the stock markets.

So far, everything seems like a typical Friday.

That's quite awesome.  I can't wait to listen to these tracks.

Google continues to grow as an international ultra-mega-corporation.

I remember a very long ago, there was a website that had higher-resolution images of the SC2 FMVs and they were done with Silicon Graphics PCs.  Other than that, it doesn't sound like a widely-adopted format.  Supporting a more modern, open format would be better.  Of course, that's easier said than done.