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Topic: Star Control series (I, II, III) (Read 9350 times)
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alien_fan
Zebranky food
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Posts: 42
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Hello:
I am a fan of Star Control II. I played it as a kid in high school on a 38SX-T. Some ten or so years later, I was thrilled to find it again on a Macintosh (downloaded from the UQM web site). I didn't know the game had voices for the aliens and was also thrilled to find them and install them.
Though I have not mastered Star Control II completely, I am interested in Star Control I and Star Control III and am willing to pay for them. Do UQM's exist on any video game platforms, like Nintendo?
I'd appreciate any help you can give. Maybe it's just a matter of knowing where on the web you can download (?)
Tnx,
BYE.
Hello:
Thanks for all the responses! I'm afraid I don't understand most of the help I have. I have a PC (with XP) and a Mac (with OS X).
I have an NES and a Nintendo 64. I'm primarily interested in knowing how to obtain SC1 and SC3. I will follow advice I've gotten to not spend money on SC3, but if I can get it for free, I'd like to try it.
Can I run a DOS program (SC1) on my XP PC? Are there Mac programs for SC1 and SC3? How to I download or otherwise obtain these games (eBay?)?
Tnx,
BYE.
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« Last Edit: June 23, 2010, 02:58:34 am by alien_fan »
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onpon4
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Sharing is good.
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I've never played any of them, but I'll tell you what I know (or, think I know):
- Star Control is either a PS1 or Genesis game (I'm not completely sure), and also a PC game.
- Star Control II is a PC and 3DO game
- I think Star Control 3 is just a PC game. It probably isn't worth your money.
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Draxas
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The original Star Control was released for a multitude of platforms, but all except the PC and Genesis versions had to cut significant portions of the content. Of those two, the PC version is your best bet. Star Control 3 was only released for the PC, and is generally considered inferior to SC2, in no small part because the original developers were excluded from development.
Honestly, your best bet to find either is to check abandonware sites. So long as you're OK with the grey legal area, that's the easiest way to play either game, since original copies are both rare and expensive.
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Angelfish
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Of SC1 there's a version flowing around on abandonware sites. Look for the genesis version (which you can play with an emulator that is included).
SC3 I don't know, but it's a nice game to play if you have the spare time. It does have some great voice acting and some nice character designs  .
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Novus
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Fot or not?
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If I may set the record straight, Star Control was originally released for PC/DOS and Commodore Amiga. The Amiga version is fully-featured, although it has very slightly lower quality graphics. The PC version has all the gameplay and looks great (in VGA), but lacks the digitised sound effects (substituting bleeps on devices like PC Speaker, Adlib or MT-32; PC users had to wait for SC2 to get digital SFX and MOD music) and has different music. The Genesis version tries hard to be a faithful port, but is slightly unfinished and hence very slow (and loses a little bit of graphics and sound quality in translation). In the Genesis version, the scenario editor is also removed, although you get some extra scenarios to compensate. The Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions (which TFB had nothing to do with) lose about half of the ships, have horrible gameplay and look awful. I'd recommend the PC or Amiga version, depending on whether you place more importance on graphics or sound.
SC2, as you probably know, was originally released for PC/DOS, then 3DO, then much later as UQM for more systems than I can be bothered to mention.
Star Control 3 was released for PC/DOS and Macintosh. Both versions are apparently pretty much the same, but the Mac version is hard to find any information on.
The was going to be a PlayStation game called StarCon, but it was cancelled. A pathetic Flash game called Star Control was apparently made in a few days to preserve the trademark, but has since vanished.
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« Last Edit: June 21, 2010, 11:16:25 am by Novus »
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Draxas
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I had completely forgotten about the Amiga version of SC1, Novus is correct that it is also a complete version of the game (versus the C64 and other computer versions other than PC).
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alien_fan
Zebranky food
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Hello,
I realize you weren't talking to me about this, but I did start the thread.
I was just wondering, what is an Amiga? Is it a really old brand of computer or ... ?
Thanks!
BYE.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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[quote author=Kzzrn link=topic=4793.msg63908#msg63908 date=1277189860Star Control 3 was an abomination, inferior to its predecessor in major ways. Here is a good comparison that shows what went wrong with it. If you still have any questions about its inferiority, don't hesitate to ask.[/quote]
The above article is only really truly incomplete in its failure to mention the game's extreme bugginess, carelessness with details, generally being incomplete, and having a boring set of central mechanics.
The bugginess is top. If it hadn't been for that, I could have finished the game. As it was, I would have had to start over.
And general carelessness. planets had a black background that wasn't quite black. So all planets had a square outline. Similarly, cloaked ships weren't invisible. They were dark gray, though clearly meant to be invisible. One ship had a pretty decent weapon concept, but it doesn't work around half the time. That's just unacceptable.
And being incomplete, when you choose the wrong dialog entry and lose, the result is clearly a placeholder that was intended to be filled in, but never was.
As for the central mechanics, see the thread on why it wasn't modded.
I can't tell you too more about the game because after long and calm deliberations, I smashed the CD.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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The Vyro-Ingo ramming weapon had the same radius as the ship's outermost points (such as its nose apparatus). You could easily ram someone and bounce off based on your hull and not the weapon, and do no damage. It was also totally ineffective as a shield, despite its being called a shield.
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