Preview: The Ur-Quan Masters

Some games are worth waiting for, even for a decade.

Star Control II is an incredible experience from all accounts. It's got exploration, it's got critical thinking, it's got dogfights - good luck finding a gamer that doesn't love something about the game. In fact, that would be almost as rare as finding a gamer who plays the game on a regular basis, because unless you have a 3DO console hooked up or you are a DOS magician, you probably can't get easy access to the game.

Well, luckily for you (and me), SCII is coming back, and it will play on your fancy new PC or Mac. Star Control developer Toys for Bob has released the rights to the game and the magical Internet community has taken up the porting challenge. Now dubbed The Ur-Quan Masters - since the developer didn't own the rights to the name, the game will be released sometime this year. In fact, the second Alpha version has already been released. Best of all, it won't cost you one thin dime. Nuh-uh.

Read about The Ur-Quan Masters here. Do it! Only subservience shall be tolerated.

This announcement is the best "Headline" I've ever read here at TNL. Not only is SCII one of my most favorite games ever (I still have my starmap!! :D ), but it's also one of my most favorite games ever!!!

You put a smile on my face, Nick (and hopefully, a new message in my INBOX. ;) )

Were we still talking? :p

Next to Zelda, Ur-Quan Masters is hands-down my most anticipated game this year. Glad to see someone else around here is excited about this. As soon as version 1.0 is out, I will post it here and we'll see if we can get more people hooked.

I have this vague feeling like I played the hell out of this game when it came out. But I'm really not sure.

Suppose I'll find out soon enough.

You . . . don't remember?

Nope. I know there was a space tactical dog-fighting game I played when I was younger and I mostly remember what it looks like, but I could never remember anything else about it or what it was called. I think it was a Star Control, but I never actually took the time to look up Star Control and find out.

[edit] Looked at the screens and I definately played this. Those are the ships, and I remember a few of their attacks.

I will destroy you!!!

Launch fighters....

There's an Ur-Quan Masters thread from 2003 that's apparently just a tiny bit too old for thread necromancy. So-



Ur-Quan Masters HD, now in alpha. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet but the sprite detailing looks really nice. Tiny bit more info on the standalone mod here.

James

Launch fighters!

I was wondering what the odds might be of Toys for Bob ending up doing a new Star Control someday, maybe via Kickstarter or something. They're fully-owned by Activision nowadays, and are responsible for Skylanders. So 0%, +/- 0%.

James