The Games of my Life

Few old games are as beloved these days as this as Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III’s 1992 classic, Star Control 2. If you somehow missed it and need proof on “how beloved” it is, check the end of this post.

SC2 , while technically a sequel, doesn’t follow in the genre of the first Star Control, which was a simple strategy game with 1-on-1 arcade battles (very playable, though - so much that most people ignored the strategy game and just played the “Melee” mode, choosing a fleet of ships and fighting another player, one ship on each side at a time, until one fleet was eliminated).

But this sequel was different - and, when I got it in 1992 and started playing it, I was quickly able to see that this game was unique.

Why? Let’s see:

• A brilliant, original, gripping story. The simple premise - humanity and its allies have lost the war against the Ur-Quan Hierarchy while you were stranded on a planet; now you’ve come back, what do you do? - soon expands itself to much, much more.
• More than a story, there was a back story. Each of the races had a past, a reason for being what they were. Some races were extinct at the time of the game, yet you could find out things about their history, which often would prove important. And why do the Ur-Quan act the way they do?
• The game included action, adventure, space exploration, diplomacy, resource-gathering… yet managed to be quite easy to learn, thanks to a good interface.
• At a time when most game soundtracks were little more than a couple of electronic-sounding MIDI tunes, and before the age of the CD-ROM, SC2 included an all-digital soundtrack, by many different artists, which was so memorable that, to this day, people are still composing remakes of those tunes.
• Some of the dialogues were possibly the funniest ever to appear in a computer game. One word: Fwiffo. One longer word: Zoq-Fot-Pik. Not to mention the VUX, the Umgah, the Pkunk, the Melnorme, or the Thraddash. Or the Ilwrath: “Even our house pets are rather evil.”
• Still, the game was able to be quite creepy at times. Pay attention when you investigate the former planet of the Androsynth…
• The space battles were a lot of fun, too - again, the Melee mode was a pleasure to play on its own, though here, unlike with the first game, you’d be missing out on a masterpiece.
• Besides the action and the adventure, there was strategy, too. Where to look for minerals? What upgrades to buy first? Which ship to use to fight those? Can I risk a trip there, or should I save the fuel and just mine the planets nearby?

And now, for the best part. Some time ago, the source code for this game was released by its authors, and a community has grown around this game, improving its technical aspects (such as making it run on several modern operating systems (and Windows, too :)), adding the voices from the 3DO version, allowing higher resolutions, better sound quality, even remaking some of the music (but the original versions are still available, of course)). Due to copyright, this version is called “The Ur-Quan Masters”, but it’s exactly the same game - only better. They also have one of the most pleasant forums on the Web - for some reason, fans of this game tend to be exceptionally nice. Um… except me, of course.

So, head to The Ur-Quan Masters official site, and download it. Then, if you enjoy games of this kind and have never played it before, warn friends, relatives and co-workers that they probably won’t see you for a couple of weeks.