Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters
The Captain's ship enters the Sol System at the beginning of the game.
Developer	Toys for Bob
Publisher	Accolade
Designer	Fred Ford, Paul Reiche III
Series	Star Control series
Released	November 1992
Genre	sci-fi action role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Platform(s)	DOS, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Media	Floppy disks, CD-ROM
Input methods	Keyboard, Game controller

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters is a science fiction computer game, the second game in the Star Control trilogy. It was developed by Toys for Bob (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for PC; it was later ported to the 3DO with an enhanced multimedia presentation, allowed by the CD technology. The game still enjoys a cult following. Image File history File links StarControl2_Entering_Sol_System. ... Sol is the name or personification of the Sun, as originally used in Latin. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. ... Accolade was a video game developer and publisher of the 1980s and 1990s. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Fred Ford is a computer game programmer. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult following. ... 1992 1992 in games 1991 in video gaming 1993 in video gaming Notable events of 1992 in video gaming. ... Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... An Action-RPG, or action role-playing game is a type of computer and console role-playing game which requires quick action or reflexes from the player. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... Online gaming redirects here. ... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (most commonly referred to as the 3DO) is a line of video game consoles which were released in 1993 and 1994 by Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar, among other companies. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... The 104-key PC US English QWERTY keyboard layout evolved from the standard typewriter keyboard with extra keys special to computing. ... A game controller is an input device used to control a video game. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult following. ... Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. ... Fred Ford is a computer game programmer. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... Accolade was a video game developer and publisher of the 1980s and 1990s. ... 1992 1992 in games 1991 in video gaming 1993 in video gaming Notable events of 1992 in video gaming. ... IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC, XT, or AT internal design, facilitated by various manufacturers... 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (most commonly referred to as the 3DO) is a line of video game consoles which were released in 1993 and 1994 by Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar, among other companies. ... CD redirects here. ... This article does not discuss cultist groups, personality cults, or cult in its original sense of religious practice. See cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term cult. A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific area of pop culture. ...

Gameplay

SC2 is generally regarded as the best of the trilogy and the reason for the series' devoted fanbase. It added a large number of species and ship types to the already diverse cast and replaced the first game's strategy-based scenarios with a story-driven space exploration adventure game that included diplomacy with the inhabitants of the galaxy, some resource-gathering sub-sections, and instances of the mêlée combat of the first game whenever diplomacy failed. For other uses, see Species (disambiguation). ... This is an article about the computer and video game genre. ...

Interaction with the various alien species was a chief part of the adventure game; the backstory of both the species from the first games and new ones were fleshed out considerably. There were literally hours of dialogue, each species bringing out their characteristic conversational quirks, music, and even display fonts. In mêlée, Star Control II maintained the originality of ship design from the first game, extending the strategic possibilities of the combat section greatly with the addition of a multitude of new ships. A two-player mode was available, named Super Mêlée, consisting solely of the ship-to-ship combat. All ships from the first game were included, even if they made no appearance in the story.

To many, the game's strongest aspect is its atmosphere. The carefully designed plot significantly impacts the game experience by requiring the player to explore every corner of the galaxy and make discoveries and connections independently; all this, occurring within a huge game world featuring numerous alien species, a vast number of star systems to visit, and dynamic events depending on the actions of the player created a powerful sense of openness, cause-and-effect functionality, and freedom; this gives the player the feeling that they are indeed interacting with a realistic universe instead of merely pitting their wits against those of the game designers. Look up plot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Green people redirects here. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Cause and Effect is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ...

The soundtrack of the PC version was top-notch — the contents were determined by running a contest which anybody could participate in, composing tracks based on a description of the game. Included on the soundtrack were compositions of Aaron Grier, Erol Otus, Eric E. Berge, Riku Nuottajärvi and Dan Nicholson, the president and founding member of The Kosmic Free Music Foundation. Music was in MOD format which utilizes digitized instrument samples while most of PC gamemusic still relied on FM-synthesis based instruments at the time. The Kosmic Free Music Foundation (a. ... For other uses, see Mod. ...

Star Control II was highly influenced, both in story and game design, by the games Starflight (1986) and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (1989), developed by Binary Systems and released on a variety of platforms by Electronic Arts. Indeed Greg Johnson, StarFlight's lead designer, helped write dialog for Star Control II and Paul Reiche III contributed to StarFlight's alien communication system. David Brin's science fiction series about the Uplift Universe is also often mentioned as inspiration for the Star Control II universe, as well as Larry Niven's Known Space universe. See interstellar travel for travel between the stars. ... Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. ... Glen David Brin, Ph. ... The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Known Space is the fictional setting of several science fiction novels and short stories written by author Larry Niven. ...

Accolades

IGN named Star Control II the 17th best game of all time ^[1], and Gamespot named it one of the greatest games of all time.^[2] IGN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. ...

Plot Summary

Introduction

In the last phase of the war between the Alliance of Free Stars and the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, the Tobermoon, a Earthling ship, discovered an ancient Precursor subterranean installation in a cave on the surface of an uninhabited planet in the Vela star system. The Alliance hastily sent a secret scientific mission to study the relics, but a massive Hierarchy's offensive forced the Alliance fleets to retreat beyond Vela; the mission commander, Captain Burton, decided to go into hiding on the planet and sent back the Tobermoon, her only starship, asking for help. Though the Ur-Quan forces didn't find the Earthlings during their sweep of the system, relief never arrived. Years later, with the help of a genius child born on planet, the colonists activated the Precursor machinery and found out that it was programmed to build a starship. Using the limited store of raw materials available in the planet, in ten years the Precursor factory built a functional but barely rigged ship, which could be piloted only by the now grown genius child, who alone could interact with the Precursor central computer. In the first test flight, it was discovered that the ship Burton had sent for help had been severely damaged by the Ur-Quan and was orbiting unpowered in the outer solar system: the Alliance had never known of the mission's discoveries. The colonists decided to fix the recovered ship, train new crew members for both the Precursor ship and the Tobermoon and send a mission back to Earth, eager to know how the war had ended. Shortly before reaching Sol the little fleet was attacked by an unknown ship; Captain Burton, commanding the Earthling ship, intercepted the alien ship before it could damage the defenseless Precursor starship, but was killed in the short fight, leaving the genius young man in command. The Alliance of Free Stars is a fictional alliance of alien species in the universe of the computer game Star Control. ... The Precursors are a vanished, ancient, superintelligent race from the Star Control games. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Game

The player begins the game as a commander of the Precursor starship, who returns to Earth to find it enslaved by the Ur-Quan. It is discovered that the rest of the humans' allies in the war against the Ur-Quan have either been eradicated, put under a slave shield, or put into service as Ur-Quan battle thralls. As the player progresses, it is revealed that the Ur-Quan are fighting an internecine war with the Kohr-Ah, a subspecies of Ur-Quan who believes in eradicating all life in the galaxy, as opposed to enslaving it. The winner of this war gains access to a Precursor starship with unparalleled power. The Kohr-Ah are a fictional race of aliens featured in the Star Control computer game series. ...

The Ur-Quan Masters

A Slylandro Probe attacks the Captain's ship.

The Ur-Quan Masters (UQM) project^[3] aims to port Star Control II to modern operating systems including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD. The project began in 2002 when the original creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III released the source code of the 3DO version as open source under the GPL. It is currently at version 0.6.2 ^[4], and has accomplished its goal. It has also added the option of online multiplayer Melee play, something which was not available in the original game. A variety of modifications to the melee have been released by fans, including versions with superpowered ships and numerous planets. As of version 0.4, the long-missing intro and ending movies were finally added, as was an in-game setup menu. The ability to "mod" the game is one of the project's goals. Image File history File links Figth_with_a_Slylandro_Probe. ... Image File history File links Figth_with_a_Slylandro_Probe. ... The Slylandro are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... 1. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ... 2002 2002 in games 2001 in video gaming 2003 in video gaming Notable events of 2002 in video gaming. ... Fred Ford is a computer game programmer. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (most commonly referred to as the 3DO) is a line of video game consoles which were released in 1993 and 1994 by Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar, among other companies. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... GPL redirects here. ...

The name of the project only uses SC2's name in a sub-title due to not owning the intellectual property (IP) rights to use the name. The "Star Control" IP is owned by Atari, who acquired them when they were known as Infogrames when they acquired Accolade. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... This article is about the corporate game company. ... Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) is an international holding company headquartered in Lyon, France. ...

While development on the UQM codebase continues, a second group of professional musicians called The Precursors are creating new musical tracks and remixes of the originals. They are an optional package that can be listened to in-game, replacing the original music, or just played with an audio player. A group of semi-professional musicians. ... A remix is an alternate mix of a song different from the original version, made using the techniques of audio editing. ...

A very playable port has been produced for the GP2X portable game system.^[5] The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player created and sold by GamePark Holdings of South Korea. ...

Named planets from Star Control II

• Earth (Sol III) -- Humanity's homeworld.
• Fahz (Beta Aquarii I) -- The Utwig homeworld.
• Falayalaralfali -- The Arilou homeworld, secluded from other races in a pocket of QuasiSpace.
• Gaia (Betelgeuse I) -- The Syreen new homeworld, acquired for them by the Ur-Quan.
• Glilandy -- The Dnyarri homeworld.
• Kyabetsu (Delta Gorno; has been recently destroyed in game continuity) -- The Shofixti's original homeworld, before they caused their sun to go supernova to deter an Ur-Quan battle fleet.
• Source (Beta Corvi IV) -- The Slylandro homeworld, and the only known gas giant to house life.
• Spathiwa (Epsilon Gruis I) -- The Spathi homeworld.
• Syra (Beta Copernicus I; has been recently destroyed in game continuity) -- The Syreen's original homeworld, before it was ruined by a Mycon Deep Child.
• Unzervalt (Vela II) -- The Captain's birth world and where the Precursor flagship was created.
• Vlik (Beta Librae) -- The Supox homeworld.

The Utwig are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... Spoiler warning: Arilou (short for Ariloulaleelay) are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series who belong to the Alliance of Free Stars. ... Spoiler warning: The Syreen are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... -1... The Slylandro are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... The Spathi are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... The Mycon are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ... Spoiler warning: The Supox Utricularia are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. ...

See also

• List of Star Control races

This is a list of fictional alien species that appeared in various games of the Star Control franchise. ...

References

IGN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. ...

External links

• Star Control II, Toys For Bob
• The Ur-Quan Masters, open-source remake
• The Ultronomicon, a dedicated Star Control wiki
• Star Control 2, Star Control fan site