How Star Control II Was Almost TOO Realistic | War Stories | Ars Technica
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- čas přidán 22. 10. 2018
- Toys for Bob's Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford talk in-depth about the development history of Star Control and Star Control II.
For much more, including an exclusive behind-the-scenes look, click the link below.
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How Star Control II Was Almost TOO Realistic | War Stories | Ars Technica - Hry
![Star Control: Origins - Космоэпик Лайт - Обзор [OGREVIEW]](/img/n.gif)
I loved Star Control 2 so much that I created an HD version of it (Ur-Quan Masters HD). 3 years and something like 26,000 images made. I learned enough from it to get a job as a game developer. These guys are so great. Humble, and very kind.
Thank you P&F for your game entertaining me, then inspiring me to make a game, then teaching me about game development with your open sourced game.
....And sorry about pirating the game as a kid.😅
I'm replaying yet again on my freaking phone thanks to you and your community. Game preservation is the Lord's work sir, much respect.
I didn't pirate it but when I did buy it, it was in 1994/5. So it was cut-price. Worth every penny and more.
Thank you for the HD version.
I just wish that if I did want to give Toys For Bob money, it wouldn't end up in a black hole of lawyers. I feel like how I feel when I give the Catholic Church's causes money, that it might go to defending paedo.
Thank you! I have it and love it!
Also have it! One huge fan also here!
I have SC2 in the original box. The updated version was a ton of fun. Thanks .
Probably one of the most criminally underrated games of all time. Being a kid, finally understanding that the "clock" has a concrete, not just abstract, meaning as the Kohr-Ah begin to destroy races. One second you're happily wasting time, flying around, casually getting things done, the next moment, "WOW, there's literally a wave of death sweeping the map, and every second I waste is literally causing all of these lovable and interesting places and creatures to die". This game had severe consequences for mismanaging time and resources. The writing is campy and fun, with plenty of comedy, but the Ur-Quan are still horrifying and sad villains. This game is a must play for having a compelling plot, innovative mechanics, and a nearly fanatical fanbase who've poured thousands of hours into upgrading the sound track and graphics. Thanks Paul and Fred! You guys are champions, and I can't come up with a description that does Star Control justice.
It blows my mind as to how they made a space epic game with severe consequences decades ahead of Mass Effect
This channel is severely underrated. These interviews are gold for anyone interested in game design.
I sooooo agree. Thank you for saying it!
@@DJKinney I'm feeling generous so I'll throw you a banana: "underrated", in this context, means the channel has fewer subscribers/views than similar content producers. There's actual numbers on this video page that you can look at to get this mysterious "rating" you pretend to be oblivious to in order to seem witty and feel superior to an entire generation (one that you have no idea if I belong to or not). Nice try, though
@@rahzark Don't argue, he'll just throw poop at you.
Ars Technica is a great website in general if you're into games, tech, and policy around those topics.
@@DJKinney jesus christ you're so dense
My favourite thing about Star Control 2 is the alien races. A lot of science fiction creates their alien races by taking one aspect of human behaviour and blowing up it up to an extreme proportion. But in many cases that makes aliens still be very similar to humans which can be a bit boring. In Star Control 2 the aliens are just amazingly diverse and exotic, and yet they still have something that is relatable to humanity in them.
Also they are really funny.
Also the writing while being very funny many of the exotic races has very interesting lore behind how they got to be the way they were. I've never played a game with so much dialogue in it, that was all Interesting. Every line in SC2 is interesting and never bored reading/listening. Unlike SC Origins. Where the Aliens are much more one dimensional. Still a good game though but not near the writing level.
Amazingly diverse aliens... never a boring moment playing SC2. It only gets boring when it ends. To this day I wonder about what the Pkunk said about the Ilwrath. That they used to be shining beings of pure virtue, then WHAM all of a sudden totally evil. Then they said the Pkunk strive to be perfectly good, but occasionally do an annoying thing now and then, to avoid ending up like the Ilwrath. I wonder how true is that. (as a principle to apply in your own life)
Those alien races were written so well, I wish this video talked more about the writing and the races. I loved how they did all the exceptions, details, and twists with some individual aliens. Like the Spathi who's a coward like all his race but joins your fleet, the Vux who finds all humans disgusting looking but that one Vux commander who found ugliness perversely beautiful, or those three alien species who wanted to explore the galaxy and sent a robotic probe but jacked up the level of self-replication to dangerous levels. So good writing and amusing humor!
@@garrettdark5668 Wait... IIRC that Spathi joined us just because he couldn't go anywhere after being abandoned by the rest of the Spathis, that Vux who liked ugly things was mad as fudge and we had to kill him, and the probes belong to the Slylandro, not the Zoq-fot-pik.... Other than that, yeah, love the writing.
Honestly though, the humanoid alien designs of most sci-fi is more likely to be the case. There are simply traits that creatures must have to develop technologies in the first place. They have to be predators first and foremost. Predators are the most intelligent creatures. They always trend that way as they must outwit their prey. As predators, it's almost certain they'd have their eyes placed high on their bodies, forward focused and they'd absolutely have a head where that would reside close to their brain and subsequently ears. Short path for sensory data is required. They would not be aquatic as developing technology in such an environment is an outright impossibility. They absolutely must have hands that aren't necessary for standing that are nimble enough to develop technology as well. Simple biological pressures would likely pare down the possible number of limbs to just 4. Anything more would just be inefficient and highly likely to be more a hindrance than anything else. You're ultimately left with a humanoid.
I remember many hours of playing the Star Control 2 demo, and the ridiculous number of hours playing through the full game and the The Ur-Quan Masters port. It's a game I recommend anyone play at least once. The one thing that still sticks out to me this day is how the story of Star Control 2 is told in the game. You are given just enough information you need at the time to contextualize where you are at in the story and then are allowed to explore the universe from there. The mechanics of the game support the concept of exploration, and most importantly running into all the different plot hooks. There's not enough resources in Sol, so you have to go out into hyperspace. You have encounters with other aliens and learn more about them. You go to the big stars, learn about the hazards of resource gathering AND run into an alien that can help you with both tech AND more information. Based on this information, you go forth deeper into the cosmos and find more and more. The whole time, the universe in the game grows with your understanding. It is challenging, but you are never overwhelmed in your perceptions of the game's universe. The strangest thing is that it is never spoon fed to you. You have to take the initiative to find it, albeit easy at first but it quickly takes more effort afterwards. There HAS to be investment by the player to get the story moving. And with any great adventure, the first step is leaving the comfort zone and familiar...
Even to this day, Star Control 2 influences A LOT of how I approach situations in life, write my web serial, and even game master my tabletop role-playing games. It's set the bar fairly high for me when it comes to story telling, depth, and breadth. Also it trained me to see beyond the surface of the situation, delve deeper, and persevere despite difficulty. The starting story of Star Control 2 starts out bleak and it can get much darker... But, your long chain of minor actions in the game can change the course of the universe to even include some very unexpected results at the very last minute. It also taught me that sometimes... the plan falls apart, the situation changes, and you often are left wandering around aimlessly... And, that's often the best thing that could have happened. Sometimes the strictest adherence to an initial plan is the most sure fire path to doom. That uninhabited section of space? It's inhabited. You can't out run the strange ships. So, you must encounter them. And... Turns out... They want to be your allies right off the bat. Strange, yes. But, your going to make it work now. If you hadn't adapted, you'd be out an new ally, new information, and the resources, too. No plan survives contact with reality... And, that's okay. It's what you do afterwards that matters.
Overall, Star Control 2 has plenty of little lessons that I still appreciate today. Those little seed thoughts grew into mentalities that helped me cope with a lot in my own existence and help keep me hopeful. Despite the Ur-Quan Masters that try to rise up and turn the whole universe against you... There's still you, your flagship, and your alliance that can still put forth the fight to eventually park it right up their Sa-Matra.
lol what a long and awesome comment. Thanks for sharing. I guess you are just one of many people whose lives have been touched by the game. I'll take this sentence of yours as a quote that sums up your entire comment nicely... "No plan survives contact with reality... And, that's okay. It's what you do afterwards that matters." Come and join our facebook group about starcontrol 2 here: facebook.com/groups/2215792014/ , we are actively posting and discussing the game even today.
Well thought out and written comment. Good summation of what made Star Control 2 a great game.
Starcon2 is one of the best games of all time. Such a complex story, hilarious writing, dynamic gameplay. Even now having played through many times I'm sure there are parts I've missed. It is a mysterious universe, I really wish the creators could make another installment. The stardock release is pedestrian in comparison
Thank you for this wonderful mini-review! Even after all this years that game warms my soul, and I'm still playing it. Never finished it, though. :D so little time, so many things to do. Haha
OMG when he said this ""success is about moving people, about having what you do, affect their lives, in a way that is positive" Warmed my heart! Star Control II was an important part of my childhood!
My first experience with Star Control involved the "keyboard problem" - my friend whose PC we played on had a keyboard that just flat out only allowed a maximum of 3 inputs. There was no workaround or alternative mapping that would let him turn, thrust, and shoot, and *NOT* prevent me from having any inputs available. And if I was turning and shooting, he could only use one button at a time. And yet, in spite of the problems this caused, we loved it. And eventually, he got a new keyboard, and I got a PC and my own copy of the game.
I also remember seeing a friend playing Star Control 2, and getting really stuck while facing off against a huge battle platform called the "Sa Matra" (you might have heard of it). He thought it was a major story element that he needed to beat to progress, so he was really dedicated to finding some way to kill it. He'd been playing this same fight every day for weeks, and I walked in and said "why aren't you focusing your fire on that bit? It's the only thing that looks like it's taking damage"... and sure enough, he won. Then started calling me his "good luck charm" because he always did better in games when I was around for some *totally unknown* reason. I think the best part is that he was actually better at *doing* all the things in gaming, even though he had issues figuring out *what* he should be doing.
Not to ruin it for you, but Star Control 2 did support a serial gamepad. I worked in the main game, not sure about multiplayer.
@@mikevignola4213 That would have solved the problem *if either of us had a gamepad at the time.* We didn't.
And after you got your own PC and he got a new keyboard it was a really long time before you saw him again. Then one day you were walking to your local Starbucks and you saw him sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a building, begging for change. Turns out you were his only friend and after you abandoned him he fell into depression and his life fell apart.
Sad
@@danielduncan6806 Actually we did lose touch for a few years, but the next time I saw him he worked in a computer repair place (while I worked at Burger King) and a few years later he was running his own computer repair place.
The good ol days of early home computers.
6:30 "Well did the description just now sound interesting?" S A V A G E
It kinda did.
Me too.
I first played the game a couple of years after it came out... at the same time I was taking a planetary science course which included a bit of simple modeling. Man, I loved SC2. I wonder if I still have my notes... playing it involved taking a lot of notes. Way more than I did for my classes ;)
PS: I found an old copy of SimLife in my PhD advisor's (biology) filing cabinet. It had some hand written notes from the designer along with it... Turns out my advisor had helped, or at least tried to help, with some of the population dynamics for it.
@@fedos
Nah. Encountering a "Treasure World" or an "Auric world" or a "Radioactive world" or a "Ruby world" or a "Noble world" or a "Degenerate world" or a "Shattered world" was actually more intriguing, since, due to the lack of detail, imagination runs wild. "How does such a planet even exist?", I initially wonder.
I spent countless hours as a kid playing StarControl II on my 386DX and I regret nothing.
Amen brother. Me too. My favourite all time game
3do was the console I use to play it on
Same here. Thank God my crappy PC just barely made the minimum requirements.
same..386DX40 with SBPRO card
@@weirdmeisterinc Brother.... If you say SBPro... only a few of us old people will understand.. lmao. 386dx with a "turbo" button, lol... SBPro (Gold, if I remember right).. lol
StarCon2 was the 1st game I ever bought with my own money, and it was also the 1st I ever finished without cheating/using glitches/etc... I actually loved it so much I put together a walkthrough for my first webpage. :) The amount of time I spent looking for ruby/sapphire worlds, rainbow worlds (and the joy I felt realizing the pattern on the map - much thanks to the Slylandro, I think it was, who gave the hint there was a pattern), mapping out quasi-space, looking for alien races & artifacts in game (& the thrill of doing that search within Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah space)... Thanks, Fred & Paul, for making one of my favourite games of all time.
I absolutely love these interviews. I miss the old days of gaming, and it's great to see the "founding fathers" of modern gaming and hear the stories of their struggles.
STILL playing the Ur-Quan Masters. I have the map from my SC2 game from DECADES AGO up on the wall behind my PC. Yeesh, I'm old. LOL
Damn, i want to totally forget Star Control 2 and experience it again. It literally changed my whole life.
starflight 2 was better
@@raidermaxx2324 It is a matter of perspective, of cause. Also, Fred did helped Greg Johnson in designing Starflight, and then Greg helped Fred on Star Control 2. But i should highlight some points:
1. Graphic is better, still looks good today.
2. Music is awesome
3. Dialogs are much better.
4. Planet exploration is more fun and focused (although less realistic)
5. Combat is more fun and simple.
And for change is my life - it kickstarted my dormant weak English (i'm not native speaker, and russian schools are notoriously bad at teaching english) into active usage. It was first time in my life that i so wanted to understand English text. And now, 25 years later, on average day i'm reading and listening more English, than Russian.
this is almost misadvertising! It's really just Paul talking while Fred sitting and really wanting to say stuff :D
Fred looks like the Zoq-Fot-Pik in the back. Just sitting there, not saying anything while the others keep talking. :)
Lol well yes, but Fred adds some interesting tidpieces as well. And yes Hello Anton btw, keep up the good science astro stuf - I do, though the updates are spread out by months in between. As I am forced to do non-mad actual science right now. *Waaah*
But to be fair Fred held the big sword more like a warrior at the start of video.
6:00 is what a producer looks like when the designer is going WAY off course but needs to follow the path to realize they're wrong. Amusingly, he did it back then and he kind of was actually doing it IN THIS VIDEO as Paul went down a huge rabbit hole that could be condensed into "we tried modeling the planets scientifically but there was no gameplay win for the player". This is why you can't just let the dreamers develop the games, even though the dreamers are the ones who look and sound interesting talking about the game. Dreams are nice, but they increase scope which leads to bugginess.
Anton Petrov Nahhh, Fred's always been the "strong, silent" type. He doesn't say a lot, but when he does talk you definitely know to listen.
This is actually my all time favorite game. I'm so happy and not surprised at all you continued on and found fantastic success!
I loved Archon (on my C-64), and then subsequently loved Star Control I & II (on my PC), but what I didn't see coming was that the same duo made Skylanders (which my son loves on the PS3) - mind blown!
They need more warning to drop a bomb like that "oh yeah we went from open sourcing a DOS-era-ish game to SKYLANDERS". There must be some more backstory in there.
23 people were rumored to be selling their crew to a Druuge slaver.
Eliot Lash well they do know our souls 🤷♂️
or maybe they saw terrible production quality from blind incompetent editor
@@tsartomato Wow. Remind me to sell you off to the Druuge.
@@roguishpaladin
you can't because you has no eyes
Anyone else notice the Starflight II poster in the background? Starflight II came out in 1989, and Starflight came out in 1986/87. It's a game almost exactly like Star Control 2. That was my go to game in the 80's and it helped me through some rough times.
Star flight was awesome, I played star control 2, because it felt like star flight. They need to do a star flight version interview.!!!
I still remember playing Star Control II for the first time, it was an experience that I've never forgotten. Such an amazing set of star systems to explore with a great cast and enjoyable combat and customisation.
Paul Reiche III had a huge impact on my childhood due mainly to the fantastically underrated Mail Order Monsters on the Commodore 64. Love seeing this interview!
SC2 was one of the most amazing gaming experiences I have ever had, even after more than two and a half decades of gaming. There has simply not been anything quite like it. The mixture of gameplay elements are exactly right.
The resource building was tough and the early game was harsh, but that honestly just made it better. This is a game you get lost into.
Absolutely one of the all-time greats.
I like how Fred just sat there with a look of, "See, I told you this is what I had to deal with."
The ending was hilarious. He was all 'your team will forget the suffering you put them through' and his buddy is just like 'hm, no, I disagree sir'.
Love these stories even when I've not heard of the games. Thank you!!
it sounded like he was more talking about having to abandon features that some people on the team might be attached to, not really about the issue of long hours that has become hot recently
Star Control 2 was the best game I ever played.
Yeah there are not many games which are still awesome after nearly 30 years, but SC2 sure is.
When I got my new computer in the early 90's, there were only 3 things on my wish list
1) Simcity 2000
2) Star Control 2
3) Civilization
Absoluut een geweldige game
Really? As he was describing it I couldn't stop thinking "isn't that just like Elite?". Though I never played either Elite or SC2 people tend to bring up the former way more often than the latter.
I donated $5.00 to there defense fund against Stardock and put in my notes "$1 for every move it took me to win in Archon on the C-64" I got an email back from Fred thanking me for the donation but wishing I was not as skillful at Archon. LOL!
I donated £5.00 to the legal fund because I got it for free and I felt bad about it and that's what I thought that's what it was worth and I wanted to pay the real developers.
Wait, these guys made Archon also? And Archon II? Oh man, the Archon games were the reason I grew to love playing chess as much as I do now. Sadly those games haven't aged as well as some others, trying to get them to run on modern machines through emulation can be a bit of a headache.
Still, I have some incredibly fond memories of those and Star Control. These guys helped to create my love for gaming and computers as a child. Well, them and David Joiner who created Faery Tale Adventure... wonder what he's up to these days.
@@michaelberry8096 One of them (Paul Reiche III) made Archon, with a couple other people. Hey I think there is an archon remake on Steam that looks very accurate. I think I read that they used some of the original source code to make it.
@Jonathan Soko Not a chance. They sold limited rights to Accolade, Stardock bought those limited rights from Accolade's bankruptcy, and now claims to own everything. They are even trying to rewrite history, claiming these guys are not the creators of Star Control. Stardock is clearly in the wrong, and only stands a chance because they have the money to litigate forever.
Stardock clearly knew what they were buying in the auction. Wardell says so in emails to Paul and Fred, before changing his mind and saying he'll use their IP anyway. The judge noted as much in his dismissal of Wardell's motion for an injunction against DMCA notices.
Stardock bought the trademark, and thought they could get the rest by sweet talking Paul and Fred. And when that didn't work, they got nasty.
That said, it looks like Stardock took out almost everything they used from Star Control II. The copyright claim that remains is pretty thin, and if successful could damage the right of artists to pay homage to works they love. I am sad to say it, but I hope they lose. (Really, I hope they settle)
I'm a simple man: I see Paul and Fred, and I hit like. Very few games bring so many memories as SC2 does.
Such an honor to see these two talk about this game. Loved playing this game with my neighbors in college. I could lose 4 matches of Star Control and get to that ship that slowed down other ships and it was all over for the other side.
What a fantastic interview. Thanks, Ars Technica, and thanks, Mr. Reiche and Mr. Ford. It was super cool getting to hear from you both about the decisions and thoughts that went into the first two Star Control games. I've been a huge fan of SCII ever since I first ran across it soon after its release. I wish you gentlemen the best of luck with the unfortunate legal difficulties, and hope that Ghosts of the Precursors will eventually become a thing!
These guys are two incredibly brilliant individuals. It might sound strange, but Star Control 2's sense of "passing time", was probably one of their most brilliant innovations. The Universe has all of these fascination things to explore, but, if YOU waste too much time, all of these things that you love, all of this progress you've worked towards, will slowly begin to be destroyed. You've become emotionally attached to all of these different ships in your fleet, alien races, and then it's this huge slap in the face to see that your inaction can cause these things to be threatened and destroyed purely because you didn't take the proper steps to protect them from the threat that's actually cleansing the galaxy, bit by bit. Few games can provide that kind of "cause and effect". The things which Star Control 2 communicates could ONLY be provided by the videogame medium, so far. It's a fascinating game, and to this day stands as a unique piece of art.
It's the music of each alien species that really made Star Con 2. I'd play the hyperspace on nonstop for hours (it probably annoyed my roomate) as I'd study for school. The Drudge (wait Druuge... okay basically the same meaning) music had me thinking I've heard that before and realized years later it's like the James Gang's song "Walk Away"
Watching this on my phone. The Zot-foq-pik theme is my ringtone, so the ending threw me for a second. :) Loved Archon, Starcon and SC2!
I am in love with these series. You get to see how these people handled problems and tried to solve them. If you love something enough, you find no excuses to quit. Thank you for sharing :)
Star Control 1 & 2 live in my brain rent free since my older siblings bought them each shortly after release. Loved this vid.
Star Control 2 pretty much inspired Mass Effect.
I've always thought that too. But when I would tell people that they wouldn't know what I was talking about.
Which never lived up to the original.
When I try to get people to play this game, I usually compare it to Mass Effect.
Many alien races aspects/stories in SCII were "recycled" by the Mass Effect authors into their universe, but they toned down everything in the process.
Well, add a smattering of Starflight and a dash of Sentinel Worlds, and you'd have a pretty close facsimile of Mass Effect.
I've never played Star Control, but I love hearing about it from these guys. Props to all the designers from years ago that had so much more to deal with in a super young industry.
I just love how Fred sits there like the Fot, in the background, looking back and forth, never really speaking ... 🤣
Star Control II was one of the greatest games of all time. I still have my original disks in the original box with all of the extras. I still do a play through of UQM every year or so.
Edit: I had no idea Toys for Bob were responsible for The Horde as well. That came bundled with the first ever graphics card I bought. The RealMagic MPEG card. The game was a blast too.
The kickstarter for their Star Control II follow-up game "Free Stars: Children of Infinity" starts April 16 2024, or in just a few hours as of this writing!
I first stumbled on the PC port of the game more than a decade ago (Ur-Quan Masters), and that introduced me to Star Control II. It was one of the best experience I had with a Sci-Fi/Space video game as a teen, and I'm glad I found out about it. The most tedious part of the game for me was figuring out where to go at times, especially finding the creature the Vux were looking for, and the Mycon homeworld. These guys know what gamers want.
Oh my gosh is this video Nostalgic! SpaceWar was great and reminds me a lot of StarControl 2. (obviously that was no coincidence) The SC2 people did a spectacular job of making "match-ups" very important. It was all about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each race.
SC2 remains one of the grandest gaming experiences of my life. I'm sure my age at the time has something to do with that, but having replayed it recently I can say that it definitely holds up as an amazing experience even today.
I will always love Star Control II. My only gripe is the time limit.
Thank you so much for this excellent video. I started playing SC2 when I was 2 years old and it became embedded in my view of reality. Though, I'm yet to meet a person who knows the game other than those I show it to, haha. And these two are brilliant geniuses are a huge inspiration
They are clearly really great friends and development partners, that's really refreshing to see
I never played this game. But the quality of the information in this interview is a treasure.
Much love to both these men for sharing their personal philosophies from their experiences it is touching. Wish ya guys the best.
Whenever someone asks me what my favorite game is, I say "I don't have one single favorite game, but Star Control 2 was *the only **_perfect_** game I've ever played."* Paul and Fred designed the game so well that it basically has no flaws. There is nothing negative you can possibly say about it; only good things.
These guys are gaming masters from my childhood... I will NEVER forget them.
This was one of (maybe still is) my favorite games of all time. I've played all the way through it countless times, sent away for the giant galaxy map poster, spent hours tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys to make it run with all the sounds working. I'm so glad to see it remembered and see the creators talking about this. Absolutely made my night.
SC2.. Oh boy, I do have so fond memories of the game. The empty space felt so live and the characters were.. well.. characters and while I did have gripes about the battles when I was teenager, I realize the genuity in the wildly differing races and why there's no "jack of all trades" ship.. except the precursor ship
These are awesome. Please do David Braben on Elite. That would make for an interesting interview
One of my favorite games of all time, and I still play it sometimes. Still peeved that in Star Control 3, the Kor-Ah is backwards!
I had so much fun making my own storyline battles in star control 1, I wish they kept that feature in the later games.
Star control 2 was a really fun game! this was a really good interview! thank you for all the fun, gentlemen!
I had so much fun playing SC2 for the first time that i still remember fondly some of the jokes! FRUNGY! THE SPORT OF KINGS!
**Campers** *like to say `hello' when they* **smell** *the Orz.*
HELLO EXTREMELY!
Quad X ahhhhhhhhhhmggngggg
i hate the orz and love the orz
god why
They're scary. And despite ORZ being not quite conventional "species", the fact that they so readily adapt to realspace and use technology based exoskeletons and spaceships makes them all the more freaky.
@@SteppingWolf
It. It is Orz. You may **see** individual **bubbles*, but you do not *smell** beyond **heavy space** - they are not many *bubbles*, they are its *fingers*.
This video came out of nowhere and yet it's really made me happy and I really appreciate it having been made. Kind of like Star Control 2! I was surprised to receive it for free when I ordered Star Control 3, but in the end I found SC2 was the far superior game.
Star Control 3? Star control 3 was never made! It would be great if they did though. It would be great if someone would make sequels to that Matrix movie, too....
Your channel is absolutely amazing. I'm not into games much, but I find this very interesting! You deserve way more subs!
Star Control Origins was awesome, you guys are the best! Glad to see you're still at it making great Star Control games decades later.
Really interesting. Great channel. Thanks
This is awesome! I did not know there were videos on the makers of Star Control. Star Control 2 is my ALL time favorite game.. I remember being in my room, grab a pillow lay on the floor with the lights off at night and it would only be me and the world of Star Control that existed. I absolutely enjoy every minute of playing the game.
Still to this day I try to find a similar experience but nothing comes close. Even the newest Star Control I have only played maybe an hour of it. It just doesn't have that same appeal and adventuring through the galaxy as Star Control 2.
I really wish these guys would continue making games like Star Control 2.
Thank You for making my favorite game, you have no idea on how much you influenced my younger years for the better.
Thanks for the video!
great series. seeing producers and game designers is something thats a breath of fresh air with the stagnant state of media these days
Great to see P&F talking about Star Control. I wish this interview wasn't overshadowed by the asinine legal battle that has come about between them and Stardock. (who if you do your homework are almost solely responsible for the precipitation of events to where they are now) I just hope that P&F can emerge from this victorious and be able to return to finally deliver a true successor to The Ur-Quan Masters.
Even if they won't come out victorious they still have the ability to make a UQM sequel.
In 25 years to show that P&F care... one announcement blog post is all we get. Yeah... sure... they are really trying to make it.
Please break down what you know about the legal issues and, in detail, explain why Stardock is the villain. Thanks.
@St Pensive crimsoncorporation.org/attack
I mean, that's not specific to the legal issues, but if plotting and scheming to destroy communities isn't the sort of thing villains do, what is? :p
Stardock is run by a *frumple* man-child that bought a picture of some toys(but not the toys) and because he owns the pictures, he thinks he owns the toys. (Which he doesn't) but he is taking it out on everyone that disagrees with his assertion of ownership via facsimile. He also pretty much sucks in general as a person as far as I can tell from reading about him, things he's said, opinions he has, etc. So I'm never buying another stardock title again. And I'm super ok with that. I'm in P & F's corner. I hope they win this thing (which they should). And then we can all have *parties* together. *enjoy the sauce*
For years, I used the starcontrol default keyboard layout in first person shooters: pinky for left, right, ring for forward/back giving me 2 fingers to switch weapons :-D
Purely inspirational! What history and an amazing story behind a game.
Star Control 2 was first released in 1992, but with another company ( accolade?) after maybe 1.5 years which added the full and awesome voice acting with 14 totally different types of space races and beings and ships. This game was literally light-years ahead of it's time......
Star Control 2 is the only DOS game I can think of that I didn't have to configure, it auto-detected everything.
After I upgraded to win 95 any my drivers weren't DOS compatible anymore, the audio played through the pc speaker and it actually sounded good...which was strange.
This is a game I talk about when I refer to copy protection that isn't intrusive. The starmap is useful from a gameplay perspective and you can figure out what it's asking for at a glance. As opposed to most of that era that make you type in a specific word from a place in the manual.
Who won this season of Frungy?
And when do we embark on a journey towards the galactic core in search of the Precursors?
My god, the melee/supermelee physics engine is based on Asteroids. That's incredibly cool.
star control 2, in retrospect to the age i was and the age of gaming we were in when i first played it on my 3do in the 90s, was the most jaw dropping moment i ever had in gaming in my life
Roleplaying Pain I still have it for 3DO. Played it a lot in the 90s. Thought it was more realistic than most of the official "scientific" prophesies.
12:00 both of what they say here is total gold. But Paul's really specific comments are incredibly insightful-not everyone will appreciate them, in fact many might disagree... but to certain people, those are the types of words that would encourage them to do something really great.
Very fascinating interview
The Starflight 2 poster in the background gets me in the feels.
Thanks! I have never seem the guys before. Nice interview.
Loved these games growing up. Played for days with my friends. Thanks for all your work.
came to find this series in 2022 amd looooove them. Thank you for the viewing
One of my favorite childhood games. I remember playing it on a monochrome monitor that for some reason lacked a channel for the red color so a lot of UI components were actually invisible, including (most annoyingly) crucial pieces of text and a certain number of planets. It didn't stop me from finishing the game twice and mapping out the entire galaxy.
I recently revisited the game, and it's definitely more grindy than I remember. I still happily finished the game the third time around, and then conducted an obligatory "why was there never a proper SCIII" mourning session. :)
SC2 is simply part of my life story. My brother and I were 8 and 10 when we played it the first time, so many years ago. It captivated us, helping to form true sense of good vs. evil, adventure, and the cosmos, and leading him to become a programmer. I'm 40 now... but what I wouldn't give to jump into a truly worthy successor.
Mass Effect 1 got inspired by many of the mechanics of SC2. Roaming vehicle on planets for example.
I had the hyperspace map from the SC2 manual hanging on the wall of my bedroom for like ten years!
I could listen to these guys all day.
5:23 That "see what I had to deal with" look ;)
Star Control 2 was hands down my favorite game as a kid. Still think about it -- loved that I stumbled on this!
Excellent video. Brilliant developers. Subscribed. Love this channel.
I used to play this for months back in 90s when I had no internet to get help. We used to install SC2 on the computers at school and SuperMelee with friends. Instead of spending time for building a fleet we mostly used to build an all-Druuge-fleet and fight. It was fun.
...and I like the ideas in the game such as;
- a superior ancient race creating a genetically engineered race as biological tools for the management of planetary systems.
- an alien race living in gas giants, purchasing droids to explore worlds that they can never ever visit, and make you trace and fix a software bug in their droid that becomes a treat to all lifeforms due to a bug in the source code.
These each can be a movie plot by itself.
Love this series! Please keep it going!
Oh wow! One of my most favorite games of all time! Give us MORE from this game and these developers!! :-)
6:30 YES, the description just now did sound interesting!
You sir created the inspiration for the Mass Effect games (when they were good). In fact Star Control II is better than Mass Effect in some ways as there is ship to ship battle in Star Control. Star Control 2 still holds up today, I played it in 2017. I've got the gog edition but I think there was a remaster done or something.
Definitely agreed 👍 Especially the first couple of ME games, before the dark time, before the Empire...(E.A,)
SC\SC 2 were two of the greatest games of my teen/young adult life! I loved these games. Especially my buddy Fwiffo! Keep on rockin' you Spathi beast!
LoL the old days xD when people still thought: how can we make a good game thats a alot of fun?
instead of: how do we make something people will keep paying in....
There's always been greedy developers, and there are still ambitious developers.
thats a fact, although they still tried to push their politics into starcon 2, but the science models failed...
Those developers still exist, its just that people don't buy their games in large numbers. Going by sales, people prefer Activision, EA, Blizzard, and Bethesda games.
Sure, they didn't have cheap cash-grabs back then, at least 90% of games made were so unique and thoughtful...
Great interview. Amazing game. Keep up the good work.
This channel is really good, more war stories!
7:11 This was the main problem with No Man's Sky
100%. Tons of things that were technically variety, very little actual variety.
There wasn't a problem in the game. It was the problem with those that bought the game based on trailers and hype from 3rd parties instead of waiting to see what it was really like. It's hard to match peoples expectations.
@@Ralathar44 That was your perspective while hundreds of thousands loved the game and the evolution that followed.
@@mikeyoung9810 It's not my perspective, it's the truth. The game has very little mechanical variety and alot of things that LOOK different.
It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't a good one either. And it took it until the NEXT update to even be of release quality.
I'm glad that a ton of new people tried out the survival genre and enjoyed it. Now they can move on to better survival games after enjoying NMS.
@@mikeyoung9810 Why does it matter that there are quintillion planets when every one of then feels pretty much the same. The game gets really boring really fast. I know it has been updated a lot but it still sucks in my opinion. I didn't even see those trailers because I had only little interest in the first place.
Not a word about the sound effects and music? That was one of my favourite aspects of the world.
These men ARE the Ur-Quan Masters. I have been enthralled with the first 2 versions of this game from the get go. I really wish they would consider revisiting the strategy mode from the first version as it was basically a cosmic chess battle with some interesting twists such as turn based fleet building, specific planet types which allowed for colonies (to replenish depleted crew from survived battles, mines (to generate more Starbucks to replace vessels lost in battle) and forts (to block enemy advancement). This to me was the key to infinite 2 player replayability as each new map was randomly generated. There was also an option to make the entire map invisible from the beginning so that it was an adventure in discovery to find the pathways between the opposing Starbases, which were the primary objective of each player to destroy his opponent's Starbase as to eliminate the ability to build anymore ships.
Not gonna lie, I don't care about gaming. Never really have. But I absolutely love this series. The way these interviews go into the problem solving involved in each of these game development scenarios is super well done, and incredibly inspiring.
The concepts & problems that have to be dealt with are so unique & fascinating.
You made the Horde too?!? Holy sh*t, I forgot that. Pure awesomeness :)
i really do love this channel i love stories like this :D
By the way! The Ur Quan Masters has a sequel designed by Paul and Fred that's in a kickstarter called the FREE STARS: Children of Infinity. I can't wait to see what else Paul and Fred have been able to come up with after all these years!
These guys seem totally cool and down to earth! Together they are a Genius. SC2 is a masterpiece.