Star Control Reboot Emerges From the Wreckage of Atari

Andy Chalk

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Star Control Reboot Emerges From the Wreckage of Atari


Stardock says it hopes to involve as many original Star Control designers and developers as it can in an XCom-style reboot.

The collapse and Fallen Enchantress [www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126181-World-of-Tanks-Dev-Bids-on-Auctioned-Atari-Assets] and Sins of a Solar Empire, has successfully bid for the Star Control property, and it's planning a reboot of the franchise.

"We're very excited to publish a new Star Control game. We are inclined to go with an XCom-like reboot using Star Control 2 as a major source of inspiration," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell told Joystiq. "By rebooting the series á la XCom, we can bring a new generation of gamers into a fun, silly space adventure. We hope to involve as many of the original designers and developers of the series, along with the fan base. It's important to us that Star Control remain true to its origins as much as is possible."

Star Control, a sci-fi strategy/exploration/combat game, was originally released for MS-DOS and Amiga systems back in 1990, but Star Control 2, which added new species, ship types, an actual plot and other gameplay elements, is the one that generally comes to mind when the name comes up. Players must form an alliance of alien races, assemble a fleet and ultimately throw off the yoke of the Ur-Quan, and while other games followed, Star Control 2 is the one that's best-remembered.

There's obviously a lot of ground between "we bought it" and "we made it," but Stardock is the right kind of studio for a game like Star Control and the fact that it wants to bring original developers back to it speaks well of its intentions. As bankruptcy auctions and IP acquisitions go, this is very exciting news indeed.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2013/07/22/more-atari-ip-auction-winners-announced-stardock-plans-star-con/]


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Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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I dunno if you can recapture the essence of Star Control 2... But they're welcome to try. If they're shooting for an Enemy Unknown-style reboot and not one like the Bureau then by all means.
 

Nuxxy

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X-Com and Star Control 2 (which I still play) are very different games, so I hope the only similarity they are drawing is spacey-sci-fi. Or I'll use my Burvix Caster and send the Ilwrath after them!
 

Yal

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Dec 22, 2010
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I am the happiest man in the world. I mean, the last time Stardock took a beloved 90s icon and remade it it was Master of Magic and we got Elemental, and I don't know how many of the Toy For Bob guys they're actually going to pull out of the Skylanders money-printing machine, and...

Doesn't matter. Star Control. Squee.

For anyone who hasn't played it, the 3DO version of Star Control 2 was released for free ages ago. It's up and fully playable under the name The Ur-Quan Masters [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/].
 

Callate

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I think this is fantastic news. Star Control 2 is absolutely the kind of game that could be re-made well with a good writing and planning team without needing a staff of hundreds of people and a bank-breaking AAA-budget, and Stardock seems like a good fit for such a task. I wish them luck.
 

Jandau

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As long as there are Spathi ships with rear mounted homing rockets, they have my money :D
 

Jazoni89

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Yal said:
I am the happiest man in the world. I mean, the last time Stardock took a beloved 90s icon and remade it it was Master of Magic and we got Elemental, and I don't know how many of the Toy For Bob guys they're actually going to pull out of the Skylanders money-printing machine, and...

Doesn't matter. Star Control. Squee.

For anyone who hasn't played it, the 3DO version of Star Control 2 was released for free ages ago. It's up and fully playable under the name The Ur-Quan Masters [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/].
The 3DO version, was released on PC without the incredibly good voice acting (amongst other things), thus some people say, especially 3DO enthusiasts that the 3DO version is superior, even compared to the Toys for Bob 3DO PC version. It's also free technically too, what with the 3DO having no copyright protection.

I own that 3DO version, it's indeed a fantastic game, so i hope Atari don't fuck it up with this new one.
 

ScrabbitRabbit

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Nuxxy said:
X-Com and Star Control 2 (which I still play) are very different games, so I hope the only similarity they are drawing is spacey-sci-fi. Or I'll use my Burvix Caster and send the Ilwrath after them!
I think what they means is, they want to bring the game to modern audiences whilst keeping to the original formula as much as possible. They want to stick to the game's roots and not just shove the name on an Ouya-exclusive knitting sim.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
WOOOOOOOOO MORE STAR CONTROL!


Seriously though, I hope they don't mess this up, Star Control 2 is like one my my top 5 games period. I don't think they will though, I hope they learned from the mess that was the launch of Fallen Enchantress.
 

Yal

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Jazoni89 said:
I thought the 3DO version, was released on PC without the incredibly good voice acting, thus some people say, especially 3DO enthusiasts that the 3DO version is superior. It's also free technically too, what with the 3DO having no copyright protection.
The speech pack is available as an optional download straight from the project site [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php] on Sourceforge, which I assume means its all legal and whatnot.

I confess I don't really know the differences between the real 3DO version and the UQM release. I believe most of them come down to the differences between televisions and monitors as displays.
 

Jazoni89

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Yal said:
Jazoni89 said:
I thought the 3DO version, was released on PC without the incredibly good voice acting, thus some people say, especially 3DO enthusiasts that the 3DO version is superior. It's also free technically too, what with the 3DO having no copyright protection.
The speech pack is available as an optional download straight from the project site [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php] on Sourceforge, which I assume means its all legal and whatnot.

I confess I don't really know the differences between the real 3DO version and the UQM release. I believe most of them come down to the differences between televisions and monitors as displays.
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Version_Comparison

I've also heard people say that the 3DO version is far less clunky than the PC version in terms of resource management, and combat. I guess that's why the 3DO version is still highly prized with it being more pick up and play, and having decent controls, especially when it comes to old school PC Ports, which most of the time never worked with a controller.

Releasing a high regarded PC game on a console and and making it work well was probably a very ambitious thing back in the day.
 

Zachery Gaskins

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One of the Toys for Bob founders, Paul Reiche III, has a long resume in the industry, and is best well known for being 1/3rd of FreeFall Associates (the people responsible for the Archon duology), and designing Mail Order Monsters (which was the kaiju monster battle game of its time, and definitely a forerunner of Pokemon).

The Star Control series was the next step in the "strategic maneuvering, twitch-style close combat" genre that Archon started, and it could be argued was an ancestor of the modern RTS game.
 

csoloist

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Yal said:
the last time Stardock took a beloved 90s icon and remade it it was Master of Magic and we got Elemental
You mean that disaster of a game, worse than Master of Magic in every way that matters? I've had zero faith in Stardock ever since GalCiv. Master of Orion was a relatively simple template with such obvious failings and they still managed to make a successor that was totally inferior to it's progenitor.

Ah well, at least after Star Control 3 the franchise can't sink any lower.
 

BoogieManFL

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If it has space exploration and good dialogue with the alien races and music fitting SC2, then I'm all for this. Star Control 2 is still one of my favorite games of all time. My buddy and I played the "melee" free combat together for years after.

I hope they don't do something like the wasted Syndicate FPS "reboot". It can't just be set in that universe but with all the bullshit corporate mainstream changes that games seem to always have to have these days. If it his nothing on common with SC2 but the setting I'll probably be disappointed.

Also don't let serious bugs sit in the game for years like you did the the silent out of sync issue in Sins of a Solar Empire.

Oh - and pretend like Star Control 3 never happened, please. Don't take anything from that.
 

Abomination

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csoloist said:
Yal said:
the last time Stardock took a beloved 90s icon and remade it it was Master of Magic and we got Elemental
You mean that disaster of a game, worse than Master of Magic in every way that matters? I've had zero faith in Stardock ever since GalCiv. Master of Orion was a relatively simple template with such obvious failings and they still managed to make a successor that was totally inferior to it's progenitor.

Ah well, at least after Star Control 3 the franchise can't sink any lower.
Take it you haven't played Fallen Enchantress and Legendary Heroes or Galactic Civilization II and expansions?

Stardock doesn't let shit games stay shit. They gave away Fallen Enchantress for FREE to people who purchased Elemental.

I'm happy for a company that's capable of recognizing mistakes taking the helm of this project.
 

evilneko

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Jun 16, 2011
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No no no no NO. I said remake the original, not reboot the series! Dammit, do I have to do everything myself? Maybe it's time I dusted off my Visual C++...

Also:
mfeff said:
Star Control was already remade its called Mass Effect.


Superficial similarities do not a remake make.
 

Quiotu

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Callate said:
I think this is fantastic news. Star Control 2 is absolutely the kind of game that could be re-made well with a good writing and planning team without needing a staff of hundreds of people and a bank-breaking AAA-budget, and Stardock seems like a good fit for such a task. I wish them luck.
Yeah, you couldn't get this smile off of my face if you tried. After going through things like THQ going under and Atlus being auctioned off, having a game IP I love being bought by a studio that MATCHES the others' style so well is awesome. I am SO goddamn happy right now, and while this could easily blow up in all our faces, I'm legitimately looking forward to what they come up with.

Don't forget to *enjoy the sauce*.
 

Tiamat666

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Dec 4, 2007
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mfeff said:
Star Control was already remade its called Mass Effect.
Yeah, if Mass Effect had had some cool starship combat and fleet building, it would have been the perfect Star Control remake.

I'm excited about StarDock handling it. I hope this time they manage to deliver on the 1st try though.