Matt Chat 24: Star Control II and the Spacewar Legacy

[VisionofOrion]

....and since we are on the subject why does the Melnorme's bridge turn purple?

[VisionofOrion]

In my opinion probably the best RPG ever made. Game was great, fun to play and all of the characters were fleshed out well. Not to mention the humor was great. I still have it on my 3do and will occasionaly replay it when I get bored of modern day games.

[HardWarUK]

If anything needed a 2 parter it was this edition! :)

[matternicuss]

really surprised you haven't covered the wing commander series yet, Matt! If you do, make sure you cover III and IV:) Easily some of the best space sims ever. Don't make em like that anymore sadly.

[MrILOVEBEINGPURPLE]

I called my captian shepard and ship named normandy lol

[KillerSalmon]

@viktorhat - They're unrelated. GDW was a US company that published En Garde, Traveller, 2300 AD, Twilight 2000 plus a bunch of wargames. GW is a UK games company and there is a small connection with GDW in that they released the UK reprint of Traveller (but they did this fora bunch of other RPG's that originated in the US).

[bluestreek004]

help petition a remake!! google "star control 2 petition"

[scottehybates]

FRANCIS DOES NOT LIKE THIS SON, BAD WORK VINCE NO AWARD FOR YOU!

[1337ASM]

seems just like starflight II :)

[blacklily8]

@1337ASM They definitely have a lot in common.

[HardWarUK]

There is also an 'unofficial' Star Control 3. Check it out at:

watch?v=HKGlozYECy8&feature=re­lated

[HardWarUK]

If you like this type of game, I think you would like these other 90's PC games: Spaceflight, Ironseed, Reunion. Alien Legacy and Space Rogue.

[Firaje]

This game always reminded me of Dune, anyone else?

[tuktuktok]

I played Star Control about two years ago. Stunning game. Just stunning. More than a game actually. Everything fits, greats humour, deep plot and great playability. Masterpiece of gaming.

[vintagevideogamegeek]

Looks like an epic game! Where you ever able to save Earth?

[HardWarUK]

Also, be aware a remake of this game has been made called the Ur-Quan Masters, usings code from the 3DO version and mixing it with the PC version, meaning better graphics in some cases, and digitized speech, etc. It's an excellent remake and Toys for Bob were involved and the game is very dedicated to the original. And it's free! Just google 'Ur-Quan Masters download'

[HardWarUK]

I am not ashamed to say, the only difference between me and Matt is that I played the games he's reviewing when they first came out. In many cases I still have the original games, like this one, Legacy of the Ancients (I still have my C64), Syndicate, etc! :)

[JackiePaquito]

Another great vid!!

[theelusiveone]

I am amazed at how many of my favorite games Matt has reviewed. SC2, M.U.L.E, Autoduel, KOTOR. I would love to see a review of Lunar the Silver Star....although that was a console Rpg.

[blacklily8]

I'm not sure. I don't think so.

[Metroidfan12]

I love the game. them movie is cool. but for others playing this game for the first time DO NOT go to Mercury. go to Io or another one of Jupiter's moons. but that is what i do. the choice is yours people. the movie is awesome though.

[CapnPicard]

cool vid

[Lorfarius]

I lost 2 weeks of my life on this just a couple of months back. The story is really involving and I love the way the whole universe doesn't centre on the human race, you are the weak race only surviving by sheer luck.

[BruceSpringsteeen]

Great video! :)

I LOVE SC2 and play the Ur-Quan Masters release every now and then.

I'd love to find a newer game that's similar to SC2 - do you know any?

If not, let's hope for a sequal!

Thanks, 5 stars :)

[blacklily8]

Thanks very much! It's definitely not the same thing, but you might like Sins of a Solar Empire. I know I enjoyed it.

[dczanik]

@BruceSpringsteeen I just happen to be working on a sequel of sorts! I'm the artist for 'Project 6014'. It's made for fans of SC2/Ur-Quan Masters. We have a demo out. It's free. If you try it, I'd love to know what you think. :) You can search for it on google, or look at the intro video somebody posted on youtube

[orakiorob]

Very nice show!

I've never played Star Control, but I've played Starflight on the Sega Genesis, and the game was extremely interesting. I think I'll give SCII a try.

[blacklily8]

Thanks for watching and commenting, orakiorob. I think you'll enjoy it.

[RetroComputerMuseum]

As a 3DO collector myself I have to say this is an excellent game and one of the best for the 3DO.

[blacklily8]

Yes, I was quite pleased to be able to capture the footage from my 3DO. Very interesting and exciting era with lots of innovations and dead-ends, apparently.

[Konuvis]

Another nice review Matt!

It's funny the music when you fight the alien fighter reminds me of Earthworm Jim..... I guess the spit shot noise doesn't help either :P

[blacklily8]

Yes, there's a good deal of humor in this game. I think that's one of the reasons for its enduring popularity.

[Yakumo9275]

I never dug SC2 much, it wasnt.. roleplayey enough for me like starflight 1+2 were. It was too much action oriented. I'm one of the few who didnt like it :)

[blacklily8]

They're all good games in my opinion, though certainly folks who dislike action/shmup type stuff would be better off with something like Sins of a Solar Empire--another excellent game, btw.

[Tomekkthegreat]

I just played this game for the first time. It is mind-blowing! The atmosphere is very awesome, there is a humongous galaxy to explore and aliens are really funny. All of these topped by an amazing soundtrack surely make it one of the best games ever.

[blacklily8]

Glad you're enjoying it. There is talk of a sequel; let's hope it comes to pass.

[thejoyofsticks]

Nice one, Matt. Very informative as usual.

I'm glad you covered this, I had been meaning to get around to playing this for quite some time, but forgotten all about it. Apparently, there is a group of people attempting to convert it to modern OSs. There is also a petition somewhere that you can sign to try and convince Activision to release a new Star Control!

[blacklily8]

Yes, I've been hearing a lot about both. Look for a blog named Star Controller to learn more--some exciting stuff going on for sure.

[rudeydudey05]

I did indeed love this game.

[laffer35]

Very interesting review!

I've somehow managed never to hear about this one... going to have to check it out.

Btw, I love all of your reviews... I'm just lazy when it comes to commenting :p

[blacklily8]

Thanks for watching! If it makes you feel guilty--it takes 8 hours or so to make a video, but only a few seconds to post a comment! :P

[Tomekkthegreat]

Very nice and informative video. Congrats :) Sub'd and check out Abandonia's channel too, ok?:D

[snaged911]

As have i Fair Tomekk

[blacklily8]

Thanks, snaged911!

[blacklily8]

Thanks, Tomekthegreat. I thought I had done that no-brainer already, but I guess something went wrong. In any case, happily subbed now!

It's hard to exaggerate how useful Abandonia is for game history.

[Nouseeker]

such an atmospheric game

[blacklily8]

Nice pun!

[skateblind007]

Such a great game. You do need to just keep plugging away at it to get anywhere, but the element of discovery kept me going. The gameplay may not be to everyones liking, I still think it is a well rounded game though. Every element of it is just another big plus point. I reckon a lot more people would have played this properly if it didn't have such a steep learning curve. It deserves more than a few minutes in your video, but then there would be too many spoilers. ;)

[rowdyrob3d]

Great episode about a game I've always wanted to play, but never got around to it. There's apparently a legal freeware version that's available for the PC platform that I'll give a shot this weekend.

Enjoyed this episode!

[marcusmalone]

Yes there is. I downloaded it awhile back but didn't have the time to really work the damn thing out! Lot of views for the Planescape vid Matt! Congrats!

[blacklily8]

Thanks! Check out the manuals if you get the chance; they are available at replacement docs.

[blacklily8]

It's funny how many of us seem to have missed this one when it came out. In any case, it's very "Amiga-esque" and worth checking out. The music that plays during hyperspace reminds me of many an Amiga cracktro.

[HalfBlindGamer]

Great stuff man! This was a great game I totally missed when it was new, granted that it would have probably been to complext for me to understand fully then anyway.

I recently played the remade version for PC with all the speech and some other extra's from the 3DO version. What was great about it was that it was optional so you could make you game look and sound completely like either version or mix it up. I really enjoyed it, but the dog fighting took a while to get the hang of.

[blacklily8]

I haven't even tried to the new version that's out, but have heard nothing but good things about it. I love it when the developers release stuff like this as FOSS; that way others can continue to build on their work.

I did some dog fighting back in the day, but didn't realize there was so much more to it. Have to make up for lost time now! :)

[skateblind007]

Go try it, you won't be disappointed, make sure you download all the reworked media. :)

[MaximumRD]

Perfection as always. Interesting game.

[blacklily8]

Thanks, Rob!

[dcruze]

Good review again. I tried this game a little bit last year with all the speech and extras. It seems fun enough, but takes a while to get into.

[blacklily8]

Really? I was sucked in right away, but I guess it does take awhile to build up the ship and fleet. :)