Star Control
Accolade released Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict, Volume IV for IBM PC MS-DOS in July of 1990. Developed by Toys for Bob, Star Control was designed by Paul Reiche III, programmed by Fred Ford, drawn by Paul Reiche III and Greg Johnson and composed by Kyle Freeman, Tommy V. Dunbar and Paul Peiche III.
Star Control is a turn-based strategy game and tactical shoot 'em up that sets the human forces of the Alliance of Free Stars against the invading aliens of the Ur-Quan Hierarchy.
In Strategy mode aka Fleet Command mode units are moved about space, Precursor-relic discoveries can be made, new starships can be built, lost crewmen can be replaced and life-world colonies, mineral-world mines and starbase fortifications can be established and destroyed.
Battle ensues when two starships of opposing forces occupy the same position in Fleet Command mode.
Tactical mode aka battle mode gameplay is as per Gravitar-likes; that is, thrust and 360° sprite rotation and firing as well as Newtonian momentum physics and gravitational pull. Each starship has its own weapons system, special power and advantages and disadvantages. However, unlike Gravitar-likes there is no terrain to negotiate and there are no multiple simultaneous enemies.
Space battles are staged on zooming starfields with asteroids and planets as hazards. The playfield effectively zooms in and out depending on the proximity of the starships.
Star Control Features
- 2x Intersellar factions: Alliance of Free Stars & The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
- 2x Game-modes: Fleet Command strategy mode & Battle-mode ship-to-ship combat
- 14x different vessels aka starships each constituted by 8x stats
- 3x Game-types: Practice, Melee & Full Game
- Battle-mode: 360° starship rotation, thrust, fire, special power
- 9x Scenarios
- Separate Scenario Editor (Edit.exe)
- 2-player simultaneous versus mode
- exe: STARCON /S:mt32 /G:mcga
Star Control Technical
PC Star Control displays in 4-color CGA 320x200 or 16-color Tandy/EGA 320x200 or 256-color VGA or MCGA 320x200. Star Control requires an 8 MHz IBM AT and 512K of free conventional memory in CGA/EGA display modes and 640K in VGA/MCGA and Tandy display modes.
PC Star Control audio supports AdLib, Roland MT-32/LAPC, CMS, Tandy 3-voice and IBM Internal Speaker.
PC Star Control was distributed on 1x 3.5" 720kB DD diskette or 2x 5.25" 360kB floppy disks and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Star Control Installation Utility. The install size is 716K and consists of 17 files.
PC Star Control Manual (Star Control Commander's Guide): 57 pages.
PC Star Control copy protection: Star Control Code Wheel: Professor Zorg's Instant Etiquette Analyzer.
PC Star Control controls support joystick or keyboard.
Zarch of 1987 is graphically lightyears ahead of Star Control of 1990, but Zarch does not feature a strategy mode, selectable spaceships or versus play-mode. Zarch is technically advanced without extra features whereas Star Control is technically primitive with extra features. Still, Zarch has better gameplay and physics than Star Control, not just better graphics.
Star Control Amiga 1990
Accolade released Star Control for the Amiga in 1990. The Amiga version of Star Control is a port from the original PC version by Toys for Bob. The Amiga version is practically identical to the PC version; there are no enhancements whatsoever.
Amiga Star Control was distributed on 2x 3.5" 880kB DD diskette. It is not installable to hard disk drive.
The original Star Control was influenced by Space War:
Star Control 2 IBM PC 1992
Accolade released Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters for IBM PC MS-DOS in November of 1992. Developed by Toys for Bob, Star Control 2 was designed by Paul Reiche III and programmed by Fred Ford.
Star Control 2 is set in AD 2155 during an epoch of solar-system colonization and deep-space exploration. Players assume the role of the Captain of a Precursor flagship who leads a crew of survivors of the Star Control Science Research team. The Captain is tasked with liberating Earth and saving the galaxy from the Ur-Quan slavers and Kohr-Ah exterminators. To this end, the Captain allies with various aliens and assembles an armada.
Star Control 2 eschewed the Fleet Mode strategy gameplay of Star Control in favor of open-ended galaxy navigation, story, lore and dialogue with dialogue selections, but Star Control 2 retained the Gravitar-like tactics-shooter gameplay of the original. In addition, Star Control 2 added configurable flagships, buildable starships and 3D rotating planets with scannable surfaces and explorable, fractal-generated planetscapes.
Star Control 2 Features
- 2x main Interstellar factions: The New Alliance of Free Stars & The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
- 2x Game-modes: Navigation mode & Battle-mode ship-to-ship combat
- 25x different vessels aka starships each constituted by 8x stats
- 2x Game-types: Campaign & Super Melee mode (SuperMelee)
- Starmap, HyperSpace & TrueSpace travel
- Battle-mode: 360° starship rotation, thrust, fire, special power
- Configurable flagship via mineral-dependent Starbase
- 3x flagship characteristics: Turning rate, Combat energy & Max velocity (and fuel)
- 4x flagship enhancement module-types: Thruster, Altitude, Lander & Multi-function
- Flagship weapon modules allow for forward shot, rear shot, spread shot & twin side shot
- Buildable starships via Starbase Shipyard
- Flagship cargo (manifest) & roster
- 21x Alien races
- 600x individually-named star systems & ~3,500 planets
- Planets constituted by 10x characteristics and 4x planetary hazards
- 2-player simultaneous versus mode (SuperMelee)
- One hour of 8-channel digital music & 50+ digital sound effects
- exe: STARCON2 / MELEE
Star Control 2 Technical
Star Control 2 displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 and requires 580,000 bytes of free conventional memory.
Star Control 2 audio supports AdLib, Roland MT-32/LAPC, Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, Sound Master II, Microsoft Windows Sound, Gravis Ultrasound, ASC Media Master, Disney Sound Source, Covox Speech Thing and IBM Internal Speaker.
Star Control 2 was distributed on 4x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 4x 5.25" 1.2MB HD floppy disks and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Star Control 2 Hard Disk Installation Utility and LHA's SFX v2.13S of 1991 by Yoshi. The install size is 8.8 megs and consists of 49 files.
Star Control 2 Manual (Star Control Commander's Guide): 83 pages.
Star Control 2 Role-playing Resource Guide: 56 pages.
Star Control 2 copy protection: HyperSpace Star Map (Star Map Trivia Quiz).
Star Control 2 controls support joystick or keyboard.
Indexes:
- Amiga Games Reviews (Index to all Amiga game reviews)
- Computer Game Reviews (Index to all computer game reviews)
- The First REAL Amiga Game
- Best Amiga Games
- History of Computer Games 1976-2024 (Master Index)
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