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Hope for Another Star Control Sequel? 101

Posted by Zonk from the beware-the-ur-quan dept.
Pluvius writes "A recent post on GameSpot's Rumor Control blog suggests that there may be a chance for a new entry in the classic Star Control series in the foreseeable future. It would be developed by Toys for Bob, the creator of the first two games in the series, and it is implied that the company already holds the rights for the franchise. Quoting from the article: 'But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send [Alex Ness, producer] e-mails requesting that Toys For Bob do a legitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to [Toys For Bob parent company] Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.'"
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Hope for Another Star Control Sequel? More

Hope for Another Star Control Sequel?

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  • Frungy! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RogueyWon ( 735973 ) * on Sunday April 16, 2006 @05:35AM (#15137464) Journal
    Yes, but...

    Will it have Frungy?

    Will I be able to load in the stats from the latest Frungy season? All the latest players, their colouring patterns, tentacle length and favorite flavour of delicious lichen? Will I be able to customise team-lineup, including the infamous 1-9-18-2 formation? What about personalised limpets? Man, I was so steamed when I found out that we... ah... I mean those funny, yet unutterably powerful, fearsome yet compassionate and all-around great guys the Zoq-Fot-Pik had been cut from the atrocity that was Starcon 3.

    All I can say is, you better get it right this time!

    • Re:Frungy! (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Frungy! Frungy, Frungy! Sport of Kings!
    • you are SQUEEZING THE JUICE!

    • Re:Frungy! (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Frungy is one of those things that is better left to the imagination, I'll certainly be pissed if they do implement Frungy as some stupid side game in the new SC.

    • Re:Frungy! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
      Does that guy in the back ever post anything?
    • A Frungy mini game inside the game would be *most* excellent.

      Hell, let's face it, Toys for Bob could probably release "Frungy! (The Sport of Kings)" as it's own title and we'd probably all wet our pants in excitement.

      Just think of it... the Interstellar Frungy League, with the Pkunk players screaming out "Idiot! Moron! Worm!". Khor-Ah with their Talking Pet cheerleading squad cheering: "You will be annihilated!". The Chmmr won't ever be ready to take the field when gametime comes around.

      Maybe a Slylandr
    • Interstellar Frungy. It's the sport of kings!

  • The Ur-Quan Masters (Score:4, Funny)

    by DimGeo ( 694000 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @05:39AM (#15137473) Homepage
    I, for one, welcome our new Ur-Quan [sourceforge.net] Overlords. (ducks)

  • Star Control 2 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mprx ( 82435 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @05:40AM (#15137475)
    If you haven't played this classic game, then go to http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] . The 3DO version source was released under the GPL and the music and art is free to distribute with the source.
  • Oh wow. Oh wow wow wow. That would really be killer. SCII is still one of the best PC games of all time - even the music has been on my iPod mini since I bought it.
    • Yes!! Really!! The thing we really need is another PC game sequel!!!!
    • One of the absolute best features of Star Control 2 was, without question, the music. How many people here got one of the SC2 songs in their head when they saw the title of this article? I got the "flying through space" music stuck in my head when I saw it.

      This may be one of the reasons SC2 was so memorable. Not only was the music in it good but at the time, using .MOD files for music in a video game was something that, up to that point, you only got (for the most part) on an Amiga. The music sounded g

  • Try SCTW (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Posted anon to avoid karma whoring...
    I highly recommend the open-source "Star Control Timewarp". It's awesome:

    http://timewarp.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
    • I loved timewarp... I thought it was great melee action. But does anyone play it online? I've been wanting to play SC2 against other people since I was a kid.

      P.S. I rule at melee with the Earthling Cruiser.
  • Toys for Bob haven't made games for PC's for a long time, even if a sequel would be made, what platform(s) would be able to run it?
    I really hope that the sequel gats made, and also that it wouldn't be limited to just game consoles.
    Star Control was fun, and Star Control 2 is one of the best games ever!
    If you haven't tried it, do yourself a favor and go get it at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
    • "Toys for Bob haven't made games for PC's for a long time, even if a sequel would be made, what platform(s) would be able to run it?"

      If I had my pick, it'd be the Nintendo DS. No, not because I'm a raving Nintendo Fanboy (well, I am, but that's not the reason this time) and no, not because I have some weird idea of how the touch screen would be great for it. I want them to work on a simpler system. One of the things that left a bad taste in my mouth about SCIII (yes, I know TFB didn't make that game, don
      • I think it's easy to say Star Control 2 was the definiitive game for the continued fame of Star Control. I'll also say that the PC version is the one people really got, and the 3DO's only legacy is being the one that they still had source code to make UQM a reality.

        With this in mind, I would say their target market would be largely comprised of those who were around and immensely enjoyed Star Control 2. While probably many of that market have game consoles of some variety, they all are probably more likel
        • If memory serves, the 386-era was the pinnacle of difficult memory setups. I think things were a bit more stable by the time the 486s rolled in, and Wing Commander III was much easier to run than Wing Commander (assuming you had the CD-ROM player...)

          I know I hightailed to console games after the realizing what an impact different PC types had on multiplayer games. I decided early on it was a treadmill race I didn't want to be on.

          I'd say DS would be the ultimate platform for this. Go anywhere, double screens

  • I shouldn't be surprised... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The_Incubator ( 819401 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @06:30AM (#15137555)
    So there's people in the game industry who need to be convinced that another real Star Control game is a good idea?

    I knew the industry was in sad shape but I didn't think it was that bad, even after 50,000 Madden games.

    Nick

    • "So there's people in the game industry who need to be convinced that another real Star Control game is a good idea?"

      To be fair, the third one was a stinker. I don't think it was widely known that TFB did NOT work on SCIII. I can imagine quite a few people assuming that whatever magic there was to the second game turned out to be a fluke.
    • Honestly, it's so tiresome to keep seeing these attacks on the Madden franchise. To fans of video game football, the series has been a benchmark for many years. Do you offer any other reasons for the industry being in sad shape other than the fact that a game series that you don't like is quite popular? Get over yourself.
    • Yeah, seriously, it's not like they tried to capitalize on the franchise before and lost gobs and gobs of money... twice. How could they *possibly* be skitish?
  • We already knew TFB had the rights to SC2 (though apparently not the name, thus the port goes by Ur-Quan Masters, IIRC). So has something new happened that suggested that they might want to, depending on interest, or is this just another one of those "spam the everloving crap out of this guy until they cave in!" tactics?
    • No. Alex Ness posted this on his blog, and indicated that people should email him with expressions of interest.

      From http://www.toysforbob.com/database/tfb_news.html [toysforbob.com] (April 11, 2006)
      "But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob dod a ligitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing."

      He also reposted a link to the gamespy petition:

      h [gamespy.com]

  • The mycon said it best... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Xaositecte ( 897197 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @06:42AM (#15137568) Journal
    Pulsing hot liquid flows through my outstretched tendrils, sending thrills into my interior, The moment has come. I swell and burst.

  • Best game of the 1990s (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TrevorB ( 57780 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @06:47AM (#15137573) Homepage
    I spent years believing that Star Control 2 was the very best game of the 90's. Particularly for the plot. Layers within layers within layers, and humour to boot! Side stiching laughter.

    Hell, I admit it. I played one of the pirated versions from the 90's whlie I was at university. The ones that deliberately crashed in the starmap because (said the urban legend at the time) it knew if the game was cracked in the "obvious" manner, and crashed a lot as punishment. It didn't matter, I managed to play it all the way through anyways.

    I've played the game several times since, including the latest version of the open source Ur-Quan Masters, which is pretty rock solid at this point. I also now own the game (A CD re-release), with the box proudly displayed in my computer room.

    I've raved about this game for the past 13 years. Plotwise, the only game I've seen that's beaten out SC2 has been "The Longest Journey" by Ragnar Tornquist, which has a sequel "Dreamfall" finally coming out on Monday. I've been dreaming about a Longest Journey sequel for 5 years, but come to think of it, I've been dreaming about a SC2 sequel, a *PROPER* SC2 sequel, for 13. SC2.1 would have "nerd-squee!" (or "OMG! Ponies!!" if you prefer) written all over it.

    Hell, at this point I'd be happy if they used the existing UQM open source engine, and gave us a new plot in the StarCon universe. Hell, I'd be willing to do voice acting for the thing. (UQMites, I'm also hopeing that someday soon we'll see UQM mods with user made storylines. That would be cool too)
    • I'd rather not use UQM engine. It's based on the orignal SC2 source which is C code from the beginning of 90s. Programming tools have radically improved in 15 years (i.e. making developers more productive).

      The current UQM tree is based on 3DO source code. A long long time ago, before UQM, we asked Paul and Fred for PC source code, but it was lost since the creators didn't bother back-up their old HDs. But AFAIK later popped up that some subcontractor had 3DO source code in safe.

      We even had an effort to deco
    • Another thing that'd be nice... porting UQM as a mod for the VegaStrike Engine. Keep all the goodie storyplot but do VS space battles. The VS engine seems well adapted to UQM. I know, I know, lots of work for someone.

  • Alex's original post (Score:5, Informative)

    by pcgabe ( 712924 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @07:13AM (#15137606) Homepage Journal
    Here is a copy of Alex's original newspost on the Toys for Bob [toysforbob.com] site, to which TFA references.

    The petition [gamespy.com] referenced at the end of the post is old and busted, and he gave the wrong link anyway. It was part of The Pages of Now and Forever [gamespy.com]

    I know it's not SOP to RTFA, but for those of you that are unfamiliar with the off-the-wall humor that comes out of TfB, you might want to check it out.
    Apr 11 2006
    Star Control Sequel - Get Out Of My Dreams..

    You know what I haven't done in a while? Written any news. Some things have happened but nothing you would be that interested in. We've definitely hired a bunch of people in the last 6 months (See? I told you so.)

    The game we've been working on for about a year is scheduled to come out in early November or so. What game are we working on? That's the funny thing. I can't tell you. I don't even know myself. What I mean is, "I don't even know, (comma) myself." Actually that doesn't make sense if I write it that way. I just didn't want you to think that I didn't know myself, even though I really don't. I wanted you to think that I didn't know what game we're working on, even though I really do.

    Apparently, Activision is going to finally reveal the secret identity of our game at E3, which is about a month away. Hopefully I will know what game it is beforehand because I am supposed to be demo-ing it down at the show. If you're down there and want to say hi, just try and find me. You never will. I'm extremely difficult to find. And I won't answer to my own name (Alex). If you think you see me and call out a different name, like say, Stefan Jacobs, look for the person that doesn't turn around. That person is probably me. You may think that makes me fairly easy to find but again, you are wrong (I can't remember the first time you were wrong but I'm assuming it's happened at least once). Most people, you will notice, will turn around to the name Stefan Jacobs.

    So it's taken me my usual 3 paragraphs to get to the real meat of this news article. And here it comes: A Star Control Sequel. We (I) want us to do a Star Control sequel. Back in the early 90s, Paul and Fred and some other people made Star Control 2. Personally, I thought it was pretty amazing. It was like a drug to me. Not quite as much like a drug as the drugs were but very, very close. I know there are other people that loved this game too. Sometimes you email me and ask if we'll ever do a sequel. And I always tell you that I wish we could do a sequel but it's very hard to convince large publishing companies that a new Star Control would sell very well in the current video game market. But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob do a legitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.

    Will you do that for me? Your old pal, Alex? If you were working at a video game development company who had 2 founders that had worked on a classic, epic space role-playing and combat game years ago for which you had recently re-acquired rights to and were hoping to convince your new parent company to let you make a sequel by asking for the public to send in requests for said sequel, I'd email you. There's actually even a petition online. I have no idea how to sign it but here it is: http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/petit ion/petition_signed.shtml [gamespy.com]
  • SC3 certainly lacked the flair and originality that a proper SC sequel, done by the previous core team, would have had, but I don't think it was all that bad. It kept me up til 5am in fact, and I enojoyed myself. The resource management was ok, the storyline was decent, the combat was acceptable... sometimes I wonder why people think of it as such an abomination.
    • I wouldn't have thought SC3 was bad IF it wasn't for the simple fact that the gameplay was AWFUL. The starmap was a HORRIBLE mess if you couldn't wrap the fact that it attempt to simulate a rotating 3D sphere. Planet management was like trying to run an international business and the only way to communicate was through face-to-face talks. The number of ships actually DECREASED between SC2 and SC3, some of the storyline aspects of SC2 were either changed or outright ignored (why did the Spathi join when in S
      • > The number of ships actually DECREASED between SC2 and SC3, some
        > of the storyline aspects of SC2 were either changed or outright
        > ignored (why did the Spathi join when in SC2 they sealed themselves
        > off on their home planet?)

        As explained by Niffiwan (the Spathi) in SC3, the Chmmr came and popped their protective sheild "like a soap bubble" and announced that the Spathi "were free".
        • Except the Spathi state that they actually improved the shielding technology and since it was self-imposed, whats was to stop the Spathi from simply turning it back on again? (Yes they could've simply constantly repopped it but after the 3rd or 4th time I think the message would've been clear. "Leave us alone.")
      • "The starmap was a HORRIBLE mess if you couldn't wrap the fact that it attempt to simulate a rotating 3D sphere."

        Never played SC1?
  • In response to this news, only one thing can be said: "Loser! Idiot!"

  • *parties* (Score:5, Funny)

    by OverflowingBitBucket ( 464177 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @09:47AM (#15137805) Homepage Journal
    Star Control 3 made many of us *frumple*. But if Toys for Bob are *jumping in front*, and hope to bring Star Control back into *heavy space*, I would be a very, very *happy camper*. I imagine there will be much *dancing* to make this a reality due to the *silly cows* who hold the license, but if Toys for Bob can get *many fingers* into *slow time*, I'm sure there will be many *parties* *in the middle*. *Spicy games* are always fun.
  • You can always try Space Rangers 2. It's not a clone, but the premise is very similar with wildly different SF game styles fused into one whole. It's dirt cheap too. Check it out.

    http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/spacerangers2domina tors/review.html?q=space%20rangers [gamespot.com]

  • Does anyone RTFA anymore? (Score:4, Informative)

    by flithm ( 756019 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @10:13AM (#15137871) Homepage
    A recent post on GameSpot's Rumor Control blog suggests that there may be a chance for a new entry in the classic Star Control series in the foreseeable future.

    Now to quote the article:

    When pressed for details by GameSpot... He said he does, of course, know what game he's working on, and it's not a Star Control sequel. "It's pretty cool and fun but has nothing to do with Star Control or space or role-playing," he said. "It should be out by the end of the year. My hope was that some time in the future, maybe the next project or maybe the one after, we would get a chance to make another Star Control game."

    And to further quote the article, which after reading it, doesn't really seem to suggest all that much, they even bother to neatly sum it all up in one sentence:

    Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus...for now.

    Pretty weak rumor if you ask me. The guy basically says maybe in the future a project or two from now we'd like to do a sequel. How the hell is this newsworthy? In fact I kinda wish I had the minutes back it took to read TFA.

    I'm starting to understand why no one reads the articles anymore. A) they suck. and B) even slashdot appears to be more about sensationalism than actual news delivery.

    The funny thing is... sensationalism only works for a while. Yeah it gets people hyped up and interested in the short term, but it only causes dissent in the long term.

    I have personally stopped watching or reading traditional news sources altogether simply for that fact. They can't be trusted. Might as well read a tabloid because it starting to amount to the same thing.
    • Did you read the article? It makes it quite clear that Ness is referring to something else completely separate from the game that Toys for Bob is going to show at E3 this year. I even pointed this out when I submitted the article but Zonk edited that part out for some reason.

      What Ness wants people to do is send him emails so he can prove to Activision that there is substantial interest for another Star Control game. If you can't see how that's newsworthy, then you're an idiot.

      Rob
      • To me, it's just not the right way of going about it. You know that the article didn't quite match the summary, and that's all I was pointing out.

        If the summary said something different I wouldn't have had a problem.
    • Alas, I must now remove my Mask of Rampant Jubilation and Jumping With Ecstatic Glee and replace it with my Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame. If only Toys for Bob had the Ultron, then I'm sure there'd be a proper sequel!

  • Well Star Control Fans (Score:4, Informative)

    by GreggBz ( 777373 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @11:20AM (#15138079) Homepage

    Well you Star Control people, there are plenty of non-complete projects out there that are very similar to the Star Control concept. First, there's the: incredible looking Infinity [fl-tw.com]

    Then there is the Starflight III [starflightcentral.com] game. Starflight I & II being very similar, and many feel inspirational to the Star Control series. Starflight III has been in development for bloody ages. They are making progress though, and my bets say we'll have it before long. I can't wait for it to finish.

    There are others, and I've even spent about 18 months developing my own unoffical sequel [outerspacecrew.net] to Starflight with original content. Boy is it hard, despite having basically the full requirements and design goals laid out in the best way possible, the original games. The worst part is the team's motivational considerations. It's hard to work on a game in your own time for weeks on end. I'm probably making a project that no one will play, save the few die hard fans of the old games. I had notions that there may be a wider audience, but after running the game idea past a few 13-14 year olds, I'm not sure the current generation of gamers will appreciate, or even understand a space-opera Star-Trek esq single player RPG since they are not fueled by those romantic memories of games of old. It seems if there is not some military or MMORPG element to games these days, no one wants to publish them. (there's a few exceptions)

    On the other hand, there is a counter culture in game development that craves smaller independent type games. PC gamers are all getting pretty sick of 1-2 great titles each year, and the rest, which is pretty much me too crap, from the big publishers.

  • Star Control Zero (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Zephiris ( 788562 )
    Of course, rumors are usually just very silly rumors, but why does everyone seem to want the same sequels for the same series over and over, and why are game developers so comfortable in producing those sequels over and over? The results usually don't turn out that great after a few iterations (cough, Wing Commander Prophecy pretty much was Doom all over again, and then Origin Systems died), and unremarkably, most don't feature all that much 'new', let alone earth-shattering plot and character development.
  • This petition [gamespy.com] circulated from Jan 03 - Dec 04 before it appears to have become innoperable. There's also been a similar effort in one of the forums used for a SC open source clone. What makes you think spamming Alex Ness will result in more favorable results??
  • Best. Game. Ever.
  • I played hours and hours with star control 1, it's one of the best games i've played ever, i really hope for a new version soon. I hate current 3D games, they are all the same, no originality on them.
  • There is so much I loved in Starcon II. I almost didn't reply to this topic after sending my email this morning. Too bad this got posted on Easter.

    One examples of what I very much liked about Starcon II is how it had the battle of ideals between the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za. It fit together in such a wonderful way... kind of like The Terrible Secret of Space [ungrounded.net] [the Flash movie based on the music from The Laziest Men on Mars]. (Two robots arguing if the best way to protect humans from The Terrible Secret of Spa

  • Some more information (Score:3, Informative)

    by svdb ( 413611 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @07:07PM (#15139834)
    We at the The Ur-Quan Masters [sourceforge.net] project have set up a web page [sourceforge.net] with some more information and a form to petition Toys For Bob from your browser.
  • Someone tell me when we are Go! Go! for Dancing!
  • I think I still prefer Deuteros... sure SC has a better combat system, but Deuteros (Atari ST) has an elegant way of integrating "new technology" (in-game) in a way that enhances game-play. I don't have the ol' ST anymore, but MAME handles it without too many crashes :)

  • Looking forward to Star Control! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MaWeiTao ( 908546 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @08:25PM (#15140092)
    I eagerly hope to see a new Star Control game. The originals were great. I just hope whoever develops the game keeps things simple and is faithful to the gameplay of the originals. But man, there's a lot of potential here.
  • It has always been one of my dreams to create a Star Control movie. With all of the great star wars and star trek fan movies circulating around, how great would it be to create a star control fan movie? hell, I'd even be willing to sink some money into it (read- the little I get for being a poor grad student)
  • Toys For Bob made some extremely fantastic, and unfortuantely severely underrated, games while I was growing up. I don't know how many hours I spend enjoying the Star Control series, but it's a lot. If Toys For Bob released a new SC game which would run well on Linux in some fashion, I'd be first in line to pay full retail price for it.
  • "I'll be able to show them to [Toys For Bob parent company] Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.'"

    I'm surprised there hasn't been any comparison between Activision and the Crimson Corporation yet.
  • If a Mycon, an Umgah and an Orz attempt to have a conversation, will it create a singularity or a perpetual motion machine?

    If the Pkunk and the Spathi went to war, who would win?

    Will we ever learn the purpose of the ceremonial dagger on the Syreen "uniform?"

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