This Best Game Ever is brought to you by developers making their old games open source, which is a wonderful thing. Toys for Bob, the developer of Star Control I and II, released the game as open source in 2002 under the “Ur Quan Masters” title, since the name Star Control remains a copyright of Atari. The game is now up to version 0.6.2, giving an incredibly robust, bug free experience that surpasses the original 3DO version. I played the 3DO version back in the early 90’s, and I was overjoyed to find the Ur Quan Masters project and replay Star Control II. It’s free and fun – who could ask for more?
Star Control I set the stage for the franchise. The concept was fairly simple: a galactic strategy game with ship vs. ship combat. The game was fairly simple: green planets for crew, red planets for minerals, build up your fleet and kill the enemy. Because all fighting was done 1v1, it created a rock/paper/scissors strategy of different shiptypes that put emphasis on the player’s battle skill; fights could not be won through sheer numbers. → Ask not what this post can do for you - ask what you can do for this post.