Anyone ever played Star Control 3?

Wulf

Wulf

Vice Admiral
Man, what a great game! I recently found a PC Gamer demo disk with it on there that I couldn't play 6 years ago because of no computer. I just finished the demo, and I was like,"Wow, another game similar to Privateer!" I enjoyed making or breaking alliances with a whole cracker-barrel of races, adding their ships to my fleet, finding alien artifacts for ship upgrades, and creating my own colonies. By the fire, water, wind, earth, and the stars in the sky, I WILL HAVE THE FULL VERSION.
 
Someone here is a real Star Control fan, can't remember who it is though... Bob McDob maybe?

As for me, I've played Star Control I, and found it very good and amusing for the time it came out... :)

You might be interested in checking out this website:
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/
 
Star Control 2 was the best of the three, imho. A lot more humor than the third game (first one was just a pure combat game, of course - no story beyond the setting), although it didn't have the colony management function that the third game had (aside from the starbase, of course).
And the ending was a lot better in the second game than it was in the third.
MUCH better.
 
Thanks for the link, Mpanty!

I haven't played an of the others, just a demo for the third, so I have no idea how much better SC2 miht be. Can it run on Windows 95/98?
 
Originally posted by Wulf
I haven't played an of the others, just a demo for the third, so I have no idea how much better SC2 miht be. Can it run on Windows 95/98?
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SC2 is DOS based, so I don't know for certain how well it would run. I suppose I could always try digging up my old disks and attempting to install it on my machine.
iirc, it doesn't even allow you to use a mouse, so you can leave the mouse driver out if it becomes necessary to dos-boot to play it. You'd want the sound though.
Hmm...
Give me a few days to scrounge my old copy up (it should still be around somewhere) and I'll get back to you on it.
Incidentally, the biggest difficulty you'd have with the game would be the fact that it uses the included starmap as a form of copy protection (i.e. what star/constellation is at coordinates x,y?). So if you manage to find a copy of the game somewhere, make sure that the map is included with it.
 
Originally posted by Wulf
Man, what a great game!
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BLASPHEMY!!!!!1111111[/I]

Although the demo was kinda neat...kinda..there's a FREE SC clone under devel on mpanty's page...it has HORNETS!!!!! :D
 
Installed SC2 on my computer last night. Despite the fact that it was a pure DOS game, it was able to run with Windows up. Unfortunately, there was no sound, the graphics were screwy, and it was painfully slow. I booted into DOS, and the game speed problem seemed to be fixed, but the graphics were still goofy and I still had no sound.
The sound problem may be because its unable to detect my sound card (the game auto-detects sound cards, and I didn't see a way to manually do this), and presumably there's some weird compatibility issue with my Voodoo 3 AGP. But the game itself appears to run alright.

And Bob, that Blasphemy comment had better be restricted to SC3! Thou shalt not say bad things about SC2!!!

:D
 
Yeah, there's often problems with old DOS games (and old games generally) which have an auto-detection system for sound cards...

Though, if you really are pissed by this, I suggest what LOAF and several other poeple have often suggested before me, just go on eBay and buy a ~$20 old 386, so you can play the original WC1 and 2 and other old DOS games without any problems... (make sure a sound card is included though)

Of course, there's the storage place issue, I hope your room is big enough to fit another computer somewhere... :)
 
Or do as I did: go to your university, where they use old 386-computer to put their plants on (no kiddin', they nreally did that) and ask if you can get one for free...:D
 
As I said, its good, but 2 is better.
Both games have lots of humor, but 3 is... well...
Exploration is a lot more hit and miss, and you end up being lead around by the nose by your AI assistant (in-game hint guide). You also don't have quite the myriad of options that you do in the original.
And the ending isn't all that much fun, either.
Oh well.
Truth be told, I do miss my old copy (got rid of it years ago) and kind of wish I could take it for a spin again just to listen to the K'Tang talk about 'crushifying'.
What I'm really bummed out about right now is that there's apparently no way to get SC2 to work with my Soundblaster Live! sound card (found a work around for the graphical bug). The music and sound effects, both ambient and in-combat (the Pkunk in particular, who regain ship energy by shouting insults at their opponents), is part of the fun (it doesn't help that the Pkunk theme is currently threading its way through my brain despite the fact that I haven't played the game in about ten years).
 
Other games in the same genre as SC2 and 3:

Starflight - old game, probably the original of the type. Combat is rather simplistic (and slow) compared to the other games, but it has the basic exploration and adventure theme. Well-liked back in the day, though. I'm kind of scared to think how fast this thing would probably run on my current computer.

Starflight 2 - Same engine as the original, completely new story (the wimps that think they're bullies suddenly aren't wimps anymore - time to find out why), and a couple of new features (including trade centers). But other than that, its the same. Didn't finish this one due to time constraints and disks that mysteriously became corrupted.

Planet's Edge - An alien ship enters the solar system, and both it and Earth suddenly vanish. The colony on the moon commissions a ship to find out why, and whether its possible to get Earth back. I played through probably 3/4s of this one years ago when a friend owned it, but didn't get a chance to finish it. Finally managed to get a copy several months back, but I haven't taken the time to fix the speed problems (started it a couple of times, and everything was fine until I switched back to space flight for a return trip to the Moonbase). This one actually has a lot more interaction with the surface than the other games do. While cruising through space and blowing up aliens is still happens, its more along the lines of accidental encounters than it is in the other games in this genre. You actually have individuals with skill sets that you control on the surface who can get involved in gunfights and interact with NPCs (as opposed to the landers in Starflight and Star Control).
 
My fave race in SC3 has to be the Orz. It cracks me up to hear their dialogue!

"Ahhh, you have encountered many *bubbles*! After much travel you *slide* to our *house* with your *special sauce*. LMAO!
 
If I am to mention a sci-fi computer game which is a classic, _other_ than Wing Commander,

I'd say Star Control.

The story, elements and adventure are really... epic.

I've been through all three (4 counting TimeWarp) and I say... the combat system is pretty unique. A bit arcade-ish, but not too hard.

And the story is very humoring...
 
OK, I'm in a tough spot. I need to colect antimatter material from the 9 Rainbow Worlds, but at Calypso I can't use the Rod to collect the last 10% I need, and I need it all to accomplish a plot critical objective near the end. Anyone who's beat it got any suggestions?:eek:
 
Originally posted by Wulf
OK, I'm in a tough spot. I need to colect antimatter material from the 9 Rainbow Worlds, but at Calypso I can't use the Rod to collect the last 10% I need, and I need it all to accomplish a plot critical objective near the end. Anyone who's beat it got any suggestions?:eek:
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Its been so long that I don't really remember much about it. I don't recall having any trouble collecting the anti-matter once I had the right equipment, though (and it sounds as if you have all the proper equipment). I'd recommend checking around for a FAQ for an answer. GameFAQs will probably have one, as will the Star Control site listed earlier in this thread.
 
I know what I did wrong. The Mother Ark was there at Calypso, and I dug for it first. Therefore, Calypso was now show as green on the system scanner. Apparently, once a colony has been established, artifacts dug up, or GAME CRITICAL items have been recovered, the game will not permit you to do anything else with that planet, even if it means collecting the crucial antimatter! So I restarted and got to where I left off, defeated the other Precursor vessel. My new all-time favorite quote is now the one where you can tell the Chief Executions Officer that,"Just because I crushed your empire doesn't mean you should be rude." What a good way to rub it in.:D
 
Anyone remember Star Control?

The original?

It's quite a war too... and the strategy elements was quite good for its own time.
 
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