Star Control (DOS)

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Description

Star Control is a science-fiction wargame which pits the forces of the Alliance of Free Stars against those of the predatory Ur-Quan Hierarchy. The games are designed so that you can ease into play, familiarizing yourself with menus, options and player controls. The Alliance and Hierarchy each possess different types of warships. Each vessel has its own maneuvering and firing characteristics, plus a unique special power that you can employ when circumstances dictate.

The game has two modules: the Melee, in which you can simply blast the computer or another player to smithereens using one of 16 different ships, in either Hierarchy or Alliance fleets; or, should you wish for a more challenging game, lets you play one of 9 preset scenarios.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "starcon" -- Common abbreviation derived from DOS executable

Part of the Following Groups

• Games made into books
• Games with code-wheel copy protection
• Spacewar! variants
• Star Control series

User Reviews

Stellar battle at its finest	Chris Wright (105)
Great concept, painful implementation.	Vaelor (381)
I think this game is one of the most entertaining stragedy games and creative	Aj Hege (6)
A solid game worth playing.	Tomer Gabel (4634)
Great game for its day	WizardX (117)	unrated
I still can't believe its not really that good of a game!	Yeah Right (57)
Space Wars revistied and turbo-boosted	Tony Van (2855)
A great game bested by its sequel.	Fafnir (105)	unrated

Critic Reviews

Video Games & Computer Entertainment	Jan, 1991	9 out of 10	90
Power Play	Jan, 1991	77 out of 100	77
PC-Spiele '92	1991	7 out of 10	70
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Nov, 1992		70
The Retro Spirit	Dec 10, 2007	3 out of 6	50

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Trivia

Inspiration

The "special thanks" in the manual list off an equally large number of sci-fi authors whose work in some way influenced the game. It's fairly rare for game designers to be so rigorous in documenting their inspirations.

References

The vast majority of captain names in the game were taken from various famous and semi-famous sci-fi sources. (far too many to list here. For example, there's a Syreen Captain Alia (from Dune) and an Earth Captain Pike (from Star Trek))

Title

From almost the very beginning of his video game design career, Paul Reiche III has revisited the theme of pitting varied teams of carefully balanced but widely varied opponents against each other, first in 1983's Archon and most recently in 1998's The Unholy War (and its Japanese analogue, Little Witching Mischiefs).

Star Control also falls in the middle of this chain, and its heritage is plainly spelled out phonetically in its abbreviation:

__Archon
Star_Con

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #127 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list

Information also contributed by Pseudo_Intellectual

Related Web Sites

• ComSim Central (Info on getting the game, and lots of scenarios for the full game.)
• The Dot Eaters (The Dot Eaters: Videogame History 101 An extensive history of videogames, including computer games and the work of Paul Reiche and Freefall Associates.)
• The Pages of Now and Forever (This site could perhaps be called the heart of the Star Control fan movement on the 'net.)