More than 20 years after its debut, revered sci-fi adventure The Ur-Quan Masters is finally coming to Steam next week
The Ur-Quan Masters, an open-source remake of the revered sci-fi exploration-adventure Star Control 2, is coming to Steam next week, free for all and with a slightly different title—Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters.
The Ur-Quan Masters situation is a bit complicated, but here's the crash-course version. Star Control 2 was developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade in 1992. It was a successful and tremendously influential game, and some years later—after the release of a dismal Star Control 3 that was developed without their involvement—studio founders Paul Reiche and Fred Ford made the source code for the 3DO version of Star Control 2 open source, resulting in the highly-regarded 2002 fan game The Ur-Quan Masters.
Fast-forward a quarter century, and Ford and Reiche finally decided it was time to make their own direct sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters, called Ghosts of the Precursors. Just one problem: Stardock claimed it acquired ownership of the Star Control rights in Atari's 2013 bankruptcy fire sale, and it filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the project. The lawsuit was eventually settled amicably: Stardock maintained the rights to the Star Control name, while Reiche and Ford were free to make new Ur-Quan Masters games.
Which, very slowly and circuitously, brings us to now. Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters, «a classic space game that captures the charm of retro science-fiction, space combat, and high adventure,» is headed to Steam on February 19. Pistol Shrimp Games, the studio founded to work on the Ur-Quan Masters games by Reiche, Ford, Ford's brother Ken, and Dan Gerstein, said on Twitter that it is «the base UQM build with a couple tweaks,» described in a small FAQ on Steam as including «voiceover, 3DO music, and other minor changes.»
The original Star Control and Star Control 2 remain available for purchase on Steam and GOG, as do Star Control 3 and Star Control: Origins, a newer addition to the series developed by Stardock. The Ur-Quan
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