Star Control 2: Ur-Quan Masters Procedurely Generated Map and Infinite Play-ability
Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters is undoubtedly one my favourite games ever! It was originally developed by Toys for Bob (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for MS-DOS and was released to critical acclaim. Now, its replay value has increased infinitely with an updated version of the game which include procedurally generated maps. Yep, you read that correctly, Star Control 2 Procedurely Generated Map! Procedurely generated maps means it generates a new map EVERY NEW GAME and that you don’t know where you’re going to find rainbow worlds, you don’t know where the natural quasi space portal is going to pop up and you don’t know if you’re going to start right in the middle of the Ur-quan sphere(s) of influence!
In short, it’s amazing.
I played a game where I was lucky enough to start near the natural Quasi Space portal and was able to get around the map quickly. Another game my home world ended up in the very corner of the map making things very difficult! So much fun figuring out where you are in relation to allies and enemies! Almost like playing it again for the first time!
You can download a version from the Infinite Ur-quan Masters website at: http://www.infiniteurquanmasters.com/ A copy of the game source code is also posted on this site.
There is no credit taken from who ever has created this version of the game. Whoever it is has done some great work to create Star Control 2 Procedurely Generated Map! Take a look at the site and enjoy the infinite permutations of one of the best games ever made!
Feel free to browse my other retro gaming articles on this site.
Happy retro gamin’!
~digiMoot
