Probably one of the most criminally underrated games of all time. Being a kid, finally understanding that the "clock" has a concrete, not just abstract, meaning as the Kohr-Ah begin to destroy races. One second you're happily wasting time, flying around, casually getting things done, the next moment, "WOW, there's literally a wave of death sweeping the map, and every second I waste is literally causing all of these lovable and interesting places and creatures to die". This game had severe consequences for mismanaging time and resources. The writing is campy and fun, with plenty of comedy, but the Ur-Quan are still horrifying and sad villains. This game is a must play for having a compelling plot, innovative mechanics, and a nearly fanatical fanbase who've poured thousands of hours into upgrading the sound track and graphics. Thanks Paul and Fred! You guys are champions, and I can't come up with a description that does Star Control justice.

I loved Star Control 2 so much that I created an HD version of it (Ur-Quan Masters HD). 3 years and something like 26,000 images made. I learned enough from it to get a job as a game developer. These guys are so great. Humble, and very kind. Thank you P&F for your game entertaining me, then inspiring me to make a game, then teaching me about game development with your open sourced game. ....And sorry about pirating the game as a kid.😅

This channel is severely underrated. These interviews are gold for anyone interested in game design.

My favourite thing about Star Control 2 is the alien races. A lot of science fiction creates their alien races by taking one aspect of human behaviour and blowing up it up to an extreme proportion. But in many cases that makes aliens still be very similar to humans which can be a bit boring. In Star Control 2 the aliens are just amazingly diverse and exotic, and yet they still have something that is relatable to humanity in them. Also they are really funny.

OMG when he said this ""success is about moving people, about having what you do, affect their lives, in a way that is positive" Warmed my heart! Star Control II was an important part of my childhood!

I remember many hours of playing the Star Control 2 demo, and the ridiculous number of hours playing through the full game and the The Ur-Quan Masters port. It's a game I recommend anyone play at least once. The one thing that still sticks out to me this day is how the story of Star Control 2 is told in the game. You are given just enough information you need at the time to contextualize where you are at in the story and then are allowed to explore the universe from there. The mechanics of the game support the concept of exploration, and most importantly running into all the different plot hooks. There's not enough resources in Sol, so you have to go out into hyperspace. You have encounters with other aliens and learn more about them. You go to the big stars, learn about the hazards of resource gathering AND run into an alien that can help you with both tech AND more information. Based on this information, you go forth deeper into the cosmos and find more and more. The whole time, the universe in the game grows with your understanding. It is challenging, but you are never overwhelmed in your perceptions of the game's universe. The strangest thing is that it is never spoon fed to you. You have to take the initiative to find it, albeit easy at first but it quickly takes more effort afterwards. There HAS to be investment by the player to get the story moving. And with any great adventure, the first step is leaving the comfort zone and familiar... Even to this day, Star Control 2 influences A LOT of how I approach situations in life, write my web serial, and even game master my tabletop role-playing games. It's set the bar fairly high for me when it comes to story telling, depth, and breadth. Also it trained me to see beyond the surface of the situation, delve deeper, and persevere despite difficulty. The starting story of Star Control 2 starts out bleak and it can get much darker... But, your long chain of minor actions in the game can change the course of the universe to even include some very unexpected results at the very last minute. It also taught me that sometimes... the plan falls apart, the situation changes, and you often are left wandering around aimlessly... And, that's often the best thing that could have happened. Sometimes the strictest adherence to an initial plan is the most sure fire path to doom. That uninhabited section of space? It's inhabited. You can't out run the strange ships. So, you must encounter them. And... Turns out... They want to be your allies right off the bat. Strange, yes. But, your going to make it work now. If you hadn't adapted, you'd be out an new ally, new information, and the resources, too. No plan survives contact with reality... And, that's okay. It's what you do afterwards that matters. Overall, Star Control 2 has plenty of little lessons that I still appreciate today. Those little seed thoughts grew into mentalities that helped me cope with a lot in my own existence and help keep me hopeful. Despite the Ur-Quan Masters that try to rise up and turn the whole universe against you... There's still you, your flagship, and your alliance that can still put forth the fight to eventually park it right up their Sa-Matra.

6:30 "Well did the description just now sound interesting?" S A V A G E

I spent countless hours as a kid playing StarControl II on my 386DX and I regret nothing.

this is almost misadvertising! It's really just Paul talking while Fred sitting and really wanting to say stuff :D

My first experience with Star Control involved the "keyboard problem" - my friend whose PC we played on had a keyboard that just flat out only allowed a maximum of 3 inputs. There was no workaround or alternative mapping that would let him turn, thrust, and shoot, and *NOT* prevent me from having any inputs available. And if I was turning and shooting, he could only use one button at a time. And yet, in spite of the problems this caused, we loved it. And eventually, he got a new keyboard, and I got a PC and my own copy of the game. I also remember seeing a friend playing Star Control 2, and getting really stuck while facing off against a huge battle platform called the "Sa Matra" (you might have heard of it). He thought it was a major story element that he needed to beat to progress, so he was really dedicated to finding some way to kill it. He'd been playing this same fight every day for weeks, and I walked in and said "why aren't you focusing your fire on that bit? It's the only thing that looks like it's taking damage"... and sure enough, he won. Then started calling me his "good luck charm" because he always did better in games when I was around for some *totally unknown* reason. I think the best part is that he was actually better at *doing* all the things in gaming, even though he had issues figuring out *what* he should be doing.

StarCon2 was the 1st game I ever bought with my own money, and it was also the 1st I ever finished without cheating/using glitches/etc... I actually loved it so much I put together a walkthrough for my first webpage. :) The amount of time I spent looking for ruby/sapphire worlds, rainbow worlds (and the joy I felt realizing the pattern on the map - much thanks to the Slylandro, I think it was, who gave the hint there was a pattern), mapping out quasi-space, looking for alien races & artifacts in game (& the thrill of doing that search within Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah space)... Thanks, Fred & Paul, for making one of my favourite games of all time.

I absolutely love these interviews. I miss the old days of gaming, and it's great to see the "founding fathers" of modern gaming and hear the stories of their struggles.

Damn, i want to totally forget Star Control 2 and experience it again. It literally changed my whole life.

23 people were rumored to be selling their crew to a Druuge slaver.

STILL playing the Ur-Quan Masters. I have the map from my SC2 game from DECADES AGO up on the wall behind my PC. Yeesh, I'm old. LOL

This is actually my all time favorite game. I'm so happy and not surprised at all you continued on and found fantastic success!

I loved Archon (on my C-64), and then subsequently loved Star Control I & II (on my PC), but what I didn't see coming was that the same duo made Skylanders (which my son loves on the PS3) - mind blown!

Anyone else notice the Starflight II poster in the background? Starflight II came out in 1989, and Starflight came out in 1986/87. It's a game almost exactly like Star Control 2. That was my go to game in the 80's and it helped me through some rough times.

I still remember playing Star Control II for the first time, it was an experience that I've never forgotten. Such an amazing set of star systems to explore with a great cast and enjoyable combat and customisation.

I'm a simple man: I see Paul and Fred, and I hit like. Very few games bring so many memories as SC2 does.

SC2 was one of the most amazing gaming experiences I have ever had, even after more than two and a half decades of gaming. There has simply not been anything quite like it. The mixture of gameplay elements are exactly right. The resource building was tough and the early game was harsh, but that honestly just made it better. This is a game you get lost into. Absolutely one of the all-time greats.

Paul Reiche III had a huge impact on my childhood due mainly to the fantastically underrated Mail Order Monsters on the Commodore 64. Love seeing this interview!

It's the music of each alien species that really made Star Con 2. I'd play the hyperspace on nonstop for hours (it probably annoyed my roomate) as I'd study for school. The Drudge (wait Druuge... okay basically the same meaning) music had me thinking I've heard that before and realized years later it's like the James Gang's song "Walk Away"

I like how Fred just sat there with a look of, "See, I told you this is what I had to deal with."

Star Control 2 was the best game I ever played.

I donated $5.00 to there defense fund against Stardock and put in my notes "$1 for every move it took me to win in Archon on the C-64" I got an email back from Fred thanking me for the donation but wishing I was not as skillful at Archon. LOL!

The ending was hilarious. He was all 'your team will forget the suffering you put them through' and his buddy is just like 'hm, no, I disagree sir'. Love these stories even when I've not heard of the games. Thank you!!

The kickstarter for their Star Control II follow-up game "Free Stars: Children of Infinity" starts April 16 2024, or in just a few hours as of this writing!

Star Control 2 pretty much inspired Mass Effect.

Star Control 1 & 2 live in my brain rent free since my older siblings bought them each shortly after release. Loved this vid.

What a fantastic interview. Thanks, Ars Technica, and thanks, Mr. Reiche and Mr. Ford. It was super cool getting to hear from you both about the decisions and thoughts that went into the first two Star Control games. I've been a huge fan of SCII ever since I first ran across it soon after its release. I wish you gentlemen the best of luck with the unfortunate legal difficulties, and hope that Ghosts of the Precursors will eventually become a thing!

These guys are two incredibly brilliant individuals. It might sound strange, but Star Control 2's sense of "passing time", was probably one of their most brilliant innovations. The Universe has all of these fascination things to explore, but, if YOU waste too much time, all of these things that you love, all of this progress you've worked towards, will slowly begin to be destroyed. You've become emotionally attached to all of these different ships in your fleet, alien races, and then it's this huge slap in the face to see that your inaction can cause these things to be threatened and destroyed purely because you didn't take the proper steps to protect them from the threat that's actually cleansing the galaxy, bit by bit. Few games can provide that kind of "cause and effect". The things which Star Control 2 communicates could ONLY be provided by the videogame medium, so far. It's a fascinating game, and to this day stands as a unique piece of art.

I am in love with these series. You get to see how these people handled problems and tried to solve them. If you love something enough, you find no excuses to quit. Thank you for sharing :)

Such an honor to see these two talk about this game. Loved playing this game with my neighbors in college. I could lose 4 matches of Star Control and get to that ship that slowed down other ships and it was all over for the other side.

I've never played Star Control, but I love hearing about it from these guys. Props to all the designers from years ago that had so much more to deal with in a super young industry.

Star Control II was one of the greatest games of all time. I still have my original disks in the original box with all of the extras. I still do a play through of UQM every year or so. Edit: I had no idea Toys for Bob were responsible for The Horde as well. That came bundled with the first ever graphics card I bought. The RealMagic MPEG card. The game was a blast too.

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite game is, I say "I don't have one single favorite game, but Star Control 2 was *the only **_perfect_** game I've ever played."* Paul and Fred designed the game so well that it basically has no flaws. There is nothing negative you can possibly say about it; only good things.

Watching this on my phone. The Zot-foq-pik theme is my ringtone, so the ending threw me for a second. :) Loved Archon, Starcon and SC2!

I will always love Star Control II. My only gripe is the time limit.

Oh my gosh is this video Nostalgic! SpaceWar was great and reminds me a lot of StarControl 2. (obviously that was no coincidence) The SC2 people did a spectacular job of making "match-ups" very important. It was all about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each race.

SC2 remains one of the grandest gaming experiences of my life. I'm sure my age at the time has something to do with that, but having replayed it recently I can say that it definitely holds up as an amazing experience even today.

I first stumbled on the PC port of the game more than a decade ago (Ur-Quan Masters), and that introduced me to Star Control II. It was one of the best experience I had with a Sci-Fi/Space video game as a teen, and I'm glad I found out about it. The most tedious part of the game for me was figuring out where to go at times, especially finding the creature the Vux were looking for, and the Mycon homeworld. These guys know what gamers want.

They are clearly really great friends and development partners, that's really refreshing to see

I never played this game. But the quality of the information in this interview is a treasure.

Thank you so much for this excellent video. I started playing SC2 when I was 2 years old and it became embedded in my view of reality. Though, I'm yet to meet a person who knows the game other than those I show it to, haha. And these two are brilliant geniuses are a huge inspiration

Who won this season of Frungy? And when do we embark on a journey towards the galactic core in search of the Precursors?

This is awesome! I did not know there were videos on the makers of Star Control. Star Control 2 is my ALL time favorite game.. I remember being in my room, grab a pillow lay on the floor with the lights off at night and it would only be me and the world of Star Control that existed. I absolutely enjoy every minute of playing the game. Still to this day I try to find a similar experience but nothing comes close. Even the newest Star Control I have only played maybe an hour of it. It just doesn't have that same appeal and adventuring through the galaxy as Star Control 2. I really wish these guys would continue making games like Star Control 2. Thank You for making my favorite game, you have no idea on how much you influenced my younger years for the better. Thanks for the video!

Star Control 2 was first released in 1992, but with another company ( accolade?) after maybe 1.5 years which added the full and awesome voice acting with 14 totally different types of space races and beings and ships. This game was literally light-years ahead of it's time......

These guys are gaming masters from my childhood... I will NEVER forget them.

SC2.. Oh boy, I do have so fond memories of the game. The empty space felt so live and the characters were.. well.. characters and while I did have gripes about the battles when I was teenager, I realize the genuity in the wildly differing races and why there's no "jack of all trades" ship.. except the precursor ship

These are awesome. Please do David Braben on Elite. That would make for an interesting interview

One of my favorite games of all time, and I still play it sometimes. Still peeved that in Star Control 3, the Kor-Ah is backwards!

Star Control 2 is the only DOS game I can think of that I didn't have to configure, it auto-detected everything. After I upgraded to win 95 any my drivers weren't DOS compatible anymore, the audio played through the pc speaker and it actually sounded good...which was strange. This is a game I talk about when I refer to copy protection that isn't intrusive. The starmap is useful from a gameplay perspective and you can figure out what it's asking for at a glance. As opposed to most of that era that make you type in a specific word from a place in the manual.

Much love to both these men for sharing their personal philosophies from their experiences it is touching. Wish ya guys the best.

This was one of (maybe still is) my favorite games of all time. I've played all the way through it countless times, sent away for the giant galaxy map poster, spent hours tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys to make it run with all the sounds working. I'm so glad to see it remembered and see the creators talking about this. Absolutely made my night.

**Campers** *like to say `hello' when they* **smell** *the Orz.*

Your channel is absolutely amazing. I'm not into games much, but I find this very interesting! You deserve way more subs!

great series. seeing producers and game designers is something thats a breath of fresh air with the stagnant state of media these days

Star control 2 was a really fun game! this was a really good interview! thank you for all the fun, gentlemen!

For years, I used the starcontrol default keyboard layout in first person shooters: pinky for left, right, ring for forward/back giving me 2 fingers to switch weapons :-D

I just love how Fred sits there like the Fot, in the background, looking back and forth, never really speaking ... 🤣

12:00 both of what they say here is total gold. But Paul's really specific comments are incredibly insightful-not everyone will appreciate them, in fact many might disagree... but to certain people, those are the types of words that would encourage them to do something really great.

This video came out of nowhere and yet it's really made me happy and I really appreciate it having been made. Kind of like Star Control 2! I was surprised to receive it for free when I ordered Star Control 3, but in the end I found SC2 was the far superior game.

I had so much fun playing SC2 for the first time that i still remember fondly some of the jokes! FRUNGY! THE SPORT OF KINGS!

Purely inspirational! What history and an amazing story behind a game.

Great to see P&F talking about Star Control. I wish this interview wasn't overshadowed by the asinine legal battle that has come about between them and Stardock. (who if you do your homework are almost solely responsible for the precipitation of events to where they are now) I just hope that P&F can emerge from this victorious and be able to return to finally deliver a true successor to The Ur-Quan Masters.

I used to play this for months back in 90s when I had no internet to get help. We used to install SC2 on the computers at school and SuperMelee with friends. Instead of spending time for building a fleet we mostly used to build an all-Druuge-fleet and fight. It was fun. ...and I like the ideas in the game such as; - a superior ancient race creating a genetically engineered race as biological tools for the management of planetary systems. - an alien race living in gas giants, purchasing droids to explore worlds that they can never ever visit, and make you trace and fix a software bug in their droid that becomes a treat to all lifeforms due to a bug in the source code. These each can be a movie plot by itself.

I had so much fun making my own storyline battles in star control 1, I wish they kept that feature in the later games.

star control 2, in retrospect to the age i was and the age of gaming we were in when i first played it on my 3do in the 90s, was the most jaw dropping moment i ever had in gaming in my life

My god, the melee/supermelee physics engine is based on Asteroids. That's incredibly cool.

By the way! The Ur Quan Masters has a sequel designed by Paul and Fred that's in a kickstarter called the FREE STARS: Children of Infinity. I can't wait to see what else Paul and Fred have been able to come up with after all these years!

Really interesting. Great channel. Thanks

Star Control Origins was awesome, you guys are the best! Glad to see you're still at it making great Star Control games decades later.

I still love this game and storyline It's something we're missing from today's game worlds. I played it initially on the 3DO.. well worth every penny

came to find this series in 2022 amd looooove them. Thank you for the viewing

I could listen to these guys all day.

Thanks! I have never seem the guys before. Nice interview.

Excellent video. Brilliant developers. Subscribed. Love this channel.

Not a word about the sound effects and music? That was one of my favourite aspects of the world.

One of my favorite childhood games. I remember playing it on a monochrome monitor that for some reason lacked a channel for the red color so a lot of UI components were actually invisible, including (most annoyingly) crucial pieces of text and a certain number of planets. It didn't stop me from finishing the game twice and mapping out the entire galaxy. I recently revisited the game, and it's definitely more grindy than I remember. I still happily finished the game the third time around, and then conducted an obligatory "why was there never a proper SCIII" mourning session. :)

You sir created the inspiration for the Mass Effect games (when they were good). In fact Star Control II is better than Mass Effect in some ways as there is ship to ship battle in Star Control. Star Control 2 still holds up today, I played it in 2017. I've got the gog edition but I think there was a remaster done or something.

SC2 is simply part of my life story. My brother and I were 8 and 10 when we played it the first time, so many years ago. It captivated us, helping to form true sense of good vs. evil, adventure, and the cosmos, and leading him to become a programmer. I'm 40 now... but what I wouldn't give to jump into a truly worthy successor.

Love this series! Please keep it going!

These men ARE the Ur-Quan Masters. I have been enthralled with the first 2 versions of this game from the get go. I really wish they would consider revisiting the strategy mode from the first version as it was basically a cosmic chess battle with some interesting twists such as turn based fleet building, specific planet types which allowed for colonies (to replenish depleted crew from survived battles, mines (to generate more Starbucks to replace vessels lost in battle) and forts (to block enemy advancement). This to me was the key to infinite 2 player replayability as each new map was randomly generated. There was also an option to make the entire map invisible from the beginning so that it was an adventure in discovery to find the pathways between the opposing Starbases, which were the primary objective of each player to destroy his opponent's Starbase as to eliminate the ability to build anymore ships.

Very fascinating interview

7:11 This was the main problem with No Man's Sky

The Starflight 2 poster in the background gets me in the feels.

LoL the old days xD when people still thought: how can we make a good game thats a alot of fun? instead of: how do we make something people will keep paying in....

Loved these games growing up. Played for days with my friends. Thanks for all your work.

Really funny seeing these guys talk about Skylanders. My local game/comic shop has a MASSIVE inventory of pre-owned Skylanders and they can't move them at all. It's amazing how hard they flopped after a few waves.

5:23 That "see what I had to deal with" look ;)

Oh wow! One of my most favorite games of all time! Give us MORE from this game and these developers!! :-)

I had the hyperspace map from the SC2 manual hanging on the wall of my bedroom for like ten years!

Great interview. Amazing game. Keep up the good work.

You made the Horde too?!? Holy sh*t, I forgot that. Pure awesomeness :)

I could play SC1 off a 3.5 floppy on a stock PC clone in the mid-1990s. That game was FUN. And SC2 was EPIC.

Not gonna lie, I don't care about gaming. Never really have. But I absolutely love this series. The way these interviews go into the problem solving involved in each of these game development scenarios is super well done, and incredibly inspiring.

This channel is really good, more war stories!

6:30 YES, the description just now did sound interesting!

i really do love this channel i love stories like this :D