I just wrote a post in the tech support forum about old games and Star Control II was an obvious candidate. Then I realised that I've never heard any chit-chat about this game on this forum. Star Control II was released about 12 or so years ago, it is a 2D interplanetary adventure where you progress between worlds, collecting resources, talking to and fighting with aliens. There were PC and 3DO versions, and the game built up such a fervent cult following that the original makers released the source. A team thus made an updated version that runs natively on modern version of Windows, with extra features such as OpenGL acceleration to give all your puny 3Ghz processors a much needed breather from shifting around sprites in a 640x480 window, some of the in-game movies from the 3DO version, and some flabbergastingly fantastic updated music.

The game basically flits between 5 modes. As you move between stars (and there are a lot of them (EDIT: url edited out, SR FIX YOUR WORTHLESS POST PARSER) you fly around in hyperspace. Fly to a star and you enter its system, where you see the planets, if any. On both of these screens, you control your ship like you play asteroids. Fly to a planet and you have the option of landing on it with a lander, to collect resources, which is a minigame in itself. If you intercept or get intercepted by an alien ship, you talk to them via a Monkey Island-esque menu system. Finally if you have to fight, you drop to another asteroids-type game, but this time you can control your weapons, and each class of ship is radically different. Some people consider this vs mode (you can play multiplayer) to be even more fun than the quest.

If the thought of playing a 2D low-res (although OpenGL can resample it up to 1024x768) space exploration doesn't appeal, I can't stress how much you need to try it out. The plot direction and sheer depth, voice acting and exploration mechanics in this game are light-years different and better than anything that has happened since. Seriously, it's like this game never happened, I have never played any game like it (actually, Solar Winds was vaguelly similar, but I think that's even older than Star Control). This game is a shattering masterpiece, certainly in my top 5 PC games list, and I can't believe how it slipped under my radar for the majority of my life. Don't let it slip under yours any longer. Get it, at least to appreciate its uniqueness.

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Be absolutely sure to get the uqm-0.4.0-voice.uqm addon pack, the voices in this game are seriously the best I've ever heard. If you can, get the uqm-remix-pack's as well from the bottom of the page, the standard music is brilliant but the remixed stuff is just awesome. I would advise you pick up all the other various add-on packs as well, but I don't know what they do! I think uqm-0.4.0-content.uqm are the intro/ending movies, so you might as well pick them up.

I've found it's better to play this game by not struggling along by yourself. If you get stuck or have any questions (and you will, the game will pull you in a myriad of directions from the beginning) you can ask here, on the UQM forums or just google. Try not to ruin the plot for yourself too much, and remember to keep a pad of paper or a notepad window handy while playing!