sc2-announce — Low traffic list for UQM announcements

[Sc2-announce] Nov 30th: Ur-Quan Masters 30th Anniversary Celebration

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello subscriber to the sc2-announce mailing list!

Yeah, that's you, though you may have forgotten all about it. After all, it
has been 9 years since we last used it. Well, we did say it was a low
traffic list.

So, let's catch you up, while skipping through the boring parts.
The most exciting development since we last spoke, is that the creators of
the original Star Control II - The Ur-Quan Masters, have started a new
company, Pistol Shrimp, and that they are developing a sequel!

That calls for a party! And it so happens that there actually is a party,
hosted by the Pistol Shrimp team on Twitch.

The party celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Control II - the Ur-Quan
Masters, because, as you might have guessed, it has been 30 years since
Star Control II - the Ur-Quan Masters was released.

So when is this party? Just a moment, let me check... it's the 30th of
November! Wait... That's tomorrow! I guess that leaves very little time to
look forward to it. Better hurry.

So, the details:
* The celebration will be on the 30th of November, at 1pm PST / 4 pm EST /
   21:00 UTC.
* The location will be Twitch, at https://twitch.tv/x33n/ (hosted by X33N).
* I think it's white tie. Or maybe it was fancy dress. Or fancy tie. Oh 
well.

Hope to see you there!

The Ur-Quan Masters Open Source core team.


Links:
* Pistol Shrimp: https://pistolshrimpgames.com/
* Blog posting about the anniversary: 
https://pistolshrimpgames.com/2022/11/30-years-of-the-ur-quan-masters/
* Reddit thread about the anniversary: 
https://old.reddit.com/r/uqm2/comments/yjpt26/30_years_of_the_urquan_masters/

[Sc2-announce] Remix add-on package four 'The New Alliance of Free Stars' released

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

The remixing team has some happy news:


   The official Ur-Quan Masters remix add-on package 4: 'The New Alliance of
   Free Stars' is released.
   Be sure to visit the download section of the official UQM site to
   grab your copy! http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
   For your listening pleasure, we have 16 tracks with almost 60 minutes of
   music:
      + Main Menu - Control the Stars
      + Intro - Into the Void
      + Chmmr - Photosynthesis
      + Shofixti - Bonsai!
      + Syreen - Close Encounters of the Seventh Kind
      + Yehat - Years Late Mix
      + Pkunk - Pkunks Not Dead
      + Utwig - Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame
      + Zoq-Fot-Pik - Frungy Party
      + Orz - *Squeezing* the *Juice*
      + Utwig - The Ultron
      + Supox - Shake Yer Rootz
      + Spathi - Fwiffo's Starrunner
      + Super Melee Menu - Fight!
      + Outro - Awaking Dreams
      + Credits - So Long and Thanks for All the Orz

   Check out the PRECURSORS web site for more information about the
   releases and future plans.
   http://www.spacesynth.net/precursors/


   - Precursors

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.7.0

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello everyone!

Guess what day it is today?
It is the fourth of July, the day when we remember aliens taking over Earth,
beings from another solar system mining planets for resources, and the
destruction of historic buildings (as well as tourism).
It is the day when we celebrate a brave few in a ship built with alien
technology carrying a huge bomb into the alien mothership in a near suicide
attack. It is the day when the shields went down.

Today is the day of the greatest science fiction of all time:
Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters!

The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team is happy to announce:
The Ur-Quan Masters 0.7.0.

So what is new? Well, you can find the complete list at
http://sc2.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/sc2/trunk/sc2/WhatsNew, but here are a
few of the highlights:
- some missing bits of content added, including two new lander reports
  directly from Toys for Bob
- support for Windows CE, and experimental support for Symbian S60
- many bug fixes, including some that have been long anticipated
- various small improvements and polishing
- lots of internal cleanups and restructuring, making the game more
  customisable and modable, and making the code a bit friendlier

So download the game from http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.html and join us
in the celebrations! And do not forget to *enjoy the sauce*!

The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team

[Sc2-announce] Support a new Star Control through photography and geography

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hi everyone,

As you may know, Toys for Bob, who created Star Control and Star Control II
(but not Star Control 3), would like to create a new Star Control game.
We would like that too. But they are dependent on their publisher,
Activision, to fund the development.

So a petition was created to show Activision that there was a market for
a new Toys-for-Bob-created Star Control game. It has generated quite a bit
of response, but more can be done.

I would like to direct your attention to a cunning plan that Toys for Bob
producer Alex Ness has come up with. In his own words (from the Toys for
Bob website):

 	First We Hit Them With Letters, Next Arts and Crafts.

 	After that, they won't know what hit 'em. Activision, I mean. As
 	part of my multi-pronged strategy to convince Activision to insist
 	that our next project be a Star Control one, I have come up with idea
 	to harness the powers of arts and crafts as well as fans everywhere.

 	What I want to do is this: Make a giant map of the Earth. Maybe I
 	should just buy one. I'm not map maker. If I were, I'd probably be
 	instantly fired for my alternative spelling of the nation known as
 	Uruguay as well as the fabrication of non-existent countries like
 	Nutsack Kingdom and Nutsack Kingdom II. As a matter of fact, I have
 	already been fired from previous jobs for these exact same reasons,
 	even though none of those jobs involved making a map. So anyway, I'm
 	going to buy a map. A real big one. Then I'm going to prominently
 	display it somewhere in our office. Phase one of my plan will then
 	be complete.

 	Phase two is where I once again, ask you wonderful community of fans
 	for support. What I want is to put pictures of you guys up on this
 	map. Not everybody but at least one from every country. This may be
 	a problem for the magical isle of Greenland but who knows? There
 	couldn't be all that much to do in Greenland, especially if you're
 	unemployed like Andre the Giant's character in the Princess Bride
 	used to be, so maybe someone who lives there has played a little
 	Star Control. Anyway, what I'll do then is post your picture up over
 	the respective country you live in. The idea being to show the fan
 	base all over the globe. Will this help convince Activision to let
 	us do another Star Control? I can't predict the future but I can
 	tell you that if it's big and displayed prominently, it will help
 	remind them every time they come to visit and be a real conversation
 	piece. Plus it will just generally brighten our spirits. In Paul's
 	case, this could lead to a level of congeniality rarely exhibited
 	by man or machine. He's quite a bubbly figure, in case you don't know.

 	So if you've got the notion and a camera, can you send me a picture
 	of yourself either playing SCII or at least standing near something
 	SCII-related? Just send it right to old ale...@to.... Or,
 	if you really want the picture to get there extra fast, use my new
 	other email address: nu...@to.... Somehow just the word
 	"nutsack" does make things faster and better.

 	Thanks,

 	Alex

So the idea is basically to send pictures to show that there's a world-wide
support for a new Star Control, and to make sure that Star Control gets
talked about whenever someone from Activision comes by the office.

And in case you're wondering, it's not too late to show your support through
signing the petition on http://sc2.sourceforge.net/petition/petition.php .

Thanks,

Serge van den Boom
(The Ur-Quan Masters core team member)

[Sc2-announce] IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello everyone,

Those of you who visit the UQM forum or the Ultronomicon may have seen the
occasional reference to the Words of Wisdom uttered by the Creators of
Star Control in past IRC chats.
It is time to add another chapter. On Wednesday the 13th of June at 14.00 PT
(that's 21.00 UTC), a delegation from Toys for Bob, including Paul Reiche III
and Fred Ford themselves, will visit the IRC channel #uqm-tfb on Freenode
(irc.freenode.net), and you're all invited.
A lucky few of you may even get the chance to play a game of SuperMelee
against one of them. (Be sure to test your setup in advance.)

So, bring your best questions, and see you then.


On behalf of the `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team
Serge van den Boom

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.2

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hi again,

You may have noticed the presence of an increasingly large number of bugs
which move with great speed and attack relentlessly. We are sorry to say
that this is our catalog item UQM-0.6.1.
Yes, we've moved beyond the bugfixing stage into the lucrative bug
creation phase. It seems that our bugfix release in fact introduced a
new bug.

So now, we have 0.6.2.
In 0.6.2, you can save your game and supermelee fleets again, which is good.
And there are a few bonus small fixes, which shouldn't hurt anyone either.

The game data is still unchanged, so you won't have to redownload that,
and you can just install 0.6.2 over 0.6.0 or 0.6.1.
You can find it here:
 	http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.php

Have fun again,


The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team.

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.1

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hi there,

The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.0 has been so well received that we thought
we'd do that again. We call it 0.6.1.
Now you may think, "There's got to be something more if they raise the
version number.". But nope, there isn't.
There's actually something less. Bugs. We don't like them, so we got rid
of some. So 0.6.1 is what you might call a "maintenance release". At least
that's how we call it.

Fortunately, the game data is unchanged, so you won't have to redownload
all that. You can just install 0.6.1 over 0.6.0 to enjoy all the benefits
of having less.
You can find it here:
 	http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.php

May the Ultron be with you,


The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team.

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.0

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Happy days and jubilations! It's The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.0.

And The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.0 means network SuperMelee!
And it means in-game key configuration.
And it means support for 64 bit systems.
And it means more bugfixes.
And it means more internal improvements which you won't care about.
Read all about it at
 	http://sc2.sf.net/WhatsNew

To download it, we gladly direct you to
 	http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.html

And if you haven't already, support a new Star Control created by
Toys for Bob (the creators of the original Star Control and Star Control II,
but not Star Control 3) by signing the petition on
 	http://sc2.sourceforge.net/petition/

And if you're in search of people to play network SuperMelee against,
you'll likely find someone ready to eat flaming plasma death in the
#uqm-arena IRC channel on irc.freenode.org.

Blow up an Ur-Quan for us, Captain,


The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team.

[Sc2-announce] Toys for Bob go for a new Star Control and need your help!

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello everyone,

As you'll probably know, The Ur-Quan Masters was originally a
commercial game, known as Star Control II.

A few days ago, Toys for Bob, the creators of Star Control 1 and 2 (but
not 3) made it known that they were in talks with the Powers That Be at
Activision about what their next game should be.

They decided that the stars are right for a new Star Control, and
they're asking for our help in convincing Activision to let them
make one. If we can send them support, they can show that to
Activision as a powerful argument.

I've set up a petition page on our website where you can find
more information, as well as a form where you can send a mail directly
from your browser.
You can also find their postal address there; a snail-mail letter
is bound to carry more weight.
The URL is
 	http://sc2.sourceforge.net/petition/petition.php

Please spread the word.

Note that the petition page on the Pages of Now and Forever mentioned in
the original announcement on the Toys For Bob website is old and broken.
Use the form on the petition website, or mail al...@to... directly.


Serge van den Boom
The Ur-Quan Masters core team

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.5.0

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello Human Earthlings!

Look what we've got here. It's The Ur-Quan Masters 0.5.0!

Some things have changed, along with the version number.
We've got a searchable starmap, we've got a new scaler, we've got prettier
planet landings, we've got a working setup menu, we've got better text
input and we've got tons of bugfixes.
And a whole bunch of other stuff you can find at http://sc2.sf.net/WhatsNew.

And you can have it too! Call 1-900-PKUNKRA, 24 hours a day!
Or just go to http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.html.

Frungy! Frungy! Frungy!

The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team.

[Sc2-announce] New Precursors Remixes Released

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hi all,

Here's a little announcement from The Precursors for you:


---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-

It's been a looooong hiatus for The Precursors, but we're finally back in
business. Despite not having completed the fourth remix pack (yet), we
decided that we're close enough that we can start releasing the pack in
smaller doses. From today, we'll strive to release at least one track from
the new remix pack every friday. To kick this party off, we're giving you
not only one, but two Utwig remixes, and to top it off they both play in
the game during different circumstances.

Since we're not releasing these remixes in packages yet, you'll have to add
them to the game yourself. This can be done by creating a folder called
"comm" under the content folder in the Ur-Quan Masters install folder.
Under the new comm folder, create another folder called "utwig" and place
the two OGG-files there (the game won't play the MP3-files).

The first Utwig remix, "Mask of Ultimate Embarrasment and Shame", was
composed by Tore Aune Fjellstad and Espen G=C3=A4tzschman.
  =09OGG: http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/music/packages/4/utwig.o=
gg
  =09MP3: http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/music/packages/4/Utwig__=
Mask_of_Ultimate_Embarrasment_and_Shame.mp3

The other remix, "The Ultron", was composed by guest composer Casey Monroe.
  =09OGG: http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/music/packages/4/utwigul=
t.ogg
  =09MP3: http://www.medievalfuture.com/precursors/music/packages/4/Utwig__=
The_Ultron.mp3

Enjoy!

[Sc2-announce] Announcing The Ur-Quan Masters 0.4.0

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello Hunams,

It's been a while, but here it is: The Ur-Quan Masters version 0.4.0.
With all the features from the original Star Control II present, and
as stable as a horse barn, there's nothing that should stop you
from sharing it with all your friends.

Some mentionable improvements:
- PC intro and ending sequences are now present
- a new `triscan' scaler
- lots of fixes to the subtitles
- an in-game setup menu
- using graphics from the PC version of Star Control II in some places
  where they are better than the 3DO ones
- PC style 3-step zooming in melee (at your choice)
- lots of internal restructuring
- many bug fixes
For a complete list, we direct you to http://sc2.sf.net/WhatsNew.

When you're ready to start downloading, the place to go is
http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.html.

Enjoy.


The `The Ur-Quan Masters' development team.

[Sc2-announce] Remix add-on package three 'Ur-Quan Hierarchy' released

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

The remixing team has got something good to say:


   The official Ur-Quan Masters remix add-on package 3: 'Ur-Quan Hierarchy'
   is released.
   Be sure to visit the download section of the official UQM site to
   grab your copy! http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
   For your listening pleasure, we have:
     * 9 tracks:
          + Ur-Quan - Now and Forever
          + Ilwrath - All Evil
          + VUX - Ultra-gross!
          + Umgah - Genetic Modification
          + Mycon - Rebirth
          + Thraddash - Culture 19
          + Kohr-Ah - Cleansing Required
          + Orbit IV - Cold Tectonics
          + Orbit V - Extraterrestrial Lifeforms
     * bonus material

   Check out the PRECURSORS web site for more information about the
   releases and future plans.
   http://www.spacesynth.net/precursors/


   - Precursors

[Sc2-announce] Remix add-on package one 'Super Melee!' released

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

A little message from the remixing project...


   The official Ur-Quan Masters remix add-on package one: 'Super Melee!' is
   released.
   Be sure to visit the download section of the official UQM site to
   grab your copy! http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
   The first add-on pack includes over 40 minutes of music:
     * 7 Long tracks:
          + Melee! - The Battle of Sa-Matra
          + Starbase - Under a Red Sky
          + Starbase Commander - Corridor Nine
          + Solar System - Exploration
          + Shipyard - Rough Repair
          + Outfit - Outfit the Vindicator
          + Orbit I - To Mine The Heavens
     * All 27 short ditties for each alien race + red alert ditty
     * bonus material

   Check out the PRECURSORS web site for more information about the
   releases and future plans.
   http://www.spacesynth.net/precursors/


   - Precursors

[Sc2-announce] The Ur-Quan Masters 0.3 alpha released

[Serge v. d. B. <sv...@st...>]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since the last release, but we're glad that today
we're able to announce the next official release of The Ur-Quan Masters.
We're calling it 0.3, and it's still an alpha version. Nonetheless, it's
very stable and it's got lots of improvements over the 0.2 release.
To name a few:
- We've got a much improved input system. For the user the main advantage
  is that it's much more configurable (though this still requires editing
  a config file).
- The content files stay in .zip files. This saves you over 13000 separate
  files on your hard disk, and greatly improves installing speed.
- The number of save game slots has been extended to 50.
- You can get a conversation summary when talking to aliens, like
  the PC version of Star Control 2 had.
- The much-loved PC out-takes are waiting for you when you finish the game.
- There are 2 additional ship slots for your Melee fleet, for a total
  of 14, which not entirely coincidentally is how many the PC version of
  Star Control 2 had.
- We've fixed lots of bugs.
You can find the much longer, complete list, at http://sc2.sf.net/WhatsNew.
To download all this goodness, we happily direct you to our download page,
at http://sc2.sf.net/downloads.html.

We hope you enjoy the game,

The Ur-Quan Masters development team