I've just bought Star Control I + II. I've never played any of them. However, I'm a big Starflight fan, and managed to finish it on the Sega Genesis, so I've figured I would enjoy the SC series.

I know Star Control II is considered one of the best games of all time, but what about Star Control I? Is it worth playing it, since the second one is here too and seems to be a better game? Or are they different experiences worth checking out?

Thanks...

They're both very different. They share the combat system, but where SCII has exploration/adventure, SC has a strategy game.

SC1 is a really light strategy game that mostly serves as a framework for ship-to-ship combat. It's okay. Not worth th 6 bucks, though.

Honestly, SC1 is really the only reason to buy this, unless you're a purist who MUST have the original game in it's original state. A port of the 3DO SC 2 called the Ur Quan Masters is already available legally with permission of the creators for free, and it has additional voice acting and such that the version here does not have, works natively in Windows, can be played partially online, and can be modded easily.

Now, I might be tempted to get this if it goes on sale just to get SC1, but I would never play this version of SC2 with a better one available for free.

I'm a big fan of the UQM as well, but I think we're all conveniently forgetting one thing: with the current voice-overs and text, a couple of important pieces of information are left out of the game. "Important" as in "can't finish the game" important. These are reticified by FAQ entries, but still.

That being said I prefer the UQM verison of SC2 but at least the GoG version appeals to the nostalgic/completists among us, and the tiny tiny install size :)

Then I guess I'll try SC2 first, and maybe I'll check SC1 later for historical purposes. Thank you all. The thing is, I really like to play old games in their original format. I'll give the PC version a try first, but thanks for your advice, I might try the improved version later.

The improved version is identical if you take out the new soundtrack and run a mod to remove the voice acting. And the original SC2 is sort of a pain to get working in dosbox from what I remember. Or had a lot f bugs that UQM fixed.

There is absolutely no compelling reason to buy the gog version of SC2 unless you really want SC1. Gog is essentially selling something that's been freeware for the better part of a decade.

As others have said, they're VERY different games, though both are/were awesome.

I've actually only played (the completely awesome) Starflight on the Genesis, and that's where I played Star Control 1 also! It's one of the best multiplayer games ever made IMO. The strategy portion is fun (although was a bit tricky to get the hang of even back in the early 90's), but it added a lot to what was sort of like Street Fighter 2 with space ships.

The sequel has similar combat, but in a Starflight-esque game, that was completely awesome on the 3DO.

I just bought it, and grabed Ur Quan masters....if you can't even finish that from in-game info than I'm even more glad I just grabbed the original too. Wish I still had my 3DO stuff (dang, never got to finish the Genesis Shadowrun either...) Well remember GOG will have taken care of getting it to run right.

I wish they were also selling the 3DO and Genesis versions though, since I know I love those...

Got me curious here. So the voiced dialogue is the cut-down version? Can you give an example of what is missing?

This page details the differences between the DOS, 3DO and UQM versions. There will be spoilers though, you have been warned.

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Version_Comparison

Also, these pages detail the dialogue differences for every race, even more spoilerific:

http://uqm.stack.nl/diff/arilou.html

"I've actually only played (the completely awesome) Starflight on the Genesis, and that's where I played Star Control 1 also! "

The Genesis version of SF1 is really different from the PC version. Outside of some weird bugs, I largely prefer the gensis version.

In regards to UQM's missing dialogue, that's the 3DO version's fault.

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Mods One of the mods here restores the original text from the PC version. Unfortunately you can't use it with a time limit extender mod AFAIK.

Also who even owns the rights to Star Control? Who's getting money from this getting sold on gog?

I'm pretty sure it's just Atari but I'd like to find out for sure.