The Ur-Quan Masters
| The Ur-Quan Masters | |
 | |
| Download | Senor Quack port (new) / |
| Original Developer | Official Site of the Project |
| Ported By | Senor Quack (Dan Silsby) |
| Version | 1.1 |
| Webpage | |
| Status | Completable and Stable |
The Ur-Quan Masters is a game engine for Star Control 2. The latest version of the game is a port released in January 2008 by Senor Quack (Dan Silsby). It is known to be very stable and the entire game has been reported completed with no crashes occuring. Older ports are by loki666 and foehammer.
Senor Quack's source is available at the archive. Foehammer's source is available at the archive.
Contents |
State
Completable and stable.
Game Translations
The entire game has been translated into four languages so far: Suomen kieli (Finnish), Deutsch Sprache (German), Русский язык (Russian), Español (Spanish).
An add-on language pack for the GP2X adds this support and can be found at the archive
Music
A remixed music pack specifically tailored for UQM2X is available from the archive
Installation
- Download the file and extract it anywhere on your SD.
- To play the game simply launch uqm.gpe.
Version History
IMPROVEMENTS IN VERSION 1.1 OVER 1.0:
(released Jan 15, 2008)
- USB joystick support for 1 or 2 players, out of the box. Since the main UQM port's control configuration is not complete yet, I spent a week writing a custom control configurator. You can customize all controls for the GP2X and USB Joysticks 1 & 2. Launch "uqm2xcfg.gpe" to use it. UQM2X now has better joystick support than any other port. In fact, it has better joystick support than the native PC version itself. Joystick controls are preset for two Logitech Dual Action controllers.
- Altered some bilinear sprite-scaling code to work properly with 16bpp surfaces. Bilinear scaling is now used for all sprite scaling. As a result, smooth-scaling mode is now full-speed and is the new default for melee fights. This includes fights in the single-player game.
- Adjustable TV-Out support. Game now detects TV-Out mode and adjusts screen resolution appropriately for PAL/NTSC. At the main menu, you can adjust the screen centering by holding the R-trigger button and moving the stick/DPAD.
- Mapped control for searching for star names via the starmap: press B in the starmap to bring up a prompt.
- Mapped control for quitting super-melee mode: SELECT is the default.
- Diagonal controls are fixed.
- Further speed improvements to planetary lander: Smoother than ever, but RAM tweak in GMenu2X MUST be enabled to see the improvements.
- Full-screen blits are now handled by a custom ARM ASM routine. TV-Out mode does now allow this, however, so a slight overclock when using TV Out might be necessary for smoothness if you play the single-player game. Melees are always full-speed no matter what.
- Squidge's MMU hack is now loaded to speed up blits.
- Internal sound mixing is now entirely done with integer math.
- Options in the setup menu that don't work with the GP2X version are not saved. This includes control re-configuration.
IMPROVEMENTS IN VERSION 1.0 OVER BETA 1:
- GCC4 automatic compiler profiling has been applied to both the game and the integrated libTremor .OGG decoding library.
- Some sprite handling code has been rewritten to be faster on ARM architectures.
- 3DO .OGG music files have been re-encoded and downsampled to 22050hz. The GP2X's output isn't very high quality; no one will notice the difference. .MODs already were 22050hz.
- The above three things allow usage of the planetary lander at full 24fps speed in almost all cases. No overclocking or RAM tweak should be needed.
- Volume buttons work. You can set the intial mixer volume using GMenu2X if you prefer to start the volume lower. The program will respect the setting, I'm working on a small problem that but for the most part it works great.. Volume buttons can be used in-game to adjust main Linux sound mixer. Sound settings in configuration menu can be used to adjust the relative volume of the music, speech, and samples.
- The game can now be installed anywhere you like on the SD.
- Beta 1: Ported SVN 0.6.3 version of main branch
IMPROVEMENTS IN BETA 1 OVER PREVIOUS PORTS BY OTHER AUTHORS:
- Smaller memory footprint. Should help ensure program stability.
- Large amount of previously unused compiler optimizations have been applied. Integration of ARM ASM memory handling routines.
- Lowered default sound sample rate to 22050hz.
- The above three additions enabled smoother overall use of the planetary lander. I no longer had to overclock UQM too much.
- Fixed text scrolling when using 3DO voice package.
- Added sync() on exit to avoid loss of save data.
Controls
Controls by default (Same as older Foehammer port)
- Turn and thrust with the joystick in both ship and lander modes.
- You can also thrust with the 'R' button if you prefer.
- A = Primary Weapon and Menu Select Button
- Y = Secondary Weapon Button
- B = Lander / Ship Escape, in Starmap, searches for stars by name
- Start = Brings up menu or takes you back a step in the menu.
- Select = Quick-exit any portion of the game
Controls for the GP2X and USB Joysticks 1 & 2 can be changed with the UQM2XCFG utility included with the latest version of the port.
