Star Control 3
Encyclopedia
Star Control 3 is a video game developed by Legend Entertainment
. They were hired by Accolade to create a sequel of Star Control II
when the original creators Toys For Bob
expressed no interest in creating the sequel with the same budget as Star Control II (which left them working without pay for several months). It was released for DOS and the Macintosh in 1996
.
The game used a 2.5D
form of melee combat, but 2D
combat was still available. However, unlike SC2, all ship designs absent from the story mode were omitted (with the exception of the Arilou). The module
tunes of the second game were replaced with MIDI music, and pixel animations
for communication with aliens were replaced with rendered and digitized 2D graphics of live puppets.
The gameplay was a mix of borrowing the melee combat and alien encounter dialogue trees from SC2, with new colony management elements which could be compared to Master of Orion
. SC2' s resource gathering, and hyperspace travel gameplay elements were omitted.
In Star Control 3 it is revealed that to protect themselves from the Eternal Ones, a race that inefficiently consumed the energy of all sentient beings once an eon, the Precursors genetically modified themselves to mentally resemble the intelligence of a cow. They created mindless robots (the Daktaklakpak) to reverse the process after the Eternal Ones left. They also left huge caches of their technologies on planets in hopes other races could find how to defeat the Eternal Ones. During the last feeding, their robots malfunctioned, leaving them stranded at that intelligence level for thousands of years. Humans, forever searching for the Precursors but oblivious to their plight, along with many other races found the meat of the Precursors, called by them Ortogs (a 6-legged cow), more delicious than cow, and hence raised, domesticated, and consumed them in massive quantities. The process was able to be temporarily reversed on a single Precursor, giving this knowledge to a captain before it died, instructing him to keep the nature of the Ortogs secret, but to stop their consumption as a food product.
Star Control 3 is considered non-canon
in terms of Star Control Universe.. Some fans refer to the interview with Star Control 2 developers as further proof that the game is non-canon.
Legend Entertainment
Legend Entertainment was an American developer of computer games, best known for their complex, distinctive adventure titles throughout the 1990s....
. They were hired by Accolade to create a sequel of Star Control II
Star Control II
Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters is a critically acclaimed science fiction computer game, the second game in the Star Control trilogy. It was developed by Toys for Bob and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for PC; it was later ported to the 3DO with an enhanced multimedia presentation,...
when the original creators Toys For Bob
Toys For Bob
Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. They are most known for creating Star Control and its sequel Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, but they were not involved in the development of Star Control 3...
expressed no interest in creating the sequel with the same budget as Star Control II (which left them working without pay for several months). It was released for DOS and the Macintosh in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
.
Gameplay
2.5D
2.5D , 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are terms used to describe either:* 2D graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of images or scenes to fake or appear to be three-dimensional when in fact they are not, or* gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is...
form of melee combat, but 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
combat was still available. However, unlike SC2, all ship designs absent from the story mode were omitted (with the exception of the Arilou). The module
Module file
Module files are a family of music file formats originating from the MOD file format on Amiga systems used in late 1980s...
tunes of the second game were replaced with MIDI music, and pixel animations
Pixel art
Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.- History :The term pixel art was first...
for communication with aliens were replaced with rendered and digitized 2D graphics of live puppets.
The gameplay was a mix of borrowing the melee combat and alien encounter dialogue trees from SC2, with new colony management elements which could be compared to Master of Orion
Master of Orion
Master of Orion is a turn-based, 4X science fiction computer strategy game released in 1993 by MicroProse on the MS-DOS and Mac OS operating systems. The purpose of the game is to lead one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing...
. SC2
Plot
SC3's story expanded on the mystery of the Precursors' disappearance, and introduced new enemies in the form of the Hegemonic Crux.In Star Control 3 it is revealed that to protect themselves from the Eternal Ones, a race that inefficiently consumed the energy of all sentient beings once an eon, the Precursors genetically modified themselves to mentally resemble the intelligence of a cow. They created mindless robots (the Daktaklakpak) to reverse the process after the Eternal Ones left. They also left huge caches of their technologies on planets in hopes other races could find how to defeat the Eternal Ones. During the last feeding, their robots malfunctioned, leaving them stranded at that intelligence level for thousands of years. Humans, forever searching for the Precursors but oblivious to their plight, along with many other races found the meat of the Precursors, called by them Ortogs (a 6-legged cow), more delicious than cow, and hence raised, domesticated, and consumed them in massive quantities. The process was able to be temporarily reversed on a single Precursor, giving this knowledge to a captain before it died, instructing him to keep the nature of the Ortogs secret, but to stop their consumption as a food product.
Reception
Star Control 3 was ill received by the fan community, with fans citing inconsistencies in plot with Star Control 2 and lack of fun and challenging gameplay as reasons for negative feedback. Many expressed disappointment that Toys for Bob did not author the game.Star Control 3 is considered non-canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
in terms of Star Control Universe.. Some fans refer to the interview with Star Control 2 developers as further proof that the game is non-canon.
Hegemonic Crux
- Clairconctlar
- Daktaklakpak
- Doog
- Harika & Yorn
- K'tang
- Ploxis
League
- Chmmr
- Earthling (HumanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s) - Kohr-Ah
- Mycon
- Orz
- Pkunk
- Spathi
- Syreen
- Ur-Quan (Kzer-Za) (Kohr-Ah)
- Utwig
- VUX
Unaligned
- Arilou
- Exquivan
- Herald
- Lk
- Owa
- Precursors
- Vyro-Ingo
- Xchagger