Recently there has been some Star Control themed content that popped up on the Internet.
Matt Chat 24: Star Control II and the Spacewar Legacy is a good video summary of Star Control and how it is a descendant of the original video game, Spacewar!.
Star Controller Anthony also recently had a
great post with additional information from Matt.
Any Star Control fan can't deny the similarities of Star Control Melee combat and Spacewar!. I actually played Star Control 1 first before discovering and moving on to Star Control 2. Thus, the melee battle mechanics have always been a soft spot for me. I recently also noticed a
good article about the history of Spacewar! on
Gamasutra.
The Spacewar! article is a perfect segueway from the Matt Chat video because it is an excerpt from Matt Barton's book titled "
Vintage Games".
Of special note from the Gamasutra article, it mentions a game titled Orbit by Atari. The article states that one of the ships looks like "a Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek". While that may be true, the ship also looks a lot like a VUX Intruder to me
Did anyone else know about this slight connection/reference between Orbit and Star Control? The article says of Orbit, "The game wasn't a hit and is rarely spoken of today...".
Link dump:
Matt Chat 24: Star Control II and the Spacewar LegacyFeature: The History Of Spacewar!The History of Spacewar!: The Best Waste of Time in the History of the UniverseStar Controller on Matt Chat 24: Star Control II and the Spacewar LegacySpacewar! on WikipediaVintage Games Book
