This post talks about Ghosts of the Precursors
The next post talks about Star Control: Origins
This post also introduces the legal storm that is brewing this minute.
It's still early days but fans of Star Control 2, a.k.a. one of the greatest games of all time, now have something to get genuinely hyped about. Even better, it's exactly what they'd ask for:
Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III are making a direct sequel to Star Control 2.
They're calling it Ghosts of the Precursors. Yes, the original creators of Star Control 2. Yes, a direct SC2 sequel with all the SC2 familiars. No, nothing from Star Control 3.
From their blog: https://dogarandkazon.squarespace.com/b ... h-fighters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
OCTOBER 09, 2017
It was almost exactly 25 years ago that we released The Ur-Quan Masters for DOS PCs. We poured our hearts into the game, blending our love for classic science fiction, Spacewar!-style action gameplay and our own quirky sense of humor. We had tons of help from many talented friends and collaborators, but even so getting the game across the finish line was a herculean effort -- both the exciting, hydra-fighting kind, as well as the exhausting stable-cleaning kind. Pretty much ever since then, fans have been politely asking us to create a sequel, sometimes begging for a sequel, even threatening us if we don’t make a sequel. Our answer was always, “We really want to do this, we just need to wait until the time is right” -- kind of like Cthulhu awakening, but less end-of-the-worldy. Well, the stars have finally aligned -- we are now working on a direct sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters, called Ghosts of the Precursors™.
This is a passion project for us and we have committed to dedicating some of our own time to creating a true sequel. We are early, early in development, but rest assured, the game will include genuine Ur-Quan, Precursors, Super-Melee, Umgah, VUX, Supox, THE ULTRON!, Druuge, Arilou Lalee'lay, Orz, Androsynth, Rainbow Worlds, Ilwrath, Syreen, Mmrnmhrm, Yehat, Shofixti, Spathi (including the ever-terrified Fwiffo), Umgah, Melmorme, Chmmr, Earthlings, Mycon, THE MARK II!, Slylandro, Utwig, Thraddash, Zoq-Fot-Pik, VUX Beast, Pkunk, the Keel-Verezy, and of course all new alien races to discover, befriend ...and/or be annigilate... I mean annihigate.. Damn! Well, you get the idea.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
I'm unclear on how the IP rights work but it turns out Activision simply gave them permission to make it. From Stardock CEO Brad Wardell: https://forums.stardock.net/485378/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Awesome right?October 9, 2017 7:15:00 PMfrom Star Control ForumsStar Control Forums
Four years ago Stardock acquired Atari's rights to Star Control. I soon got to meet my hero, Paul Reiche. He was, more than anyone else, the person who inspired me to become a game developer over 20 years ago.
Over the past 4 years, we have communicated regarding the progress of Star Control: Origins. He asked us not to try to make a sequel to Star Control 2 and said that he hoped one day to be able to return to the universe he and Fred Ford created.
Recently, Paul told me the good news: Activision was going to let him do a true sequel to their Ur-Quan story.
Today, they posted the news publicly: https://dogarandkazon.squarespace.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It's still very early but they will have all the characters from Star Control 2 plus new ones. It's going to be called Ghosts of the Precursors.
For 4 years, people asked me why we weren't going to touch the Star Control 2 story. Now you know.
Unfortunately this has suddenly revealed itself to be a small emotional rollercoaster, God dammit.
Yesterday this update appeared on FF&PR's blog:
DECEMBER 01, 2017
Unfortunately there appears to be a growing legal conflict between us and Stardock. We started out confused at what Stardock said and did. We tried to be reasonable and settle the problem quietly, but now after months of debate we are flat out mad! First, a little background information on just our side of the story:
In 2013, Stardock bought a limited set of Atari’s assets at a bankruptcy auction -- primarily the name and trademark Star Control® and certain original aspects of Star Control III, like the space cows. It’s our opinion that Atari’s rights to publish our earlier games terminated over a decade before the auction and we contend that Stardock has zero rights to our games, including any code and other IP we created.
As far as we can currently tell, we have no relationship with Stardock that lets them sell the three earlier Star Control games without our permission, either bundled with their other products or separately. That permission has not been given.
Despite what Stardock's Brad Wardell has recently said, including in this Ars Technica article, our games’ universe has absolutely no connection, hyper-dimensional or otherwise, with Star Control®: Origins. (Note: We really don’t like other people putting our names in their diagrams without asking us first.)
Stardock now seems to think that not only can they use our aliens, ships and narrative without our permission, but thinks that we cannot make a sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters without their permission -- this is where we got really, really angry.
When we started Ghosts of the Precursors™ we were looking forward to spending our time on fun, creative work, not fighting a legal battle to protect ourselves and our work. We have nothing but respect for the talented, passionate developers working on Star Control: Origins, but we apparently have a BIG problem right now with Stardock’s management. We’ve been waiting 25 years to make Ghosts of the Precursors for our fans and we certainly won’t let this stop us. Go! Go! Go!
So that's the story with Ghosts of the Precursors. It's sounding like a long way off, likely no chance of seeing it in 2018, if it even gets out of this new legal garbage. For me it's a bigger deal than Sonic Mania; the only difference being that with Mania, the entire community was filled with locked-in confidence the moment Taxman's name appeared on the project. If Ghosts of the Precursors gave off signs of similar confidence I would be in some kind of hype-mode overdrive.
But hang on, what is Star Control: Origins then? That's for the next post.