Star Control II remake in the works

Game developer Toys for Bob is currently working on a remake of Star Control II, its classic sci-fi action game from the early 1990s, according to a report on the gaming news site Shacknews. The developer intends to eventually release the updated game for free over the Internet as a gift to fans of the original game.

According to Paul Reiche III, lead designer at Toys for Bob, the game will be released under the name The Ur-Quan Masters, since Infogrames currently owns the rights to the Star Control trademark. "We are rebuilding the game because it is almost impossible to play the original PC version of SCII under modern versions of Windows," Reiche said. "We also made a few nice changes to the game when we ported it to the 3DO and we'd like to include those. We may also add some new features (like Internet supermelee mode), as well as a couple of details that we didn't have time to slip into the original PC version."

Additionally, the developer plans to add some features to the game that will let players add their own music, voice-overs, and even video content. Reiche also stressed that this project is in no way intended to discourage any other noncommercial clones of Star Control II that are currently being created by fans of the game. We'll post more information about the game as it becomes available.