Found out about this from indiegames.com, whose source is IndieStatik. A few dedicated fans have pooled efforts to make a HD version of UQM. Many of the old assets like artwork have been replaced with higher resolution versions, and the end result looks good. Anyway the important thing is they've just released an alpha, which you can download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/urquanmastershd/

Indiegames.com link here (has an embedded Youtube video too):
http://indiegames.com/2013/01/alpha_release_ur-quan_masters_.html

Awesome :)

That looks awesome. I'm going to have to try it out!

Are there a lot of assets missing? Or are they all there in HD glory?

What exactly does alpha mean?

This is Star Control 2 open source remake, yes? Good! And I was just thinking that Ur Quan Masters may be dead (last version is from 2011)

Great news!

PS. Does it contain everything from UQM 0.7 + more, or it's something different?

Although, judging only from the screenshots and the video, I think I'd still prefer the original graphics, it does look like they did a good job here. It might be interesting to play around with just to see the differences.

At any rate, it's nice to have the option for those who might not be as fond of the original look as I am.

I've already happily played the non-HD open source version and am fine with the original graphics, but if this makes this excellent game more appealing to some then it can only be a good thing. Everyone should play this!

Hey, help me with one thing, guys. I can refuel only on Earth base? How on earth I am supposed to travel to different star systems, collect minerals and go back?

I also recently finished the original. Had the time of my life. The graphics looked fine to me, but if people prefer the HD remake, and more people play the game, that can only be a good thing!

Great! While I played the original at the time (half way through), I've grown to dislike low res graphics, so a HD remake will certainly make it more fun to get back into the game. I'll be waiting for the Android version.

You might need to buy an extra fuel tank and fill her up. I generally had 2 at the start of the game. You can also get fuel from the Melnorme (I think thats what they are) by trading data from life forms, although its better using that for buying tech upgrades.

At a later point in the game you will get a device that lets you go into hyperspace which will save you a lot of fuel.

Very cool. I'll take a look but I'll probably wait until it's at least considered 1.0 or final.

Oh this is great - maybe ill now manage to convince my youngest little brother to play this, atleast he cant complain anymore about graphics being blocky :)

Although personally i like the original graphics very much as well.

Generally that involves going somewhere else, using most of your fuel to collect minerals, but also keeping in mind how much fuel it took you to get there so that you leave enough to return to base. The possibility of getting stranded makes it important to save in a separate slot whenever you are about to leave Sol.

Ok guys, thanks for the tip, I have enough money to buy an extra fuel tank already, I think I will make use of that.

Btw is there an easy way of tracking in which star systems I already been? There is hundreds of them, some of them are very small...