This is a free port derived from the source code of the 3DO version which was kindly donated to the community by the original developer: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

The 'Star Control' bit had to be dropped from the name because Atari owns the trademark rather than the original developers, Toys For Bob.

Here's a link to recently released 0.7.0 rc1 version of the game.

Changelog:

Version 0.7
-------------

NEW FEATURES

- Remixes are now selectable from the setup menu
- "Safe mode", which will ignore settings. Useful if you've somehow
wrecked your configuration files.
- Added --addondir commandline option - Mika
- Added --keepaspectratio to keep correct aspect ratio when using
custom resolutions in OpenGL mode - Mika
- New addon machanism allows greater flexibility for selecting which
resource goes with which game element.
- Joystick text input improved
- Unicode strings now could theoretically support UCS-4 on all platforms
- Experimental support for Symbian S60 3rd edition - Mika & SvdB
- Support for Windows CE. - SvdB with Pavel Chernikov
- Added fullscreen/windowed toggle key F11 (bug #578) - Mika
- Support for 3do "ship spin" videos

BALANCE/GAME FLOW CHANGES
- Do not match singular stars when given a prefix in star search
- Properly account for simultaneous destruction in SuperMelee.
- Druuge no longer turn hostile after attempting a salvage
- Canceling load from the main menu returns to main menu
- Better location description in savegame summaries
- Fixed Mmrnmhrm's X-Form transformation without energy use (bug #1004) - Alex
- 999.9:999.9 is now reachable in HyperSpace
- Fuel and distance estimates are now more accurate
- Analog joysticks less sensitive to jitter
- Gas giants can no longer have negative masses
- Fixed enemy ships getting recrewed between encounters in HyperSpace
- Fixed wrong Sa-Matra guards icons after Kohr-Ah win (bug #1001) - Alex
- Cancel key will now quit out of the Manifest Menu (Bug #838) - Michael
- Error boxes on MacOSX are now actually native to the OS - no need to check
Console.app anymore.

BUGFIXES

- Old Windows installer was horribly obsolete; fixed now.
- Fixed rendering error when entering the orbit of a shielded planet
- Fixed planet blinking when exiting scan
- Menu sounds restored after editing a control set name.
- Fixed a freeze when quickly escaping melee.
- Fixed misaligned cargo count
- Fixed a crash when filling fuel tanks over 10
- Comm code rewrite, fixing a lot of minor annoyances
- Team configuration in netplay no longer desyncs
- Fixed Melee menu timeout when both sides are Cyborgs
- Fixed AI ship not moving on warp in
- Revert gfx settings entirely when a mode switch fails
- Fix for weird colors problem on MacOSX w/ SDL 1.2.14
- Lander will no longer hang when killed on planets with a lot of
natural disasters
- Fixed crash when saving a game into the last slot while having
too many devices on board
- Fixed crashes and potential weirdness when loading savegames from
a Homeworld encounter screen
- Fixed a crash when conversing with music disabled
- Extremely busy battle sequences (Orz vs. Orz with many space marines
out, for instance) no longer introduces graphical glitches
- Fixed rendering bug that would occasionally make a ship just be solid
blue all the time
- Objects in melee made of multiple "parts" no longer jitter during zoom
- Ending a battle with a simultaneous death no longer triggers an
assertion
- Fixed a crash on startup if uqm.cfg did not exist
- Extremely rapid key presses will no longer be lost at low framerates
- 3DO videos now work after a resolution change
- OpenGL texture loading uses surface pitch instead of screen width,
improving compatibility across older graphics cards.
- Miscellaneous conversational typo and timing fixes

INTERNAL CHANGES

- Code cleanup; many warnings removed
- Massive changes to the way the resource system works. This is
mostly interesting in that 3DO voices, 3DO videos, and 3DO music
are now addon packs like any other.
- Code reorganization; old stuff removed, new stuff better set-up
- 32-bit graphics everywhere internally.
- Refactored universe generation
- Pthread support - Mika
- Removed the 256-frame limit on .ani files - Michael

That's awesome. They finally added support for the ship spin videos.

Starcon 2 aka the ur-quan masters now has a hd version; blows my mind!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/urquanmastershd/?source=dlp

I am a little bit confused, I want to play this game but not sure what version should I play - SC2 or UQM? Which one is better?

Only you can answer that question!!!!

What are the differences? Is there any point in buying this one instead of getting the other for free?

UrQuan is nearby in every aspect better then the original.

The only reason to buy here, is to support GOG and if you want to play the first one.

For me, it was quite simple : Ur Quan Masters never worked on my laptop. The gog version does. So "thank you, GOG!"

But you might have better luck than me :)

There is one point I only occasionally see someone bring up, but it's huge:

Combat in Ur-Quan Masters is completely unplayable. The CPU clock speed on modern computers makes the combat ships move too fast to effectively play the game.

I'm wondering if the GOG version avoids this problem because it runs under DOSbox.

Actually, I'm also downloading the UQM HD now to see if this problem was fixed in that version.

Oh, yeah, that's one thing I love with GOG versions (and why I buy again my old games on GOG, even when I still have my original CD/disc) : I can use them directly on modern computers, without tweaking them. Without the clock speed adjustment GOG makes for its ports, most old games are unplayable (for real time games) or have painfully frantic animations and menus (for turn based games like UFO or MAX)

What are you talking about?

The ships in UQM's melee move no faster than they do in the original.

I have played both versions of the game through to the end on multiple occasions.

And before you say I have a slow computer, I have an i5 2500k which is plenty fast enough to be "too fast" for the game.

If you have problems with UQM's combat speed you'd be better off posting on the UQM forum, there's obviously an issue with your system, not the game.

Well, I decided to check out the HD version, remembering that I replaced by mobo, cpu and gpu since the last time I played UQM, and it's now playable for me. Not easy, but playable :)

OMG Thank you! Never played this GEM. The HD Remake (http://sourceforge.net/projects/urquanmastershd/) is just what I needed. Got sick with all those mages, thiefs, wizards, and warriors on earth in about 1250 in games released nowadays. Got no fantasy, these young folks, anymore ;)

These are two very different pieces of software and accompanying digital packaging:

1) SC2 on GOG is a commercial product which (presumably) went through design, quality assurance, installer and documentation packaging, etc. So if you trust GOG , think they are reliable, confirmed game dealer with level of responsibility which satisfies you - this is the version for you. They are also supposed to provide you with support in case you get problems.

2) UQM is a dedicated fans community project which is v0.7 at the moment. This means that this is the most versatile version of the game one might get (because it's developed by fans who really really care), but it's not a final product until it's 1.0. The community won't charge you and hence have little to none responsibility with regards to problems you might get when playing the game. And they are supposed to not care whether you have problems or not. It may be different in reality, I'm not familiar with their discussion board goings.

Take ScummVM as an example. I play ScummVM a lot. It's a fantastic project and it.s v1.7 now, but many games it supports have issues, some smaller, some bigger. All in all you never know whether you'll be able to beat the game until you actually try to.

Bottomline: UQM is much more fun, but it's less stable and you might or might not get help if you encounter problems with it. Choose it if you like tinkering, experimenting, talking with community members, and don't care if it crashes or freezes occasionally and you can start fresh any time independent of the reason.