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122-427: Released to critical acclaim, Star Control II is widely viewed today as one of the greatest PC games ever made. It has appeared on lists of the greatest video games of all time . The game was ported to 3DO by Crystal Dynamics in 1994 with an enhanced multimedia presentation. The source code of the 3DO port was licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later in 2002, the game content under CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5 . The 3DO source code

244-651: A habitable planet . The first conference session on terraforming, then referred to as "Planetary Modeling", was organized that same year. In March 1979, NASA engineer and author James Oberg organized the First Terraforming Colloquium, a special session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. Oberg popularized the terraforming concepts discussed at the colloquium to the general public in his book New Earths (1981). Not until 1982

366-476: A magnetic field . However the dynamo ceased to function long ago, and the magnetic field of Mars has largely disappeared, probably due to "loss of core heat, solidification of most of the core, and/or changes in the mantle convection regime." Results from the NASA MAVEN mission show that the atmosphere is removed primarily due to Coronal Mass Ejection events, where outbursts of high-velocity protons from

488-399: A nitrogen / oxygen atmosphere for millions of years. To provide one atmosphere of pressure, roughly 1.1×10 kilograms of gas would be required; or a somewhat lower amount if lower pressure is acceptable. Water could be delivered from the outer solar system. Once this water has been delivered, it would split the water into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen molecules, possibly using

610-724: A spiritual predecessor . FACT notes that Star Control II 's "galaxy-spanning sci-fi setting whose adventure elements foreshadowed Mass Effect by a good 15 years". PCGamesN explains further, that "while Star Control II is a little clunky and esoteric by modern standards, this was the Mass Effect of its era, defining many of the elements you might have taken for granted in Bioware's classic sci-fi RPG series. ... Star Control ' s weird and wonderful alien races are far more exciting than anything Bioware gave us." Henrik Fahraeus of Paradox Interactive credits Star Control II as

732-494: A 2014 retrospective, calling it a "must play for space loving gamers", offering "a massive experience filled with exploration, action and some of the funniest aliens you'll run into any video game". Rock Paper Shotgun featured the game in 2016, celebrating "some of the most memorable aliens ever put in a game, and still some of the best written." In a 2018 retrospective of the entire series, Hardcore Gaming 101 notes that "there are aspects of Star Control II that are rough around

854-408: A battle requires a combination of ship selection and skill. This combat mode can be played separately in a two-player battle mode called Super Melee. In the story mode, the player is limited to the ships they can gain from sympathetic alien races, whereas Super Melee includes every ship in both Star Control games. The only ship unique to the story mode is the player's capital ship, which is upgraded as

976-512: A combination of procedural generation and handcrafted assets. Despite the fact that exoplanets had yet to be fully discovered, Reiche initially took on the challenge of simulating planetary systems based on scientific principles. They ultimately decided to bypass some details of the simulation, due to its lack of distinct planets to explore. Instead, they imagined cracked planets with magma chasms, ruby planets with precious zirconium , and even rainbow colored planets. The planets were created with

1098-413: A direct sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters , which would effectively bypass the story from Star Control 3 , created by the now defunct Legend Entertainment . This announcement comes after years of fan requests for a sequel. Due to disagreements between the trademark owner of Star Control and the ownership of the intellectual property within the games previously sold under the trademark, the game development

1220-572: A full issue on terraforming for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in 1992. In his book Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments (1995), Fogg proposed the following definitions for different aspects related to terraforming: Fogg also devised definitions for candidate planets of varying degrees of human compatibility: Fogg suggests that Mars was a biologically compatible planet in its youth, but

1342-409: A major influence on strategy game Stellaris , after expressing disappointment that the Mass Effect series lacked the exploration and openness of Star Control II . Game writer and narrative designer Zoë Quinn called Star Control II a childhood obsession, describing how she "filled several notebooks with notes and maps as I constantly explored Fake Space, trying to see everything and uncover all

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1464-425: A middle ground, such as Christopher McKay , who argues that terraforming is ethically sound only once we have completely assured that an alien planet does not harbor life of its own; but that if it does, we should not try to reshape it to our own use, but we should engineer its environment to artificially nurture the alien life and help it thrive and co-evolve, or even co-exist with humans. Even this would be seen as

1586-450: A necessary component of any possible colonization strategy based on the principles of microbial symbiosis and their beneficial ecosystem services . As conditions approach that of Earth, plant life could be brought in, and this will accelerate the production of oxygen, theoretically making the planet eventually able to support animal life. In 1985, Martyn Fogg started publishing several articles on terraforming. He also served as editor for

1708-481: A photo-catalytic dust, with the hydrogen rapidly being lost to space. At an oxygen pressure of 0.2-0.3 bar , the atmosphere would be breathable and nitrogen may be added as required to allow for plant growth in the presence of nitrates . Temperature management would be required, due to the equilibrium average temperature of ~159 Celsius. However, millions of square kilometers at the poles have an average temperature of 0-50 Celsius, or 32-122 Fahrenheit ( i.e., an area

1830-463: A positive reception around its release, as well as several awards. Soon after, Star Control II began to appear on many "all time best" lists for players and industry figures, a reputation that has continued ever since. Computer Gaming World stated that Star Control II was as much a sequel to Starflight as to Star Control . The reviewer praised the VGA graphics and wrote that the game "has some of

1952-438: A procedurally generated height map, which required difficult programming solutions to simulate the appearance of a 3D sphere. They additionally simulated 3D asteroids by digitizing images of pumice they had taken from a parking lot. The Star Control II team also invented their own fictional, flat version of space, so that the stars could be arranged in a more clear and interesting way. The algorithmically assisted generation of

2074-405: A space adventure", also giving the strongest praise for the music and sound as "among the best done for any game on the market." The game was also rated 96/100 by Finnish magazine Pelit , who immediately hailed it as one of the best games of the year. Reviewing the 3DO version, GamePro remarked that the user-friendly interface makes the complicated gameplay easy to handle. They also praised

2196-525: A teenager named Dan Nicholson, who they hired to create additional music as needed. Further music came from existing team member Erol Otus , who first composed the Ur-Quan theme on a synthesizer before it was re-sampled and exported to the MOD file format. The critically acclaimed soundtrack would include music from Aaron Grier, Erol Otus, Eric Berge, Riku Nuottajärvi, and Dan Nicholson. Months after its release,

2318-417: A thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years. The exact mechanism of this loss is still unclear, though three mechanisms, in particular, seem likely: First, whenever surface water is present, carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) reacts with rocks to form carbonates , thus drawing atmosphere off and binding it to the planetary surface. On Earth, this process

2440-436: A version of the game with placeholder dialog, and was content to ship the game with the "cryptic" text as-is. This led to an industry legend that the duo absconded to Alaska to finish the game without Accolade's interference. The creators later clarified that Accolade did not interfere with development and was satisfied to publish the game in any form, and that this was important to their creative freedom and artistic success. As

2562-452: A very long-term choice between terraforming other worlds or allowing all terrestrial life to become extinct . Terraforming totally barren planets, it is asserted, is not morally wrong as it does not affect any other life. The opposing argument posits that terraforming would be an unethical interference in nature , and that given humanity's past treatment of Earth, other planets may be better off without human interference. Still others strike

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2684-433: Is able to sustain life, particularly for humans, is generally the end-goal of the hypothetical process of terraforming. Of particular interest in the context of terraforming is the set of factors that have sustained complex, multicellular animals in addition to simpler organisms on Earth. Research and theory in this regard is a component of planetary science and the emerging discipline of astrobiology . Classifications of

2806-463: Is also celebrated, with Paste magazine giving it top ranking on their list of "games that capture the infinite potential of space". GameSpot ranked the Star Control II universe among their top ten game worlds, whereas GameRant listed Star Control II as the third largest open world map, also noting it as "perhaps the most underrated game of all time". The game's music is remembered as

2928-446: Is counteracted when plate tectonics works to cause volcanic eruptions that vent carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere. On Mars, the lack of such tectonic activity worked to prevent the recycling of gases locked up in sediments. Second, the lack of a magnetosphere around Mars may have allowed the solar wind to gradually erode the atmosphere. Convection within the core of Mars, which is made mostly of iron , originally generated

3050-459: Is devoted to analyzing Star Control II , as an unprecedented open world game far ahead of its contemporaries. Star Control II is sometimes credited as a spiritual successor to Starflight , inheriting its legacy as a genre-defining space exploration game. The Ur-Quan Masters is a modified open-source release of Star Control 2 , based on a freely available version of the original 3DO code. In 2017, Reiche and Ford announced plans to create

3172-436: Is known as pantropy . There is a philosophical debate within biology and ecology as to whether terraforming other worlds is an ethical endeavor. From the point of view of a cosmocentric ethic , this involves balancing the need for the preservation of human life against the intrinsic value of existing planetary ecologies. Lucianne Walkowicz has even called terraforming a "planetary-scale strip mining operation". On

3294-400: Is not now in any of these three categories, because it can only be terraformed with greater difficulty. Planetary habitability, broadly defined as the capacity for an astronomical body to sustain life, requires that various geophysical , geochemical , and astrophysical criteria must be met before the surface of such a body is considered habitable. Modifying a planetary surface such that it

3416-494: Is only 1.1% that of Earth's, and, being closer to the Sun, any atmosphere would be stripped rapidly unless it can be protected from the solar wind. It is conjectured that Mercury's magnetic field should be much stronger, up to 30% of Earth's, if it weren't being suppressed by certain solar wind feedback effects. If some means of shielding Mercury from solar wind by placing an artificial magnetic shield at Mercury-Sun L 1 (similar to

3538-581: Is that the clouds of Venus are composed of a highly concentrated sulfuric acid solution. Even if atmospheric algae could thrive in the hostile environment of Venus's upper atmosphere, an even more insurmountable problem is that its atmosphere is simply far too thick: the high atmospheric pressure would result in a "atmosphere of nearly pure molecular oxygen" at high pressure. This volatile combination could not be sustained through time. Any carbon that had been reduced by photosynthesis would be quickly oxidized in this atmosphere through combustion, "short-circuiting"

3660-507: Is therefore untenable, as he later conceded. An additional step noted by Martin Beech includes the injection of water and/or hydrogen into the planetary atmosphere; this step follows after sequestering CO 2 and reducing the mass of the atmosphere. In order to combine hydrogen with O 2 produced by other means, an estimated 4*10 kg of hydrogen is necessary; this may need to be mined from another source, such as Uranus or Neptune. Although

3782-409: Is to free Earth from the evil Ur-Quan , by recruiting aliens to help. The main gameplay elements are exploring the galaxy, gathering resources, building a fleet, defeating enemy ships, and conversing with aliens. One-on-one spaceship battles take place in real-time, based on the core gameplay of the original Star Control . Each ship has unique weapons, maneuvers, and secondary abilities, and winning

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3904-689: Is unclear what the result of heating this up would be. Many proposals for planetary engineering involve the use of genetically engineered bacteria. As synthetic biology matures over the coming decades it may become possible to build designer organisms from scratch that directly manufacture desired products efficiently. Lisa Nip, Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab 's Molecular Machines group, said that by synthetic biology, scientists could genetically engineer humans, plants and bacteria to create Earth-like conditions on another planet. Gary King, microbiologist at Louisiana State University studying

4026-643: The Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the surface environment of objects in the Solar System. The low gravity of Mars suggests that these impacts could have ejected much of the Martian atmosphere into deep space. Terraforming Mars would entail two major interlaced changes: building the atmosphere and heating it. A thicker atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide would trap incoming solar radiation . Because

4148-478: The Moon have been studied in relation to the subject, Mars is usually considered to be the most likely candidate for terraforming. Much study has been done concerning the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere, and NASA has even hosted debates on the subject. Several potential methods for the terraforming of Mars may be within humanity's technological capabilities, but according to Martin Beech,

4270-510: The ethics , logistics , economics , politics , and methodology of altering the environment of an extraterrestrial world, presenting issues to the implementation of the concept. The astronomer Carl Sagan proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in an article published in the journal Science in 1961. Sagan imagined seeding the atmosphere of Venus with algae , which would convert water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide into organic compounds . As this process removed carbon dioxide from

4392-454: The introduced species , the importation of microbial life could begin. As conditions approach that of Earth, plant life could also be brought in. This would accelerate the production of oxygen, which theoretically would make the planet eventually able to support animal life. In many respects, Mars is the most Earth-like planet in the Solar System. It is thought that Mars once had a more Earth-like environment early in its history, with

4514-600: The notes section show which of the 52 selected publications list the game. The reference numbers show which publications include the game. Terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere , temperature , surface topography or ecology of a planet , moon , or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable for humans to live on. The concept of terraforming developed from both science fiction and actual science . Carl Sagan , an astronomer , proposed

4636-483: The origin of an ecosystem . In the context of space exploration, Haynes describes ecopoiesis as the "fabrication of a sustainable ecosystem on a currently lifeless, sterile planet". Fogg defines ecopoiesis as a type of planetary engineering and is one of the first stages of terraformation. This primary stage of ecosystem creation is usually restricted to the initial seeding of microbial life. A 2019 opinion piece by Lopez, Peixoto and Rosado has reintroduced microbiology as

4758-573: The planetary engineering of Venus in 1961, which is considered one of the first accounts of the concept. The term was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction short story (" Collision Orbit ") published in 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction . Even if the environment of a planet could be altered deliberately, the feasibility of creating an unconstrained planetary environment that mimics Earth on another planet has yet to be verified. While Venus, Earth , Mars , and even

4880-413: The planetary equilibrium temperature ; terraforming concepts may include modifying temperature by methods including solar reflectors to increase or decrease the amount of solar illumination, and hence modify temperature. All known life requires water; thus the capacity for planetary body to sustain water is a critical aspect of habitability. The " Habitable Zone " of a solar system is generally defined as

5002-663: The triple point of water (611.7 Pa), water cannot be liquid at any temperature. Human survival requires a still-higher pressure of at least 6.3 kPa, the Armstrong limit ; below this pressure, exposed body fluids boil at body temperature. Furthermore, a thick atmosphere protects the surface from cosmic rays . A thin atmosphere could be thickened using gases produced locally (e.g. the Moon could be given an atmosphere of oxygen by reducing lunar rock ) or gases could be imported from elsewhere. Once conditions become more suitable for life of

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5124-402: The "world house" concept, para-terraforming involves the construction of a habitable enclosure on a planet that encompasses most of the planet's usable area. The enclosure would consist of a transparent roof held one or more kilometers above the surface, pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and anchored with tension towers and cables at regular intervals. The world house concept is similar to

5246-516: The 33rd best computer game of all time. The editors wrote, "If ever a game deserved an award for being underrated, it's Star Control II ." The next year, players voted the game into PC Gamer ' s Readers Top 40. Computer Gaming World created their own list in 1996, ranking Star Control II as the 29th best PC game of all time, calling it "a stunning mix of adventure, action, and humor." In 1999, Next Generation also ranked it among their top 50 games of all time. This acclaim continued well into

5368-410: The 37th greatest game soundtrack by the music magazine FACT , describing it as "a lost 80s treasure trove of unreleased techno, synth pop and Italo". The music of Star Control II was similarly listed as the second greatest game soundtrack according to GameSpot ' s editors, which was echoed once again by their readers. Long after its release, Star Control II continues to garner acclaim across

5490-586: The Captain finds the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm on Procyon undergoing their own plan to merge in to a composite species powerful enough to defeat the Ur-Quan, and captures a psychic alien Dnyarri, which the Captain discovers is a member of the race that brutally enslaved the galaxy millennia ago, causing the Ur-Quan's hegemonic and genocidal rampage around the galaxy. The Captain uses a Precursor Sun Device to accelerate

5612-472: The Moon. One proposal for terraforming Ceres would involve heating it (using orbital mirrors, detonating thermonuclear devices or colliding small asteroids with Ceres), creating an atmosphere and deep ocean. However, this appears to be based on a misconception that Ceres' surface is icy in a similar way to the gas giant moons. In reality, Ceres' surface is "a layer of mixed ice, silicates and light strong phases best matched by hydrated salts and clathrates". It

5734-619: The Mycon's organic structures and high energy plasma, they decided that the Mycon lived beneath the planet's crust, and must have been artificially created to survive there. Fred Ford inspired the character design for the Earth starbase commander, as well as the Pkunk's insult ability, while the Spathi were inspired by a running joke about Paul Reiche's desire for self-preservation. The rich storytelling

5856-482: The Precursor central computer. The new ship set out to Sol to make contact with Earth, but shortly before reaching Sol the little fleet was attacked by an unknown probe; The expedition commander, captaining the expedition's Earthling Cruiser, intercepted the alien ship before it could damage the defenseless Precursor starship, but was killed in the short fight, leaving the genius young man in command. The player begins

5978-556: The Sa-Matra, a Precursor battle platform of unparalleled power. The player must take advantage of the Ur-Quans' distraction to contact and recruit alien races into a new alliance, gather resources and build a fleet, and find a way to destroy the Sa-Matra, before the Ur-Quan finish their war and become unstoppable. The Captain resolves issues several of the races are facing, or exploits their weaknesses, to get them on their side. Notably

6100-456: The Sun impact the atmosphere. Mars does still retain a limited magnetosphere that covers approximately 40% of its surface. Rather than uniformly covering and protecting the atmosphere from solar wind, however, the magnetic field takes the form of a collection of smaller, umbrella-shaped fields, mainly clustered together around the planet's southern hemisphere. Finally, between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, asteroid impacts during

6222-559: The Vela star system. A massive Hierarchy offensive forced the Alliance fleets to retreat beyond Vela, stranding the science expedition, who went in to hiding. Decades later, with the help of a genius child born on the planet, the colonists activated the Precursor machinery and found out that it was programmed to build a highly advanced but unfinished starship, which could be piloted only by the now grown genius child, who alone could interact with

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6344-585: The Year" award, and an award from Computer Gaming World , naming it the magazine's 1993 Adventure Game of the Year (a co-honor with Eric the Unready ). Star Control II quickly began to appear on "all-time favorite" lists, a practice that continued for many years. In 1994, PC Gamer US named Star Control II as the 21st best computer game ever. The editors called it "an epic" and "thoroughly enjoyable to play and look at." That same year, PC Gamer UK named it

6466-409: The ability of water (possibly saline, or under high pressure in the ocean bottom) to be available in liquid form. This may constitute a bounding range for the development of life on other planets, in the context of terraforming. For Earth, the temperature is set by the equilibrium of incident solar radiation absorbed and outgoing infrared radiation, including the effect of greenhouse gasses in modifying

6588-532: The agency and some of its research partners created an software called DTA GView − a ' Google Maps of genomes ', in which genomes of several organisms can be pulled up on the program to immediately show a list of known genes and where they are located in the genome. According to Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA's Biological Technologies Office , they have developed a "technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay". Also known as

6710-568: The alien voices are sometimes difficult to understand. They cited the CD-quality audio and the Melee mode as other strong points, and one of them commented that it "blows [the PC version] out of the water." They gave it an 8.25 out of 10. Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "if you've the patience to spend hours digging for minerals,

6832-479: The artwork for the alien spaceships. They were also able to hire fantasy artist George Barr through mutual friends, who had inspired the game's " pulp science-fiction " feel, and happened to be living nearby. Long-time friend Erol Otus was another collaborator, who Reiche describes as contributing the widest range of content, including music, text, art, illustrations for the game manual, and (later) voice-acting. The largest number of collaborators were needed for

6954-505: The atmosphere, using orbiting mirrors to reflect more sunlight onto the planet, or lowering the albedo of the planet. Conversely, a planet too hot for liquid water could be cooled down by removing greenhouse gases (if these are present), placing a sunshade in the L 1 point to reduce sunlight reaching the planet, or increasing the albedo. Atmospheric pressure is another issue: various celestial bodies including Mars, Mercury and most moons have lower pressure than Earth. At pressures below

7076-449: The atmosphere, the greenhouse effect would be reduced until surface temperatures dropped to "comfortable" levels. The resulting plant matter, Sagan proposed, would be pyrolyzed by the high surface temperatures of Venus, and thus be sequestered in the form of "graphite or some involatile form of carbon" on the planet's surface. However, later discoveries about the conditions on Venus made this particular approach impossible. One problem

7198-486: The best computer games ever developed. Founder of BioWare Ray Muzyka also cites Star Control as an inspiration, stating that "the uncharted worlds in Mass Effect comes from imagining what a freely explorable universe would be like inside a very realistic next-gen game." Indeed, journalists have noted heavy similarities in the story, characters, and overall experience of Mass Effect , even calling Star Control II

7320-488: The best dialogue ever encountered in this genre". He concluded that the game "has been placed on this reviewer's top ten list of all time ... one of the most enjoyable games to review all year. It is not often that a perfect balance is struck between role playing, adventure, and action/arcade". In their 1994 survey of strategic space games set in the future, they gave the game four-plus stars out of five, stating that "it offers hours of 'simple, hot and deep' play". Dragon gave

7442-488: The best games ever written. Additionally, The Dickinson Press called it "one of the best PC games ever", and The Completist notes it as "one of the greatest games ever made". Indeed, Star Control II is admired and influential amongst notable developers in the game industry . Tim Cain credits Star Control II with inspiring his open-ended design in both Fallout and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura , calling it his personal favorite RPG of all time and one of

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7564-429: The cations Mg , Ca , K and Na and the anion Cl . Many of these elements may undergo biologically facilitated oxidation or reduction to produce usable metabolic energy. Terraforming a planet would involve making it fit the habitability requirements listed in the previous section. For example, a planet may be too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. Its temperature could be raised by adding greenhouse gases to

7686-518: The characters and stare at them. I hold little conversations with them. ' What do you guys do ?' And they tell me." Early in the process, they used the first game's character and ship images to create simple visual stories about the two main sides of the conflict. The main antagonist the Ur-Quan were already understood as a race of slavers in Star Control , so Reiche developed their motivation by writing their backstory as slaves themselves. To justify

7808-410: The concept of a domed habitat , but one which covers all (or most) of the planet. Potential targets for paraterraforming include Mercury, the Moon, Ceres and the gas giant moons. It has also been suggested that instead of or in addition to terraforming a hostile environment humans might adapt to these places by the use of genetic engineering , biotechnology and cybernetic enhancements . This

7930-491: The criteria of habitability can be varied, but it is generally agreed upon that the presence of water, non-extreme temperatures, and an energy source put broad constraints on habitability. Other requirements for habitability have been defined as the presence of raw materials, a solvent, and clement conditions, or elemental requirements (such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur), and reasonable physiochemical conditions. When applied to organisms present on

8052-407: The dwarf planet Ceres . The moons are covered in ice, so heating them would make some of this ice sublimate into an atmosphere of water vapour, ammonia and other gases. For Jupiter's moons, the intense radiation around Jupiter would cause radiolysis of water vapour, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen. The former would be rapidly lost to space, leaving behind the oxygen (this already occurs on

8174-403: The earth, including humans, these constraints can substantially narrow. In its astrobiology roadmap, NASA has defined the principal habitability criteria as "extended regions of liquid water, conditions favorable for the assembly of complex organic molecules , and energy sources to sustain metabolism ." The general temperature range for all life on Earth is -20°C to 122°C, set primarily by

8296-482: The economic attitude of preferring short-term profits over long-term investments will not support a terraforming project. The long timescales and practicality of terraforming are also the subject of debate. As the subject has gained traction, research has expanded to other possibilities including biological terraforming, para-terraforming, and modifying humans to better suit the environments of planets and moons . Despite this, questions still remain in areas relating to

8418-460: The edges..., [b]ut once you surmount those obstacles, it reveals itself as one of the smartest, funniest, most adventure-filled science fiction games ever made". In a multi-part feature on the history of video games , VGChartz noted that Star Control II is "often considered one of the greatest games ever made". Kotaku referred to it as "one of the early ' 90s most revolutionary sci-fi games", and game historian Rusel DeMaria describes it as one of

8540-662: The effects of climate change , an interventionist program might be designed to return Earth to pre-industrial climate parameters. In order to achieve this, multiple approaches have been proposed, such as the management of solar radiation , the sequestration of carbon dioxide, and the design and release of climate altering genetically engineered organisms. These are typically referred to as geoengineering or climate engineering , rather than terraforming. Other possible candidates for terraforming (possibly only partial or paraterraforming) include large moons of Jupiter or Saturn ( Europa , Ganymede , Callisto , Enceladus , Titan ), and

8662-437: The energy source to keep the water liquid is from tidal heating , rather than solar energy. On the most fundamental level, the only absolute requirement of life may be thermodynamic disequilibrium , or the presence of Gibbs Free Energy . It has been argued that habitability can be conceived of as a balance between life's demand for energy and the capacity for the environment to provide such energy. For humans, energy comes in

8784-456: The first Star Control stores most of its lore in the instruction manual, Star Control II continues the story with a rich in-game experience, playing through events after the Alliance is defeated by the Hierarchy. In the last phase of the war between the Alliance of Free Stars and the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, an Earthling ship discovered an ancient Precursor subterranean installation in

8906-826: The form of sugars, fats, and proteins provided by consuming plants and animals, necessitating in turn that a habitable planet for humans can sustain such organisms. Much of earth's biomass (~60%) relies on photosynthesis for an energy source, while a further ~40% is chemotropic . For the development of life on other planetary bodies, chemical energy may have been critical, while for sustaining life on another planetary body in our solar system, sufficiently high solar energy may also be necessary for phototrophic organisms. On Earth, life generally requires six elements in high abundance: carbon , hydrogen , nitrogen , oxygen , phosphorus , and sulfur . These elements are considered "essential" for all known life and plentiful within biological systems. Additional elements crucial to life include

9028-433: The game "entertains right down to the end, with the some of the funniest credits since Monty Python's Holy Grail ". The game's ending was similarly ranked as the third greatest of all time according to GameSpot ' s editors, with their readers ranking it the sixth greatest ending. Moreover, GameSpot twice acclaimed the Ur-Quan among their top ten game villains, mentioning them at the top of one 1999 list as "one of

9150-429: The game a full five-star review, telling their readers that "if you are a science-fiction gamer who enjoys a superb game environment, a high dollar-to-play ratio, and numerous challenges, SC2 is a definite must-have for your software library". Questbusters called it the "best science-fiction role-playing game since Starflight ", and "best RPG of the year". Giving the game four out of five stars, Game Players described

9272-404: The game as the commander of the Precursor starship, who returns to Earth to find it enslaved by the Ur-Quan. The Captain gains the support of the skeleton crew of Earth's caretaker starbase and ventures out to contact the other races to find out what's happened since the end of the war and try to recruit allies in to a New Alliance of Free Stars against the Ur-Quan. The Captain quickly discovers that

9394-447: The game for their 2007 list of favorite classics, with "a combination of sandbox space travel and arcade-style combat, a plotline equal to any space opera you can name, hundreds of pages' worth of interactive dialog and dozens of memorable, unique races, it's easy to see why most reviews of Star Control II quickly turn into love letters." When Kotaku compiled their 2013 list of "Classic PC Games You Must Play", Star Control II reached

9516-428: The game industry. Responding to film critics who criticized video games as a superficial medium, The Escapist magazine highlighted Star Control II as "the scripting was second to none. Don't be fooled by the fantastical setting - the story maturely dealt with wide ranging issues, from genocide to religious extremism, and still remained terrifying, touching, and damn funny in places." The magazine would revisit this in

9638-482: The game is addictive, but not state of the art." The year of its release, the Game Developers Conference honored Star Control II as an exceptional game among their "Class of '93", calling it a "perfect blend of action and adventure", as well as "sound that is exceptional enough to make gamers think they've upgraded their sound boards". The game also received Pelit magazine's first "Game of

9760-548: The game launched on Kickstarter on April 16, 2024, and has ended on May 18, 2024, collecting more than $ 650 000. List of video games considered the best This is a list of video games that multiple video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from different publications (inclusive of all time periods, platforms, and genres), as chosen by their editorial staffs. The reference numbers in

9882-419: The game's epic scale, where "there's so much to do -- so many planets to explore and mysteries to solve and battles to fight -- that the game may dominate your spare time". PC Games noted the game's "rich history", describing the game as "part arcade, part role-play, Star Control II is all science fiction, with an emphasis on fiction ." COMPUTE! suggested that the game "gives you exactly what you want in

10004-531: The game's numerous dialog options. The creators were admirers of the Monkey Island games, and aimed to achieve the same level of player choice and humor. Reiche felt that each character needed their own font to match their distinct personality, and built a font-editing system to achieve this. Reiche and Ford felt it was difficult to maintain Accolade's interest in the game. In fact, Accolade had played

10126-406: The gravity on Earth's Moon is too low to hold an atmosphere for geological spans of time, if given one, it would retain it for spans of time that are long compared to human lifespans. Landis and others have thus proposed that it could be feasible to terraform the moon, although not all agree with that proposal. Landis estimates that a 1 PSI atmosphere of pure oxygen on the Moon would require on

10248-446: The impressive graphics and the voice acting's use of unique vocal inflections for each alien race, and concluded that the game is "an addicting epic sci-fi adventure that will have patient space explorers and zero-gravity tacticians glued to their screens for a million hours. All others should stay away." The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly likewise praised the accessible interface and impressive graphics, but complained that

10370-463: The injection of floating, photosynthetic bacteria into the Venusian atmosphere to reduce CO 2 to organic form , and increase the atmospheric concentration of O 2 in the atmosphere. This concept, however, was based in a flawed 1960s understanding of Venus's atmosphere as much lower pressure; in reality, the Venusian atmospheric pressure (93 bars) is far higher than early estimates. Sagan's idea

10492-467: The merging of the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm to create the Chmmr, who amplify a Precursor terraforming bomb, allowing the Captain to sacrifice his ship to destroy the Sa-Matra and defeat the Ur-Quan. Star Control II began as a more ambitious project than the original Star Control , with Reiche and Ford hoping to go beyond ship combat to develop a "science fiction adventure role-playing game". The team credits

10614-404: The moon would require "about 100 comets the size of Halley's." Mercury would be difficult to terraform. Beech states "There seems little prospect of terraforming Mercury such that any animals or plants might exist there," and suggests that its primary use in a terraforming project would be as a mining source for minerals. Nevertheless, terraforming has been considered. Mercury's magnetic field

10736-406: The moons to a minor extent, giving them thin atmospheres of oxygen). For Saturn's moons, the water vapour could be split by using orbital mirrors to focus sunlight, causing photolysis . The ammonia could be converted to nitrogen by introducing bacteria such as Nitrosomonas , Pseudomonas and Clostridium , resulting in an Earth-like nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. This atmosphere would protect

10858-536: The most extreme organisms on Earth, notes that "synthetic biology has given us a remarkable toolkit that can be used to manufacture new kinds of organisms specially suited for the systems we want to plan for" and outlines the prospects for terraforming, saying "we'll want to investigate our chosen microbes, find the genes that code for the survival and terraforming properties that we want (like radiation and drought resistance ), and then use that knowledge to genetically engineer specifically Martian-designed microbes". He sees

10980-819: The most significant contributors to Star Control II ". Ford also cites their shared love of author Jack Vance from their childhood, and were intrigued by the idea of exaggerated societies taken to their extremes, and intelligent characters committed to an interesting agenda. Reiche would cite the influence of numerous fiction authors over the Star Control series, including Jack Vance, Orson Scott Card , Robert Heinlein , David Brin , and Andre Norton . David Brin 's Uplift Universe and Larry Niven 's Known Space series are often mentioned as inspiration for Star Control II . The creators started by asking "what people do when they go out and have an adventure in space", while keeping in mind what they could actually implement. This led them to create numerous stars and planets, through

11102-659: The next millennium. In 2000, GameSpy inducted Star Control II into their Hall of Fame, and ranked it the 26th best game of all time just one year later. The Sydney Morning Herald noted Star Control II on its 2002 list, ranking the game as the 26th best game of all time. In 2003, GameSpot included Star Control II on their list of greatest games of all time. In the same year, IGN named Star Control II as their 53rd greatest game of all time, and ranked it again at 17th greatest in 2005. In 2006, Computer Gaming World inducted Star Control II into their Hall of Fame, explaining that "what made Star Control II stand out, though,

11224-441: The order of two hundred trillion tons of oxygen, and suggests it could be produced by reducing the oxygen from an amount of lunar rock equivalent to a cube about fifty kilometers on an edge. Alternatively, he suggests that the water content of "fifty to a hundred comets" the size of Halley's comet would do the job, "assuming that the water doesn't splash away when the comets hit the moon." Likewise, Benford calculates that terraforming

11346-418: The planet's 450 °C (842 °F) surface temperature. These goals are closely interrelated because Venus's extreme temperature may result from the greenhouse effect caused by its dense atmosphere. Venus's atmosphere currently contains little oxygen, so an additional step would be to inject breathable O 2 into the atmosphere. An early proposal for such a process comes from Carl Sagan , who suggested

11468-495: The player gains new technology and resources. After a brief opening sequence, the player is given near total freedom to explore the galaxy at large. Exploration often involves travelling to stars, landing on planets, and gathering resources. The player navigates their star map, with over 500 stars and 3800 planets to potentially visit. Players must manage their risk as they explore, as planets with more dangerous hazards usually feature more valuable resources, which are vital to upgrade

11590-527: The player's fleet. More rarely, a planet will feature an interactive alien race, who the player can engage with as a potential friend or foe. The interactive dialog options help advance the story, with branching conversations similar to other adventure games. These conversations also reveal secrets and information about the galaxy. The game vastly expands on the characters and backstory from the first game, with each species having their own characteristic conversational quirks, music, and even display fonts. Whereas

11712-406: The pre-existing combat from the original Star Control with giving them a strong core to build a larger game around. The sequel would develop into a much more detailed adventure than the first edition. Ford explains that the original Star Control had "some story there, but it was mostly in the manual. In Star Control II , we made a conscious decision to tell more of a story". The duo would downplay

11834-452: The pro-terraforming side of the argument, there are those like Robert Zubrin , Martyn J. Fogg , Richard L. S. Taylor, and the late Carl Sagan who believe that it is humanity's moral obligation to make other worlds suitable for human life , as a continuation of the history of life-transforming the environments around it on Earth. They also point out that Earth would eventually be destroyed if nature takes its course , so that humanity faces

11956-418: The project went over schedule, their payment from Accolade came to an end. Fred Ford decided to financially support the team for the final months of development, and they were ultimately able to finish the project with the help of numerous family, friends, and other collaborators. The team stretched their music budget by holding a contest to create the game's soundtrack. Reiche and Ford had previously discovered

12078-516: The project's biggest bottleneck in the ability to genetically tweak and tailor the right microbes, estimating that this hurdle could take "a decade or more" to be solved. He also notes that it would be best to develop "not a single kind of microbe but a suite of several that work together". DARPA is researching the use of photosynthesizing plants, bacteria, and algae grown directly on the Mars surface that could warm up and thicken its atmosphere. In 2015

12200-426: The proposal for Mars), then Mercury's magnetic field could possibly grow in intensity to a point where Mercury's magnetic field could be self-sustaining provided the field wasn't made to "stall" by another solar event. Despite being much smaller than Mars, Mercury has an escape velocity only slightly less than that of Mars due to its higher density and could, if a magnetosphere prevents atmospheric stripping, hold

12322-453: The raised temperature would add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the two processes would augment each other. Carbon dioxide alone would not suffice to sustain a temperature above the freezing point of water, so a mixture of specialized greenhouse molecules might be manufactured. Terraforming Venus requires two major changes: removing most of the planet's dense 9 MPa (1,300 psi; 89 atm) carbon dioxide atmosphere, and reducing

12444-615: The region in which stable surface liquid water may be present on a planetary body. The boundaries of the Habitable Zone were originally defined by water loss by photolysis and hydrogen escape, setting a limit on how close a planet may be to its orbited star, and the prevalence of CO 2 clouds that would increase albedo , setting an outer boundary on stable liquid water. These constraints are applicable in particular to Earth-like planets, and would not as easily apply to moons like Europa and Enceladus with ice-covered oceans, where

12566-471: The rest of the humans' allies in the war against the Ur-Quan have either been eradicated, put under slave shields, or put into service as Ur-Quan battle thralls. As the player progresses, it is revealed that the Ur-Quan are fighting an internecine war with the Kohr-Ah, a subspecies of Ur-Quan who believe in eradicating all life in the galaxy, as opposed to enslaving it. The winner of this war will gain access to

12688-457: The sample-based MOD file format while porting the first Star Control' s music to consoles. They posted the music contest to a newsgroup for Amiga users, despite the fact that the game was for PC , because Amiga hobbyists were the main community of MOD- tracker users in that time. The contest attracted people from around the world, due to the popularity of the MOD format in the largely European demoscene . The contest also led them to discover

12810-633: The scale of the game when pitching it to their publisher Accolade , and the game's development would eventually go over schedule. Reiche and Ford drew inspiration from many science-fiction authors, as well as peers in the game industry. A few years earlier, Reiche had been friends with Greg Johnson during the creation of Starflight , inspiring Reiche to offer creative input on Johnson's expansive science fiction game. Once Reiche and Ford conceived Star Control 2 , they would draw large inspiration from Starflight . This friendship and mutual admiration even led to hiring Greg Johnson, whom they credit as "one of

12932-450: The secrets in the game." Vice President of Insomniac Games Brian Hastings ranked Star Control II as one of his top games, and one of "the most original and perfectly executed games ever". Alexx Kay of Irrational Games hailed Star Control II as the best game "by a mile", noting that it was "one of the first story-based games where your actions had clear consequences". In Joshua Bycer's book "20 Essential Games to Study", his first chapter

13054-481: The series among the top 10 franchises that needed to be resurrected. Comparing it to the original Star Control , Cinema Blend celebrates Star Control II in their short list of sequels that progressed well beyond their predecessors. Star Control II is also recognized for its excellence in several creative areas, including writing, design, and music. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked Star Control II among their top 15 most rewarding game endings, proclaiming that

13176-539: The sheer quantity of writing and art proved to be challenging for the game's epic scale. Fred Ford surprised the team with his prolific coding, and it was the rest of the team who needed to catch-up with art, writing, music, and other assets. They quickly enlisted the help of friends and family to create game content. One crucial friend was Starflight creator Greg Johnson , who Reiche had previously helped on Starflight while sharing office space. Johnson ended up writing dialog for several aliens, as well as creating most of

13298-521: The size of Mexico at each pole with habitable temperatures). The total habitable area could be even larger if the planetary albedo were increased from 0.12 to ~0.6, potentially increasing the habitable area. Roy proposes that the temperature could be further managed by decreasing the solar flux at Mercury to near the terrestrial value by solar sails reflecting sunlight. He calculates that 16 to 17 million sails, each with an area of one square kilometer would be needed. It has been recently proposed that due to

13420-417: The star map helped to create a vast, mysterious setting for players to explore. The map also added circles of influence for the aliens, not just to describe their location, but to provide narrative hints about their changing power, relationships, and stories. Reiche and Ford wanted their new game to further investigate their self-described "superficial" stories and aliens from the original Star Control . Thus,

13542-415: The story for Star Control II would greatly expand on those original characters, and add a few more. This was the last time that Reiche would design a game using pen and paper , including dozens of flow charts for the major plot points, player choices, and dialog trees . Paul Reiche III describes this creative process, "I know it probably sounds weird, but when I design a game like this, I make drawings of

13664-645: The surface from Jupiter's radiation, but it would also be possible to clear said radiation using orbiting tethers or radio waves. Challenges to terraforming the moons include their high amounts of ice and their low gravity. If all of the ice were fully melted, it would result in deep moon-spanning oceans, meaning any settlements would have to be floating (unless some of the ice was allowed to remain, to serve as land). Low gravity would cause atmospheric escape over time and may cause problems for human health . However, atmospheric escape would take place over spans of time that are long compared to human lifespans, as with

13786-527: The team would create hours of voice dialog for the 3DO version of the game, taking advantage of space afforded by CD-ROM technology, while bucking the trend of CD-based games with full motion video . Game Developer Magazine featured the game in its list of open source space games, praising its scale and charm, as well as its new features. In the end, the 3DO version would feature 11 hours of voice audio, including performances from Reiche, as well as friends Greg Johnson and Erol Otus. Star Control II received

13908-409: The terraforming process. Sagan also visualized making Mars habitable for human life in an article published in the journal Icarus , "Planetary Engineering on Mars" (1973). Three years later, NASA addressed the issue of planetary engineering officially in a study, but used the term "planetary ecosynthesis" instead. The study concluded that it was possible for Mars to support life and be made into

14030-410: The very best villains. Even now, we are hard-pressed to find a race of adversaries as complex and three-dimensional as the Ur-Quan." The A.V. Club also included the Ur-Quan in their 2021 list of best aliens in pop culture, describing them as "tremendous sci-fi villains, importing heady old-school concepts into Star Control' s relentlessly fun space-based action". The world design of Star Control II

14152-429: The very top of the list. In 2014, USGamer mentioned the game as one of the landmark titles from the 1990s. Retro Gamer remembers Star Control II as one of the top 10 games made for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , and later listed it among their top 100 retro games at the 68th position. Den of Geek also ranked it at #37 among their list of classic DOS games. Its status as a classic game would lead IGN to list

14274-405: Was a contrast to the first game's emphasis on player versus player combat, but they realized that their combat artificial intelligence could give story-loving players an option to delegate battles. Once Reiche and Ford imagined the different alien personalities, Reiche hand-drew a flow chart for each alien's dialog options, which Ford would implement into the game with placeholder tags. However,

14396-483: Was halted. A settlement has been reached, and work resumed in the fall of 2020. After leaving Toys for Bob , Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III co-founded Pistol Shrimp Games alongside Ken Ford and Dan Gerstein , under which they are currently developing Free Stars: Children of Infinity . On April 4, 2024, the official trailer for this project was released on the GameSpot channel on YouTube . The campaign to fund

14518-503: Was one of the first to describe a novel method of warming Mars, where chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are added to the atmosphere to produce a strong greenhouse effect. Motivated by Lovelock's book, biophysicist Robert Haynes worked behind the scenes to promote terraforming, and contributed the neologism Ecopoiesis , forming the word from the Greek οἶκος , oikos , "house", and ποίησις , poiesis , "production". Ecopoiesis refers to

14640-417: Was the basis of the open source game The Ur-Quan Masters . A sequel, Star Control 3 , was released in 1996. Star Control II is an action-adventure science fiction game, set in an open universe. It features ship-to-ship combat based on the original Star Control , but removes the first game's strategy gameplay to focus on story and dialog, as seen in other adventure games . The player's goal

14762-402: Was the incredible amount of backstory and interaction with all the alien species". PC Gamer listed Star Control II the 52nd greatest PC game in their 2011 rankings, and Hardcore Gaming 101 listed it among their 2015 rankings of 200 best video games of all time. Compared to classic games from the same period, Star Control II is also ranked on several "best of" lists. Hardcore Gaming selected

14884-495: Was the word terraforming used in the title of a published journal article. Planetologist Christopher McKay wrote "Terraforming Mars", a paper for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society . The paper discussed the prospects of a self-regulating Martian biosphere, and the word "terraforming" has since become the preferred term. In 1984, James Lovelock and Michael Allaby published The Greening of Mars . Lovelock's book

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