Star Control, and particularly its embiggened sequel, is one of those classics of the 1990s that, while it perhaps doesn’t inspire quite as much mass veneration as some of its early-PC peers, has remained beloved and deathless in the long years since release. Ur-Quan Masters was an ambitious and well-received fan-made (and free) remake of its galactic exploration and roleplaying, interspecies chat and spaceship-based shooty bang-bang, and it now adds the mandatory ‘HD’ designation and associated heightened graphcisability.



A playable alpha is out now, and while there’s a lot left to do it appears to doing a bang-up job of keeping SC2 fresh. It’s based on the now-free source for olden dev Toys for Bob’s original game, and adds in assorted new elements in addition to the requisite sound and vision. Here’s how it’s looking:



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I do like that it retains a certain 1990s vibe despite being made more appropriate to modern machines. It lends it a certain psychedelic silliness that today’s more self-regarding space games seem to lack.

That’s yours to try for the cost of a 553MB download right here.