Star Controller

At the beginning of October, I really wanted to carve pumpkins with Star Control related images such as the Star Control II logo, and even some of the ships, then sharing them on the blog for everyone to look at.  Unfortunately, I was so busy with other personal stuff that I never had the time to even start.  To make matters worse, I didn’t even know how to carve specific shapes and details on a pumpkin, so the first thing I did was search YouTube for pumpkin carving videos.  They mentioned that it would take several hours washing the pumping, hollowing it out, cutting the lid and cutting the shapes and details.  Also, the fact that I am an amateur pumpkin carver would make it take even longer.  So, I gave up on the pumpkin project altogether.

I tried my best to find something that resembles the theme of a Star Control Halloween and I’d like to start off with a quote from the Pages of Now & Forever:

“You know you played to LITTLE Star Control if you decide to throw a halloween party on Spathiwa”
- Pages of Now & Forever, Star Control Humor

Recently, I was reading a series of webcomics called “Cyanide and Happiness”, known for its sick and twisted humor not for the light-hearted or anyone who is easily offended.  There was a particular comic that grabbed my attention:

It looks like the Spathi, doesn’t it?  There are some key differences such as the aliens in this cartoon have no torsos or claws, there are no Eluder ships and they are not acting very cowardly at all.  If Fwiffo pulled a ray gun and start to blast people to pieces, I’d be scared too.  Some people say that it’s the ones we least expect who will go insane and start blasting away at people.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the obscure Spathi resemblance.  Have a safe and *happy* Star Control Halloween!

Tags: Thoughts by Anthony Suarez
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I was reading some articles about unreleased video games, when I came across an unreleased NES that grabbed my attention:

Although the game itself has no connections to Star Control whatsoever, I just think it’s funny that I forgot how weird and obscure video games can become, no matter what year it is.  Also, most people would look at this game and say “Is that real?”, while Star Control fans would immediately think of the shady and lovable Orz and their crazy language.

Happy Camper mixed different and bizarre gameplay elements from other video games:

“It actually started out life sort of poking fun at the environmentalist/camping scene and at the same time trying to blend the Paperboy/California Games/generic skateboard game with an outdoor theme.”
- Jon Valesh

There’s no hidden messages or anything else that could be connected to Star Control other than  the game’s name.  Also, they missing the *asterisks* in *happy camper*.

Speaking of the Orz language, there has never been any official translations from Paul or Fred; only educated guesses from the fans (e.g. us):

“The best *campers* are the *happy campers* — i.e. *campers* that have friendly relations with the Orz (such as the Humans after allying with them, or the Taalo, which are “even better *campers* than [the Humans]“).”
- Ultronomicon, Orz communications

I heard there was a sequel planned for Happy Camper, called Silly Cow… Just kidding!  Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the funny screenshots.  I just wish that the Orz could tell me what happened to the Androsynth, instead of telling not to ask and then trying to kill me.

“They were snagged by the entity who/which projected its fingers into our dimension (which looked to us as the Orz.)”
- Paul Reiche and Fred Ford

The mysteries behind the Orz and the Andrysynth can only be answered by a true sequel to Star Control II made by the gods at Toys for Bob.

If anyone is curious about this game, there’s more info at Lost Levels.

Tags: Thoughts by Anthony Suarez
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