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Star Control

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:15 pm
by intric8
I've been looking for this game for a long, long time. Well, I was looking for it at a reasonable price, not to mention that the game itself in the Amiga format is r-a-r-e. More rare than I originally imagined.

Ever since I finished the first Starflight (and talked to Fred Ford, the co-creator of both game universes) I'd been looking. Well, finally!
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Box front cover for Star Control, Amiga version. That is one bad assed claw. Take a close look - can you imagine being flipped off by a double-taloned middle finger?? Simply brilliant logo, too, where the "C" is taking control of the rest of the word.

As I opened the box, I saw mostly what I'd expect: manuals, code wheel, disks... all looking really great.
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But I also got the original purchase receipt dated November of 1991! I love it when that stuff is still saved in the box. This game originally came from a store in Fairport, New York, called The Software Shop. But it also had two other carefully folded papers I've never seen before: work orders.
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From what I've read I think this is what happened. The original owner of the game had an Amiga 500. After purchasing Star Control, he believed it made his machine slow. This particular store not only sold software but apparently was an officially licensed Amiga repair shop, too. $75 was not an insignificant sum in 1991 for troubleshooting a game playing slowly on one's A500. That's $138 in 2018 dollars. Kind of incredible when you consider the game itself back then cost $35 ($65 in 2018)!

The store took the customer's Amiga 500 along with the game to see if all was "normal". There is no other documentation beyond that, unfortunately.

Frankly, I'm willing to bet that Star Control simply seemed a bit sluggish in 7 Mhz by 1991 standards, and the store likely encouraged the guy to purchase a modest accelerator. I'll perform my own tests soon, but that's my uninformed initial guess. Or maybe this guy liked to multi-task while playing and Workbench seemed to drag. I should be able to quickly find out.

So cool that the old paperwork is still in the box! That kind of history... I don't know. It makes me feel a bit like an archeologist when I come across it.

And there was a tiny bit more.

Below the proof of purchase cards, I actually found a movie stub! A movie stub for an exceptional film with Robin Williams, called The Fisher King.
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Movie stub for the 1991 classic The Fisher King.

How that wound up in the box, I can't even imagine. But I just love it.

The back of the box is pretty awesome, too.
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This is going to be the next game I play through. I can't wait!

Re: Star Control

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:59 pm
by Shot97
Many times my dad and I would go to the theater, and then we'd go to the computer store. It would sometimes be my job to rush the bag with games downstairs as fast as possible so my mom wouldn't complain he was spending money on computer games. But that was a major routine of ours. We'd go to the movies on a Saturday, then to the computer store. I could see someone settling into a chair to open up the box for the first time, noticing the stub in their pocket, and not wanting to make a mess, putting it in the box.

Too bad they got screwed into paying for hardware diagnosis though. I couldn't sleep at night if I ever charged someone for something that didn't even need fixed. Though Accolade also should have mentioned on the box that it might run on a 500, but faster Amiga's would be recommended, ala Wing Commander.

Re: Star Control

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:56 am
by McTrinsic
Awesome find. The game totally slipped my attention, I might have a peek by myself.
I loved 'The Fisher King', btw.

Re: Star Control

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 3:32 pm
by Zippy Zapp
Nice copy. I dug mine up a little while ago and the box got crinkled so I tossed it. Ugh. My disks are a bit different though, Disk 1 has a sticker that says V1.1 and Disk 2 has a sticker that says V1.2. Not sure why they put two different versions in the box.

Re: Star Control

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:39 am
by LambdaCalculus
Very awesome find! And you can never go wrong with Terry Gilliam or Robin Williams! :D

Re: Star Control

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2020 6:17 pm
by walldog
LambdaCalculus wrote:
Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:39 am
Very awesome find! And you can never go wrong with Terry Gilliam or Robin Williams! :D
Got a copy of this game coming.. Never played.. So I assume pretty good?

Re: Star Control

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:00 pm
by Overmann
Star Control was one of the games that me and my brother played to death back in the day. The hot-seat multiplayer was SO much fun!
I couple of years ago we sat down in front of our A500 again and yeah, I can see what that costumer was wondering about. I wouldn't say it's sluggish. The menus are responsive and the controls are "tight", but the framerate is pretty low. I've since played it on all sort of Amiga's and it always playes the same, so it's a real "Stunt Car Racer" situation (thats a whole nother topic, though).

It's a shame the sequel never came out on the Amiga. Star Control II is one of the best games of all time.