~Exactly how to get Star Control 2 to work on your computer
A quick tutorial because the original DOS Star Control 2 can be picky. Also for those who know nothing about DOS or running old programs and just want a list of directions to run it. I DO THIS IN HOPES OF GETTING MORE PEOPLE TO PLAY IT, BECAUSE I WANT EVERYONE TO EXPERIENCE THE SHEER JOY OF THIS GAME.
Note - Believe me, I am well aware of UQM. However, the original DOS version and UQM are different in a lot of ways and if I have a choice, I want people to play the original rather than the remake, thus this tutorial.
If you DO decide to get UQM instead DON'T DOWNLOAD THE VOICES, THEY WILL RUIN EVERYTHING. THEY MAKE ME WEEP BLOODY TEARS OF BITTER RAGE. PLEASE, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THEM.
Moving on...
Step One:
Download and install DOSbox. I'm assuming I don't need to help you with this step.
Step Two:
Download the original Star Control 2 ZIP file from my domain here and put it somewhere where you can remember it.
Here you can see the ZIP file in this folder.
Here's an example of what should be in the ZIP file and also of my incredibly ghetto zip program.
Step Three:
Unzip the Star Control 2 ZIP into a folder called STARCON2. Why that name? It's easy to remember and it's less than eight letters so it fits in DOS, so you won't have to use the ~1 extension. If that made no sense ignore it.
Put the starcon2 folder somewhere you can remember. Right there in C:\ is a good place. Don't put it on your desktop, it's hard to get there from DOS. Preferably put it somewhere like c:\starcon2 or something.
Here's where I put my folder, in my LegendaryGames directory.
As you can see, all the files in the ZIP are in the right folder. Note the pathname.
THE SUPER SHORT VERSION
There are two requirements for this.
ONE - Make sure that you put the Starcon2 folder directly on your c: drive. The path for it should C:\STARCON2, NOTHING ELSE WILL WORK. It MUST be C:\STARCON2.
TWO - You are ONLY downloading DOSbox for this game, because going back is not easy.
IF YOU DO BOTH THESE THINGS, YOU CAN SKIP THE FOLLOWING STEPS, AND INSTEAD DOWNLOAD THIS FILE INTO YOUR PROGRAM FILES/DOSBOX 0.65/ FOLDER. (This one). OVERWRITE THE DOSBOX.CONF WITH THAT FILE (YOU MIGHT WANT TO MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL DOSBOX.CONF, UP TO YOU), THEN RUN DOSBOX. PRESS ENTER. IT SHOULD BOOT UP STARCON2 AUTOMATICALLY FOR YOU EVERYTIME YOU RUN DOSBOX NOW! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO PLAY STARCON2 IS RUN DOSBOX!
If you want more control or are planning on doing more DOS gaming, continue reading.
Step Four:
Boot up DOSbox. I already wrote a tutorial on how to use DOSbox in general but lets assume you're lazy and don't have time to read it or just want to know what you have to do thank you DOS is for losers.
I boot mine from the run window.
This is what it should look like when it starts up.
Step Five:
Type
mount c c:\
If you don't want DOSbox to whine at you or feel paranoid, you can also type something like
mount c c:\starcon2
If that's where you put the game. If you do do that, skip to step nine.
For simplicity's sake, and because I've never had any problems with mounting C, just go ahead and do it.
You can see it whining at you here to not do this. I'm not sure why it's hazardous unless you start deltree-ing everywhere. If it scares you, mount a subdirectory. More on subdirectories and such in the DOSbox tutorial linked above.
Step Six:
Type
c:
Which should take you to the C directory.
C:
Step Seven:
Let's assume you did what I told you and put SC2 right on your C drive. Type
cd starcon2
or
cd\starcon2
Doesn't matter. If you did NOT put it on your C drive, as you can see I did not above, you have to get to the directory you put it in. I put SC2 in the LegendaryGames folder, which gets abbreviated to Legend~1 in DOS because it's more than 8 letters. Therefore, I type
cd legend~1 or cd\legend~1 depending on what mood I'm in.
If you put it in a directory called, say, Games, type
cd games or cd\games like so. You see what I mean?
Here you see that I forgot that I don't have Starcon2 on my root directory and I am shifting to the subdirectory
Step Eight:
Once you are in the right parent directory, type
cd starcon2 (at this point cd\starcon2 will not work, you have to type cd starcon2) to get into the Starcon2 directory. If you buried the Starcon2 folder deep down in your computer, you may have to keep going into subfolders until you get to the starcon2 folder. The DOSbox tutorial above goes into more detail on how to move around in DOS if you're confused.
Shifting to the Starcon2 directory
Step Nine:
This is the part that makes Starcon2 unique. You do not have to install or setup Starcon2, that's already done for you. What you DO have to do is add some tags to the runline to make sure it runs properly. SC2 is old and extremely picky.
When you are in the Starcon2 folder, type
starcon2 /g:bios
Do not forget the /g:bios tag! That makes it so the graphics don't get all messed up and wonky and it's VERY important because it's a common problem with SC2!
(What /g:bios means is that it's telling the game to get the graphics from the bios, so that way the graphics won't get mixed up)
You'll see in my screencap I added another tag. This one is optional. I add it because sometimes the music gets kind of wonky if you play for a while without it. It's the /s:sblaster tag, and it just tells the game I want to use the soundblaster as my soundcard. DOSbox is flexible and so is SC2, so you can use a lot of different sound tags. If you don't like the default soundcard it chooses or the Sblaster tag I use, you can try one of these. Feel free to fiddle around with them until you find the setting you like.
* /S:adlib
Adlib sound and music
* /S:internal
Internal speaker sound and music
* /S:silent
No sound and music
* /S:disney1
Disney Sound Source on Parallel Port #1
* /S:disney2
Disney Sound Source on Parallel Port #2
* /S:lpt1
Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port #1
* /S:lpt2
Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port #2
* /S:sblaster
A Soundblaster
* /S:pas
A Pro Audio Spectrum
* /S:sm2
A Sound Master II
* /S:asc
An ASC Media Master
* /S:micro
Microsoft Windows
* /S:gravis
Gravis Ultrasound
What the command to run should look like when you type it, plus or minus the /s:sblaster tag
Step Ten:
Profit!
After the intro, the game'll ask you for the coordinates to a star. This is the copy protection and you'll NEED it to play the game! Here's the original map, or if you want to just use coordinates, the wiki will help. Just look up the star on the map and put in the right name and you should be set.
Also, if you downloaded the voices by accident and want to turn them off (who wouldn't?) here's how to do it:
1. Do you have a shortcut to uqm on your desktop? If so skip to 3.
2. Find where you installed uqm, find the uqm.exe file, and create a shortcut to it.
3. Rightclick on yer shortcut and go to preferences/properties
4. Find where it says "target" followed by a box that has "c:\whereyouinstalledit\theuqm\uqm.exe" or whatever directory it's in
5. add --speechvol 0 (that's a zero) to the end of it, outside the quotation marks. It should look like this:
target: "c:\hiimadirectory\theuqm\uqm.exe" --speechvol 0 (screencap)
6. Apply or save or whatever, and double click yon shortcut. It should run without voices, but with sound and music!
You can also add the "--music pc" to use the original soundtrack if you don't like the UQM versions.
Have fun!
Note - Believe me, I am well aware of UQM. However, the original DOS version and UQM are different in a lot of ways and if I have a choice, I want people to play the original rather than the remake, thus this tutorial.
If you DO decide to get UQM instead DON'T DOWNLOAD THE VOICES, THEY WILL RUIN EVERYTHING. THEY MAKE ME WEEP BLOODY TEARS OF BITTER RAGE. PLEASE, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THEM.
Moving on...
Step One:
Download and install DOSbox. I'm assuming I don't need to help you with this step.
Step Two:
Download the original Star Control 2 ZIP file from my domain here and put it somewhere where you can remember it.
Here you can see the ZIP file in this folder.
Here's an example of what should be in the ZIP file and also of my incredibly ghetto zip program.
Step Three:
Unzip the Star Control 2 ZIP into a folder called STARCON2. Why that name? It's easy to remember and it's less than eight letters so it fits in DOS, so you won't have to use the ~1 extension. If that made no sense ignore it.
Put the starcon2 folder somewhere you can remember. Right there in C:\ is a good place. Don't put it on your desktop, it's hard to get there from DOS. Preferably put it somewhere like c:\starcon2 or something.
Here's where I put my folder, in my LegendaryGames directory.
As you can see, all the files in the ZIP are in the right folder. Note the pathname.
THE SUPER SHORT VERSION
There are two requirements for this.
ONE - Make sure that you put the Starcon2 folder directly on your c: drive. The path for it should C:\STARCON2, NOTHING ELSE WILL WORK. It MUST be C:\STARCON2.
TWO - You are ONLY downloading DOSbox for this game, because going back is not easy.
IF YOU DO BOTH THESE THINGS, YOU CAN SKIP THE FOLLOWING STEPS, AND INSTEAD DOWNLOAD THIS FILE INTO YOUR PROGRAM FILES/DOSBOX 0.65/ FOLDER. (This one). OVERWRITE THE DOSBOX.CONF WITH THAT FILE (YOU MIGHT WANT TO MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL DOSBOX.CONF, UP TO YOU), THEN RUN DOSBOX. PRESS ENTER. IT SHOULD BOOT UP STARCON2 AUTOMATICALLY FOR YOU EVERYTIME YOU RUN DOSBOX NOW! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO PLAY STARCON2 IS RUN DOSBOX!
If you want more control or are planning on doing more DOS gaming, continue reading.
Step Four:
Boot up DOSbox. I already wrote a tutorial on how to use DOSbox in general but lets assume you're lazy and don't have time to read it or just want to know what you have to do thank you DOS is for losers.
I boot mine from the run window.
This is what it should look like when it starts up.
Step Five:
Type
mount c c:\
If you don't want DOSbox to whine at you or feel paranoid, you can also type something like
mount c c:\starcon2
If that's where you put the game. If you do do that, skip to step nine.
For simplicity's sake, and because I've never had any problems with mounting C, just go ahead and do it.
You can see it whining at you here to not do this. I'm not sure why it's hazardous unless you start deltree-ing everywhere. If it scares you, mount a subdirectory. More on subdirectories and such in the DOSbox tutorial linked above.
Step Six:
Type
c:
Which should take you to the C directory.
C:
Step Seven:
Let's assume you did what I told you and put SC2 right on your C drive. Type
cd starcon2
or
cd\starcon2
Doesn't matter. If you did NOT put it on your C drive, as you can see I did not above, you have to get to the directory you put it in. I put SC2 in the LegendaryGames folder, which gets abbreviated to Legend~1 in DOS because it's more than 8 letters. Therefore, I type
cd legend~1 or cd\legend~1 depending on what mood I'm in.
If you put it in a directory called, say, Games, type
cd games or cd\games like so. You see what I mean?
Here you see that I forgot that I don't have Starcon2 on my root directory and I am shifting to the subdirectory
Step Eight:
Once you are in the right parent directory, type
cd starcon2 (at this point cd\starcon2 will not work, you have to type cd starcon2) to get into the Starcon2 directory. If you buried the Starcon2 folder deep down in your computer, you may have to keep going into subfolders until you get to the starcon2 folder. The DOSbox tutorial above goes into more detail on how to move around in DOS if you're confused.
Shifting to the Starcon2 directory
Step Nine:
This is the part that makes Starcon2 unique. You do not have to install or setup Starcon2, that's already done for you. What you DO have to do is add some tags to the runline to make sure it runs properly. SC2 is old and extremely picky.
When you are in the Starcon2 folder, type
starcon2 /g:bios
Do not forget the /g:bios tag! That makes it so the graphics don't get all messed up and wonky and it's VERY important because it's a common problem with SC2!
(What /g:bios means is that it's telling the game to get the graphics from the bios, so that way the graphics won't get mixed up)
You'll see in my screencap I added another tag. This one is optional. I add it because sometimes the music gets kind of wonky if you play for a while without it. It's the /s:sblaster tag, and it just tells the game I want to use the soundblaster as my soundcard. DOSbox is flexible and so is SC2, so you can use a lot of different sound tags. If you don't like the default soundcard it chooses or the Sblaster tag I use, you can try one of these. Feel free to fiddle around with them until you find the setting you like.
* /S:adlib
Adlib sound and music
* /S:internal
Internal speaker sound and music
* /S:silent
No sound and music
* /S:disney1
Disney Sound Source on Parallel Port #1
* /S:disney2
Disney Sound Source on Parallel Port #2
* /S:lpt1
Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port #1
* /S:lpt2
Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port #2
* /S:sblaster
A Soundblaster
* /S:pas
A Pro Audio Spectrum
* /S:sm2
A Sound Master II
* /S:asc
An ASC Media Master
* /S:micro
Microsoft Windows
* /S:gravis
Gravis Ultrasound
What the command to run should look like when you type it, plus or minus the /s:sblaster tag
Step Ten:
Profit!
After the intro, the game'll ask you for the coordinates to a star. This is the copy protection and you'll NEED it to play the game! Here's the original map, or if you want to just use coordinates, the wiki will help. Just look up the star on the map and put in the right name and you should be set.
Also, if you downloaded the voices by accident and want to turn them off (who wouldn't?) here's how to do it:
1. Do you have a shortcut to uqm on your desktop? If so skip to 3.
2. Find where you installed uqm, find the uqm.exe file, and create a shortcut to it.
3. Rightclick on yer shortcut and go to preferences/properties
4. Find where it says "target" followed by a box that has "c:\whereyouinstalledit\theuqm\uqm.exe" or whatever directory it's in
5. add --speechvol 0 (that's a zero) to the end of it, outside the quotation marks. It should look like this:
target: "c:\hiimadirectory\theuqm\uqm.exe" --speechvol 0 (screencap)
6. Apply or save or whatever, and double click yon shortcut. It should run without voices, but with sound and music!
You can also add the "--music pc" to use the original soundtrack if you don't like the UQM versions.
Have fun!