I have a few games that were removed from the Steam Store, but are still freely usable on my own account. Not sure if that helps.

Valve is currently not selling the game, but keys can still be activated there, and you can download and run it just fine.

Just out of curiosity as I have to knowledge of U.S. law, how long do this kind of legal issues take to settle on average? weeks, months, years?

I had planned on buying Paul&Fred's SC game as well but now that I see another underhanded move by them I'll go ahead and skip that. Buying their game would leave a bad taste in my mouth so... season pass here I come

Ok, can fans fund stardock a bit so that you do not lay people off or do it once they complete their project so that development does not stop?

I don't think Stardock wants me discussing this here, but you are completely and totally wrong.  Star Control ***IS*** the integrated Star Fleet Universe.  I was more responsible for "creating" Star Control than Paul & Fred were.  And it was not just Star Control.  The early computer game industry was open season on the Star Fleet Universe and many people made their careers and reputation by stealing our work and reputation.  The liars, plagiarists, and thieves who made Master of Orion, for example, are no different than Paul & Fred.

I am a "living god" of Paul & Fred's universe... I know "their" own universe better than they do.  And I also know a few dozen other people who know their own universe better than they do.  Paul & Fred are liars, plagiarists, and thieves.  They are the biggest scumbags in the history of the game industry, and I am one of the world's leading experts on the history of the game industry... AND I DARE THEM TO SUE ME FOR SAYING SO!!!

SUE ME, YOU WORTHLESS COWARDS... I DARE YOU!!!

EDIT: Oh, and Harry... If I were lying they would sue me for slander, right?  Because this is NEVER going to end from this point forward.  For the rest of my life, I will be there to call Paul & Fred liars, plagiarists, and theives publicly, and remind everyone in the game business that they are nothing and nobodies who did nothing other than to spend 30 years attempting to steal the reputation of the most important game and simulation designer of all time.  Everyone will constantly be reminded from this point forward that Paul & Fred are liars, plagiarists, and thieves.  Talentless hacks who spent 30 years attempting to steal the reputation of SVC and the SFU.  Not suing me for slander is admitting their lie...

Quoting Zyxpsilon,

reply 37

Sooooooo.. to loop another story worth such incredibly magical twists of fate; Firaxis' (Jake Solomon) & Julian Gollop's (goes all the way back to 1994 Microprose) mutually preferred X-Com titles franchise.

Not a single LAW gambit in sight, none ever since either. Every minds are still absolutely focused on their own business with full respect towards each other. Firaxis went on to create & distribute (on Steam too!! ) two VERY successful X-Com titles & plenty of cool DLC byproducts. Gollop is presently deeply involved into his hybrid runover with "Phoenix Point" as a true Indie Box cycle. Good luck Julian.

And let's not forget that they're both letting Xenonauts thrive as well, whose developers are getting ready to release a second game in that universe.

I'd like to point out that I own the original X-Com titles, the new XCOM ones, Xenonauts, and I backed both Phoenix Point and Xenonauts 2 on Kickstarter. They all deserve it!

I think Brad had hoped that everyone would get along in this way, each doing their own thing, both being "Star Control-y," and realizing what each does benefits the other. Sadly, was not to be.

This is a sad say that many feared was coming. Hope you guys can get it back up on Steam & GoG. All the fans wanted after all these years were new Star Control games and therefore for both of the projects to happen. However it looks like this isn't going to end until one party is completely obliterated and bankrupt resulting in there only being one game out there.. and it'll probably be incomplete (compared to original plans) due to the winner losing so much money as well.

I've just purchased the game and the addon from Stardocks site. I buy nearly all of Stardocks games anyway but I usually wait for physical releases. Can't take that risk with this one. Plus I wanted to show my support for Stardock as while I prefer not to take sides I don't want the game obliterated and people losing their jobs.

In regards to Steam also taking the game away from existing buyers. That shouldn't happen I own several games that were removed by steam after various legal troubles. You can't buy them and they have no store page but they still work. Hell one of them I bought a physical copy from ebay long after the take down and was able to install via steam, activate via steam and even get it's final updates downloaded via steam.

It's back up for sale on Steam.

Oh, I have just found the following. I am not sure that it can be used in legal proceedings but here it is:

From the 1998 IRC chat with Toys for Bob (Fwiffo is both Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III here):

<Manta> Fwiffo: Has anyone ever brought up parallels between Babylon 5 and Star Control?

<Fwiffo> Babylon 5 causes a certain amount of stomping around the office screaming.

<Fwiffo> Babylon 5 steals from us. We steal from known space.

<Fwiffo> And Larry in known space steals from others.

I found it at the bottom of

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Influences_and_references#ref_3

Ah, sorry, Star Trek had many different alien races with different ships and weapons and was decades before Star Control. And there was science fiction about Mars and aliens in the 1800's called "Two Planets".  Doing a search I find this wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_fiction

Using different music to help set the mood during times is nothing new. It's been in cinematography and plays for years.

Other science fiction games that I remember was VGA Planets, Solar winds, Commander Keen, Trade Wars  are all early 1990's space games that I recall off the top of my head. UFO was mid 90's which we also had wing command, lots of Star trek and Star wars games and hundreds of other PC space games.  Not to mention all the arcade and arcade style space games.

Science Fiction existed long before star control, and many other games that where not only science fiction but you traveled in space meeting fighting different aliens existed before or along side of Star Control.

Yeah, hence their claims are a bit strange...

Brad can you inform us of the court developments? (if you can disclose them). Is there still a chance for a settlement/solution?

Wow, this is ridiculous. People, wake up.

Fred and Paul were "contractors on the classic DOS game"? Have you seen the game's credits?

Game Program and Technology:    Fred Ford
Game Design and Fiction:    Paul Reiche III

Not to mention that the CD-ROM says "Star Control II Game (c) 1992 Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III". The box for my copy of Star Control II also says "(c)1994 Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III".

So, the programmer and designer who own the copyright aren't the creators? I bet you can't find ONE PERSON who worked on the game that would disagree with the idea that Fred and Paul created it.

How many "contractors" on games are allowed to release the full source code, like Fred and Paul did? How do you think the free game started? They own the rights to it and can do whatever they want with it.

Wardell sent e-mails offering to sell the trademark/SC3 content Stardock bought to Fred and Paul. He asked if they wanted to collaborate on the game. He asked if they would license the original content to Stardock. They elected not to. However, Fred and Paul had no quarrel with Stardock making a game with NEW characters and content. Stardock has every right to make a Star Control game that branches off the original parts of Star Control 3 (but NOT the parts of Star Control 3 that were licensed from Star Control 2).

Stardock initiated the lawsuits. Stardock is NOT the victim here. As the judge rightly pointed out "the harm [Stardock] complains of is indeed its own making. [Stardock] had knowledge of Defendants' copyright claims from the outset."