For the past decade, Earth and the rest of the Alliance of Free Stars has fought the Ur-Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. In the course of the War, the Earthlings discovered a factory world by the 'Precursors' - an impossibly advanced race that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. This colony, Unzervalt (aka Vela I), lost all contact with Earth shortly after landfall.

You are Captain Zelnick, a human that was born on Unzervalt and who possesses a remarkable knack for Precursor technology. You were the one who worked out how to activate the Precursor installation.

It was a factory for building starships. However, Unzervalt is mineral-poor, and there were not enough materials available to construct a complete vessel. Your task is to command this craft, the Vindicator, and return to Earth to tell them of the abandoned colony. Also, if the War with the Ur-Quan continues, you must fight for Earth and the Alliance as best you can.

There is a great deal more to this story. Asking Starbase Commander Hayes for background information will give you most of it.

When in a Solar system, use the thrust and steering controls to move about the system. Intersecting a planet will move you to the planetary system; flying over a planet or moon will then put you into orbit. From there you can talk to the inhabitants, or, if the planet is uninhabited, send a lander down to gather minerals, investigate energy readings, or capture life forms.

To land on a planet, you need to achieve orbit, then fill a planet lander with crew and send them down. You will usually want to scan the planet first. Mineral scans will indicate easily harvestable mineral ores and other resources. Energy scans will indicate unusual installations, which will effectively always be worth investigating. Biological scans will show where life forms are on the surface.

Minerals are necessary for building up and maintaining your flagship, so harvest them wherever you can. There are nine varieties, each color coded:

Common elements - (carbon, nitrogen) are cyan. Worth 1 resource unit (RU) per unit.

Corrosives - (chlorine, iodine) are red. 2 RU per unit.

Base metals - (iron, tin) are grey. These are common, and usually worth

harvesting, but not terribly valuable. 3 RU per unit.

Noble gasses - (argon, xenon) are blue. 4 RU per unit.

Rare earths - (lanthanum, ytterbium) are green. 5 RU per unit.

Precious elements - (gold, silver) are yellow. 6 RU per unit.

Radioactives - (uranium, astatine) are orange. 8 RU per unit.

Exotics - (antimatter, magnetic monopoles) are purple, and a princely 25

RU per cargo unit.

Minerals may be unloaded at Earth Starbase by talking to Commander Hayes, which will give you RU that you may spend to upgrade your flagship.

However, there are many hazards on planetary surfaces. Life forms are often hostile, and need to be subdued with your stunner or evaded. Earthquakes (expanding circles) can hurt your crew, lightning may crisp them, or lava flows and hotspots can fry them. Be careful, especially on hotter or more seismically and atmospherically active worlds. If your crew level starts dropping dramatically, flee quickly with the ESCAPE key!

Stunned life forms may be captured and analyzed by your planet landers. The information you gain from this may not be immediately useful, but it will eventually come in handy.

Landing on a planet costs fuel, and the heavier the planet, the more fuel it requires. Make sure you don't spend so much fuel exploring planets that you can't get back to Sol!

When you leave a solar system, you will push up into HyperSpace. In HyperSpace you can travel great distances quickly, but you must continuously thrust to move. Otherwise, you will gradually slow to a stop.

While you can fly about in HyperSpace just like you do in a star system, the Galaxy is LARGE, and you will usually want to use the Auto-Pilot. To use the Auto-Pilot, select "Starmap" on the menu. This will show you a map of the quadrant (the galactic Core is in the upper right corner). To fly to a location, move the cursor there and press Enter. Then press Space to engage the Auto-Pilot.

When you encounter an alien starship, you will usually get a picture of their task force and a chance to choose between conversation and fighting. If you choose to fight, you will transition immediately to space combat (below). Otherwise, you will talk first. If talks go poorly, space combat will likely ensue.

If the task force shows ships streaming off in all directions, you have reached a fortified world, and there are an unlimited number of starships facing you. You cannot win such a fight - if combat ensues, you will need to warp out.

When combat begins, you are prompted to select a ship from your task force. A one-on-one space combat then begins, and continues until either the enemy fleet is destroyed (in which case you salvage the wrecks and continue the game), your flagship is destroyed (ending the game), or your flagship warps out of combat (consuming 5 fuel units but ending the encounter).

Each ship has two major stats: Crew and Combat Battery. Crew are effectively hit points. Getting hit by weapons kills crew, and if all crew are eliminated, the craft is destroyed. Firing weapons typically requires energy from the combat batteries, which is replaced over time. The precise speed of energy regeneration and cost of weapons fire varies by ship.

Space flight is mostly inertial (you'll drift if you stop thrusting), but each ship has a maximum velocity that can only be exceeding by "gravity whipping" around the planet. Don't hit the planet unless you want to take LOTS of damage.

Each ship has a primary and secondary weapon mode, unique to that race's craft. The descriptions of those follow.

Androsynth Guardian

Primary weapon: Fires homing acid bubble clouds.

Secondary weapon: Transforms into the 'Blazer', a comet that does considerable damage by ramming its opponents.

Ariloulaleelay Skiff

Primary weapon: Auto-aiming, short-range laser.

Secondary weapon: Random teleport.

Note: The Skiff is inertia-less, and stops instantly when thrust is removed.

Chenjesu Broodhome

Primary weapon: Crystal Shard. Will travel until the fire button is released, then shatters.

Secondary weapon: De-energizing Offensive Guided Interceptor.

Launches an autonomous DOGI that rams the opponent to drain their combat batteries.

Chmmr Avatar

Primary weapon: Immensely powerful short-range laser.

Secondary weapon: Tractor beam.

Note: Has three orbiting "ZapSats" that attack anything that gets in range.

Druuge Mauler

Primary weapon: Long range, high-recoil cannon.

Secondary weapon: Sets one crew on fire to gain combat energy.

Earthling Cruiser

Primary weapon: Homing nuclear missile.

Secondary weapon: Point-defense laser.

Ilwrath Avenger

Primary weapon: Short-range flamethrower.

Secondary weapon: Cloaking device.

Kohr-Ah Marauder

Primary weapon: Spinning blades that stop and home when the fire button is released.

Secondary weapon: Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction (F.R.I.E.D.), a short-range corona of energy that blocks shots and inflicts lots of damage.

Melnorme Trader

Primary weapon: Charged shot. The longer the fire button is held, the stronger the shot.

Secondary weapon: Confusion beam that scrambles enemy controls.

Mmrnmhrm X-Form

Primary weapon: Lasers (X-form) or homing missiles (Y-form).

Secondary weapon: Switch between X-Form and Y-Form.

Mycon Podship

Primary weapon: Homing Plasmoid.

Secondary weapon: Regenerate 4 crew.

Primary weapon: Howitzer cannon.

Secondary weapon: Secondary with left and right arrows rotates the primary cannon. Secondary with Primary launches space marines that invade the enemy ship and kill their crew.

Pkunk Fury

Primary weapon: Three-way cannon.

Secondary weapon: Fling insults at opponent. This is the only way the Pkunk can regenerate combat energy.

Note: On occasion, a destroyed Fury will be resurrected with full fuel and power.

Shofixti Scout

Primary weapon: Energy Dart.

Secondary weapon: Glory Device. When pressed three times, the ship will self-destruct, inflicting vast damage on nearby vessels.

Slylandro Probe

Primary weapon: Lighting weapon.

Secondary weapon: Absorb a nearby asteroid and convert to combat power. This is the only way the Probe can recharge.

Note: The Probe is inertia-less and always in motion. Pressing thrust will reverse its direction.

Spathi Eluder

Primary weapon: Simple forward cannon.

Secondary weapon: Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.), a homing missile fired from the rear of the vessel.

Supox Blade

Primary weapon: Forward firing glob weapon.

Secondary weapon: Secondary + left or right will cause you to drift laterally, while Secondary + thrust will make you fly backwards. This cancels your current velocity, so be careful!

Syreen Penetrator

Primary weapon: Particle Beam Stiletto.

Secondary weapon: "Syreen Call" - psychic attack that induces enemy crew to jump ship, where you (or your opponent) may capture them to add to your complement.

Thraddash Torch

Primary weapon: Straightforward blaster cannon.

Secondary weapon: Afterburner. The afterburner exhaust does more damage then the blaster, so use it as a weapon!

Umgah Drone

Primary weapon: Anti-Matter cone. Does not require combat batteries to use.

Secondary weapon: Fly backwards suddenly and at high speed.

Note: The Drone only recharges batteries if you do not fire for a long time, and then the energy all returns in one lump.

Ur-Quan Dreadnought

Primary weapon: Fusion Blast.

Secondary weapon: Launches autonomous fighters to harrass the enemy. When they run low on fuel, they will fly back to the Dreadnought. Catch them before they expire. Each fighter requires one crew to pilot it, so take care not to weaken the core ship.

Utwig Jugger

Primary weapon: Six-shot cannon. Requires no combat battery energy to fire.

Secondary weapon: Force shield. Absorbing hits re-energizes your batteries. When the batteries are exhausted, the shield is permanently disabled until combat ends.

VUX Intruder

Primary weapon: Gigawatt laser.

Secondary weapon: Limpet mines that track enemy ships and slow them down dramatically if they hit.

Yehat Terminator

Primary weapon: Twin autocannons.

Secondary weapon: Force shield.

Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger

Primary weapon: Anti-matter spray gun.

Secondary weapon: "Tongue attack", a point-blank range attack that does grievous damage.

F1 Pause game

F10 Exit game

F12 Emergency exit

Space flight

UP or ENTER: Thrust

LEFT and RIGHT: Steer

SPACE: Main menu

Menus

Arrow Keys: Scroll through selections

ENTER: Make selection

SPACE: Up one level

Conversations

LEFT and RIGHT: Rewind/Forward

UP and DOWN: Scroll through selections

ENTER: Make selection

SPACE: Skip, Show/Hide summary

Star Map

Arrow Keys: Move the crosshair

ENTER: Select destination

SPACE: Main menu

Keypad +: Zoom in

Keypad -: Zoom out

Space Combat

UP or ENTER: Thrust

LEFT and RIGHT: Steer

RIGHT SHIFT: Fire Primary Weapon

RIGHT CTRL: Fire Secondary Weapon

ESCAPE: Emergency Warp Escape

Planet Exploration

UP or ENTER: Forward

LEFT and RIGHT: Steer

RIGHT SHIFT: Fire stun bolt

ESCAPE: Blast off

Top Player

E: Thrust

S and F: Steer

Q: Fire Primary Weapon

A: Fire Secondary Weapon

Bottom Player

UP or ENTER: Thrust

LEFT and RIGHT: Steer

RIGHT SHIFT: Fire Primary Weapon

RIGHT CTRL: Fire Secondary Weapon

These controls are configurable by editing the keys.cfg file which will be automatically generated in your personal directory for uqm data the first time you start the game. On Unix systems this personal uqm data is stored in ~/.uqm.

Later versions of The Ur-Quan Masters will include a key configuration tool. In the meantime, the keys.cfg has a bunch of comments in it that should help you set up your joystick and remap key controls to your satisfaction.