[5] Soon after, he moved onto developing for the NEC PC-6000 series, the MSX, and Fujitsu systems, with titles such as Pillbox, Sea Bomber, and Ground Support.
[7] Originally called Starcon, the game began as an evolution of the concepts that Reiche first created in Archon: The Light and the Dark.
[6] Archon's strategic elements were adapted for Star Control into a space setting, with one-on-one ship combat inspired by the classic 1962 game Spacewar!.
Reiche and Ford aimed to go beyond ship combat to develop a "science fiction adventure role-playing game".
[14] In addition to Johnson, they recruited long-time friend Erol Otus, who contributed music, text, art, and illustrations for the game's manual, and (later) voice-acting.
[24] The game also influenced other titles, most notably the open-ended gameplay of Tim Cain's Fallout,[25][26] the world design of Mass Effect,[27] and the story events of Stellaris.
[30] The Horde was a fantasy action-strategy hybrid game comparable to Star Control II, and was notable for including performances from actors Kirk Cameron and Michael Gregory.
The company became a wholly owned subsidiary, and the management team and employees signed long-term contracts under the new corporate structure.
[37] The company saw the potential to adopt these toys and character designs into a game, with technical engineer Robert Leyland applying his hobby in building electronics.
[39] Activision CEO Bobby Kotick responded well to the idea, and gave the team an additional year of development to better refine the technology, the manufacturing process, and the gameplay.
"[39] This culminated in the 2011 release of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, which became a breakthrough success for the developer, their most notable game since Star Control.
[40][41] In October 2017 Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III announced they would be working on a direct sequel to Star Control II called Ghosts of the Precursors.