Last Updated: 03/31/99 

Destination Quartzon is the OEM version of Descent 2. It was named after the name of the last world of the packaged levels: Quartzon has the first 8 levels incl. the 2 secret levels of Descent 2 world, hence it features the worlds Zeta Aquilae and Quartzon.

Destination Quartzon 3D is the version bundled with 3D accelerator cards like Verite and Voodoo. It can only be played on that chipset, since no software renderer is included in that version. The quality in the 3Dfx Voodoo version however is worse than Parallax' D2Voodoo Rel.2 version for the full version, especially when you look at 2D objects (like hostages, powerups, animations), since they are not filtered.

Some hardware products like the Wingman Extreme Joystick or the Voodoo 3D card deliver it.

There are some differences to the full version:

• Only 8 (+2 secret) levels, no multiplayer ones.
• After the 8th level you get a debriefing that offers you to buy the full version for a special price.
• No support for add-on missions. (Unlike Descent 1: Destination Saturn).
• A minor difference: in the intro movie you see the logo "Descent 2" at the end like in the trailer, instead of "Descent II" like in the full version.
• There is another short intro movie on the CD, that just show "Interplay Productions presents", "a Parallax Software Game" and then directly "Descent 2", with no action or story in between on a blue (credits-like) background. It is however not used in the game, but you can extract it and view it via Descent Manager MVEEXTRACT.

Nope. Interplay never released a patch for any of the Quartzon versions.

• Multiplayer is compatible, as long as you are playing in the provided missions: Descent 2 standard mission levels 1-8. Both full version owners and DQ owners can start the game. As soon as you are reaching level 9, DQ users are disconnected with a notice. Note that if you are using DQ 1.1x versions, the full version owners also need to use at least V1.1, otherwise level 5 will be incompatible. This is a general problem with V1.0 and V1.1, since level 5 was modified by Parallax because of a bug in V1.0 (there were 2 blue stations, but no red one).
• Demos can be swapped between the versions. Of course DQ can only play it if the demo plays in standard missions level 1-8 and/or the first two secret ones.
• Players and save-games can be swapped. Save games again with the same restriction.