I was running the program on a DX2, and although it doesn't have the world's fastest hard drive by any stretch of the imagination, the sluggish speed at which the manual chugged along was more than a little frustrating. Watch the CD drive light flicker for a bit, then watch the hard drive light flicker, and back to the CD, ad nauseum. I haven't seen so many flashing lights since last New Year's Eve.
Initially there is a choice between two basic options - a guided tour of the good ship Enterprise, or a completely free exploration of the manual. Naturally, the guided tour seems like a good place to start, complete with voice over from Jonathan Frakes (better known as Commander Riker).
The tour consists of a look around the major locations on board the Enterprise - the holodeck, transporter room, ten forward, sickbay, and, of course, the Captain's quarters, 'cos only the best fish fingers are served at the Captain's table.
Actually, Captain Picard's quarters don't contain any fine fillets of haddock, but rather various ceremonial interstellar artefacts that he has acquired on his travels. Old chrome-dome - as he's known to close chums and irreverent journalists - has certainly visited more than the odd solar system as the manual relates a story of one particular race who regarded Picard as a God.
The tour is a decent basic guide to the ship, if rather superficial. Real depth is to be found in the free exploration section where you can navigate through the hallowed corridors of the Enterprise using a simple menu system and an intelligent pointer.
Unfortunately, the cursor doesn't come in to play very often, as there isn't much you can interact with, unless you define interactivity as the ability to click your way through an eight-stage technical diagram of the saucer separation procedure.
