17 Bit Software 1: Collection A

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Text File | 1990-08-25 | 16.6 KB | 374 lines

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Trek - The Game ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Tobias J. Richter Gervinusstrasse 46A 6100 Darmstadt West Germany ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructions Translated By Mark Robinson (17Bit 5211) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Trek Document Stardate 8911.08 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Trek - An Overview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Space - The Final Frontier When the first episode of Star Trek was shown on American television on 9.8.1966, a series began that led to a sort of mania. Although the beginnings were fairly modest (despite being one of the most expensive series at the time) nobody was quite expecting the following that it got. The planned suspension of the series after 2 years was largely prevented by the flood of fan mail that objected to this, but Star Trek still disappeared to an evening slot and, after one more year, the final episode was screened. Even this can be seen as a sort of new beginning as a private station bought the series and proceeded to show it everywhere. Nowadays there are very few countries in which Star Trek has not been shown. In Germany the series is known as "Raumschiff Enterprise" after the starship whose name became synonymous with the program. Soon plans were revealed to begin on a new series -Star Trek II- but after years of to'ing and fro'ing Paramount eventually decided to shoot a full length feature film for the cinema. With over $40 million spent on it in 1979, it was then one of the most expensive films ever made. This has been followed by a further four full length films, the most recent -Star Trek V- having been released in Autumn 1989. In all the films, Paramount managed to reunite the original cast of the TV series so that we were still met by Captain Kirk (William Shatner), the Vulcan Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr "Bones" McCoy (De Forest Kelley), Helmsman Mr Sulu (George Takei), the Navigator Mr Chekov (Walter Koenig), Chief Engineer Mr Scott (James Doohan) and Communications Officer Lt Uhura (Nichelle Nicholas). A couple of years ago a new series started in the USA - STAR TREK - The Next Generation - which is true in style to the old one, but with new actors and a new Enterprise. This will probably be coming to Germany in Autumn 1990. The original creator of the series, Gene Roddenberry, who has been actively involved from the outset acts as an adviser for the films and is also working on The Next Generation. All of this activity is due not least to the efforts of the enormous Star Trek fan club, the "Trekkies", who, in contrast to many other fan clubs, are very active, and actually contribute something to their hobby by distributing fanzines, stories, reports, plans etc. In addition, this game is the product of one such "Trekkies" work and I hope that a few more Star Trek fans might result from playing it. Star Treks influence, however reaches into other spheres of interest. Who is to say, for example, whether the first Space Shuttle got it's name "Enterprise" partly because of the large number of letters from countless fans received by the then President of the USA? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Trek - The Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In all it has taken me 2 years to finish writing the game. During that time there were obviously occasions when I went through phases of simply wanting to give up, as I could just not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now it's finished and everything that happened has been forgotten. The finished code is about 160KB in length and the source takes up about 1/2 Mb. For the special 512K version I have simply cut out the sounds that were not essential and changed nothing of the actual game. Part of the atmosphere of the game is naturally lost as a result, but the lack of memory made this unavoidable. Those who have more than 1MB of memory can also copy the contents of the data disk to RAM, which will speed the game up somewhat. The game is written in Aztec C V3.6 with some assembler, for which many thanks go to Thomas Kruza as the game would not have been possible in its present form without it. Thanks also to Sylvia, Tanja and Guido who gave me several good ideas that enrich the game considerably. Star Trek can be controlled solely with the mouse, but a joystick in port 2 will help with the Starships movements. Goal Of The Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is one fixed goal:- namely to remain as Captain of the Enterprise. To achieve this missions must be carried out, the crew looked after, and everything must be handled with a certain anmount of common sense. An overzealous Captain will fare no better than an overcautious one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Menu Selections: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Main Screen 1 - The Bridge (In planform or from the Captains seat) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the centre there are 4 bars. The top one shows the impulse speed, the second the warp factor, the third the energy level, and the bottom one shows damage to the ship's hull. To the right of these is another indicator denoting the current Alert state, and beneath all of these is the Star Date. Engineering ~~~~~~~~~~~ The sliding scale on the left can be set to determine the extent of repair work that will be carried out on a given system. To enable repairs to be carried out, there must be sufficient energy to spare, and, where major repairs are undertaken, it is possible that crew members will be injured. The speed can also be set on the right side. WARNING! Impulse speed can only be activated when the warp factor is a maximum of Warp 1. In the centre there are indicators giving the shield configuration and the extent of damage to the ship. Communications ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Messages will be poassed here and notified by the sound of the familiar "piping" sound. WARNING! The messages are not stored so it is advisable to look at the important things quickly. In the middle, the Alert State <Condition> of the ship can be altered; when red alert is sounded, the Tactical Display is activated. At the top, the panel <Own Messages> gives you a number of standard messages at your disposal which can be sent using <Send It>. Weapons and Defence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From this position you set the sights for the phasers and Photon Torpedoes. In the middle is the <Fire> Button. The centre section of this screen enables you to set up the shields and either <Activate> or <Deactivate> them. Only activated shields use up energy and for each side of the StarShip there is one shield. Activated shields prevent the ship from sustaining damage and just cost you energy. Quit/Save ~~~~~~~~~ The game can be ended, saved or restarted from here. The program always looks for a disk named "STGAME" so it is important not to change the title. In addition there must also be a file with the name "STARTREK" (normally the game itself) on it, otherwise the Save option will not function. You can only ever load or save one game which will be saved on the "STGAME" diskette under the name "STGAME1". By copying or renaming files, it is possible to read other files as long as they only bear the name "STGAME1". Helmsman ~~~~~~~~ As with Weapons/Defence, it is possible to set up and fire the weapons system from here. Using <Tactical> a small tactical screen will appear on which it is possible to see other ships and their identity. Other than that, Energy is shown at the bottom left, the shields at the bottom, and at the bottom right is a red square denoting shield activity. The yellow rectangle gives the current direction of Photon torpedo aim, and the small square, that of the phasers. On the right of the Helmsmans window are the speed indicators for the impulse engines and in the middle are the main controls that can be used for orbital acquisition or docking. TurboLift ~~~~~~~~~ From here you travel to the different areas of the ship - see main screen 2. Bridge ~~~~~~ Change to plan view, from where the controls are the same as from the Captains seat. Navigator ~~~~~~~~~ On the right once more are the speed indicators for Warp and Impulse engines. At the top <Change Target> you can set the places to which you wish to travel. The destination is input by moving the cursor with the mouse and pressing the left mouse button, whether the destination is a planet, a point in space, or a space station. A course correction will then be made automatically. The current position of the Enterprise is shown by a red cross, whilst points in space relevant to the missions being carried out are shown in colour. Destination planets are yellow, planets from which things must be collected are green, other starships are blue and enemy units are red. WARNING! Flight at warp speed is only worthwhile attempting when on a mission. Pause ~~~~~ The game pauses until you click on <Pause> once more. Damage And Repair ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the left side the extent of repair required can be set, 100% meaning that the nominated area will be completely serviceable afterwards. Repairs cost you energy and, eventually, the health of your crew members. The level of damage sustained can be read from the right hand side, as can the shield status. You can acquire energy from docking with space stations, entering an orbit, or from other ships, and your own generators produce energy too, though flying at high warp factors causes it to be used up faster than it can be replenished. Science And Computer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is here that Mr Spock has his say. Details are available for all the different planets, spaceships, attackers and various other unusual things that come up in the game. In the centre <Suggest> can sometimes give you an idea as your best course of action. Status ~~~~~~ The most important bits of ship data are shown here once more - speed, course, shields and damage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main Screen 2 - Ship's Plans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The row of gadgets on the left give information about individual decks. Bridge ~~~~~~ Back to main screen 1. Officers Lounge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can scroll through your current missions here by clicking on <Missions> and the morale of the crew can be found from <Crew Attitude>. You must pay attention to this as crews have been known to fire their Captains! Transporter ~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking here takes you to the transporter room. From there people and objects can be readily transported. The transporter requires energy to do this and, if there is insufficient, then a shuttle must be used instead. It is possible to beam things both to and from the Enterprise. The objects to be transported are shown in their respective windows and can be selected by clicking on the arrows. 'Status' shows wether or not the transporter is operative and 'Ready' appears when an object is ready to be beamed up or down. If you encounter another starship, it may be possible to use his transporter even if yours is not working - 'Ready' will also show as green then. The brighter the green appears, the higher the energy level at that time. Medical ~~~~~~~ By visiting "Bones" you can view the crew's and your own health on the right hand side. If the crew is very much under the weather, it can make leadership very difficult. Dr Mccoy gives his advice on the left from time to time. Engineering ~~~~~~~~~~~ See under main screen 1. Cargo Bay ~~~~~~~~~ To find out what Enterprise is carrying at a given time, visit this room and use the arrows to scroll through the bay's contents. Landing Bay ~~~~~~~~~~~ Things can be taken to and from a planets surface using a shuttle chosen from here. The gadgets are on the shuttle for directional control are for the thrusters (i.e. the left one turns the craft to the right, the right one turns it left, the bottom one is a vertical thruster, and the top one provides forward propulsion) and the aim is to fly off the deck of the enterprise and to make a gentle landing at your destination or back on deck. If you crash then the shuttle has to be repaired. This means that another shuttle may have to be chosen from the hangar. Credits ~~~~~~~ Here you can set the frequency of the missions and events. <Sound On/Off> toggles the background noise and clicking twice on <Reset> will start the game from scratch again. Other than that, the note above the gadgets is meant to be taken seriously - it would be great if you could see your way to sending me a small token of your appreciation (it doesn't have to be money!!). You can be sure of a reply. Thanks. Hangar ~~~~~~ There are four shuttles for your use that are either being repaired (shown in red) or ready for use (green). On each you can set the sensitivity of the craft to acceleration and gravitational forces. The further to the right the slider is set, the more sensitive the controls are. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tips for individual phases of the game. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To achieve orbit, you must attempt to keep the edge of the planet as close to the middle of the screen as possible. To orientate yourself, a crosshair and a circle around the planet will appear as you get closer. The best position to aim for is between the circle and the planet's edge. To fly into the dock, it will suffice just to position the entrance doors so that the dock appears not to move. Too much movement will prevent a successful approach. If the transporter is broken and all the shuttles are being repaired, there is nothing to do but wait, or fly to the nearest dock so that the transporter can be repaired more quickly. In dock, all repairs are carried out as fast as possible and the energy is brought back up to full, but it still takes quite some time to repair serious damage. When attacked by an enemy, you should always try to react quickly as this conserves energy, reduces damage, and improves crew morale. When an enemy attacks try and bluff it out first as this will save energy and raise the morale of your crew. You can try to bluff the enemy by selecting the corbomite-maneuvre message in the Communications menu. As you gain more experience, you are given more and more difficult missions by Starfleet, so don't be too surprised..... I hope you have fun with the game, and it would be nice if you wrote to me (perhaps with a little something included). I look forward to all my mail (with the exception of bills etc...) Mama always told me not to look into the sun, But Mama, that's where the fun is. Hope you have fun Tobias Richter alias Trekking Tobi PS I have my own PD collection named AGATron which comprises mainly of animations and graphics. If anyone is interested please include 1DM in stamps and I'll send you the list. I also do animations to order - please refere any enquiries to the above address. There is one list, both in English and German, on the data-disc, though it probably won't be current - do have a look if you're interested. PPS Play Oil Imperium.