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The Final Frontier 1
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Final Frontier 1 (Disk 2 of 2).adf
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1991-09-09
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219 lines
PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE
----------------------
by Simon Plumbe
---------------
Okay, I admit it, this part of the mag is about the Amiga, but the only
software we are going to cover is either PD or commercial software about
STAR TREK or STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. There's a lot of it about,
ranging from slideshows, games, animations, sample disks, quiz games and even
disk mags (okay, there's only one!).
There are at least 70 - 80 disks of STAR TREK P.D. already including over 50
disks from Tobias Richter alone! There are at least 10 TREK games, plus lots
of slideshows and animations.
Each issue will feature just a small selection of what's out there. Not all
the disks we review will be new - some will be two or three years old. We
just want to tell you what's available, so here goes.....
What is P.D.?
-------------
Not everything we review will be PD. Some will be Shareware, others Freeware,
Licenceware and whatever else! But what's the difference? True Public Domain
software is software that the author has given up all copyrights to so you
can copy it, modify it and basically do whatever you want with it!
Freeware, like Public Domain, is perfectly legal to copy and distribute, but
the author has kept the copyright. The authors specify that their disks can
be copied but occasionally they do impose certain restrictions on P.D.
Libraries or magazine cover-disks etc. An example of Freeware is what you are
reading now. We keep the copyright, but we don't care if you copy it. Get the
idea?
Next is Shareware. This is an idea that developed in America (as usual) a few
years ago. The idea is that the software is still freely distributable, but
if you like the software and use it on a regular basis then you are asked to
send a donation or registration fee to the author for his time and hard work.
The fee varies, but you are legally obliged to send money if you use the
software. In many cases, you will receive printed instructions, updated
versions of the software and much more. Note that if you use the software and
you don't send the fee you are BREAKING THE LAW. Many of the American STAR
TREK games fall into this category.
Then there's Charityware. This is a variation on Shareware where instead of
sending a donation to the author, you send send a donation to your favourite
charity. Apart from that small difference, it's exactly the same as
Shareware.
There is also a new variation on Shareware called Beerware! Instead of cash,
the authors request that you send them alcohol, usually six-packs of lager!
However, if is overseas I would recommend that you send the equivalent cash
amount - it's not very legal sending drinks to other countries, and cans are
somewhat fragile!
Then there's Licenceware. This is a fairly new idea where software is NOT
freely distributable. Instead, only selected libraries are allowed to
distribute the disks. These are usually sold at a slightly higher price than
normal and a percentage is passed on to the authors. If you copy these you
are breaking the law so don't do it.
The Reviews
-----------
STAR TREK SLIDESHOW by HELLRAISER
---------------------------------
This is a slideshow (no!) of about 8 or 9 digitised piccies of the original
crew, as they appear in the films. The pictures are digitsed in shades of
blues, greys and reds etc. The quality is reasonable but there isn't really
alot to shout about. Art fans will rave about this. However, I personally
prefer original art instead of digitised images. As well as the stills,
there is a small digitised animation of the Enterprise warping off to open
the disk - probably the highlight of the disk. Rating - 63%
ENTERPRISE DOCKING by Tobias Richter
------------------------------------
This is one of the thousands, well quite a few anyway, of the STAR TREK
animations by the German Trekker, Tobias Richter from his PD library AGATRON.
All of his early animations were created using Videoscape by Aegis although
his more recent disks are all ray-traced animations using the German package,
REFLECTIONS. This is disk 21 (a Videoscape disk) and it features the
Enterprise approaching a Starbase, the docking bay doors open and the
Enterprise slowly enters. It's very similar to the scene in Star Trek III.
The full animation can only be seen by people with 1 Meg of memory or more.
512k owners will only see the Enterprise approach the Starbase. A great
animation, and well up to his usual standards. Rating - 90%
ENTERPRISE IN DRY DOCK by Tobias Richter
----------------------------------------
Another Tobias Richter animation (Agatron disk 10). This time it features the
sequence of the Enterprise leaving the dry dock from The Motion Picture. The
animation is far smoother than any other Tobias Richter animation I've seen
before, but it is also far shorter (obviously due to the number of frames in
the animation). However, it is an essential disk for any Trekker's
collection. It needs 1 Meg of memory to run the full animation, but again
512K owners will be able to see a very cut down version. Rating - 83%
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION TRIVIA CHALLENGE
-----------------------------------------------
At long last, a game based on The Next Generation. It's took a long time, but
the wait was definately worth it. It is a quiz game where you answer as many
questions as you can in order to progress through the ranks of Starfleet
until you reach Admiral of the Fleet! That's the plot, anyway! The game is
presented in the form of an Exam taken at the Academy, and the screen looks
like a computer panel display. In quiz games, graphics and sound are normally
irrelevant but in this they really add to the atmosphere with great detailed
panels and clear sampled background sounds. The only thing wrong with the
graphics is that they are in the anoying interlace mode (you get the
flickering screen). With saying that, you don't notice it after several hours
of playing.
But what about the questions themselves? There are over 500 questions, either
multiple choice or true/false questions. 50 of them have either a sampled
sound or a digitised image to accompany them. The sound is reasonable but the
graphics are very detailed (small, interlaced, 16 colour pictures). The
questions are all based on Season 1 although the author has further expansion
sets in the pipeline for Seasons 2-4 being released every six months. The
questions vary in difficulty, but be careful. You must read the questions
properly or you'll get caught out. There are a couple of answers that are
wrong, but when there are 500 questions you can't really blame the guy. Many
of the questions also reveal a bit of Trek trivia if you get the answer
right. The only fault is that after 7 hours of solid play, I have now seen
all of the questions!
The game was created using the animation utility "The Director" (this was
also for the animation on this issue and it was also used by Eric Gustafson
when he converted the Atari ST Trek game by Firebird to the Amiga - a review
of this next issue). The only problem is that the game has been "archived".
This is a process of taking several files and crunching them into one smaller
one. This then needs to be un-archived at a later stage before the software
can be used. With my two-drive set up it took over 30 minutes. I dread to
think what it would be like on a single drive system. It also helps if you
know your way around the CLI a bit! The game runs on a 1 Meg machine with two
drives (although I haven't tested it with a single drive yet). The game can
be found on Fish Disks 404 and 405 (both disks are needed) and you will need
two blank disks to create the runnable version on. You also need Workbench.
All I can say to sum up is that this is probably the best Trek game ever! The
game is distributed as Freeware. Rating - 96%
AGATRON SLIDESHOW 12 by Tobias Richter
--------------------------------------
So what if we've already reviewed two titles from Tobias Richter! It just
happens that he's produced more TREK disks than everyone else put together!
This is a series of 8 pieces of ray-traced, interlaced HAM screens depicting
images from The Next Generation. The graphics are what you would expect from
a Tobias Richter slideshow (if you've never seen one before, just look at his
work on this disk and then imagine art with even more detail and twice the
resolution!). All of the art is, in fact, scenes from his Star Trek: The Next
Generation film (an animation on video lasting about 20-30 minutes) to be
released in late 1991. (See NEWS for an update on this.)
The slides are accompanied by the obligatory piece of music, although it
isn't all that good. The art is, as usual, excellent. Overall, if you love
Amiga art then this disk is for you. If you hate slideshows then don't
bother. Again, this is a Freeware disk. Rating - 74%
STAR TREK: THE ACTION GAME
--------------------------
This is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up created using the ill-fated Shoot-
Em-Up Construction Kit by Palace Software. The game features you in control
of the Enterprise (even if it does look more like the Excelsior!) shooting at
Klingons etc.
As with all games created with the Shoot-Em-Up Construction Kit (I'll call it
SEUCK from now on), the main problems lie with the fact that all the games
are basically the same - move left, move right, fire. Also the main let-down
is in the fact that SEUCK was ported over to the Amiga from the Atari ST
meaning that the scrolling isn't smooth and the sprites judder.
Considering their size (and the fact that they are effectively ported over),
the sprites are well designed and the sampled sound effects are quite good.
However, the title screen is probably the best part of the entire package (a
digitised image of the Enterprise). With saying that, it is PD. Rating - 57%
COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE
---------------------
So far, there haven't been any commercial STAR TREK releases. Firebird didn't
convert their ST game (although it was as PD) and Mindscape never released
their game based on STAR TREK V. Why? One of our writers, Colin Gunn,
contacted them to find out. They replied saying that the game wouldn't sell!
However, it is rumoured that a Beta-test version is complete and is
circulating in the Mindscape offices. If you want to see the completed game,
write to them - NOW!
It's not all bad news, though, as Electronic Arts have just announced a new
game, "STAR TREK: THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY". It will be a space flight sim / RPG
with digitised graphics and sound from the show. It is set in the time period
of the original series (pre-films) and it is rumoured to have captured the
feel and humour of the show. It will be released in October 1991 on the PC,
with the Amiga version being launched in December. Expect a review as soon as
we get it (and maybe a competition to win it! If there's anyone from
Electronic Arts reading this, please get in touch!).
Send your STAR TREK software reviews in fast.