Yes, I'm sure you've heard&everything about this game but you're #going to hear it again, ok? Down to
the important parts first.
System requirements
$any machine with a minimum of 1mb of
memory. Hard drive installable (it doesn't even need any assign"commands, since the program is in #just a single excecutable!), faster!processor would be useful, since $real time calculated graphics take a
lot of working out.
copy protection
No disk protection (otherwise it$wouldn't be hard disk installable),
manual protection instead: this%police officer comes up to you every "few game months (in dock) and asks#you to give a word from the manual.$Can get a bit annoying when you just!want to refuel and jump out, and #also isn't mentioned in the manual.
(since the manual is in the $format of the owners manual for your
starting craft, it doesn't deal
with things like saving or copy#protection) It's important to know %that when you are given a location to
quote you must take ALL text $into consideration (even the titles,!sub headings etc.) The only thing#it doesn't include are the captions
on the pictures.
System friendly?
More than most games. It seems%perfectly happy on any configuration #and, thank god, doesn't suffer from!that vastly annoying problem (if "it happens to apply to you) of not"working if you have a huge amount %of fast ram. (Lemmings 2 and Donk! to name but two examples) Will save"to any place you tell it to (my CD
ROM drive even appeared in
the list of devices, although I
obviously couldn't save to it.)"Appart from not multi tasking (you
can't return to workbench once "started) it seems to be compleatly"system friendly in every respect. #You can expect this one to still be working in years to come on the high level machines of that day.
Yipee!
review
%The plot: You receive a letter on the
31/12/3199 informing you that "your grandfather is dead. His ship#was found drifting in the Reidquat #system: smashed to bits, apparently"due to a "misunderstanding" about "some stolen cargo. He is now an ex!theiving git, and in his will he %has left you your very own spaceship,
(as you do) plus 100 credits.$With this ship, he hopes you will be"able to achieve wealth and power
in the ways you best see fit,#depending on your morality. More on
later.$ Now, this may sound great and don't
get me wrong, but the ship he "leaves you with is hardly state of#the art. In fact, it's pretty damn
crap. It's very much a white#elephant: neither suited to a long
range, fast courier or a large capacity trading ship. It comes "equipped with a class 1 Hyperdrive
(the lowest class available), %capable of jumping 8 light years in a
single bound which, although $only science fiction in this day and
age, is about the minimum !tolerance people in the time this!game is set in will put up with. #Also, the weaponary supplied is not!to hot either: in fact, it's the #lowest power weaponary available in"the entire game, no serious pirate
is going to be scared of the 1$megawatt pulse laser you wield as if
it#was some big deal, and the only way"you're going to stand a chance of #getting rid of a pirate is to close!to about half a kilometer (close $in space terms) and shoot one of the
missiles your grandfather has
generously left to you as well.&Hopefully, they won't be able to pull $away in time and will get their hull!decompressed before you can say, $"Now where did I put that ECM?". All
the same though, your starting ship is easy meat and you should%really stick to the safe areas of the
galaxy first, such as Sol and$Barnards star, where you rarely get $attacked. You don't have much chance
of straying from these areas
though, because you can't jump&anywhere else very easily with such a
crap drive.% So, what ways are there open to you
to make your fortune. Well, if you're a peace loving person who"would never think of breaking the
law, your options are very much
reduced. Here is a list:
$* Trading. Yawn! Zipping between two"stars, picking up something that's#plentiful in one area and taking it"to where it's in short supply and $then going back again. About as dull!as ditch water, unless you happen%to be dealing in illegal goods, where
there is always the quite !distinct possibility you will get$found out. You may be the subject of"a spot check when you dock, or you
may be unfortunate enough to !attempt trade with a police trap.
Either way, trying to take off %without paying your fine is not wise: if you're in an enclosed dock or!a space station, when you request$permission to take off (a good idea $if you want them to open the landing
bay doors. A la "Red Dwarf" #("Holly: you remember those landing bay doors we discussed earlier?
Would you mind opening them now
please?"
"The daffodil doors are not a%screwdriver" (or something similarly $stupid. Her language recognition had
been damaged, if you remember.)
"Oh forget it.")$you will get arrested for attempting!to escape justice. Game over. The$end. Mind you, if you were landed on
the surface of a planet, you could always just sod asking for"permission and blast the vertical "take of engines and run to jumping#range mega quick. The police won't "take very kindly to this, however,"and will no longer try and arrest !you. Instead, they will jump into#their nice new Vipers and go after !you. Oh, and if you think you get$away from them once you jump, think #again. These guys are equipped with Hyperspace Cloud analysers (see later) which can figure out just%exactly where youv'e jumped to and go%there too. And vipers are faster than
a lot of ships during
hyperspace, so they'll probably#arrive there a lot sooner than you "will, and will start smashing your!head in as soon as you emerge. I #usually leave well alone of illegal"trading for this very reason, even%though my ship could easily destroy a
squadron of Vipers.
#* Bounty hunting. Go to a dangerous"star system (Wolf 359 is good) and$broadcast distress signals. A pirate!will soon appear and attack your %ship. Blow him to bits to collect the bounty (if he had one). You need%a radar scanner to check if they have
a bounty on them.
* Mining. There are two types of%mining: asteroid mining where you use
a special laser to cut bits of%asteroids, then collect the minerals using your scoop (see later) and#planet mining, where you deposit a #machine on a planets surface and it
automatically digs up useful
things.
!* Assasinating: Get assassination%jobs from bullitin boards, travel to %where the prey will be taking off and
then blow them to bits, preferably while out of range of$police jurisdiction. Careful, these $people often travel in heavily armed!ships and can be quite difficult
to destroy.
!* Jobs for the military. Get jobs"from the military on the bullitin "boards. These are fairly boring at!first (deliver paperwork to Wolf $359 by the 15 of april etc.), but as
your rank increases, you get %asked to kill defectors and the like.
More killing and wasted ships!
%* Odd jobs. You may get requests from
the public to ferry people or packages around. Some are boring
things, but others are stolen "documents and wanted criminals. If"you get offered 5000 credits just !for delivering a parcel, you know#there'll be trouble. Make sure you %ask the person what's in the package.
!To help you on your way, there is
also a huge amount of add-on
equipment. Here is some of it:
Hyperdrives: You won't get far
without one of these. Just add
hydrogen#fuel, program a destination and hit the "Hyperspace jump" button to #jump to your destination, providing!it is in range of your drive and %fuel. These come in seven sizes: from
class one (pathetic) to class "seven (long range and very heavy). The drives range in weight from "under ten tonnes to many hundreds. The maximum range of a drive is "dictated by the weight of the ship it's in: a class one will get a %Eagle (25 tonnes) jumping eight light years at a time, while it won't even get a Panther Clipper (2000#tonnes) into hyperspace. Also, the larger a drive, the more fuel it
uses, but this isn't really a
surprise. When hydrogen fuel is
burnt, nothing is left behind.
Military drives: Just like$hyperdrives, except they are lighter
for the
equivalent range (a class 3"hyperdrive won't fit into a Eagle,
but a #class three military will, and both"have the same range.) However, you don't get something for nothing:%these drives are only available up to class 3 (the manual says because$larger drives are unstable), and so !are no good for large ships. They
also use military fuel, which
produces dangerous radioactive#isotopes when used. You'd be amazed
how#fast the waste products build up in!your hold. You're supposed to get"rid of these things by having them
re-processed, but most people#(including me on the rare occasions"that I've had cause to use a small%ship) just jettison them instead. And to think I'm an environmentalist%in real life... Oh yeah, and military fuel is more expensive and more %difficult to get hold of, some places
don't stock it at all.
%Fuel scoop: Useful things, these. One
attached to your ship (not all $ships have a mounting for them) will
allow you to collect hydrogen !fuel from gaseous objects. In the%main this will involve flying through"a gas giants atmosphere. It's also
possible to collect fuel from stars, but you'd have to be very"desperate, since stars tent to be $quite hot and tend to incinerate you
quite quickly. You need %atmospheric shielding to collect from
both (which you should have #fitted anyway, since without it you
cannot land on planets without %taking damage), and shield generators
to collect from the latter.
%Cargo scoop conversion: Once you have
your fuel scoop, purchase this
and you'll be able to use it to#collect cargo as well. Of most use !when you destroy and enemy and he
leaves behind something very
expensive.
$Shield generator: Unless you want to
be cut to ribbons by an enemys laser, I suggest you buy some of$these. Once fitted, they will start to charge to maximum protection.#Shields (not surprisingly) protect #you from enemy attacks, and you can
have as many fitted as you can $accomodate in your ship. If you take
a hit, the current Shield and #Hull status will be displayed. Once
your shield is depleted, you "start taking damage to the hull of!your ship. See later for more on
how damage affects your ship.
%Energy booster unit: Doubles the rate
all your shield generators
recharge at.
%Lasers: Lots of different varietys of
these: Pulse and beam. Pulse "lasers cause less damage than beam
lasers cause they don't fire %continuously, but in bursts. They are
available in wattages from 1 #megawatt to 100 megawatts. Only the"smaller wattages are available for
pulse lasers.
!Laser cooling booster: Helps your
laser (whichever one you are "currently using) to cool down more
quickly. Useful for the 100 mw "laser that overheats in about five
seconds without it.
!Plasma accelerators: Available in"small or large, although even the "small one weighs 500 tonnes. These#weapons will cause major damage to $everything they hit, destroying most
ships with a single shot.
$auto pilot: You're gonna need one of these, since piloting a ship to
land manually is a nightmare.%Personally, I've never attempted it, %since I'd like my ship to stay in one
piece. A must.
#Radar mapper: Allows you to get the"lowdown on any ship you meet. Just"use this on them and you will find"out what type of ship it is, what
their current hull and shield#condition is and any items they may
be $carrying (such as a hyperspace cloud
analyser).
$Hyperspace cloud analyser: Trying to
assassinate someone? Gone into
hyperspace have they? Tssh!"Nevermind, just use this device on
the "hyperspace cloud they leave behind#and it will tell you where they've %gone and when they are due to arrive, as well as the mass of the ship "leaving. If you have a ship with a"longer range than the one you are !persuing, you can then jump there$before them. You will come out right$next to where they are due to arrive
out of hyperspace too, so you "can wait for them and blow them to
bits.
"We like that!"
"I thought you would missus!"
Game play
" So, what's the main way you play"this game then? Well, lets assume "you have a nice big ship, not that"crappy little thing you start off "with. An Anaconder freighter, with#twenty shield generators, 4 mw beam$laser, class 7 hyperdrive. Ok? Well,
you're in dock and you want to find out where you can make some%money. You go to the bullitin board. "There are adverts there for people#trading on the black market, people"wanting packages delivered, people#looking for passage to another star system, and people wanting other%people killed. You go to one of these%messages and ask "what ship will they
be travelling on?" They say,
"A panther clipper." Great! A panther is unable to out-run an #anaconder with a class 7 hyperdrive"during hyperspace, so he wouldn't $leave me for cold if it ever came to!a race. The only problem is they "tend to be quite heavily armed and shielded.
"How can I find them?"" "They will be leaving.." I can't
think of an example place to
be leaving from, but lets just%suppose it's just a single jump away
and you can make it within the#allotted time. (Jumping at maximum
range takes a week, while half%maximum range takes half a week etc.)% You accept the mission and set your
navigational computer to the
star system your quarry will be#leaving from. It tells you you need
48$tonnes of fuel. You can easily carry
that. You refill your internal tank (for interplanetary travel,#rather than interstella) with what $little fuel you still have. You then!go to the stock market and search out hydrogen fuel on the list of
things available for sale. 9.9 #credits a tonne! After some winging"about inflation and how you could "have collected it from a gas giant!yourself for nothing, you buy as $much fuel as you can carry, save for eight tonnes which you will use $for carrying missiles. You go to the
shipyard and then to upgrades. !You buy eight navy grade missiles"(the best available). You are now %tooled up with weaponary and fuel and
are ready to go!
You go back to the main communication screen and request
permission $to launch. It is granted and you are slowly lifted from your bay and "launched out the doors. Your huge,
beautiful ship gracefully flys $until it is far enough away from the
spacestation for the radiation #from the jump not to affect it. The
hyperspace light clicks on: %you've reached minimum jump distance.
You have no further business
here so you press it. Your ship%disappears in a red hyperspace cloud,"apparently vanishing. It will take five days for you to reach your $destination. To you however, it will!appear to be only a few seconds. "You see the exit cloud in front of!you, and you gain on it rapidly.
Your chronometre shows the days"flying by until you finally emerge
from"the exit cloud, just seconds after!entering it to you, but you have %actually been travelling towards your exit cloud for days. You muse on$just how much of your life you spend!in hyperspace and don't notice go
by.! You call up an external view of$your ship. It shows your large ship
completely dwarfed by it's exit$cloud, its blue light crackling and "pulsating. It must be twenty times#bigger than you. It is really quite#beautiful. Turning back to business
now you realise that both your "entrance and exit clouds have been there for five days now, giving
anyone with a Hyperspace cloud!analyser and a fast ship an open !invitation to attack you when you$emerge. Your scanner shows no hyper "space clouds however, proving that"obviously no one wants to attack a#ship this large. You now go to your navigation computer again, this %time selecting the interplanetary map rather than the intersella one. $It shows a map of your current solar
system. You recall the name of "the place you must go to meet your
prey from the "Outstanding %contracts" screen. You zoom in on the
spaceport where they will be
leaving. It is on a planet. You!select autopilot and select your #destination which is now surrounded in a white square to show it is %the target. You look back outside now
and the computer has conveniently overlaid targetting%squares on to your external view. You
switch from manual control to autopilot. The autopilot reacts #immediately, bringing the ship into!line with the squares and firing #the main engines. The super imposed"display shows you are 10 AU's from#your target, and it will take about
five days to get there. Unlike "hyperspace jumping, this time will#seem real to you, so to pass it you
activate the stardreamer, which#partially hypnotises you and makes
time appear to go by incredibly!quickly. You soon arrive at your
destination.
A message from the port says"permission granted, in response to
autopilots request for landing%permission. You watch the landing in #real time, and eventually you land.% You arrive just an hour before your pray is to leave. You just made %it! You refuel your internal tank and
buy as much fuel as you can
carry once again. You use the$stardreamer to pass time until there
only five minutes left. You ask!clearance for take off and it is %granted. You blast your vertical take
off engines, before swinging $your ship almost vertical and firing
the main engines.# You climb, and below you see many"other ships landed also. You check#them with your radar mapper and see"that, as it should be, one is the %ship you came all this way for. He is heavily armed, with fifty shield#generators. You presume he also has
high powered laser weaponary. He takes off and your computer
tracks him as your target. He "hyperspace jumps and your computer#now locks his cloud as your target.
You use your hyperspace cloud"analyser to check his destination.
You #program this into your computer and
follow.# You arrive several hour before he
does, and wait. You set your #target as his exit cloud so when he!emerges your computer will track
him at once." He appears and you switch on the#autopilot. The ship turns and heads to follow the ship. You close to#within laser range and tell him to %surrender. He laughs at you. You must
now destroy him quickly before #he destroys you. You open fire with your laser. In your display you $see his shield strength weaken until!eventually you start damaging the$ship it's self. You maintain firing,!not moving from your position at "all. Then his laser sweeps through!the air next to you. It hits you
for the briefest of moments but$causes extensive damage. In the top #left corner you see: "Shields: 0% !Hull: 70%" Just then your lasers $finally destroy your target, but not!before a message appears in your
message panel saying: "Warning:$Atmospheric shielding damaged". You $may have completed your mission, but your quarry still left his mark $on your ship. It shouldn't take more!than a couple of thousand credits
to get all the damage repaired,"though, and you get paid 15000 for
the%assassination, so you've still made a
nice profit.$ And with that, you set a course to!where you took on your mission to return for your pay; and vanish.
%Okay, there you have a description of
a typical mission, jumping %around the galaxy as if hyperspace is going out of fashion and engaged"in battles to the death with ships
that are at least three times "bigger than you is all part of the game. And it is incredible fun. %Deciding what to do next is a problem
in it's self. What should I do
next? Mining? Assassination? A&mission for the federation? A spot of illegal trading perhaps? Or what#about ferrying people and packages $around? The choice just never stops.
There's so much to do it's
incredible." Configuring your ship is quite a#problem. If you have a small ship,
you can make it incredibly fast$during hyperspace (32 light years in
a"single jump is about the maximum),#but after that you can't carry much%in the way of weaponary. If you get a
big ship, you can carry a huge %quantity of weaponary, but your range
is greatly reduced since your %ship is much heavier and those drives are only available up to class 7%normally (12 light years is about the max for an anaconda even with a $class 7. Panther clippers are so big!they actually come with a class 8!as standard, which can still only$propel them about 8 light years at a#time and uses up a huge quantity of
fuel in the process). #Unfortunately, if you want to be an
assassin, you need a fast and
heavily armed ship, which is a&problem. The anaconda is my favourite $ship because it's a good mix between
the two.
%Oh yeah, and there's a hidden ship in
the game called the mirage. It %weighs 5700 tonnes (about three times
more than the biggest "normal ship: the Panther Clipper),"has ten gun mounting as well as a %mounting for a fuel scoop (normal max is four gun mountings and a fuel%scoop), and has 22 missile pylons (as opposed to eight). Oh yeah, and %it only needs five crew as opposed to
eleven for the Panther.$ Here is how to find it (or so I've
been told):
* Be of Elite status$* travel to the edge of the universe
When you find her you need three
things to be able to fly her:
#* Prince rating (the maximum rating
available from the Empire) * A user ident from the Managing#director of Sirius. (Whatever that
* Loads of military fuel
%This last line of requirements (Taken
from Amiga Format's "Game %Busters", sent in by Paul Dempster of
glasgow) would seem to imply that the mirage is fitted with a"military drive, since it would be pretty full up with any standard$hyperdrive capable of moving it any %respectable distance. I've worked out it would need to be about class 30 in order to maintain the same%distance of even the panther. It must be one very special ship (not to$mention drive: It's 10 times bigger %than is supposed to be possible!) but
I haven't found it yet. Quite %why it has a fuel scoop facility is a
bit beyond me, since it isn't !possible to collect military fuel!from gas giants. Maybe it uses a #different type of drive altogether,
who knows?
Problems
!* Flying between planets within a$solar system takes absolutely ages:
The time you spend looking at&gradually decreasing numbers is quite $annoying, even with the star dreamer
on maximum.%* Sometimes ships you are waiting for
to take off in order destroy #them never do. I'm not sure if this!is a bug, but when you jump to a !system, spend ages travelling and$finally get to your destination only#to find the ship you're waiting for never takes off, it's certainly annoying."* There is a random element in the#game where sometimes when you jump %you go to a different place entirely,
Called a "Mis-Jump". You often "end up in deep space and sometimes
your drive is damaged and so %incapable of taking you back to where you're supposed to be. This can #be very annoying as it isn't always"triggered by an unserviced drive. $In fact, it once happened to me when!I restarted the game from scratch$with my brand new ship, and I didn't
have any fuel left. It also sometimes throws you beyond your$normal maximum jumping distance. It $once threw me 200 light years out of
my normal range with a drive normally only capable of 8 light$years. Bizarre? You bet ya. Luckily "it only happens once every several
hundred jumps.
* If you try to examine your own#arrival cloud with your hyperspace "cloud analyser, the game sometimes#crashes. (only on some versions, I "think. Including mine. I tried it, you see.)$* If you try to sell a ship when you
have passengers on board, the %game will stop you selling it but not
before crediting you with the
trade in price. Only on some
versions, and not on the CD 32
version.
Final word
Completely brilliant. Superb.&Incredible. It's got marks as high as $98% from some mags and it isn't hard
to see why. It's one of those "games that you simply must own. If
you're a hardened shoot-'em-up %player who's most complex decision is whether to stick with the three
way shots or go for the plasma launcher you're unlikely to like
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