Subject: REVIEW: Star Trek 25th Anniversary
From: [email-masked] (Simon Austin)
Date: 8 Apr 1994 16:14:41 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Star Trek 25th Anniversary

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Take control of Captain Kirk and crew and boldly go where no man has
gone before.  The aim of this game is to follow in the footsteps of Kirk and
Co. and solve strange puzzles, fight implacable foes and never, ever, ever
say "Beam me up Scotty."

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Interplay Productions Ltd
	Address:	The Barn
			St John's Yard
			Main Road
			Fyfield
			Oxon OX13 5LN
			United Kingdom

	Telephone:	44 0865 390029

LIST PRICE

	34.99 Pounds Sterling.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		AGA Chipset
		Hard drive
		1.5MB free memory

	SOFTWARE

		AmigaDOS 3.0

COPY PROTECTION

	The copy protection for ST25 is very unobtrusive, if it was indeed
intended as copy protection.  Simply put, in order to travel to your chosen
destination, you must choose it from a starchart.  Since the starchart in the
game itself isn't labelled, you have to refer to the one in the manual, which
is.  Choosing the wrong destination dumps you into the neutral zone where you
are attacked by hoards of Klingons.

	ST25 installs on a hard drive; in fact, it requires one to run.

	Copy Protection Rating: "Invisible" (you don't notice it at all).

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 1200/020, 0 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM.
	1 internal 880K floppy.
	1 external 880K floppy.
	1 external 1.6MB floppy
	Conner 172MB internal hard drive.
	Philips CM8833-II monitor.
	AmigaDOS 3.0.
	Kickstart 39.106, Workbench 39.29
	KingCON version 1.0 replacing the Amiga shell.

INSTALLATION

	According to the manual, to install you should "Change the disk
prompt to the drive that your DISK 1 is in by typing 'A:' or 'B:' depending
on where your DISK 1 is." Interplay lose a few points for that faux pas.

	More information is forthcoming if you open the disk 1 icon instead.
Inside is the "Star Trek 25th Installer" icon, which when double-clicked
opens a shell containing:

| If you'd like to install on another disk or drawer, drag the
| install icon there, then double click on it.   This install
| will create a sub-directory called StarTrek in the drawer
| where this install icon is located.   StarTrek 25th
| Anniversary will then be installed therein.
| This install will temporarily use 15 megabytes of disk space.
| When it is finally installed it will occupy 9 megabytes
| Do you wish to continue the install [y/N]?

	I wasn't too keen on the inference that you could install ST25 on the
disks provided.  Novices could easily get confused by this.

	Installation takes a LONG time.  You don't have to sit there for
ages though:  once all eight disks have been read in, you can pop off to make
a cup of tea, read a book or watch a film whilst the files are unpacked.

REVIEW

	Once installation is completed, you can run ST25 by clicking on the
icon in the StarTrek directory.  Or can you?  As mentioned above, ST25
requires 1.5MB free RAM to run, although nothing in the documentation tells
you this (other than a sticker on the cover saying "AMIGA 1200/4000 2MB
RAM"... but since everyone with a 1200/4000 has at least 2MB, it's not much
help).  If you try to run ST25 with less than 1.5MB, as I did, you can come
across a surprising number of different error messages all seemingly
designed to confuse, as none of them mention a lack of memory.

	There are two methods around this if your Workbench takes up more
than half a megabyte:

	a) Boot without the startup-sequence, "cd" to the appropriate
	   directory and run ST25 from there;

	b) Create a boot floppy which performs a minimal boot but re-assigns
	   everything to the hard disk.

	I chose the second method and was soon up and running.

	ST25 starts with a passable version of the program's intro.  A
recognisable version of the theme plays whilst a jerky Enterprise zips back
and forth across the screen.  This is strange as it is the only time when the
graphics are jerky.  During the space battles, your opponent moves smoothly
even when the Romulan Warbird fills the whole viewscreen.

	The game then follows an episodic format, each episode consisting of
the following (although not necessarily in this order):

	1) Get your orders from Starfleet;
	2) Fly to your destination;
	3) Fight a spacebattle with your enemy;
	4) Beam down to planet/spaceship;
	5) Solve the problem;
	6) Short scene on the bridge where Bones and Spock argue.

	The game is fully mouse controlled, with the keyboard used only
sparingly.  During space battles, you have to flick from the viewscreen
(where you control the ship's direction and phasers/photon torpedoes) to the
bridge itself (where you click on the crew members to change damage control
[Scotty], get information [Spock] or whatever).  Once you have beaten your
opponent and arrived at your destination, you'll normally use Uhura to open
hailing frequencies to find out what to do next.  Asking Spock for help is
always a good idea, and eventually you'll want to beam down with a landing
party.

	The landing party always consists of Kirk, Bones, Spock and an Ensign
(whose name is given, but doesn't really matter since he's almost guaranteed
to be sucked/slimed/electrocuted/shot as soon as possible).  Of the landing
party, you directly control only Kirk:  the other three members will follow
you around but have to be told what to do.  You can ask the others for
advice at any time, and it is probably best to do this on entering any new
location.  Commands are given using the mouse: left button to choose, right
to bring up icons for talk, look, take, use, and save/load/quit.  Once
carried, objects can be used on other items within your location or other
objects carried.  Be careful though.  I spent ages trying to use two objects
together and unwittingly kept using the first object on the wrong second
object.  The game never told me "this doesn't work," and it wasn't until I
realised which was the correct object to use that I could complete the
episode.  Very frustrating.

	Sometimes battles occur in episodes and these may seem one-sided at
first - only Kirk ever draws his gun.  But it soon turns out that you have
two advantages - firstly your opponents are *very* slow, and secondly they
always shoot the Ensign first!

	Puzzles whilst "on planet" are mainly of the "find the item, stick it
in the right machine, take it to the right place" variety, but there are
often clues around to point you in the right direction.  You also can have
conversations with other characters, and with non-crew members you'll have
to make a choice from several phrases.  The wrong phrase may have nasty
results.  Say the wrong thing to the pirates, and they start killing off
their hostages.

	Once you've solved all the puzzles, it's back to the Enterprise for
that final scene on the Bridge where Kirk, Spock and Bones have their usual
conversation and either Bones or Spock attempts to put the other down.  At
this point, Starfleet awards points according to how well you did in the
episode.  Then it's on to the next one....

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation consists of the 12 page IBM compatible manual with
a new cover proclaiming it is for the Amiga 1200 - English.  The manual does
cover every aspect of the game although in a vague sort of way.  For example,
it details all keypresses when there is a mouse equivalent available, but
the one time there is only a single key to press (the Tab key to move from
viewscreen to bridge) it is not mentioned.  Strangely enough, the manual's
writer actually admits so in the credits section.  Bruce Schlickbernd, you're
a brave man.

LIKES

	The best thing about this game is that it sticks closely to the
actual programme itself.  With Star Trek in general being action oriented,
many vendors with this licence would have perhaps gone for a platform or
shoot-em-up game.  Interplay have not done this, and more power to them.
The in-space graphics are impressive:  when you get in close to the Romulan
Warbird and see the designs painted on it, you could almost forget to fire
your phasers.  The puzzles are logical (Captain), and the episodic nature
allows you to progress through the game in nicely measured doses ("I'll just
finish `Love's Labors Jeopardised' and then I'll eat something").  The
graphics in the "on planet" part are recognisable as the crew of the
Enterprise, although Bones and Spock have suspiciously similar bodies.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	The unfriendly installation and initial startup are nasty.  A little
thought and judicious use of Commodore's installer wouldn't go amiss.  A
kinder method of making choices would be better.  Having to cycle through six
or seven different choices before selecting one is laborious.  Also, there is
a tendency for the game to move your mouse pointer from where you want it as
messages appear on the screen, and the game doesn't always put the pointer
back.  Speaking of the mouse pointer, it is sometimes a little jerky, but I
think some fast RAM or an accelerator would solve this problem.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	As far as point-and-click adventures go, ST25 is quite well up the
list.  There are not a vast number of commands to be used, but this works in
the game's favour - the commands are easy to learn and pretty much cover
everything you'd want to do.  On the space-flight simulator front, it's not
the most realistic nor the best ever.  The texture mapping is nice, but as
always a purely aesthetic advantage.  However, it works and the battles are
fairly even.

BUGS

	Other than the installation problems and a few unexplained gurus
early on (which haven't re-occurred), I haven't discovered any bugs.  This is
probably due to the effect of having the program previously available on
other formats.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	I sent off the registration card, but I haven't heard anything from
Interplay, nor do I expect to.  I mean, I only bought their product:  why
should I think that would give me anything more than somebody who pirated
the thing?

WARRANTY

	Within 90 days, you should return the game to the retailer.  Beyond
that Interplay offer an implied lifetime warranty for anything other than
normal wear and tear.  Replacements cost 10 pounds sterling (for postage and
packing [I hope its well packed then]) and you'll need to send back your
retailer receipt as well.

CONCLUSIONS

	Star Trek fans will definitely enjoy this, and adventure fans
probably will too.  A little amount of Amiga knowledge is useful, as is some
Fast RAM to smooth out that jerky mouse pointer.  Remember, if this one sells
well, Interplay may produce more Amiga stuff, and since they have just been
bought by Universal it could be interesting.....

--
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| Simon Austin      | "Never get in an arse kicking contest with |
| University of  // |  a porcupine." - Cohen the Barbarian       |
| East London  \X/  | "I can love my fellow man, but I'm damned  |
| [email-masked] |  if I'll love yours." - Andrew Eldritch    |
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------+

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