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PSI 5 TRADING Co.
US Gold it4.9; Disk atamai n a
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ID Course-Description RFT(' PS K DIS ETA
A Shortest Path
8 Medtun Port
380 04
C MediuN Starboard
328
D Full Port
372
E Full Starboard
348
HAVING WATCHED COUNTless
episodes of Star Trek, I
always thought that Captain
Kirk had things very easy
commanding a space ship.
Especially if you have a reliable
crew to carry out your every
order quickly and efficiently.
Psi 5 Trading Co., from US Gold
seemed to be just the game I
needed to prove my point. All I
had to do was to select a
suitable crew to enable me to
deliver a cargo to some remote
outpost of the universe and
collect a handsome bonus.
One hour into the game and I
was a total wreck. My crew
were tearing their hair out in
despair and countermanding
my orders, looters were
stealing my cargo willy-nilly
and I no longer knew whether I
was coming or going.
Your first decisions are
involved with crew selection
and the success of your mission
TOM THUMB
Anicog C-16, PI
Tom 16
b9 tido Gertz
(c) Kingsort
H I -So
Sopre
Extra
could well be put into jeopardy
straight away if you get it
wrong. There are five positions
to be filled in the scanning,
weapons, navigation, engineering
and repair departments
with six candidates for each
job. A screen illustrating the
candidates is displayed - they
may be humanoids, aliens or
vaccdroids and you can call up
details of each applicant before
making your selection. From
these resumes, you can learn
about a character's qualifications,
education, experience,
strengths and weaknesses. For
example, you may learn that
whilst someone knows their
job inside out, they fall to
pieces under pressure, whilst a
rival might be a loner and a
poor communicator but won't
bat an eyelid when the ship is
under heavy attack.
Having agonised over your
recruitment, it is on to the
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mission itself. The screen
depicts your communication
console with your current view
displayed top left and the
appropriate crew member top
right. The bottom half of the
screen gives various status
reports whilst the central bars
contain assorted indicators for
you to monitor and a menu of
your current choices.
Your initial menu allows
you to read all the pending
messages or contact a specific
department. If you don't keep
in touch with sections regularly,
they will go off and do
their own thing. Most of your
decisions involve what the
Americans call prioritizing -
working out which orders take
precedence. Is it more
important to get the ship
travelling at full speed or
should you divert some power
into defensive shields? Which
items should be repaired first?
Strangely, every department
thinks that they should have
priority. As things get worse, so
the animated pictures of the
crew show their feelings -
totally laid back or gibbering
wrecks. To give some idea of
what you have to control, here
is a quick look at the five
departments and their various
tasks.
The scanning department is
in charge of the radars and will
try and identify and track other
spacecraft. In time, they can
determine whether a craft is
friend or foe, lock on to it and
recommend which weapon is
best to use against it.
to find the treasure that was
buried with him.
Evidently you know where
the treasure is. at least the
instructions say that you do,
but in order to gain access to
the treasure you must collect a
number of keys that are
scattered around no fewer
than 178 screens. Yes, that's
right, somehow Anirog has
managed to get a 178 different
screens into the C-16.
You would expect that the
screens would be very small in
order to fit so many into the
game. Well, they aren't.
Tom always stays in the
same position on the screen.
YOU, TAKING ON THE PART Thumb, have entered the tomb Whenever he moves around it
of that childhood hero Tom of the Pharoah Manilo in order is the background that scrolls
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Once an enemy ha% been
identified, the weapons section
can attack it with missiles,
blasters, cannons and thermos.
By analysing various statistics,
you can assess how efficient
your crew is with each weapon
type.
The navigation section will
estimate the time of arrival at
your destination and show you
the risk involved with various
routes. You can change speed
and take evasive action if
necessary.
All sections of the ship have
various power requirements
and allocating that power is the
responsibility of the engineering
department.
It will not be long before
your ship suffers damage and it
is necessary to request the
services of the repair section.
Items can be operable (at a
higher power cost), repairable
or destroyed. There are several
droids at your disposal and
again, you will need to decide
what needs to be done, who's
available to do it and how long
it will take.
Control of the game is very
simple via either joystick or
keyboard - it is just the decisions
that are difficult. There is
so much going on, that it will
take some considerable time to
get the hang of things.
Graphically, the game is
stunning so you can always sit
back and watch as your ship is
destroyed around you. A
highly original and thoroughly
excellent game.
G.R.H.
bringing new sections of the
playing area into view. An
excellent bit of programming
when you consider how simple
many C-16 & Plus/4 games are.
Tom's journey around the
tomb is hindered by all sorts of
nasties. There are guards
moving their spears up and
down which Tom must jump
over - just like the arcade game
Hunchback - monsters,
spiders, snakes and collapsing
floors. Tom certainly has his
work cut out, even the flowers
and plants scattered around are
out to get him.
If you fancy a little adventuring
then why not buy a copy
and give Tom a hand?
S.C.