Previous Next

A long title with a game to match, Gremlin's Federation Of Free Traders is best summed up as the logical progression from Elite.

It boasts enhanced graphics and increased features, but was heavily criticised in its original Atari ST format. Several widely publicised faults were revealed. First off there were problems with the save game option, or lack of one, and the length of time it took to travel between space stations was phenomenal. Still, Gremlin and FOFT's programmers went back to their drawing boards, produced the Mister Sheen and orange cloths and cleaned up their act.

The aims in FOFT are simple ones: kill, trade and make a bucketful of money. As in Elite, your ship is equipped with the very basics - water pistol lasers and Fiat Uno engines - and upgrading them costs mucho cash. Raising funds couldn't really be easier - just log-on to the main galactic network computer and check out what's on offer. This system plays a big part in the game. Through it you can leave and receive messages, trade, and buy better equipment for your ship. There is even a programming language so if you get bored with the game you can mind numb yourself even further by making swear words scroll up and down the screen.

FOFT scores over Elite with the inclusion of terrestrial flight, whereby you fly low over the surface of some poor unsuspecting planet, blow the hell out of the landscape, and trade with what's left. Admittedly I tended to plough my ship into the ground rather than wreak any real havoc to the wildlife, but it's worth trying, as the planetside section plays like a limited version of Virus.

There are still problems. I cannot abide the control system for the ship. The inertial effects used to slow down any pitch or yew of the craft take too long to slow the ship down, and if you try slowing down by moving in the opposite direction, it takes more than precise timing to stop the ship flipping out that way too.

Additional features do include a black-market, twenty assorted classical medleys to hum along to including Vivaldi, Handel and, er, Ben Dalglish (well, that's what it says), a fully rotational 3D starmap of each galaxy, a whole host of ships, different levels of ship equipment and 'lock on' missiles.

The graphics comprise of filled vector ships, planets and information screens, from what I have seen of the ships they animate rather nicely, though it's almost impossible to keep them on screen long enough to blast, let alone admire, but still what there is, no matter how fast, is nice. The sound can't be faulted either, the classical extracts add atmosphere, even if the idea owes a lot to the Blue Danube docking sequence in "2001".