Personal Computer News


Dragon Trek
By Salamander
Dragon 32

 
Published in Personal Computer News #009

Talking Spock

Talking Spock

Star Trek is now an established computer favourite, and as this seems to be the first version for the Dragon, and a good one at that, it should be a required purchase. If you don't know the game it's hard to describe, but it's like Space Invaders meets Battleships under the eye (or possibly the ear) of Mr. Spock.

Objectives

You are in charge of the Starship Enterprise, and as if keeping the ship in full working order wasn't tricky enough, you're also meant to be ridding the Galaxy of Klingons in the shortest possible time.

As well as joystick control for the ship, there are numerous keyboard entries, principally the one which gives you a view of the whole Galaxy, which can measure 6x6, 8x8 or 10x10 according to the difficulty level.

First Impressions

Dragon Trek

The game comes with a 16-page flight manual, which tells you everything you need to know. The mass of information seems daunting at first, but plunging in and playing is a good way to learn.

In Play

The first thing to remember is that this is a real-time game, so if Mr. Spock wants to visit the toilet he'd better do it before he starts building for the survival of the Galaxy, otherwise he might find there's no ship to come back to! That little problem dealt with, and having allocated some of your energy units to form a safety shield around the ship, you can then move conventionally or time-warp to any of the squares in the Galaxy and deal with the Klingons.

Three types of phasers can be fired at them, if your energy level is high enough, or alternatively you can zap them with very slow torpedoes, though zap is hardly the right word. The torpedoes are launched and directed by joystick.

The graphics are extremely good, especially if you try to wander out beyond the known limits of the Galaxy (not a wise move!). But there isn't much in the way of sound effects, apart from a few pings and beeps. Mind you, with only about 1.5K of memory left when CLOADed in, there's not a lot of room for incorporating an inter-galactic hit parade, so it's certainly testing the Dragon to the full.

Verdict

Dragon Trek may seem expensive, but if you want a game that's going to last beyond the first few plays it's worth it. Even the easy levels are hard, and one look at the hard levels, with 81 Klingons wandering the Galaxy is enough to make anyone say, "Beam me up, Scotty."

Mike Gerrard

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