TO BE OR NOT TO BE - Electronic Arts' New Slogan?
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                               By Colin Gunn
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            Space the final frontier. These are the non-existant
              voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's ongoing
            mission, To seekout and then upset all Amiga owners
            To boldly go where PC format disks have only gone....
                                 BEFORE......

	
How many times  have Amiga owners been cheated  out of a commercial Star Trek 
game for their computer? Three  times at least to my knowledge. But  no doubt 
there's more times  we have not heard  of. Who remembers  the first such game 
from  then  software house  Firebird. It's  title was  "STAR TREK: THE  REBEL 
UNIVERSE" and it  was by Mike Singleton of Midwinter fame. This game appeared
on the  PC and then  ST and  even C64! but  where was  the  advertised  Amiga 
version? At the recent ECTS show in  London I got a chance to speak with Mike
Singleton and got a chance to ask him what happened to the Amiga version. His
reaction was  nothing but  surprise at  Firebird's failing  in releasing  it. 
After all he wrote the software  on the Amiga and it  was ported to the other 
systems (even the PC version!).

The next up was  Mindscape's "STAR TREK  V: THE FINAL FRONTIER". A game based 
on the film of the same  name. This game was again  advertised for the  Amiga 
"and then" the PC. If any of you have read issue 1 of the mag (and if not get
one from Simon  NOW!) you would  have seen my comments  on this game already. 
But the story goes that I rang Mindscape  up to enquire about  when it was to 
be released their  reply was "We don't  think there is enough interest in the 
product (Star Trek?) so we don`t feel it will  sell". Not enough  interest in 
Star Trek! what  planet have these been living on  the past 25 years. However 
an interesting slip-up by them resulted in my conversation with  them. A Beta
test version of the game exists. So could there be hope?

Of course the main reason  for this article and to me the biggest let down to
Amiga owners  is the non-appearance of Electronic  Arts "STAR TREK: THE  25th 
ANNIVERSARY". This is nothing  short of an insult to Amiga owners, and I hope
someone connected with EA gets to read this article.

If no one  has had a chance  to see the  game running, it's  nothing short of 
amazing. As  far back  as Oct  1991 I can  remember this  game being  heavily 
advertised to come  out first on  the PC and then  the Amiga in Xmas 91. Well
Xmas came and went and the  game didn't appear on any  system. A new  release 
date emerged for  Feb/Mar '92. Again no  game. Then in April  it appeared. On 
the PC. One of  the largest  software distributors  in the country  were good
enough to give me a release date (which was given to them by EA) of April 4th
for the Amiga  version. But this just  didn't happen. the PC version was also
released after the Amigas date.
	
At the same  computer show I  mentioned earlier, I managed to air my opinions 
and questions to EA themselves. But first I wanted to  play the game  and low 
and behold there  it was. It took me over  half an hour to get to the PC that 
it was  running on as  there was  a load  (about 25-30)  of other  interested 
parties  either   playing  it  or  waiting  for   their  chance  to  try  it. 
Interestingly I got  talking to them and about 85% were Amiga  owners anxious
for the game to emerge and many of them didn't have any interest in Star Trek
at all (that just  tells you what this  game is like). After  my turn  on the 
game it was time for my confrontation with EA  themselves. When was it coming 
out on the good old Amiga I  asked. The reply "It's not!". When asked why not
the director of EA came  over to me to assure me that the game was to big and
would probably take up 20 disks for the  Amiga. (These guys obviously haven't
heard of packing). But if a product is good - and this is - Does it matter if
it's on 20 disks or  40 disks. "Its not  viable" came  the reply. Not  viable 
with all those Amiga owners wanting it to come out.
	
For the  time being I  left it at that. Then in  May I decided to see if they 
had changed their minds. This time I rang EA to get their comments. This time
I got a different response. Asking when it would be out, the  reply this time
was "It's far too  much of a complex  game for  the Amiga to  handle". So not 
letting them  get away to easily  I asked why was this  game being so heavily 
advertised as far back as Oct '91 and  still you see adverts  cropping up for 
the Amiga release. EA's flippant remark was "Oh that! It was all a mistake by
the  mags".  Yeah  I'm sure  it  was. Don't  forget  EA  must have  sent  the 
promotional Amiga material out to the mags in the  first place and then don't
forget the date  and then an amended release date to a software  distributor. 
So what can be  done about it? My 2  suggestions are the same  that saved the 
original show back in the  60's (if a company as big  as Paramount  listen to 
the fans who knows?). You can either ring in and keep asking for the game. Or
do a letter  writing campaign  (which is the  more suggested of the two). The 
phone number for EA is  0753 549442. And  their address  is: ELECTRONIC  ARTS 
LTD, 11/49  STATION ROAD, LANGLEY,  BERKS, SL3  8YN, ENGLAND. Who  knows what 
responses you will get. If you do let us know - we would love to see them and 
perhaps do a follow  up piece with  some of your  replies. And try  to stress 
that if they feel it's to complex for the Amiga, how about a cut down version
of the game or a CD-ROM version.

So its up  to us now, the fans and  computer gamers that want to see the game 
on the  market. I've done  my bit by  confronting them face  to face, but  it 
won't stop me  writing in to them. So come on lets go for it. All we stand to
loose is the price of a stamp........