Solo Trek by C. Edward Stewart and Ryan M. Gibb The Story Sometimes, all the diplomats in the world can't stop the wars. The alliances are collapsing. First, the Iridians, formerly a neutral race, declared war on the Federation. Then the Klingons decided to take another shot at the Romulans. When the Romulans crossed out of the Neutral Zone, the Klingons switched allegiance and laid siege to the Vulcan homeworld. In other words, Chaos rules the galaxy. An aging Capt. James T. Kirk gave you a ship and a mission: Kick Ass! No more diplomacy, just blazing phasers. So take command of your vessel and complete your mission - wipe out ALL the Federation's enemies! Playing the game After loading, the intro scroll will begin in the communications window. Press a key at any time to end the intro. Enter your name. You will be called Capt. "yourname" so don't call yourself captain fred, or the game will call you Capt. Captain fred. Enter the name of your ship. A lot of times, the ship will be called The "shipname" so, if you want the Enterprise, just call your ship enterprise. Next, select the level of the game. Higher levels start you with less energy, less photons and more enemies. You should probably try level 1 (You weenie! Try level 6!) to get the feel of the controls. The ship will run a scan of the entire galaxy (Galaxy? an eight by eight square is a galaxy?) and report how many of each item it finds and a total of the enemy ships to be destroyed. (Kill!) The main screen shows: Ship status and information at the top left. Result of sector scans and scan type at the top centre. Galaxy map and your current position on the top right. A TNG-style control panel to access main systems on the bottom left. The communications window where all the game information is displayed on the bottom right. Keys ESC - Back to main menu HELP - Info on what keys work in that section Communications Accessed by pressing C or clicking the bottom centre grey pad on the TNG panel. H - Hail another ship. Since most of them are your enemies, they aren't very friendly; actually, they'll probably blast you for your trouble. C - Get rid of that annoying Red Alert flashing indicator. Helm Accessed by pressing H or clicking the top centre circular yellow pad on the TNG panel. W - Warp around the galaxy - as long as your system is online and you have enough energy. I - putt your way to an adjacent sector - again, only if your system is online and there is enough energy. Ops Accessed by pressing O or clicking the bottom left blue pad on the TNG panel. S - bring your systems online (or take them offline if you've totally lost your mind!) M - load/play/save/erase MODs. (Whee! Now I can blow `em away while listening to Inspector Gadget!) T - Transfer power from one system to another. D - Dock with planets and starbases. They will give you energy, and even photon torpedoes - if you have enough score. SELF DESTRUCT - Guess what this nasty devil does! Sensors Accessed by pressing S or clicking on the green and red sensor grid on the TNG panel. S - set short range scan. (Fast, but limited) M - set medium range scan. (Not bad, and you get a point for using it!) L - set long range scan. (Takes a long time, but tells you everything.) R - Rescan a sector. (What cheat mode?) Tactical Accessed by pressing T or clicking on the bottom right green pad on the TNG panel. A - Attack! Kill! Blowemup! (Erm, better check your shields first.) E - Evade. (Actually, a quick access to the Helm.) T - Transfer power from one system to another. (Very helpful when the Borg start blowing the hell out of you.) M - Mine an asteroid field for energy. Attack First, you are offered a list of vessels in the sector. Pick one to beat on. Then select whether to use phasers or photon torpedoes. (You can get out of attack mode at this prompt by pressing S.) Enter how much power to pump into your weapons and repeat the process until somebody dies. ** WARNING ** Enemy fire can take your systems offline. Be ready to fix it. If your shields go down, say bye bye. Hints Go to Ops first and get your shields up. If they are down and you are hit, you die. A lot of enemy ships will fire on you as soon as you enter the sector, get them shields up! Federation ships will protect you from attack. Sensor anomalies can be great escape routes. If you don't have enough score, you won't be offered Photon Torpedoes at Starbases - so don't dock with a low (under 25) score. Get your shields up to about 300 before taking on the Borg. They are TOUGH! Send your generous donations (somebody is living in a dream world) to: FBN 21 Stirling Ave. S. #1 Kitchener, Ont. N2G 3N6 Or contact the authors on CyberSpace. (519)579-0072 28.8 (519)579-0173 14.4 Garak and Giark Well met and godspeed, Giark NOTE: SoloTrek is now being offered on a PD disk and was featured at the 1995 World Of Amiga show in Toronto.