I was perusing the Home of the Underdogs and found an article for an old game I played back in the late 80s on my Apple ][e. Donwloaded and played the IBM version from HOTU and it seemed a little “off” compared to the one I remembered. Computer-aided navigation wasn’t as precise, there weren’t as many sound effects, and having to type in every command got tedious.
So, I found an emulator and the ROMS and played it. It was exactly as I remembered.
The “Download Demo” link is misleading, since the demo isn’t there but you can grab the demo at: http://www.people.ku.edu/~sorenst/ with the filename “sfd beta-1.zip.” Double-click the SFD.exe file. A screen with some sort of data pad appears and some music is playing. I’m not sure if anything happens with that since I was too impatient to get started and I hit ESC.
It adds quite a few new features and streamlines the original game in many ways. Shield allocation by the computer is now appropriate for the ship’s position. The game also feels more dynamic, as enemy ships move out of and into your quadrant. I’m already hooked and looking forward to a finished game.
The sequel’s incredible as well, with Empire-like surface combat. (Just make sure you get the patched version, as the original had a game-breaking bug).
Man, Starfleet ruled for the Mac. Its amazing how far ahead the early Macs were for some games. Starfleet and PT-109 just rocked, due to the waveout of the Mac. On the PC… ugh. I’d take good quality B&W over Cyan/Magenta or text any day.
i awlays liked nettrek: simple, easy, and fun even when i only had computer droves to play against. klingons and their long range disrupter beam were my 2nd fave weapon. my first was when i was drifting with broken atitude control (going off in one direction at the same time i was spinning in circles) while some romulans were chasing my ass. so i just dropped star base modules, timing it so i only did it while my ass was pointing at my pursuer. got him to ram one and saved myself.
Wow! Did you just do that “NOT” thing? Did you put your hand up, palm out, too? Dad’s trying to be all mid-90’s hip… Carter must be so embarrassed Denny! ;-)
