Jump to content
  • entries
    430
  • comments
    1,870
  • views
    662,675

Playing Star Trek - Rebel Universe (C64)


Cybergoth

1,824 views

Hi there!

 

Yay, I'm on a 5 year mission! :)

 

rebeluniverse.gif

 

This one took quite some time of preparation. First there's a 50 page manual plus some C64 addendum to read, then there's a "Training Flight" to perform next. Once you're through that, you're rewarded with full control over the original enterprise and crew though, so it's really worth it.

 

The game was originally written for the Atari ST in 1987, featuring a really advanced (at the time) full mouse controlled GUI. I think it was even the first 16-Bit game offering that. The C64 version (which was released an endless 2 years later :ponder:) just adopted this interface for the joystick, which is still okay.

 

The graphics are mostly substandard for the C64, as well as sound and music, but still functional. Main limiting factor was memory I guess, since for some reason the programmers decided to make it a single load. Of course it plays pretty fast because of that, I visited over 35 star systems during the last 3-4 hours.

 

This must've been the absolute Trekkies dream coming true back in the day I assume. You're exploring the mysteries of a "Quarantine Zone" full of ~500 star systems. Everything is there: Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, Photon Torpedos, Beaming, Planetary missions, Phasers, Klingons, Romulans, Space Flight...

 

It's not a 3D Space flight simulator though. Flying around is more the iconic map thing a la Starflight. And the Planetary Missions are more or less just multiple choice encounters. There's a lot more adventurous scavenger hunt than action.

 

Still, it's breathing Star Trek atmosphere on every screen :)

 

Tonight I was just warming up with the game. Trying to get familiar with all the menu screens and just leisurely flying around. I collected a few objects in the planetary missions and tried to figure out what was wrong with them Klingons and how to defeat their evil plans.

 

BTW: Mr. Sulu was on TV again recently, being Hiros father in "Heroes" ;)

 

Greetings,

Manuel

2 Comments


Recommended Comments

Spent another evening flying around and upgrading the ship. While I found some really cool items already, I'm still a bit clueless on how to defeat the Klingons. Even though the manual describes 8 different ways of winning the game, I didn't get far into any of them yet. Since I played already for 3 (game-) years, I better soon have a good idea (or find a walkthough :().

Link to comment

I went on a 5 year mission and all I got was this lousy screen:

 

rebeluniverse_x.gif

 

Seems I wasn't that far from the end. Consulting an ST walkthrough I figured I already found most items needed to end the game, I just hadn't figured where to use them :(

 

That was a pretty interesting game. I think anyone who enjoyed Starflight might like this one too. It's not quite as deep Starflight, but it's Star Trek! ;)

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another Star Trek game in the form of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", but first it will continue with something else.

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...