Mclaneinc Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) "Look," I hollered to my wife. "I'm famous!" She looked at me and said," That's nice dear. Now take the trash out!" "Yes dear." So much for fame... David Lol...Yeah, had my ego crushed the same way by my wife when I was showed her my first issue in Atari User, and to rub it in she even made the point of telling me they had slightly spelt my name wrongly.........(got it right in other issues).. Women, how cruel they can be Just reading about the game, owned it but never played it, was some of the old stock we could not shift at Maplin, too nice to throw (sadly lost with the rest of my stuff later), it talks of computing coordinates, just how mega complex is this? Edited February 17, 2017 by Mclaneinc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 I just wrote/posted a blog post and mentioned your Quick Start Guide ... which was the reason for the necro-bump. http://atari8bitads.blogspot.com/2017/02/omnitrends-universe.html Bill Here is my revised quick start guide with the added info about the accumulators. Sorry it took several days to get back to you. David Omnitrend Universe Quick Start.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tickled_Pink Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 I never realised you COULD finish this game. Had it BITD and sunk a lot of time into it. Until I started playing Elite Dangerous, it remained the only space combat game where you could target another ship's subsystems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylev Posted February 18, 2017 Author Share Posted February 18, 2017 MclaneInc, The coordinate system in the game is not as bad as the docs make it seem. The system makes entry almost fool-proof and the built in map makes getting the coordinates of your final destination easy to find. The issue you run into is that most final destinations are not just a single jump from wherever you happen to be at the moment. This requires you to figure out a series of intermediate jumps. The docs describe the maximum amount of change you can make to the three coordinates. So, the simple way is to stage your jumps to get the maximum out of one point, then go the max change on the second point, finally arriving at your destination by getting the max on the third. Kinda becomes second nature once you do it a few times. I am probably gonna confuse the 8-bit version with the ST version at this point, but on one of them I always found the hardest thing to do was calculating the minimum orbit for a given planet. This is important because your shuttles can only carry a certain amount of fuel and you want to be sure there is enough to get you down to the surface and back to your ship in orbit. Russ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 In the original Atari version, you had to calculate the minimum orbits. In later versions, with the smaller, cheaper manual, the minimum orbits are included in the planet list appendix. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Thanks Kyle and Bill...I'll have to see if my poor maths makes the grade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Thanks Kyle and Bill...I'll have to see if my poor maths makes the grade Minimal orbit for all planets is 1.05 x diameter of the planet. Just use zeros for all the other variables. This will put you over the north pole of all planets and is easy to see. (See my quick start notes pdf file above for more info.) David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 David, Can I put your quick start guide on Archive.org so I can create a link to it? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 David, Can I put your quick start guide on Archive.org so I can create a link to it? Bill Of course you can. It's all about saving the info for the distant future after the radio active fallout diminishes and people start living in cities again. They will find old Atari PC's that still work! Playing Atari games will cause them to put down their sticks and stones and pick up joysticks and live in peace! It could happen? Maybe... Actually, if they are like my boys were, they will end up getting mad when they lose and use the joysticks like morning stars on each other. Seriously, help yourself, David Milsop 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I put it on archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/OmnitrendUniverseQuickStart Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 In all of my attempts at playing this game, I have never even seen a sub space radio message! That is not me behind the poster, that is VIstaPrint.com "print preview". It is the easiest was for me to capture the 'scale' of the document. Bill The only subspace message I remember is from a pirate ship in the Toascella system in orbit around Hsisng Bao, that said the planet was claimed by the ruler of Stowe and any trespassers would be destroyed. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I finally received a subspace message yesterday. I posted it on the Omnitrend Universe Facebook page, but blacked out the text. I'm trying to figure out the mining process without having all my equipment destroyed. https://www.facebook.com/groups/435419473491677 Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I finally received a subspace message yesterday. I posted it on the Omnitrend Universe Facebook page, but blacked out the text. I'm trying to figure out the mining process without having all my equipment destroyed. https://www.facebook.com/groups/435419473491677 Bill The manual makes it sound like it's easy to make money mining, but I have found that it's a rather expensive due to damage and lost crew. I have rarely made any big bucks. It's easier to turn to piracy if you ask me. One thing I remember is that you need to take a lot of readings on the way down. If the results of each reading varies (from reading to reading) you need to abort that mining rig. If one of your rigs gets lower on energy than the others you can press 5 to idle it and wait for the others get to a like level of energy. Remember all will return when one gets to critical return energy level. One other thing... I don't do facebook (which I hear about all the time from my grand kids and great grand kids), so would you mind just telling me where you were when you received the subspace message? David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Until I started playing Elite Dangerous, it remained the only space combat game where you could target another ship's subsystems. Let's not forget Rules of Engagement, also by Omnitrend (see, on topic!) https://www.scribd.com/doc/120682761/Rules-of-Engagement-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Here is my revised quick start guide with the added info about the accumulators. Sorry it took several days to get back to you. Note that the instructions for using more than one drive are not 'undocumented' (they are clearly in the version I scanned), however if I recall correctly versions earlier than 1.3 did not support more than one drive and therefore wouldn't have that in their documentation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 however if I recall correctly versions earlier than 1.3 did not support more than one drive and therefore wouldn't have that in their documentation I believe both version 1.2 and 1.3 can use multiple drives, but I use 1.3 exclusively, so can not confirm at this time. One other thing ... would you mind just telling me where you were when you received the subspace message? SPOILER ALERT (for a 30 year old game) Message received in 107-77-xxx, right after I visited my last unvisited stellar system (not sure if this was a trigger or not) and ran my hi def scanner while I was next to the Benison dry dock in the Zhisou (16,7,13) system. Message itself was from leader of Stowe as well with similar content. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Well, I made a mistake on when I told you to buy the better Accumulators (Voltac Group). You should buy them at the same time as you buy the Cee Squared hyper drive. If you don't, you won't be going anywhere as the better drive requires more power than the original Accumulators (Alkis Group) can store. I've posted (below) the corrected version of the Quick Start notes. Bill would you mind updating archive.org? Sorry everyone but I'd rather it was correct than getting bombarded with a lot of complaints. Thanks for your understanding, David Omnitrend Universe Quick Start.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I went to Eros/Arbest with enough credits to max out any piece of equipment that wasn't already at the highest tech level, so no issues. I updated the doc on archive.org. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASI Industries Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 If you would you like to stop the game from formatting your "Player" disk everytime something goes wrong, then get a sector editor. The problem lies on sector 64 of both the "Starport" and "Flight 1" disks. Sector 64: Byte 76h Original (21h) change to (53h) I have used the letter "h" to denote hexidecimal above, (21h) is the format command; (53h) is the status command. After this minor change on both disks all that will happen when something goes wrong is the game will stop, thus you can either reboot the "Flight 1" or "Starport" disks to try again, plus you don't need to backup your "Player" disk every five minutes or so. This extract is reprinted from Tyne and Wear Atari 8-bit User Group (UK) Issue 9 May/June 1994; page 4 and 5 http://www.atarimania.com/atari-magazine-twaug-newsletter_65.html 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 (edited) If you would you like to stop the game from formatting your "Player" disk everytime something goes wrong, then get a sector editor. The problem lies on sector 64 of both the "Starport" and "Flight 1" disks. Sector 64: Byte 76h Original (21h) change to (53h) I have used the letter "h" to denote hexidecimal above, (21h) is the format command; (53h) is the status command. After this minor change on both disks all that will happen when something goes wrong is the game will stop, thus you can either reboot the "Flight 1" or "Starport" disks to try again, plus you don't need to backup your "Player" disk every five minutes or so. This extract is reprinted from Tyne and Wear Atari 8-bit User Group (UK) Issue 9 May/June 1994; page 4 and 5 http://www.atarimania.com/atari-magazine-twaug-newsletter_65.html How about some disk images with that fixed so those of us that don't know how to hack disks sectors and Hexadecimals can have this same advantage? Universe is a game that I wanted in the 80's but never got and then forgot all about it until a few years back when I was in a discussion over Frontier and Elite for the ST and then forgot about again until this thread showed up today. I want to get into this game! I would like to thank everyone that contributed to this thread over the years for the good versions and PDF's and all the good info so I can successfully play this game and not get stuck somewhere. Thanks! Edited April 1, 2017 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASI Industries Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 (edited) There you go! Universe 1.3 Format disabled.zip But you really should get a copy of Disky II the best sector editor. see #34 by therealbountybob http://atariage.com/forums/topic/239573-atari-disk-editor-advice-wanted/page-2 Edited April 1, 2017 by ASI Industries 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidMil Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 There you go! Universe 1.3 Format disabled.zip But you really should get a copy of Disky II the best sector editor. see #34 by therealbountybob http://atariage.com/forums/topic/239573-atari-disk-editor-advice-wanted/page-2 Good info. Thanks so much! David Milsop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASI Industries Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 My pirate copy that I obtained from a Newcastle (UK) super pirate in 1993 could not be completed as it had a bug with the year, the months increased but the year remained the same year thus you never got the hyperspace booster message and also could not pay-off the loan, no idea what version it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASI Industries Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I had a quick look and the issue was the 102 (year) was static, quite possible it was version 1.0 or 1.1! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) There you go! Universe 1.3 Format disabled.zip But you really should get a copy of Disky II the best sector editor. see #34 by therealbountybob http://atariage.com/forums/topic/239573-atari-disk-editor-advice-wanted/page-2 Thank You! I will take your advice on the sector editor. I decided I was going to become a more serious "computerist" with my Atari anyway, instead of just the user/gamer. I'm learning SpartaDOS X, Action! and Turbo BASIC already, have a copy of Mapping the Atari on the way too. Even my gaming is getting more serious with complex stuff like Universe and getting into Infocom text adventures more than ever before, I plan on finally finishing all the Ultima games...I guess I'm starting an Atari 8-bit bucket-list since I'm nearing the half-century mark now. Edited April 2, 2017 by Gunstar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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