Description
- This description is based on the most common version, Super Star Trek.
The game starts with a short text description of the mission, which required the Enterprise to fly through the galaxy and hunt down a number of Klingon ships within a certain time. Each game started with a different number of Klingons, friendly starbases and stars, spread throughout a galaxy that was arranged as an 8 by 8 grid of "quadrants". Each quadrant is further divided into an 8 by 8 (10 by 10 in some versions) grid of "sectors". The number of items in any one quadrant was fixed at the start of the game, but their exact position within it (their sector) was not recorded and would change when the quadrant was left and re-entered.
The Enterprise's local surroundings can be displayed by issuing the short-range scan command (SRS), which prints a text-based map of the current quadrant's sectors, including stars represented with a *, Klingon ships as a +K+, starbases as an <*>, and the Enterprise itself with an -E-. The user can also use the long-range scan (LRS) to print out an abbreviated map of the quadrants lying directly around the Enterprise, listing only the number of stars, Klingons and starbases.
Klingon ships can be attacked with either phasers or photon torpedos. Phasers do not have to be aimed, but their power falls off with distance so the player has to estimate how much power to put into the shot. Torpedoes do not suffer this drop in power and will destroy a Klingon ship with a single hit, but they have to be aimed using polar coordinates, so misses are possible. Klingon ships move after firing on the Enterprise, making re-aiming after every "turn" a chore. Most versions of the game included a calculator that will provide the proper angle, so in spite of the tedium of re-aiming it was commonly the primary weapon used. In most versions of the game, stars will absorb torpedoes and require the user to maneuver within the quadrant using the impulse drive (IMP) to get a clear shot. Movement, combat and shields all drain the energy supply of the Enterprise, which can be topped up again by flying to a starbase.
The game normally proceeds with the player eliminating Klingons in the opening quadrant, if any. Then they use long-range scanners to look for nearby ships, selecting a new quadrant and moving there using the warp drive (WAR). They continue in this fashion until the Enterprise is low on energy or torpedoes, and then warp to a starbase to refuel and repair. Issuing commands takes up some game time, closing on the limit imposed at the start of the game. The game ends when the Enterprise is destroyed, all Klingons are destroyed, or the time limit runs out. A score in the form of a ranking is presented at the end of the game, based on energy usage, damage taken and inflicted, and any remaining time.
Read more about this topic: Star Trek (text game)
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