Back when I got started with computers, 8 years ago, my favorite computer game—one of the first ones I saw—was Star Trek. This hacker’s classic has been around for many years, in many forms, on many computers.
The basic idea of the game was to travel the galaxy—usually a 10x10 or 8x8 grid—trying to find and destroy all the Klingons in the galaxy. You could dock at starbases to replenish energy and torpedoes, and to repair damage. There were many variations on these basics, and many additional features, but this is the basic game.
Unfortunately, when we got our Mac, there wasn't a good version of this classic available. When I got Microsoft Basic 1.0, the week it was released, the first thing I typed in was Super Star Trek from David Ahl's Basic Computer Games. It wasn't very satisfactory; while I was able to add some fancying up with the Mac fonts and styles, the game was still basically the generic version as seen on other computers. Information just scrolled up and off the screen; while my favorite versions (Invasion Force for the TRS-80 Models I/III/4 and AppleTrek for the Apple II) had fixed screen displays (i.e. quadrant display always in a certain part of the screen, etc.) the output of this Basic 1.0 program was virtually the same as the original, played on a teletype machine.
Some time later, I found a program called Star Trek+, written in Basic 2.0. It was basically the same Super Star Trek game with a 'Macified' control panel, with buttons for the main commands, and a compass for entering directions.
While I thought this was a big improvement on the original version I typed in, I still didn't like it that well. The main problem is the fact it was still written in Basic. As a result, it was slow, and did not run well (no good screen updating, etc.) In addition, I was used to the old style of typing in commands on the old games, and I wanted to keep the feel of the old games in that respect. Finally, he still used only one window for output, with the result that useful information would still scroll off the screen before you could use it. It was a noble try, but it just fell short. Also, people without Basic couldn't run it.
So, I finally determined to write my own version. I decided I would not write it in Basic, to avoid the performance problems I had with the other Mac versions. I would try to blend the best of the Mac interface with the best of the old game. I would keep the old typing commands interface, but would add multiple output windows, a graphical compass for headings, and scroll bars for setting values.
Thus, when I finally got TML Pascal, I decided that Star Trek, a game I was familiar with, would be a good first project for learning Mac programming. I decided to base the basic functions on Ahl's Super Star Trek, but doing a completely original implementation in Pascal. Here's my Star Trek. Enjoy!
I wrote that back in 1986, in my first year in college. I was planning on adding more features, sound, and a more “Mac-like” interface that used point-and-click wherever possible. These plans were interrupted by three remaining years of college, which kept me too busy to even think about revising the program. By the time I graduated, there were two newer versions of Star Trek; Rob Koch’s version, called simply Trek, was just about everything I had wanted to do with MacTrek. (His version is still the one I recommend if you want the most Mac-like, point-and-click version of Star Trek.) By this time, my MacTrek had become increasingly outdated, and the screen display became garbled with later versions of Apple’s system. I decided to let it slip away without updating it.
But I keep getting occasional registrations, requests for updates, and attention even with the newer programs available. The only reason I can find for this attention is that my version “felt” more like the original hacker’s Star Trek game, with typed commands and character-style graphics. So I’ve decided to do at least one more release of the game, fixing bugs like the screen display and adding some minor features while keeping the feel of the original game. Here’s version 1.5.1!
My apologies to those who sent in suggestions over the last few years that I haven’t been able to act on, and to those who sent in registration fees expecting regular updates.
Version 1.5.1 changes:
• Version 1.5 was only released to 3 or 4 users, and to a company doing a book/disk package on shareware programs. I was informed later that the company didn’t have enough room on the disk to include version 1.5 with sound effects, so version 1.1 (the last public release) was included instead. Therefore, 1.5 should not have had any public release, but I’m including this notice just in case it did.
• Version 1.5.1 includes a few more bug fixes on the displays, and a few invisible changes to accomodate the sound effect installer programs.
• The Short Range Sensor display has been reworked. Now, if the Short Range Sensors have been damaged, the SRS command will still display the current status information; only the quadrant display will be blanked out.
Version 1.5 changes:
• Lots of bug fixes. The screen displays should be clear on all machines, and should stay that way no matter what happens with the system software. Numerous other clean-ups on the screen display.
• Difficulty levels. These should be self-apparant; the speed of repairs and Klingon attacks can vary, the number of Klingons and Starbases can vary. The two highest difficulty levels have a new option: Klingons can Move and Fire. At the lower difficulty levels, Klingons can either move or fire, but not both at the same time; at the upper levels, they can do both at once. This can be deadly. Difficulty levels can be changed at any time during a game, but the number of Klingons and Starbases will not change unless you start a new game.
• More fluid game play. You will now notice that the Klingons are moving around much more than they used to. Repairs are also made faster. These things happen even if you’re not taking any action! You can’t just leave the game sitting around now; use the “Pause” option instead.
• Torpedo Lock. To make up in part for the new, rapidly-moving Klingons, you can now lock torpedos on an individual Klingon. You will lose this lock, however, if you use any other feature of the library computer.
• Typed Information. I’ve added more places to directly type settings into dialog boxes, specifically the Navigation, Phaser, Shields, and Torpedo dialogs. To type a heading in the Navigation or Topedo dialogs, hit the “H” key; to type the warp speed in the Navigation dialog, hit “W”; and to type the energy setting for Shields and Phasers, type “E”. (The <Enter> key is no longer used in the Navigation dialog; hit “H” instead.)
• Digitized Sounds. See below.
• MacinTalk. With the release of a new, System 7-compatible MacinTalk driver (version 1.5.0), the MacinTalk speech will work with every version of the system, through 7.0.1. Unfortunately, I can’t distribute MacinTalk because it is a piece of Apple system software; I got my copy from my local user group. It may also be available on the developers’ section of some on-line services.
• DigiVoice. See below.
• Color. It’s not much, but you can set the foreground and background color for all of the MacTrek displays. I don’t have a color Mac, so there’s no real way I can do anything fancier now. While I might think about adding more color if I can ever afford a color Mac, I don’t want to over-promise as I did last time and say I will add color.
Digitized Sound!
MacTrek 1.5.1 now has both optional digitized sound effects and optional digitized voices! Because digitized sounds take up a great deal of disk space and download time, I’ve made these optional packages that you can pick up separately; I will be uploading them to each online service I upload MacTrek 1.5.1 to, and I am asking anyone who makes MacTrek 1.5.1 available to make these sound packages available as well. I currently have a sound effects package and a male computer voice ready; I am also planning a female computer voice.
These packages are distributed as self-installing programs, with read me files included. If you have a digitizer and are technically inclined, you can create your own digitized effects for use with MacTrek; full details are included in the read me files.
To get digitized sound to work without enormous effort, I had to use the System 6 Sound Manager, so the program will not run with digitized sounds under System 5 or earlier. <Sigh.> But as far as I can tell without exhaustive testing (I don’t have access to more than a couple of Macintosh models), it should work on every Macintosh model under these restrictions.
Game Play
The idea of the game is to search out and destroy all the Klingons in the galaxy.
The Galaxy
The galaxy is an 8 x 8 grid of quadrants, labeled 1-8 from the top left-hand corner, looking like this:
These 64 quadrants are grouped into 16 sections, named by their major stars. Each section contains four quadrants, labeled I, II, III, and IV respectively, in each. See the following map:
Thus, the quadrant highlighted in the first map is called Procyon IV.
Each quadrant is divided into 8 sectors. A sector can hold one item: a star, a starbase, a Klingon, or the Enterprise. The following is a short-range scan view of a typical quadrant:
Just like quadrants in the galaxy, sectors in a quadrant are labeled from 1-8 starting at the top left-hand corner.
Moving Around
You have two main means of traveling the galaxy. Warp drive will move you between quadrants. To move using warp drive, specify a heading and a warp factor greater than or equal to 1. The warp factor determines roughly how many quadrants you'll move. You can't leave the galaxy; if you try, you'll get a severe reprimand.
Impulse drive will move you within a quadrant; if you try to move "off the edge" of a quadrant, you will move into the next quadrant in that direction, unless you're at the edge of the galaxy. To move with impulse drive, specify a heading and a warp factor of less than one.
Finding Klingons
You have at your command a galactic map, which is capable of showing the contents of all quadrants in the galaxy. You show it by asking the library computer for the cumulative galactic record. The quadrant you're in is shown in bolder numerals. (See the quadrant in the middle of the square of numbers in the galactic map above.)
Unfortunately, the ship's computer doesn't know everything; it can't show the contents of a quadrant unless you've mapped it. To map a quadrant, you must either move into it, or use the long-range scan from a quadrant adjacent to it. The long-range scan will map all of the quadrants adjacent to the one you're in—if it's working!
When using either the galactic map or the long-range scan, you get back a display showing a three-digit number for each mapped quadrant. This number gives the contents of the quadrant, with the hundreds digit showing the number of Klingons, the tens digit showing the number of starbases, and the ones digit showing the number of stars in that quadrant. If you are looking at the galactic map, a "+++" shows that the quadrant is not mapped; in the long-range scan, a "+++" shows you're at the edge of the galaxy, and the "+++" quadrants are outside of the galaxy.
Destroying Klingons
You can destroy Klingons in two ways: with phasers or photon torpedoes. Each has certain advantages.
Phasers are aimed automatically by the computer, and have a fast recharge time; thus, not only do you not have to worry about aiming, but the computer can also hit all the Klingons in the quadrant with one phaser firing. The computer will automatically divide up the energy you give the phasers equally between the Klingons in the quadrant.
Unfortunately, phasers are somewhat weak. All Klingons have shields; a phaser hit will weaken the shields, and if your shot is stronger than the Klingon's shield level, he'll be destroyed. However, if his shields are stronger than your shot, he won't die. In this case, the computer will report its best guess of the Klingon's weakened shield level.
Photon torpedoes, on the other hand, are stronger than phasers; a direct hit on a Klingon by a torpedo will destroy it. Unfortunately, you have to aim the torpedoes yourself, by giving a heading for the torpedo to follow. It will follow that heading until it runs into something or escapes the quadrant. A star absorbs a torpedo hit without damage; a starbase or a Klingon will be destroyed by the hit. So, be careful firing around starbases!
The torpedo lock, new in version 1.5, lets you “lock” one Klingon into the firing computer. When you fire the torpedos under torpedo lock, a torpedo is immediately fired at the Klingon under lock. Unfortunately, the torpedo lock is not smart enough to avoid objects between you and the Klingon, and the torpedo will still travel in a straight line; so a star can still block your shot, and you can still destroy starbases this way if you’re not careful.
In addition, since torpedoes are physical objects instead of energy beams, they fire much more slowly than phasers; thus, you can only fire one torpedo per firing round, while phasers can hit every Klingon in the quadrant in one firing round.
Surviving!
As the captain of the most respected, most-hated (from the Klingon point of view) starship in the Federation, your insurance agent wouldn't find you a good risk. Any edge you can get helps! With that in mind, here are some tips:
Raise your shields immediately! One hit from a Klingon with your shields down will blow you out of space.
Your shields drop when you dock with a starbase. The starbase shields will protect the Enterprise when you're docked, but the minute you move away, you're vulnerable. Be ready!
Klingon hits can damage some of your systems. Damage will make most systems inoperative. A hit to shield control won't drop your shields, but it will keep you from changing the shield's energy level — a big problem if your shields are low. A hit to the warp engines will severely reduce your moving ability.
Your damage control crewmen can work on repairs while the ship is moving, and even while you're fighting; but, their work is erratic, and they can't work very fast on their own. You'll get periodic reports from them as they work.
What will speed up repairs is docking at a starbase. When you dock, check with damage control, and the starbase repair technicians will give you an estimated repair time. Your ship will be completely out of action for that time, but you'll be able to leave with everything at peak condition.
Use your library computer! While it's possible to win without using it at all, the information it provides will make things much easier for you.
Game commands and controls
The above section told you what to do. Now, let's see how to do it, by reviewing the commands and how they work. You can choose commands three ways: choosing them from a menu, using the command-key equilivants on the menu, or typing them in yourself (Recommended to get a true feel for the original classic!).
Ship's commands
SRS:
Performs a short-range scan. This displays a map of the current quadrant, showing the positions of you, the Klingons, the stars, and the starbases in the quadrant. It also displays some useful information, such as the number of Klingons left in the galaxy, your current shield energy level, your current total energy level, your location in the quadrant and in the galaxy, and other nicities. (See the following picture.)
The upper section of the scan displays some useful general information, such as which quadrant you just entered, whether there are Klingons in the quadrant, and a warning if your shields are low.
LRS:
This command uses the long-range scanners to find information on the eight quadrants surrounding you, and display that information on your screen. The display looks like this:
The header line tells you what quadrant you are in; you are always at the center of the 3 x 3 square of quadrants. The numerals in each square tell you what's in each quadrant, as described in the Game Play section above. As an example, the upper-left quadrant has two Klingons, no starbases, and four stars.
PHA:
This command fires the phasers. A dialog box will come up on the screen, with a scroll bar. (See the picture in the SHE section.) This bar lets you set the amount of energy to devote to the phasers; as mentioned in the Game Play section, the energy is divided equally among all the Klingons in the quadrant. Clicking in the arrows increases or decreases the energy by 1 unit; clicking in the grey areas changes the energy by 10 units. Type “E” to directly enter an energy setting. Click OK to fire the phasers, or Cancel to cancel the firing.
TOR:
This command lets you fire photon torpedos. The following dialog box will come up on the screen:
The squares are the eight main 45° headings; click in them to set one of these headings. If you want to type in a heading other than one of these main 45° headings, hit the “H” key. The box in the center will highlight, and you can type in a heading. (Example: 1.5 is halfway between 1 and 2 headings.) Please keep it within the range of 1-8.99999.
When you have a heading that satisfies you, hit the Fire button (or hit <Return>) to fire the torpedo, or Cancel to cancel the firing.
NAV:
This is the main command for moving around. You will see the following dialog box come up on screen:
The compass at the top lets you set your direction; it works exactly like its counterpart in the TOR dialog box. In this picture, the type-in heading box is active, as you can see by the outline box and the vertical bar (the insertion point for typing.)
The scroll bar at the bottom lets you set your warp factor. Clicking in the arrows changes the warp factor by 0.1; clicking in the grey area changes the warp factor by 1. Hit the “W” key to type in a warp factor.
Hit Execute (or <Return>) to move, or Cancel to stay still.
DAM:
This command gives you a damage report on your ship's systems. The following report shows the Enterprise in perfect condition:
As you can see, the damage for all areas is zero; this shows there is no damage. Damaged systems would show a negative damage amount.
SHE:
This command changes your shield level. The following dialog box will come on-screen:
You set the shield level with the scroll bar; it works just like its counterpart in the Phaser energy dialog box. Type “E” to type in the energy level.
COM:
This command activates the library computer. You will see a list of the computer commands in the computer window (the lower window) and the Computer menu will become active, while the Command menu dims. Now the ship is expecting a computer command (detailed below); anything else will give a loud beep (signifying a bad command).
Once the computer has recieved one command, and processed it, it returns control to the main ship, so the Computer menu will dim and the Command menu will return.
Computer commands
(Note that none of these information displays are automatically updated; if you move, or do something else to change their status, you must re-choose the command to update the display.)
1: (Cumulative Galactic Record)
This command draws a map of the galaxy, showing the quadrants you've mapped, and displaying what's in them. (See the first map in the Game Play section.)
2: (Status Report)
This command shows how much time has passed since the start of your mission, how much time you have left, how many starbases there are left in the galaxy, and how many Klingons are left.
3: (Photon Torpedo Firing Data)
This command will give headings and distances for all Klingons in the quadrant. This gives you a convenient method of aiming your photon torpedo shots. It does nothing if there are no Klingons in the quadrant.
4: (Photon Torpedo Lock)
This command will lock photon torpedo firing data on one Klingon into the computer. You will see a dialog box listing the locations of all Klingons in the quadrant; enter the coordinates for the Klingon you want to target. Torpedo lock will stay on until that Klingon is destroyed or until you use another library computer function.
5: (Starbase Navigation Data)
This command will give the heading and distance to the starbase in the quadrant. If there is no starbase in the quadrant, it does nothing.
6: (Direction/Distance calculator)
This brings up a dialog box asking for your current and new X and Y coordinates. This simply means the coordinates where you currently are, and the coordinates you wish to move to. It can be used to calculate the direction and distance between any two points in the quadrant, or the galaxy. Just remember that it measures the heading and distance from the first (current) point to the second (new) point.
7: (Galaxy "Region Name" map)
This command displays the 16 major regions of the galaxy, and what territory they cover. (See the second map in the Game Play section.)
Miscellany
Game Menus
Apple menu: This allows you to access desk accessories. The About MacTrek item will give access to a brief summary of these instructions.
File: This contains the New Game command, allowing you to start a new game; and the Quit command, which quits MacTrek.
Edit: This contains the standard editing commands; they are active only when a desk accessory is active.
Options: If you have MacinTalk in your system folder, MacTrek will talk, giving warnings and other tidbits of speech. When MacTrek finds MacinTalk, the MacinTalk Speech On selection will be enabled; select it to turn the MacinTalk voice on and off. If you have the digitized voice files installed, the DigiVoice option will be enabled as the default; you can switch between MacinTalk speech and DigiVoice speech by choosing the respective menu items. If MacTrek is running under low memory conditions, both the Sound Effects option and the DigiVoice option may be disabled. The Color menu allows you to set the foreground and background colors for the displays.
Commands and Computer menus: These give you menu access to the basic MacTrek commands.
About the game's disposition
I've spent a lot of time working on this game. If you can afford it, please send in a shareware payment of what you think the game is worth. If you are poor and can't, I understand; I am a recently graduated college student myself, and can't spare much for shareware payments. If you are too lazy to do it, or just don't want to, you have no sympathy from me.
In any case, this game has been a labor of love for me; if you can't send money, PLEASE send at least a comment on how you liked the game! Thanks. Enjoy!
Travis Butler
8008 Hauser Drive
Lenexa, KS 66215
(This is my parent’s address; since I may be moving
around for some time, it’s my most stable address.)
Genie: T.BUTLER
(GEnie is almost never checked; it’s a long-distance
