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10 <title>Super Star Trek</title>
14 <firstname>David</firstname>
15 <surname>Matuzsek</surname>
18 <firstname>Paul</firstname>
19 <surname>Reynolds</surname>
22 <firstname>Tom</firstname>
23 <surname>Almy</surname>
26 <firstname>Stas</firstname>
27 <surname>Sergeev</surname>
30 <firstname>Eric</firstname>
31 <othername>Steven</othername>
32 <surname>Raymond</surname>
37 <para>Super Star Trek 2K is issued under the BSD license. Nothing in
38 this license grants or purports to grant any rights with respect to
39 the trademarks, copyrights or other property of the originators of
40 Star Trek or their successors in interest. We recognize and support
41 their right under the Berne Convention to recover damages for any uses
42 of this program which compromise their legitimate interest in
43 protecting their copyrights and trademarks or unjustly enrich
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81 Produced For Your Enjoyment
98 SST2K polishing and historical research by
103 <chapter><title>Introduction</title>
104 <para>The Organian Peace Treaty has collapsed, and the Federation is at war
105 with the Klingon Empire. Joining the Klingons against the Federation
106 are the members of the <quote>Romulan Star Empire.</quote> As commander of the
107 Starship U.S.S. Enterprise, your job is to wipe out the Klingon
108 invasion fleet and make the galaxy safe for democracy.</para>
110 <para>Your battleground is the entire galaxy, which for convenience is
111 divided up into eight rows of eight quadrants each, like a
112 checkerboard. Rows are numbered from top to bottom, and columns are
113 numbered left to right, so quadrant 1 - 8 would be in the upper right
114 hand corner of the galaxy.</para>
116 <para>During battle you will be concerned only with those enemies that
117 occupy the same quadrant as yourself. Quadrants are divided up into
118 sectors: ten rows of ten sectors each. Sectors are numbered in the
119 same way as quadrants, so the sector in the upper right corner is
120 sector 1 - 10. You have a short-range scanner which allows you to
121 look at the entire quadrant in a single display.</para>
123 <para>Enemies recharge during your absence. If you leave a quadrant
124 containing a weakened enemy, when you return to that quadrant he will
125 be strong again. Also, each time you enter a quadrant, the positions
126 of everthing in the quadrant (except your ship) are randomized, to
127 save you the trouble of trying to remember where everything in the
128 quadrant is. Notice that this refers only to the positions of things
129 in the quadrant—the numbers of each kind of thing are not changed
130 (except for black holes and the Super-commander, which move around
131 the galaxy). If you kill something, it stays dead.</para>
133 <para>The Romulans are not as serious a threat to the Federation as the
134 Klingons. For one thing, there are not as many of them. For
135 another, the Romulans are not as treacherous. However, Romulans are
136 not to be trifled with, especially when you are in violation of the
137 Romulan Neutral Zone.</para>
139 <para>There are two kinds of Klingons: Ordinary Klingons, which are
140 bad enough, and Klingon Commanders, which are even worse. Commanders
141 are about three times stronger than ordinary Klingons. Commanders are
142 more resistant to your weapons. Commanders can move about during
143 battle while Ordinary Klingons stay put. And finally, Commanders have
144 a thing called a <quote>long-range tractor beam</quote> which they can
145 use, at random intervals, to yank you away from what you are doing
146 into their quadrant, to do battle with them. There is also a special
147 commander, called the <quote>Super-commander.</quote> This character
148 is so bad he is reserved for the Good, Expert, and Emeritus games.
149 Fortunately, there is just one Super-commander in a game. In addition
150 to the undesirable traits of Commanders, he can move from quadrant to
151 quadrant at will, seeking out and destroying your starbases and any
152 helpful planets he runs across. He also has a spy planted aboard your
153 ship, giving him valuable information about your condition. Using
154 this information, he can do dastardly things like tractor beam your
155 ship when you are in bad shape. And once you've been tractor beamed
156 by the Super-commander —</para>
158 <para>But the advantages are not all on the side of the enemy. Your ship
159 is more powerful, and has better weapons. Besides, in the this
160 galaxy there are from two to five starbases, at which you can stop to
161 refuel and lick your wounds, safe from phaser attack or tractor
162 beams. But you had best not dally there too long, since time is not
163 on your side. The Klingons are not just after you; they are
164 attacking the entire Federation. There is always a finite <quote>time
165 left,</quote> which is how much longer the Federation can hold out if you
166 just sit on your fat behind and do nothing. As you wipe out
167 Klingons, you reduce the rate at which the invasion fleet weakens the
168 Federation, and so the time left until the Federation collapses may
169 actually increase. Since Klingons are the main threat to the
170 Federation, the Romulans do not figure into the <quote>time left.</quote> In
171 fact, you need not kill all the Romulans to win. If you can get all
172 the Klingons, the Federation will abide forever, and you have won the
175 <para>Space is vast, and it takes precious time to move from one place to
176 another. In comparison, other things happen so quickly that we
177 assume they take no time at all. Two ways that time can pass are when
178 you move, or when you issue a command to sit still and rest for a
179 period of time. You will sometimes want to do the latter, since the
180 various devices aboard your starship may be damaged and require time
181 to repair. Of course, repairs can be made more quickly at a starbase
182 than than can in flight.</para>
184 <para>In addition to Klingons, Romulans, and starbases, the galaxy
185 contains (surprise) stars. Mostly, stars are a nuisance and just get
186 in your way. You can trigger a star into going nova by shooting one
187 of your photon torpedoes at it. When a star novas, it does a lot of
188 dammage to anything immediately adjacent to it. If another star is
189 adjacent to a nova, it too will go nova. Stars may also occasionally
190 go supernova; a supernova in a quadrant destroys everything in the
191 quadrant andmakes the quadrant permanently uninhabitable. You may
192 <quote>jump over</quote> a quadrant containing a supernova when you
193 move, but you should not stop there.</para>
195 <para>Supernovas may happen spontaneously, without provocation. If a
196 supernova occurs in the same quadrant you are in, your starship has an
197 <quote>emergency automatic override</quote> which picks some random
198 direction and some random warp factor, and tries to throw you clear of
199 the supernova. If the supernova occurs in some other quadrant, you
200 just get a warning message from starfleet about it (provided, of
201 course, that your subspace radio is working).</para>
203 <para>Also a few planets are scattered through the galaxy. These can
204 sometimes be a great help since some of them will have <quote>dilithium
205 crystals,</quote> which are capable of replenishing the ship's energy
206 supply. You can either beam down to the planet surface using the
207 transporter, or take the shuttle craft <quote>Galileo</quote>.</para>
209 <para>Finally, each quadrant will contain from zero to three black
210 holes. These can deflect or swallow torpedoes passing near them. They
211 also swallow enemy ships knocked into them. If your ship enters one
214 <para>Star Trek is a rich game, full of detail. These instructions are
215 written at a moderate level—no attempt has been made fully to
216 describe everything about the game, but there is quite a bit more
217 here than you need to get started. If you are new to the game, just
218 get a rough idea of the kinds of commands available, and start
219 playing. After a game or two you will have learned everthing
220 important, and the detailed command descriptions which follow will be
221 a lot more meaningful to you.</para>
223 <para>You have weapons: phasers and photon torpedoes. You have a defense:
224 deflector shields. You can look at things: long-range scanners,
225 short-range scanners, and a star chart. You can move about, under
226 warp drive or impulse power. You can also dock at a starbase, rest
227 while repairs are being made, abandon ship, self destruct, or give up
228 and start a new game.</para>
230 <para>The Klingons are waiting.</para>
233 <chapter><title>Starting the Game</title>
234 <!-- This chapter is new in SST 2K -->
236 <para>The program will ask you some setup questions. You can give it
237 command-line arguments that will be treated as answers. Any token
238 may be abbreviated to a unique prefix.</para>
240 <para>The first question concerns whether you want a regullar,
241 tournament, or saved game. For discussion, see the <link
242 linkend="freeze">description of the freeze command</link>.</para>
244 <para>The second question will concern the length of the game.
245 Longer games include more enemies.</para>
247 <para>The third question will set the game's difficulty level.
248 You should probably start out at the novice level, even if you are
249 already familiar with one of the other versions of the Star Trek
250 game—but, of course, the level of game you play is up to you. If
251 you want to start at the Expert level, go ahead. It's your funeral.
252 The Emeritus game is strictly for masochists.</para>
254 <para>The fourth question, new in SST2K, sets your game options. A
255 blank answer or 'fancy' enables all SST2K features. The option
256 'plain' approximated the original CDC 6600 FORTRAN game from UT Austin
257 and disables a number of features: Tholians, planets & dilithium,
258 deep-space-probes, Klingon ramming and movement, time-warping through
259 black holes, death-ray upgrade, inhabited worlds. The option 'almy'
260 approximates Tom Almy's C translation from 1979, disabling base
261 shields, time-warping through black holes, and inhabited
265 <chapter><title>How To Issue Commands</title>
267 <para>When the game is waiting for you to enter a command it will
274 <para>You may then type in your command. All you have to remember for each
275 command is the mnemonic. For example, if you want to move straight up
276 one quadrant, you can type in the mnemonic (case insensitive)</para>
282 <para>and the computer will prompt you with</para>
288 <para>Say you type in <quote>manual</quote>. The computer then responds</para>
291 X and Y displacements-
294 <para>Now you type in <quote>0 1</quote> which specifies an X movement of zero and a Y
295 movement of one.</para>
297 <para>When you have learned the commands, you can avoid being prompted
298 simply by typing in the information without waiting to be asked for
299 it. For example, in the above example, you could simply type in</para>
305 <para>and it will be done. Or you could type in</para>
311 <para>and when the computer responds with the displacement prompt, you
318 <para>and it will understand.</para>
320 <para>You can abbreviate most mnemonics. For <quote>move</quote>, you can use any
327 <para>successfully. For your safety, certain critical commands (such as to
328 abandon ship) must be written out in full. Also, in a few cases two
329 or more commands begin with the same letter, and in this case that
330 letter refers to a particular one of the commands; to get the other,
331 your abbreviation must be two or more characters long. This sounds
332 complicated, but you will learn the abbreviations quickly enough.</para>
334 <para>What this all boils down to is:</para>
337 <listitem><para>You can abbreviate practically anything</para></listitem>
338 <listitem><para>If you forget, the computer will prompt you</para></listitem>
339 <listitem><para>If you remember, you can type it all on one line</para></listitem>
342 <para>If you are part way through entering a command and you change your
343 mind, you can cancel the command by typing -1 as one of the
344 parameters, with the exception of the manual move command.</para>
346 <para>If anything is not clear to you, experiment. The worst you can do is
347 lose a game or two.</para>
350 <chapter><title>List of Commands</title>
352 <sect1><title>Short-Range Scan</title>
356 Shortest abbreviation: S
357 Full commands: SRSCAN
362 <!-- This is new in SST 2K -->
363 <para>If you are using the screen-oriented interface, this command is
364 suppressed; instead, a short-range scan will always be present on the
367 <para>The short-range scan gives you a considerable amount of information
368 about the quadrant your starship is in. A short-range scan is best
369 described by an example.</para>
373 1 * . . . . R . . . . Stardate 2516.3
374 2 . . . E . . . . . . Condition RED
375 3 . . . . . * . B . . Position 5 - 1, 2 - 4
376 4 . . . S . . . . . . Life Support DAMAGED, Reserves=2.30
377 5 . . . . . . . K . . Warp Factor 5.0
378 6 . K . . . . . * . Energy 2176.24
379 7 . . . . . P . . . . Torpedoes 3
380 8 . . . . * . . . . . Shields UP, 42% 1050.0 units
381 9 . * . . * . . . C . Klingons Left 12
382 10 . . . . . . . . . . Time Left 3.72
385 In fancy mode, the display will use letters for Y coordinates.
389 a * . . . . R . . . . Stardate 2516.3
390 b . . . E . . . . . . Condition RED
391 c . . . . . * . B . . Position e1, b4
392 d . . . S . . . . . . Life Support DAMAGED, Reserves=2.30
393 e . . . . . . . K . . Warp Factor 5.0
394 f . K . . . . . * . Energy 2176.24
395 g . . . . . P . . . . Torpedoes 3
396 h . . . . * . . . . . Shields UP, 42% 1050.0 units
397 i . * . . * . . . C . Klingons Left 12
398 j . . . . . . . . . . Time Left 3.72
402 <para>The left part is a picture of the quadrant. The E at sector 2 -
403 4 (or b4) represents the Enterprise; the B at sector 3 - 8 (or c8) is a starbase.
404 There are ordinary Klingons (K) at sectors 5 - 8 (e8) and 6 - 2 (f2), and a
405 Klingon Commander (C) at 9 - 9 (i9). The (GULP)
406 <quote>Super-commander</quote> (S) is occupies sector 4 - 4 (d4), and a
407 Romulan (R) is at 1 - 6 (a6). An uninhabited planet (P) is at sector 7 - 6 (g6)
408 (if it were inhabited, it would display as a '@'). There are
409 also a large number of stars (*). The periods (.) are just empty
410 space—they are printed to help you get your bearings. Sector 6
411 - 4 contains a black hole ( ).</para>
413 <para>The information on the right is assorted status information. You
414 can get this alone with the STATUS command. The status information
415 will be absent if you type <quote>N</quote> after SRSCAN. Otherwise
416 status information will be presented.</para>
418 <para>If you type <quote>C</quote> after SRSCAN, you will be given a
419 short-range scan and a Star Chart.</para>
421 <para>Short-range scans are free. That is, they use up no energy and no
422 time. If you are in battle, doing a short-range scan does not give
423 the enemies another chance to hit you. You can safely do a
424 short-range scan anytime you like.</para>
426 <para>If your short-range sensors are damaged, this command will only show
427 the contents of adjacent sectors.</para>
431 <sect1><title>Visual Scan</title>
435 Shortest abbreviation: V
438 <para>A visual scan is made in a particular direction of three sectors
439 in the general direction specified. This takes time, and Klingons can
440 attack you, so it should be done only when short-range sensors are
445 <sect1><title>Status Report</title>
449 Shortest abbreviation: ST
452 <!-- This is new in SST 2K -->
453 <para>If you are using the screen-oriented interface, this command is
454 suppressed; instead, a full status report will always be present on the
457 <para>This command gives you information about the current state of your
458 starship as follows:</para>
462 <term>STARDATE</term>
464 <para>The current date. A stardate is the same as a day.</para>
468 <term>CONDITION</term>
470 <para>There are four possible conditions:</para>
474 <listitem><para>docked at starbase.</para></listitem>
478 <listitem><para>in battle.</para></listitem>
482 <listitem><para>low on energy (<1000 units)</para></listitem>
486 <listitem><para>none of the above</para></listitem>
492 <term>POSITION</term>
494 <para>Quadrant is given first, then sector</para>
498 <term>LIFE SUPPORT</term>
500 <para>If <quote>ACTIVE</quote> then life support systems are functioning
501 normally. If on <quote>RESERVES</quote> the number is how many stardates your
502 reserve food, air, etc. will last—you must get repairs made or get to
503 a starbase before your reserves run out.</para>
507 <term>WARP FACTOR</term>
509 <para>What your warp factor is currently set to.</para>
515 <para>The amount of energy you have left. If it drops to zero, you die.</para>
519 <term>TORPEDOES</term>
521 <para>How many photon torpedoes you have left.</para>
527 <para>Whether your shields are up or down, how strong they are
528 (what percentage of a hit they can deflect), and shield energy.</para>
532 <term>KLINGONS LEFT</term>
534 <para>How many of the Klingons are still out there.</para>
538 <term>TIME LEFT</term>
540 <para>How long the Federation can hold out against the
541 present number of Klingons; that is, how long until the end
542 if you do nothing in the meantime. If you kill Klingons
543 quickly, this number will go up—if not, it will go down. If
544 it reaches zero, the federation is conquered and you lose.</para>
549 <para>Status information is free—it uses no time or energy, and
550 if you are in battle, the Klingons are not given another chance to hit
553 <para>Status information can also be obtained by doing a short-range scan.
554 See the SRSCAN command for details.</para>
556 <para>Each item of information can be obtained singly by requesting it.
557 See REQUEST command for details.</para>
560 <sect1><title>Long-Range Scan</title>
564 Shortest abbreviation: L
567 <!-- This is new in SST 2K -->
568 <para>If you are using the screen-oriented interface, this command is
569 suppressed; instead, a long-range scan will always be present on the
572 <para>A long-range scan gives you general information about where you are
573 and what is around you. Here is an example output.</para>
576 Long-range scan for Quadrant 5 - 1
582 <para>This scan says that you are in row 5, column 1 of the 8 by 8 galaxy.
583 The numbers in the scan indicate how many of each kind of thing there
584 is in your quadrant and all adjacent quadrants. The digits are
585 interpreted as follows.</para>
591 <entry>Thousands digit:</entry>
592 <entry>1000 indicates a supernova (only)</entry>
595 <entry>Hundreds digit:</entry>
596 <entry>number of Klingons present</entry>
599 <entry>Tens digit:</entry>
600 <entry>number of starbases present</entry>
603 <entry>Ones digit:</entry>
604 <entry>number of stars present</entry>
610 <para>For example, in your quadrant (5 - 1) the number is 316, which
611 indicates 3 Klingons, 1 starbase, and 6 stars. The long-range
612 scanner does not distinguish between ordinary Klingons and Klingon
613 command ships. If there is a supernova, as in the quadrant below and
614 to your right (quadrant 6 - 2), there is nothing else in the
617 <para>Romulans possess a <quote>cloaking device</quote> which prevents
618 their detection by long-range scan. Because of this fact, Starfleet
619 Command is never sure how many Romulans are <quote>out there</quote>.
620 When you kill the last Klingon, the remaining Romulans surrender to
621 the Federation.</para>
623 <para>Planets are also undetectable by long-range scan. The only way to
624 detect a planet is to find it in your current quadrant with the
625 short-range sensors.</para>
627 <para>Since you are in column 1, there are no quadrants to your left. The
628 minus ones indicate the negative energy barrier at the edge of the
629 galaxy, which you are not permitted to cross.</para>
631 <para>Long-range scans are free. They use up no energy or time, and can be
632 done safely regardless of battle conditions.</para>
635 <sect1><title>Star Chart</title>
639 Shortest abbreviation: C
642 <para>As you proceed in the game, you learn more and more about what things
643 are where in the galaxy. Whenever you first do a scan in a quadrant,
644 telemetry sensors are ejected which will report any changes in the
645 quadrant(s) back to your ship, providing the sub-space radio is
646 working. Spock will enter this information in the chart. If the radio
647 is not working, Spock can only enter new information discovered from
648 scans, and information in other quadrants may be obsolete.</para>
650 <para>The chart looks like an 8 by 8 array of numbers. These numbers are
651 interpreted exactly as they are on a long-range scan. A period (.) in
652 place of a digit means you do not know that information yet. For
653 example, ... means you know nothing about the quadrant, while .1.
654 menas you know it contains a base, but an unknown number of Klingons
657 <para>Looking at the star chart is a free operation. It costs neither time
658 nor energy, and can be done safely whether in or out of battle.</para>
661 <sect1><title>Damage Report</title>
665 Shortest abbreviation: DA
668 <para>At any time you may ask for a damage report to find out what devices
669 are damaged and how long it will take to repair them. Naturally,
670 repairs proceed faster at a starbase.</para>
672 <para>If you suffer damages while moving, it is possible that a subsequent
673 damage report will not show any damage. This happens if the time
674 spent on the move exceeds the repair time, since in this case the
675 damaged devices were fixed en route.</para>
677 <para>Damage reports are free. They use no energy or time, and can be done
678 safely even in the midst of battle.</para>
681 <sect1><title>Move Under Warp Drive</title>
685 Shortest abbreviation: M
686 Full command: MOVE MANUAL <displacement>
687 MOVE AUTOMATIC <destination>
690 <para>This command is the usual way to move from one place to another
691 within the galaxy. You move under warp drive, according to the
692 current warp factor (see <quote>WARP FACTOR</quote>).</para>
694 <para>There are two command modes for movement: MANUAL and AUTOMATIC.
695 The manual mode requires the following format:</para>
698 MOVE MANUAL <deltax> <deltay>
701 <para><deltax> and <deltay> are the horizontal and vertical
702 displacements for your starship, in quadrants; a displacement of one
703 sector is 0.1 quadrants. Specifying <deltax> and <deltay>
704 causes your ship to move in a straight line to the specified
705 destination. If <deltay> is omitted, it is assumed zero. For
706 example, the shortest possible command to move one sector to the right
713 <para>The following examples of manual movement refer to the short-range
714 scan shown earlier.</para>
717 Destination Sector Manual Movement command
722 (leaving quadrant) M M 0 .2
725 <para>The automatic mode is as follows:</para>
728 MOVE AUTOMATIC <qrow> <qcol> <srow> <scol>
731 <para><para>where <qrow> and <qcol> are the row and column
732 numbers of the destination quadrant, and <srow> and <scol>
733 are the row and column numbers of the destination sector in that
734 quadrant. This command also moves your ship in a straight line path
735 to the destination. For moving within a quadrant, <qrow> and
736 <qcol> may be omitted. For example, to move to sector 2 - 9 in
737 the current quadrant, the shortest command would be</para>
743 <para>To move to quadrant 3 - 7, sector 5 - 8, type</para>
749 <para>and it will be done. In automatic mode, either two or four numbers
750 must be supplied.</para>
752 <para> If your game is in "fancy" mode, there ia a way to input
753 coordinates that avoids any need to remember thet the Y coordinate
754 comes first. Y values may be given as lowercase letters starting with
755 a = 1. So for example:
763 The previous move xommand could be expressed as
769 <para>Automatic mode utilizes the ship's <quote>battle
770 computer.</quote> If the computer is damaged, manual movement must be
773 <para>If warp engines are damaged less than 10 stardates (undocked) you can
774 still go warp 4.</para>
776 <para>It uses time and energy to move. How much time and how much energy
777 depends on your current warp factor, the distance you move, and
778 whether your shields are up. The higher the warp factor, the faster
779 you move, but higher warp factors require more energy. You may move
780 with your shields up, but this doubles the energy required.</para>
782 <para>You can move within a quadrant without being attacked if you just
783 entered the quadrant or have been attacked since your last move
784 command. This enables you to move and hit them before they
788 <sect1><title>Warp Factor</title>
792 Shortest abbreviation: W
793 Full command: WARP <number>
796 <para>Your warp factor controls the speed of your starship. The larger the
797 warp factor, the faster you go and the more energy you use.</para>
799 <para>Your minimum warp factor is 1.0 and your maximum warp factor is 10.0
800 (which is 100 times as fast and uses 1000 times as much energy). At
801 speeds above warp 6 there is some danger of causing damage to your
802 warp engines; this damage is larger at higher warp factors and also
803 depends on how far you go at that warp factor.</para>
805 <para>At exactly warp 10 there is some probability of entering a
806 so-called <quote>time warp</quote> and being thrown foward or backward
807 in time. The farther you go at warp 10, the greater is the
808 probability of entering the time warp.</para>
811 <sect1><title>Impulse Engines</title>
815 Shortest abbreviation: I
816 Full command: IMPULSE MANUAL <displacement>
817 IMPULSE AUTOMATIC <destination>
820 <para>The impulse engines give you a way to move when your warp engines are
821 damaged. They move you at a speed of 0.95 sectors per stardate,
822 which is the equivalent of a warp factor of about 0.975, so they are
823 much too slow to use except in emergencies.</para>
825 <para>Movement commands are indicated just as in the <quote>MOVE</quote> command.</para>
827 <para>The impulse engines require 20 units of energy to engage, plus 10
828 units per sector (100 units per quadrant) traveled. It does not cost
829 extra to move with the shields up.</para>
832 <sect1><title>Deflector Shields</title>
836 Shortest abbreviation: SH
837 Full commands: SHIELDS UP
839 SHIELDS TRANSFER <amount of energy to transfer>
842 <para>Your deflector shields are a defensive device to protect you from
843 Klingon attacks (and nearby novas). As the shields protect you, they
844 gradually weaken. A shield strength of 75%, for example, means that
845 the next time a Klingon hits you, your shields will deflect 75% of
846 the hit, and let 25% get through to hurt you.</para>
848 <para>It costs 50 units of energy to raise shields, nothing to lower them.
849 You may move with your shields up; this costs nothing under impulse
850 power, but doubles the energy required for warp drive.</para>
852 <para>Each time you raise or lower your shields, the Klingons have another
853 chance to attack. Since shields do not raise and lower
854 instantaneously, the hits you receive will be intermediate between
855 what they would be if the shields were completely up or completely
858 <para>You may not fire phasers through your shields. However you may
859 use the <quote>high-speed shield control</quote> to lower shields,
860 fire phasers, and raise the shields again before the Klingons can
861 react. Since rapid lowering and raising of the shields requires more
862 energy than normal speed operation, it costs you 200 units of energy
863 to activate this control. It is automatically activated when you fire
864 phasers while shields are up. You may fire photon torpedoes, but they
865 may be deflected considerably from their intended course as they pass
866 through the shields (depending on shield strength).</para>
868 <para>You may transfer energy beteen the ship's energy (given as
869 <quote>Energy</quote> in the status) and the shields. The word
870 <quote>TRANSFER</quote> may be abbreviated <quote>T</quote>. The
871 ammount of energy to transfer is the number of units of energy you
872 wish to take from the ship's energy and put into the shields. If you
873 specify an negative number, energy is drained from the shields to the
874 ship. Transfering energy constitutes a turn. If you transfer energy
875 to the shields while you are under attack, they will be at the new
876 energy level when you are next hit.</para>
878 <para>Enemy torpedoes hitting your ship explode on your shields (if they
879 are up) and have essentially the same effect as phaser hits.</para>
882 <sect1><title>Phasers</title>
886 Shortest abbreviation: P
887 Full commands: PHASERS AUTOMATIC <AMOUNT TO FIRE> <NO>
888 PHASERS <AMOUNT TO FIRE> <NO>
889 PHASERS MANUAL <NO> <AMOUNT 1> <AMOUNT 2>...<AMOUNT N>
892 <para>Phasers are energy weapons. As you fire phasers at Klingons, you
893 specify an <quote>amount to fire</quote> which is drawn from your
894 energy reserves. The amount of total hit required to kill an enemy is
895 partly random. but also depends on skill level.</para>
897 <para>The average hit required to kill an ordinary Klingon varies from 200
898 units in the Novice game to 250 units in the Emeritus game.
899 Commanders normally require from 600 (Novice) to 700 (Emeritus). The
900 Super-commander requres from 875 (Good) to 1000 (Emeritus). Romulans
901 require an average of 350 (Novice) to 450 (Emeritus).</para>
903 <para>Hits on enemies are cumulative, as long as you don't leave the
906 <para>In general, not all that you fire will reach the Klingons. The
907 farther away they are, the less phaser energy will reach them. If a
908 Klingon is adjacent to you, he will receive about 90% of the phaser
909 energy directed at him; a Klingon 5 sectors away will receive about
910 60% and a Klingon 10 sectors away will receive about 35%. There is
911 some randomness involved, so these figures are not exact. Phasers
912 have no effect beyond the boundaries of the quadrant you are in.</para>
914 <para>Phasers may overheat (and be damaged) if you fire too large a burst
915 at once. Firing up to 1500 units is safe. From 1500 on up the
916 probability of overheat increases with the amount fired.</para>
918 <para>If phaser firing is automatic, the computer decides how to
919 divide up your <amount to fire> among the Klingons present. If
920 phaser firing is manual, you specify how much energy to fire at each
921 Klingon present (nearest first), rather than just specifying a total
922 amount. You can abreviate <quote>MANUAL</quote> and
923 <quote>AUTOMATIC</quote> to one or more letters; if you mention
924 neither, automatic fire is usually assumed.</para>
926 <para>Battle computer information is available by firing phasers manually,
927 and allowing the computer to prompt you. If you enter zero for the
928 amount to fire at each enemy, you will get a complete report, without
929 cost. The battle computer will tell you how much phaser energy to
930 fire at each enemy for a sure kill. This information appears in
931 parentheses prior to the prompt for each enemy. Since the amount is
932 computed from sensor data, if either the computer or the S.R. sensors
933 are damaged, this information will be unavailable, and phasers must
934 be fired manually.</para>
936 <para>A safety interlock prevents phasers from being fired through
937 the shields. If this were not so, the shields would contain your fire
938 and you would fry yourself. However, you may utilize the
939 <quote>high-speed shield control</quote> to drop shields, fire
940 phasers, and raise shields before the enemy can react. Since it takes
941 more energy to work the shields rapidly with a shot, it costs you 200
942 units of energy each time you activate this control. It is
943 automatically activated when you fire phasers while the shields are
944 up. By specifying the <no> option, shields are not raised after
947 <para>Phasers have no effect on starbases (which are shielded) or on
951 <sect1><title>Cloak</title>
955 Shortest abbreviation: CLOAK
956 Full commands: CLOAK ON
960 <para>The cloaking device prevents your ship from being seen by any enemy
961 vessels. When the cloaking device is in use, your subspace radio will
962 not receive transmissions, torpedoes will be less accurate, you cannot
963 dock, and you cannot use your warp engines. Enemy ships will get a
964 chance to attack you when you turn cloaking on.</para>
966 <para>The Treaty of Algeron with the Romulans in Stardate 2311 prohibits the
967 use of cloaking devices. If a Romulan ship observes you cloaking or
968 uncloaking after this point in time you will be in violation, which
969 will hurt your final score.</para>
971 <para>The Faerie Queene does not have a cloaking device.</para>
974 <sect1><title>Capture</title>
978 Shortest abbreviation: CAPTURE
979 Full commands: CAPTURE
982 <para>Ask a Klingon To surrender.</para>
984 <para>The capture command provides a more humane way to end a battle than
985 just destroying the Klingon battleship with the crew aboard. Assuming
986 the subspace radio and transporter are working, and there is room in
987 the brig, this command will ask the captain of the weakest Klingon
988 ship in the quadrant to surrender. If the captain agrees, some of the
989 crew will transport to your ship and the Klingon ship will be
990 destroyed. This command does take time and you will be attacked by any
991 other enemy ships if the surrender occurs.</para>
993 <para>When you dock, any captured Klingons will be transferred to the base
994 and you will be credited with the lives you save.</para>
996 <sect1><title>Report</title>
1000 Shortest abbreviation: REP
1003 <para>This command supplies you with information about the state of the
1004 current game. Its purpose is to remind you of things that you have
1005 learned during play, but may have forgotten, and cannot otherwise
1006 retrieve if you are not playing at a hard-copy terminal.</para>
1008 <para>You are told the following things:</para>
1011 <listitem><para>The length and skill level of the game you are playing</para></listitem>
1012 <listitem><para>The original number of Klingons</para></listitem>
1013 <listitem><para>How many Klingons you have destroyed</para></listitem>
1014 <listitem><para>Whether the Super-Commander has been destroyed</para></listitem>
1015 <listitem><para>How many bases have been destroyed</para></listitem>
1016 <listitem><para>How many bases are left</para></listitem>
1017 <listitem><para>What bases (if any) are under attack; your subspace radio
1018 must have been working since the attack to get this
1019 information.</para></listitem>
1020 <listitem><para>How many casualties you have suffered</para></listitem>
1021 <listitem><para>How many times you have called for help.</para></listitem>
1024 <para>This same information is automatically given to you when you start to
1025 play a frozen game.</para>
1028 <sect1><title>Computer</title>
1032 Shortest abbreviation: CO
1035 <para>This command allows using the ship's computer (if functional) to
1036 calculate travel times and energy usage.</para>
1039 <sect1><title>Photon Torpedoes</title>
1043 Shortest abbreviation: TO
1044 Full commands: TORPEDO <NUMBER> <TARG1> <TARG2> <TARG3>
1047 <para>Photon torpedoes are projectile weapons—you either hit what you aim
1048 at, or you don't. There are no <quote>partial hits</quote>.</para>
1050 <para>One photon torpedo will usually kill one ordinary Klingon, but it
1051 usually takes about two for a Klingon Commander. Photon torpedoes
1052 can also blow up stars and starbases, if you aren't careful.</para>
1054 <para>You may fire photon torpedoes singly, or in bursts of two or three.
1055 Each torpedo is individually targetable. The computer will prompt
1056 you, asking for the target sector for each torpedo. Alternately, you
1057 may specify each target in the command line.</para>
1059 <para>Photon torpedoes cannot be aimed precisely—there is always some
1060 randomness involved in the direction they go. Photon torpedoes may
1061 be fired with your shields up, but as they pass through the shields
1062 they are randomly deflected from their intended course even more.</para>
1064 <para>Photon torpedoes are proximity-fused. The closer they explode to the
1065 enemy, the more damage they do. There is a hit <quote>window</quote> about one
1066 sector wide. If the torpedo misses the hit window, it does not
1067 explode and the enemy is unaffected. Photon torpedoes are only
1068 effective within the quadrant. They have no effect on things in
1069 adjacent quadrants.</para>
1071 <para>If more than one torpedo is fired and only one target sector is
1072 specified, all torpedoes are fired at that sector. For example, to
1073 fire two torpedoes at sector 3 - 4, you type</para>
1076 PHO 2 3 4 (or) PHO 2 3 4 3 4
1079 <para>To fire torpedoes at, consecutively, sectors 2 - 6, 1 - 10, and 4 -
1086 <para>There is no restriction to fire directly at a sector. For example,
1087 you can enter</para>
1093 <para>to aim between two sectors. However, sector numbers must be 1 to 10
1096 <para>In fancy mode, you can write "PHO 3 2 6 1 10 4 7" as
1102 Fractional Y coordinates are not supported.
1105 <sect1><title>Dock at Starbase</title>
1109 Shortest abbreviation: D
1112 <para>You may dock your starship whenever you are in one of the eight
1113 sector positions immediately adjacent to a starbase. When you dock,
1114 your starship is resupplied with energy, shield energy photon
1115 torpedoes, and life support reserves. Repairs also proceed faster at
1116 starbase, so if some of your devices are damaged, you may wish to stay
1117 at base (by using the <quote>REST</quote> command) until they are
1118 fixed. If your ship has more than its normal maximum energy (which
1119 can happen if you've loaded crystals) the ship's energy is not
1122 <para>You may not dock while in standard orbit around a planet.</para>
1124 <para>Starbases have their own deflector shields, so you are completely
1125 safe from phaser attack while docked. You are also safe from
1126 long-range tractor beams.</para>
1128 <para>Starbases also have both short and long range sensors, which you can
1129 use if yours are broken. There's also a subspace radio to get
1130 information about happenings in the galaxy. Mr. Spock will update the
1131 star chart if your ask for it while docked and your own radio is dead.</para>
1134 <sect1><title>Rest</title>
1138 Shortest abbreviation: R
1139 Full command: REST <NUMBER-OF-STARDATES>
1142 <para>This command simply allows the specified number of stardates to go
1143 by. This is useful if you have suffered damages and wish to wait
1144 until repairs are made before you go back into battle.</para>
1146 <para>It is not generally advisable to rest while you are under attack by
1147 Klingons or Romulans.</para>
1150 <sect1><title>Call Starbase for Help</title>
1157 <para>[Originally, this command was called <quote>HELP</quote>, but
1158 these days that might be misconstrued as an attempt to browse built-in
1159 documentation! In some later versions it was CALL.]</para>
1161 <para>When you get into serious trouble, you may call a starbase for
1162 help. Starbases have a device called a <quote>long-range transporter
1163 beam</quote> which they can use to teleport you to base. This works
1164 by dematerializing your starship at its current position and
1165 re-materializing it adjacent to the nearest starbase. Teleportation
1166 is instantaneous, and starbase supplies the required energy—all
1167 you have to do is let them know (via subspace radio) that you need to
1170 <para>This command should be employed only when absolutely necessary. In
1171 the first place, calling for help is an admission on your part that
1172 you got yourself into something you cannot get yourself out of, and
1173 you are heavily penalized for this in the final scoring. Secondly,
1174 the long-range transporter beam is not reliable—starbase can always
1175 manage to dematerialize your starship, but (depending on distance)
1176 may or may not be able to re-materialize you again. The long-range
1177 transporter beam has no absolute maximum range; if you are in the
1178 same quadrant as a starbase, you have a good chance (about 90%) of
1179 re-materializing successfully. your chances drop to roughly 50-50 at
1180 just over 3 quadrants.</para>
1183 <sect1><title>Abandon Ship</title>
1190 <para>You may abandon the Enterprise if necessary. If there is still a
1191 starbase in the galaxy, you will be sent there and put in charge of a
1192 weaker ship, the Faerie Queene.</para>
1194 <para>The Faerie Queene cannot be abandoned.</para>
1197 <sect1><title>Self-Destruct</title>
1204 <para>You may self-destruct, thus killing yourself and ending the game. If
1205 there are nearby Klingons, you may take a few of them with you (the
1206 more energy you have left, the bigger the bang). It is possible to
1207 win this way, if you kill off your last adversaries with the blast.</para>
1209 <para>In order to self-destruct you must remember the password you typed in
1210 at the beginning of the game.</para>
1213 <sect1><title>Quit Game</title>
1220 <para>Immediately cancel the current game; no conclusion is reached. You
1221 will be given an opportunity to start a new game or to leave the Star
1222 Trek program.</para>
1225 <sect1><title>Sensor-Scan</title>
1229 Shortest abbreviation: SE
1232 <para>Utilizing the short-range sensors, science officer Spock gives you a
1233 readout on any planet in your quadrant. Planets come in three
1234 classes: M, N, and O. Only class M planets have earth-like
1235 conditions. Spock informs you if the planet has any dilithium
1236 crystals. Sensor scans are free.</para>
1239 <sect1><title>Enter Standard Orbit</title>
1243 Shortest abbreviation: O
1246 <para>To land on a planet you must first be in standard orbit. You achieve
1247 this in a manner similar to docking at starbase. Moving to one of
1248 the eight sector positions immediately adjacent to the planet, you
1249 give the orbit command which puts your ship into standard orbit about
1250 the planet. Since this is a maneuver, a small amount of time is
1251 used; negligible energy is required. If enemies are present, they
1255 <sect1><title>Transporter Travel</title>
1259 Shortest abbreviation: T
1262 <para>The transporter is a device which can convert any physical object
1263 into energy, beam the energy through space, and reconstruct the
1264 physical object at some destination. Transporting is one way to land
1265 on a planet. Since the transporter has a limited range, you must be
1266 in standard orbit to beam down to a planet. Shields must be down
1267 while transporting.</para>
1269 <para>The transport command is used to beam a landing party onto a planet
1270 to mine <quote>dilithium crystals</quote>. Each time the command is given the
1271 landing party (which you lead) moves from the ship to the planet, or
1274 <para>You are advised against needless transporting, since like all
1275 devices, the transporter will sometimes malfunction.</para>
1277 <para>The transporter consumes negligible time and energy. Its use does
1278 not constitute a <quote>turn</quote>.</para>
1281 <sect1><title>Shuttle Craft</title>
1285 Shortest abbreviation: SHU
1288 <para>An alternate way to travel to and from planets. Because of limited
1289 range, you must be in standard orbit to use the shuttle craft, named
1290 "Galileo". Shields must be down.</para>
1292 <para>Unlike transporting, use of the shuttle craft does constitute a
1293 <quote>turn</quote> since time is consumed. The time naturally
1294 depends on orbit altitude, and is equal to 3.0e-5 times altitude.
1295 Shuttling uses no ship energy.</para>
1297 <para>You should use the same travel device going from the planet to the
1298 ship as you use to go from the ship to the planet. However it is
1299 possible to transport to the planet and have the Galileo crew come
1300 and pick your landing party up, or to take the Galileo to the planet
1301 and then transport back, leaving the shuttle craft on the planet.</para>
1304 <sect1><title>Mine Dilithium Crystals</title>
1308 Shortest abbreviation: MI
1311 <para>Once you and your mining party are on the surface of a planet which
1312 has dilithium crystals, this command will dig them for you.</para>
1314 <para>Mining requires time and constitutes a <quote>turn</quote>. No
1315 energy is used. Class M planets require 0.1 to 0.3 stardates to mine.
1316 Class N planets take twice as long, and class O planets take three
1317 times as long.</para>
1319 <para>Dilithium crystals contain enormous energy in a form that is readily
1320 released in the ship's power system. It is an excellent idea to mine
1321 them whenever possible, for use in emergencies. You keep the
1322 crystals until the game is over or you abandon ship when not at a
1326 <sect1><title>Load Dilithium Crystals</title>
1330 Shortest abbreviation: CR
1333 <para>This is a very powerful command which should be used with caution.
1334 Once you have dilithium crystals aboard ship, this command will
1335 instruct engineering officer Scott and Mr. Spock to place a raw
1336 dilithium crystal into the power channel of the ship's
1337 matter-antimatter converter. When it works, this command will
1338 greatly boost the ship's energy.</para>
1340 <para>Because the crystals are raw and impure, instabilities can occur in
1341 the power channel. Usually Scotty can control these. When he
1342 cannot, the results are disastrous. Scotty will use those crystals
1343 that appear to be most stable first.</para>
1345 <para>Since using raw dilithium crystals for this purpose entails
1346 considerable risk, Starfleet Regulations allow its use only during
1347 "condition yellow". No time or energy is used.</para>
1350 <sect1><title>Planet Report</title>
1354 Shortest abbreviation: PL
1357 <para>Mr. Spock presents you a list of the available information on
1358 planets in the galaxy which are potential dilithium sources. Since
1359 planets do not show up on long-range scans, the only way to obtain
1360 this information is with the <quote>SENSORS</quote> command.</para>
1363 <sect1 id="freeze"><title>Freeze</title>
1368 Full command: FREEZE <FILE NAME>
1371 <para>The purpose of the FREEZE command is to allow a player to save the
1372 current state of the game, so that it can be finished later. A
1373 plaque may not be generated from a frozen game. A file with the
1374 specified <file name> and type '.TRK' is created (if necessary) in
1375 the current directory, and all pertinent information about the game
1376 is written to that file. The game may be continued as usual or be
1377 terminated at the user's option.</para>
1379 <para>To restart a game created by the <quote>FREEZE</quote> command,
1380 the user need only type <quote>FROZEN</quote> in response to the
1381 initial question about the type of game desired, followed by the
1382 <file name>.</para>
1384 <para>NOTE: A <quote>tournament</quote> game is like a frozen game,
1385 with the following differences. (1) Tournament games always start
1386 from the beginning, while a frozen game can start at any point. (2)
1387 Tournament games require only that the player remember the name or
1388 number of the tournament, while the information about a frozen game
1389 must be kept on a file. Tournament games can be frozen, but then they
1390 behave like regular frozen games.</para>
1392 <para>A point worth noting is that 'FREEZE' does not save the seed for the
1393 random number generator, so that identical actions after restarting
1394 the same frozen game can lead to different results. However,
1395 identical actions after starting a given tournament game always lead
1396 to the same results.</para>
1399 <sect1><title>Request</title>
1403 Shortest abbreviation: REQ
1404 Full command: REQUEST <ITEM>
1407 <!-- This is new in SST 2K -->
1408 <para>If you are using the screen-oriented interface, this command is
1409 suppressed; instead, a full status report will always be present on the
1412 <para>This command allows you to get any single piece of information
1413 from the <STATUS> command. <ITEM> specifies which
1414 information as follows:</para>
1420 <entry>Information</entry>
1421 <entry>Mnemonic for <item></entry>
1422 <entry>Shortest Abbreviation</entry>
1426 <row><entry>STARDATE</entry> <entry>DATE</entry> <entry>D</entry></row>
1427 <row><entry>CONDITION</entry> <entry>CONDITION</entry> <entry>C</entry></row>
1428 <row><entry>POSITION</entry> <entry>POSITION</entry> <entry>P</entry></row>
1429 <row><entry>LIFE SUPPORT</entry><entry>LSUPPORT</entry> <entry>L</entry></row>
1430 <row><entry>WARP FACTOR</entry> <entry>WARPFACTOR</entry><entry>W</entry></row>
1431 <row><entry>ENERGY</entry> <entry>ENERGY</entry> <entry>E</entry></row>
1432 <row><entry>TORPEDOES</entry> <entry>TORPEDOES</entry> <entry>T</entry></row>
1433 <row><entry>SHIELDS</entry> <entry>SHIELDS</entry> <entry>S</entry></row>
1434 <row><entry>KLINGONS LEFT</entry><entry>KLINGONS</entry> <entry>K</entry></row>
1435 <row><entry>TIME LEFT</entry> <entry>TIME</entry> <entry>TI</entry></row>
1436 <row><entry>BASES LEFT</entry> <entry>BASES</entry> <entry>BA</entry></row>
1442 <sect1><title>Experimental Death Ray</title>
1449 <para>This command should be used only in those desperate cases where
1450 you have absolutely no alternative. The death ray uses energy to
1451 rearrange matter. Unfortunately, its working principles are not yet
1452 thoroughly understood, and the results are highly
1453 unpredictable.</para>
1455 <para>The only good thing that can result is the destruction of all
1456 enemies in your current quadrant. This will happen about 70% of the
1457 time. Only enemies are destroyed; starbases, stars, and planets are
1460 <para>Constituting the remaining 30% are results varying from bad to
1463 <para>The death ray requires no energy or time, but if you survive, enemies
1464 will hit you.</para>
1466 <para>The Faerie Queene has no death ray.</para>
1468 <para>If the death ray is damaged in its use, it must be totally replaced.
1469 This can only be done at starbase. Because it is a very complex
1470 device, it takes 9.99 stardates at base to replace the death ray.
1471 The death ray cannot be repaired in flight.</para>
1474 <sect1><title>Launch Deep Space Probe</title>
1478 Shortest abbreviation: PR
1479 Full command: PROBE <ARMED> MANUAL <displacement>
1480 PROBE <ARMED> AUTOMATIC <destination>
1483 <para>The Enterprise carries a limited number of Long Range Probes. These
1484 fly to the end of the galaxy and report back a count of the number of
1485 important things found in each quadrant through which it went. The
1486 probe flies at warp 10, and therefore uses time during its flight.
1487 Results are reported immediately via subspace radio and are recorded
1488 in the star chart.</para>
1490 <para>The probe can also be armed with a NOVAMAX warhead. When launched
1491 with the warhead armed, the probe flies the same except as soon as it
1492 reaches the target location, it detonates the warhead in the heart of
1493 a star, causing a supernova and destroying everything in the
1494 quadrant. It then flies no further. There must be a star in the
1495 target quadrant for the NOVAMAX to function. </para>
1497 <para>The probe can fly around objects in a galaxy, but is destroyed if it
1498 enters a quadrant containing a supernova, or if it leaves the galaxy.</para>
1500 <para>The target location is specified in the same manner as the MOVE
1501 command, however for automatic movement, if only one pair of
1502 coordinates are specified they are assumed to be the quadrant and not
1503 the sector in the current quadrant!</para>
1505 <para>The Faerie Queene has no probes.</para>
1508 <sect1><title>Emergency Exit</title>
1512 Shortest abbreviation: E
1515 <para>This command provides a quick way to exit from the game when you
1516 observe a Klingon battle cruiser approaching your terminal. Its
1517 effect is to freeze the game on the file 'EMSAVE.TRK' in your current
1518 directory, erase the screen, and exit.</para>
1520 <para>Of course, you do lose the chance to get a plaque when you use this
1524 <sect1><title>Ask for Help</title>
1528 Full command: HELP <command>
1531 <para>This command reads the appropriate section from the SST.DOC file,
1532 providing the file is in the current directory.</para>
1535 <sect1><title>Curses switch</title>
1539 Full command: CURSES
1542 <para>Switch from tty to curses interface. Mainly useful for
1543 debugging, when continuing a replayed game.</para>
1546 <sect1><title>Option setting</title>
1550 Full command: OPTIONS
1555 <para>Set or clear feature flags. With no argument, list feature flags. The verbs SET and CLEAR
1556 are available to set or clear a list of feature flags following on the line. Mainly useful
1557 for development and improving test coverage.</para>
1561 <chapter><title>Miscellaneous Notes</title>
1563 <para>Starbases can be attacked by either commanders or by the
1564 <quote>Super-Commander</quote>. When this happens, you will be
1565 notified by subspace radio, provided it is working. The message will
1566 inform you how long the base under attack can last. Since the
1567 <quote>Super-Commander</quote> is more powerful than an ordinary
1568 commander, he can destroy a base more quickly.</para>
1570 <para>Inhabited worlds can be attacked, enslaved, and forced to
1571 build more Klingon starships. They will send out a distress call
1572 by subspace radio when they are attacked, and you will lose contact
1573 with them when they are enslaved.</para>
1575 <para>The <quote>Super-Commander</quote> travels around the galaxy at
1576 a speed of about warp 6 or 7. His movement is strictly time based;
1577 the more time passes, the further he can go.</para>
1579 <para>Scattered through the galaxy are certain zones of control,
1580 collectively designated the <quote>Romulan Neutral Zone</quote>. Any
1581 quadrant which contains Romulans without Klingons is part of the
1582 Neutral Zone, except if a base is present. Since Romulans do not show
1583 on either the long-range scan or the star chart, it is easy for you to
1584 stumble into this zone. When you do, if your subspace radio is
1585 working, you will receive a warning message from the Romulan, politely
1586 asking you to leave.</para>
1588 <para>In general, Romulans are a galactic nuisance.</para>
1590 <para>The high-speed shield control is fairly reliable, but it has been
1591 known to malfunction.</para>
1593 <para>You can observe the galactic movements of the
1594 <quote>Super-Commander</quote> on the star chart, provided he is in
1595 territory you have scanned and your subspace radio is working.</para>
1597 <para>Periodically, you will receive intelligence reports from
1598 starfleet command, indicating the current quadrant of the
1599 <quote>Super-Commander</quote>. Your subspace radio must be working,
1602 <para>Each quadrant will contain from 0 to 3 black holes. Torpedoes
1603 entering a black hole disappear. In fact, anything entering a black
1604 hole disappears, permanently. If you can displace an enemy into one,
1605 he is a goner. Black holes do not necessarily remain in a quadrant.
1606 they are transient phenomena.</para>
1608 <para>Commanders will ram your ship, killing themselves and inflicting
1609 heavy damage to you, if they should happen to decide to advance into
1612 <para>You can get a list of commands by typing
1613 <quote>COMMANDS</quote>.</para>
1616 <chapter><title>Scoring</title>
1618 <para>Scoring is fairly simple. You get points for good things, and you
1619 lose points for bad things.</para>
1621 <para>You gain—</para>
1624 <listitem><para>10 points for each ordinary Klingon you kill,</para></listitem>
1625 <listitem><para>50 points for each commander you kill,</para></listitem>
1626 <listitem><para>200 points for killing the <quote>Super-Commander</quote>,</para></listitem>
1627 <listitem><para>20 points for each Romulan killed,</para></listitem>
1628 <listitem><para>1 point for each Romulan captured.</para></listitem>
1630 <para>100 times your average Klingon/stardate kill rate. If you lose
1631 the game, your kill rate is based on a minimum of 5 stardates.</para>
1634 <para>You get a bonus if you win the game, based on your rating:</para>
1635 <para>Novice=100, Fair=200, Good=300, Expert=400, Emeritus=500.</para>
1639 <para>You lose—</para>
1642 <listitem><para>300 points for each inhabited world you destroy,</para></listitem>
1643 <listitem><para>200 points if you get yourself killed,</para></listitem>
1644 <listitem><para>100 points for each starbase you destroy,</para></listitem>
1645 <listitem><para>100 points for each starship you lose,</para></listitem>
1646 <listitem><para>45 points for each time you had to call for help,</para></listitem>
1647 <listitem><para>10 points for each uninhabited planet you destroyed,</para></listitem>
1648 <listitem><para>5 points for each star you destroyed, and</para></listitem>
1649 <listitem><para>1 point for each casualty you incurred.</para></listitem>
1652 <para>In addition to your score, you may also be promoted one grade in rank
1653 if you play well enough. Promotion is based primarily on your
1654 Klingon/stardate kill rate, since this is the best indicator of
1655 whether you are ready to go on to the next higher rating. However,
1656 if you have lost 100 or more points in penalties, the required kill
1657 rate goes up. Normally, the required kill rate is 0.1 * skill *
1658 (skill + 1.0) + 0.1, where skill ranges from 1 for Novice to 5 for
1661 <para>You can be promoted from any level. There is a special
1662 promotion available if you go beyond the <quote>Expert</quote> range.
1663 You can also have a certificate of merit printed with your name, date,
1664 and Klingon kill rate, provided you are promoted from either the
1665 <quote>Expert</quote> or <quote>Emeritus</quote> levels. You may need
1666 print the certificate to a file, import it into your word processor,
1667 selecting Courier 8pt font, and then print in <quote>landscape
1668 orientation</quote>.</para>
1669 <!-- The plaque used to require an 132 column printer. Stas changed that. -->
1672 <chapter><title>Handy Reference Page</title>
1674 <literallayout format='linespecific' class='monospaced'>
1675 ABBREV FULL COMMAND DEVICE USED
1676 ------ ------------ -----------
1677 ABANDON ABANDON shuttle craft
1678 CA CAPTURE subspace radio and transporter
1680 CO COMPUTER computer
1683 DEATHRAY DEATHRAY (none)
1684 DESTRUCT DESTRUCT computer
1687 FREEZE FREEZE <FILE NAME> (none)
1688 I IMPULSE <MANUAL> <DISPLACEMENT> impulse engines
1689 IMPULSE AUTOMATIC <DESTINATION> impulse engines and computer
1690 L LRSCAN long-range sensors
1691 MAYDAY MAYDAY (for help) subspace radio
1693 M MOVE <MANUAL> <DISPLACEMENT> warp engines
1694 MOVE AUTOMATIC <DESTINATION> warp engines and computer
1695 O ORBIT warp or impulse engines
1696 P PHASERS <TOTAL AMOUNT> phasers and computer
1697 PHASERS AUTOMATIC <TOTAL AMOUNT> phasers, computer, sr sensors
1698 PHASERS MANUAL <AMT1> <AMT2> ... phasers
1699 TOR TORPEDO <NUMBER> <TARGETS> torpedo tubes
1701 PR PROBE <ARMED> <MANUAL> <DISPLACEMENT> probe launcher, radio
1702 PROBE <ARMED> AUTOMATIC <DESTINATION> launcher, radio, computer
1705 R REST <NUMBER OF STARDATES> (none)
1707 S SRSCAN <NO or CHART> short-range sensors
1708 SE SENSORS short-range sensors
1709 SH SHIELDS <UP, DOWN, or TRANSFER> deflector shields
1710 SHU SHUTTLE shuttle craft
1712 T TRANSPORT transporter
1713 W WARP <FACTOR> (none)
1717 L. R. Scan: thousands digit: supernova
1718 hundreds digit: Klingons
1719 tens digit: starbases
1721 period (.): digit not known (star chart only)
1723 Courses are given in manual mode in X - Y displacements; in automatic
1724 mode as destination quadrant and/or sector. Manual mode is default.
1725 Distances are given in quadrants. A distance of one sector is 0.1 quadrant.
1726 Ordinary Klingons have about 400 units of energy, Commanders about
1727 1200. Romulans normally have about 800 units of energy, and the
1728 (GULP) "Super-Commander" has about 1800.
1729 Phaser fire diminishes to about 60 percent at 5 sectors. Up to 1500
1730 units may be fired in a single burst without danger of overheat.
1731 Warp 6 is the fastest safe speed. At higher speeds, engine damage
1732 may occur. At warp 10 you may enter a time warp.
1733 Shields cost 50 units of energy to raise, and double the power
1734 requirements of moving under warp drive. Engaging the high-speed
1735 shield control requires 200 units of energy.
1736 Warp drive requires (distance)*(warp factor cubed) units of energy
1737 to travel at a speed of (warp factor squared)/10 quadrants per stardate.
1738 Impulse engines require 20 units to warm up, plus 100 units per
1739 quadrant. Speed is just under one sector per stardate.
1743 <chapter><title>Game History and Modifications</title>
1745 <sect1><title>Origins</title>
1747 <para>The original Star Trek seems to have been written by Mike
1748 Mayfield at the beginning of the 1970s. His first version was in
1749 BASIC for a Sigma 7 in 1971; in 1972 he rewrote it in Hewlett Packard
1750 BASIC. The source is included in the SST2K repository. In January
1751 1975 it became part of the DECUS library under the name <ulink
1752 url='http://www.trailing-edge.com/~shoppa/decus/110174.html'>SPACWR</ulink>.</para>
1754 <para>While some people claim to have recollections of playing Trek
1755 games in the late 1960s, the earlier ones seem actually to have been
1757 <ulink url='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!'>
1758 SPACEWAR</ulink>, the earlier space-combat game on the
1759 PDP-1. Mayfield <ulink
1760 url='http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/star_trek.html'>wrote
1761 in 2000</ulink> that he invented the Trek-style galactic grid, and the
1762 evidence seems to back that up. Some of the confusion probably stems
1763 from the fact that Mayfield's original and several early descendants
1764 were distributed under the name SPACWR.</para>
1766 <para>Many different versions radiated from Mayfield's original; most
1767 of the ones in BASIC are descended from a SPACWR version that David
1768 Ahl published in <citetitle>101 BASIC Computer Games</citetitle>,
1769 July 1973. This was a port of Mayfield's version obtained from the HP
1770 Contributed Programs library. </para>
1772 <para>Our SST2K is descended from a Taurus BASIC program by Grady
1773 Hicks dated 5 April 1973. This does not appear to have been derived
1774 from Ahl's SPACWR. The header says "GENERAL IDEA STOLEN FROM
1775 PENN. U.", and the game has several features not present in SPACEWR:
1776 notably, the Death Ray, ramming, and the Klingon summons to surrender.
1777 And, of course, it predates Ahl's book. The source is included in the
1778 SST2K repository.</para>
1780 <para>Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds et. al. at UT Austin played the
1781 Hicks version on a CDC6600, but disliked the long load time and
1782 extreme slowness of the BASIC program. (David Matuszek notes that the
1783 Hicks version he played had a habit of throwing long quotes from
1784 Marcus Aurelius at the users, a feature he found intolerable on a TTY
1785 at 110 baud. It must, therefore, have been rather longer than the one
1788 <para>The Austin crew proceeded to write their own Trek game, loosely
1789 based on the Hicks version, in CDC6600 FORTRAN. Most of the code was
1790 written in 1973-1974. At that time, the game was just called "Star
1791 Trek"; the "Super" was added by later developers. In the rest of this
1792 history we'll call it the "UT FORTRAN" version.</para>
1794 <para>Dave Matuszek reports that the UT FORTRAN codebase he worked on
1795 in 1973-1974 was like Mayfield's original and most later versions in
1796 BASIC, in that it used used polar coordinates (a clockface angle
1797 and a distance) for manual navigation.</para>
1799 <para>Tom Almy writes: "I've received further information that the
1800 black holes, Tholian web, Super Commander, and Emeritus mode were
1801 added by Marc Newman."</para>
1803 <para>At the time the UT FORTRAN source was last translated to C it emitted
1804 the message "Latest update-21 Sept 78". Thus, it actually predated
1805 (and may have influenced) the best-known BASIC version, the "Super
1806 Star Trek" published by David Ahl in his November 1978 sequel
1807 <citetitle>BASIC Computer Games</citetitle>.</para>
1809 <para>This 1978 "Super Star Trek" had been reworked by Robert Leedom
1810 and friends from (according to Leedom) Mayfield's HP port. There is
1811 internal evidence to suggest that at least some features of Leedom's
1812 SST may have derived from the UT FORTRAN version. In particular, Dave
1813 Matuszek recalls implementing command words to replace the original
1814 numeric command codes during 1973-1974, a feature Leedom's SST also
1815 had but the 1973 and 1975 SPACWRs did not.</para>
1817 <para>One signature trait of the UT FORTRAN game and its descendants
1818 is that the sectors are 10x10 (rather than the 8x8 in Mike Mayfield's
1819 1972 original and its BASIC descendants). The UT FORTRAN version also
1820 preserves the original numbered quadrants rather than the
1821 astronomically-named quadrants introduced in Ahl's SST and its
1824 <para>Eric Allman's BSD Trek game is one of these, also descended from
1825 the UT FORTRAN version via translation to C. However, the mainline version
1826 (now SST2K) has had a lot more stuff folded into it over the years
1827 — deep space probes, dilithium mining, the Tholian Web, and so
1831 <sect1><title>Tom Almy's story</title>
1833 <para>Back in (about) 1977 I got a copy of the Super Star Trek game for
1834 the CDC 6600 mainframe computer. Someone had converted it to PDP-11
1835 Fortran but couldn't get it to run because of its size. I modified
1836 the program to use overlays and managed to shoehorn it in on the 56k
1837 byte machine.</para>
1839 <para>I liked the game so much I put some time into fixing bugs, mainly
1840 what could be called continuity errors and loopholes in the game's
1841 logic. We even played a couple tournaments.</para>
1843 <para>In 1979, I lost access to that PDP-11. I did save the source code
1844 listing. In 1995, missing that old friend, I started converting the
1845 program into portable ANSI C. It's been slow, tedious work that took
1846 over a year to accomplish.</para>
1848 <para>In early 1997, I got the bright idea to look for references to
1849 <quote>Super Star Trek</quote> on the World Wide Web. There weren't
1850 many hits, but there was one that came up with 1979 Fortran sources!
1851 This version had a few additional features that mine didn't have,
1852 however mine had some feature it didn't have. So I merged its features
1853 that I liked. I also took a peek at the DECUS version (a port, less
1854 sources, to the PDP-10), and some other variations.</para>
1856 <para>Modifications I made:</para>
1858 <para>Compared to original version, I've changed the
1859 <quote>help</quote> command to <quote>call</quote> and the
1860 <quote>terminate</quote> command to <quote>quit</quote> to better
1861 match user expectations. The DECUS version apparently made those
1862 changes as well as changing <quote>freeze</quote> to
1863 <quote>save</quote>. However I like <quote>freeze</quote>.</para>
1865 <para>I added EMEXIT from the 1979 version.</para>
1867 <para>That later version also mentions srscan and lrscan working when
1868 docked (using the starbase's scanners), so I made some changes here
1869 to do this (and indicating that fact to the player), and then
1870 realized the base would have a subspace radio as well — doing a
1871 Chart when docked updates the star chart, and all radio reports will
1872 be heard. The Dock command will also give a report if a base is under
1875 <para>It also had some added logic to spread the initial positioning of
1876 bases. That made sense to add because most people abort games with
1877 bad base placement.</para>
1879 <para>The experimental deathray originally had only a 5% chance of success,
1880 but could be used repeatedly. I guess after a couple years of use, it
1881 was less <quote>experimental</quote> because the 1979 version had a 70% success
1882 rate. However it was prone to breaking after use. I upgraded the
1883 deathray, but kept the original set of failure modes (great humor!).</para>
1885 <para>I put in the Tholian Web code from the 1979 version.</para>
1887 <para>I added code so that Romulans and regular Klingons could move in
1888 advanced games. I re-enabled the code which allows enemy ships to
1889 ram the Enterprise; it had never worked right. The 1979 version
1890 seems to have it all fixed up, but I'm still not overly happy with
1891 the algorithm.</para>
1893 <para>The DECUS version had a Deep Space Probe. Looked like a good idea
1894 so I implemented it based on its description.</para>
1896 <para>I imported CAPTURE from BSD Trek.</para>
1899 <sect1><title>Stas Sergeev's story</title>
1901 <para>I started from an older Tom Almy version and added features I had
1902 seen in other mainframe variants of the game, I wrote a screen-oriented
1903 interface for it based on the curses library.</para>
1907 <para>The Space Thingy can be shoved, if you ram it, and can fire back if
1911 <para>The Tholian can be hit with phasers.</para>
1914 <para>When you are docked, base covers you with an almost invincible shields
1915 (a commander can still ram you, or a Romulan can destroy the base,
1916 or a SCom can even succeed with direct attack IIRC, but this rarely
1920 <para>SCom can't escape from you if no more enemies remain (without this,
1921 chasing SCom can take an eternity).</para>
1924 <para>Probe target you enter is now the destination quadrant. Before I don't
1925 remember what it was, but it was something I had difficulty using.</para>
1928 <para>Secret password is now autogenerated.</para>
1931 <para>Victory plaque is adjusted for A4 paper rather than 132-column greenbar
1935 <para>Phasers now tells you how much energy needed, but only if the computer
1939 <para>Planets are auto-scanned when you enter the quadrant.</para>
1942 <para>Mining or using crystals in the presence of the enemy now yields
1943 an attack. There are other minor adjustments to what yields an attack
1944 and what does not.</para>
1947 <para>Ramming a black hole is no longer instant death. There is a
1948 chance you might get timewarped instead.</para>
1951 <para>"freeze" command reverts to "save", most people will understand this
1952 better anyway.</para>
1955 <para>Screen-oriented interface, with sensor scans always up.</para>
1959 <para>My changes got merged into SST2K in 2005.</para>
1962 <sect1><title>Eric Raymond's story</title>
1964 <para>I played the FORTRAN version of this game in the late 1970s on a
1965 DEC minicomputer. In the late 1980s Dave Matuszek and I became
1966 friends; I was vaguely aware that he had had something to do with the
1967 original Star Trek game. In October 2004, sitting in Dave's living
1968 room, we got to talking about the game and I realized it would make a
1969 great exhibit for the <ulink
1970 url='&retro;'>Retrocomputing Museum</ulink>.</para>
1972 <para>A few quick web searches later we found Tom Almy's page. We
1973 downloaded his code and Dave verified that that it was a direct
1974 descendent of UT Super Star Trek — even though it had been translated
1975 to C, he was able to recognize names and techniques from the FORTRAN
1976 version he co-wrote.</para>
1978 <para>This game became an open-source project; see the <ulink
1979 url='http://developer.berlios.de/projects/sst/'>project
1980 site</ulink>.</para>
1982 <para>After I launched the Berlios project, Stas Sergeev contacted me.
1983 We worked together to merge in his changes.</para>
1985 <para>Modifications I've made:</para>
1989 I converted the flat-text SST.DOC file to XML-Docbook so it can be
1990 webbed. (That's what you're reading now.)
1993 The command-help code needed a rewrite because the flat-text form of
1994 the documentation is now generated from XML and doesn't have the
1995 easily recognizable section delimiters it used to. I wrote a script
1996 to filter that flat-text form into an sst.doc that's easy to parse for
1997 command descriptions, and changed some logic in sst.c to match.
2000 I've cleaned up a lot of grubby FORTRANisms in the code internals —
2001 used sizeof(), replaced magic numeric constants with #defines,
2002 that sort of thing. Later I translated the code from C to Python.
2005 I fixed a surprising number of typos in the code and documentation.
2008 All the game state now lives in one big structure that can be
2009 written to and read from disk as one blob. The write gives it an
2010 an identifiable magic number and the thaw logic checks for same.
2013 I made the internal pager work, and in the process got rid of a number
2014 of platform dependencies in the code.
2017 The HELP/CALL/SOS command is now MAYDAY.
2020 Status report now indicates if dilithium crystals are on board.
2023 At Dave's prompting, restored the Space Thingy's original elusive behavior.
2026 Clean separation of game engine from the UI code, improving Stas
2027 Sergeev's excellent work on the curses interface.
2031 <para>Here are some good pages on the history of Star Trek games:</para>
2035 <ulink url='http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek/'>http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek/</ulink>
2038 <ulink url='http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/star_trek.html'>http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/star_trek.html</ulink>
2041 <ulink url='http://www.cactus.org/%7Enystrom/startrek.html'>http://www.cactus.org/%7Enystrom/startrek.html</ulink>
2046 <sect1><title>Authors' Acknowledgments</title>
2048 <para>These are the original acknowledgments by Dave Matuszek and Paul
2051 <para>The authors would like to thank Professor Michael Duggan for his
2052 encouragement and administrative assistance with the development of
2053 the Star Trek game, without which it might never have been completed.</para>
2055 <para>Much credit is due to Patrick McGehearty and Rich Cohen, who assisted
2056 with the original design of the game and contributed greatly to its
2057 conceptual development.</para>
2059 <para>Thanks are also due to Carl Strange, Hardy Tichenor and Steven Bruell
2060 for their assistance with certain coding problems.</para>
2062 <para>This game was inspired by and rather loosely based on an earlier
2063 game, programmed in the BASIC language, by Jim Korp and Grady Hicks.
2064 It is the authors' understanding that the BASIC game was in turn
2065 derived from a still earlier version in use at Penn State University.</para>
2068 <sect1><title>References</title>
2070 <para>These are the original references by Dave Matuszek and Paul
2074 <listitem><para><citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> (the original television
2075 series), produced and directed by Gene Rodenberry.</para></listitem>
2077 <listitem><para><citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> (the animated
2078 television series), produced by Gene Rodenberry and directed by Hal
2079 Sutherland. Also excellent, and not just kiddie fare. If you enjoyed
2080 the original series you should enjoy this one (unless you have some
2081 sort of a hangup about watching cartoons).</para></listitem>
2083 <listitem><para><citetitle>The Making of Star Trek</citetitle>, by
2084 Steven E. Whitfield and Gene Rodenberry. The best and most complete
2085 readily available book about Star Trek. (Ballantine
2086 Books)</para></listitem>
2088 <listitem><para><citetitle>The World of Star Trek</citetitle>, by
2089 David Gerrold. Similiar in scope to the above book.
2090 (Bantam)</para></listitem>
2092 <listitem><para><citetitle>The Star Trek Guide</citetitle>, third
2093 revision 4/17/67, by Gene Roddenberry. The original writer's guide
2094 for the television series, but less comprehensive than (3) above.
2095 (Norway Productions)</para></listitem>
2097 <listitem><para><citetitle>The Trouble With Tribbles</citetitle>, by
2098 David Gerrold. Includes the complete script of this popular show.
2099 (Ballantine Books)</para></listitem>
2101 <listitem><para><citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle>, <citetitle>Star Trek
2102 2</citetitle>, ..., <citetitle>Star Trek 9</citetitle>, by James
2103 Blish. The original shows in short story form.
2104 (Bantam)</para></listitem>
2106 <listitem><para><citetitle>Spock Must Die</citetitle>, by James Blish.
2107 An original novel, but rather similar to the show <citetitle>The Enemy
2108 Within</citetitle>. (Bantam)</para></listitem>
2110 <listitem><para>Model kits of the Enterprise and a <quote>Klingon
2111 Battle-Cruiser</quote> by AMT Corporation are available at most hobby
2112 shops.</para></listitem>
2118 <appendix><title>Setting the Wayback Machine</title>
2120 <para>SST2K and its ancestors have a long history. One of the
2121 objectives of this project is to make that history available.
2122 Accordingly, here is a timeline of the development of SST2K and
2123 its ancestors, as closely as we can reconstruct it. Someday this
2124 may become the basis for a "wayback machine" switch that enables
2125 feature sets by year.</para>
2128 <listitem><para>1971 — Mike Mayfield's original BASIC Star
2129 Trek.</para></listitem>
2131 <listitem><para>5 April 1973 — Grady Hicks's BASIC version fot
2132 the Taurus.</para></listitem>
2134 <listitem><para>Summer 1973 — Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds, and
2135 the Austin crew begin work on the UT FORTRAN version.</para></listitem>
2137 <listitem><para>1974 — Dave Matuszek gets distracted by other
2138 things, notably a job change and the birth of his first
2139 child.</para></listitem>
2141 <listitem><para>21 September 1978 — This was the date on the
2142 first FORTRAN version Tom Almy saw, on which he based his later C
2143 translation.</para></listitem>
2145 <listitem><para>1979 — Marc Newman adds Tholians, black holes,
2146 super-commanders, and Emeritus mode.</para></listitem>
2148 <listitem><para>1995-1996 — Tom Almy translates his FORTRAN
2149 port to ANSI C.</para></listitem>
2151 <listitem><para>1997 — Tom Almy finds the sources for UT
2152 FORTRAN on the Web and merges in features new since the 1978 version:
2153 EMEXIT, Tholian Web, improved death ray. He adds deep-space probes
2154 from the DECUS version.</para></listitem>
2156 <listitem><para>10 October 2004 — ESR starts hacking on Almy's C
2157 translation, de-FORTRANIZING the code. HELP/CALL/SOS becomes MAYDAY.
2160 <listitem><para>30 October 2004 — SST2K project started on
2161 Berlios.</para></listitem>
2163 <listitem><para>18 January 2005 — First changes merged in from Stas
2164 Sergeev. The curses interface is added.</para></listitem>
2166 <listitem><para>September 2006 — BSD features merged
2167 in. Inhabited-worlds features and weighted critical hits date from
2168 this time.</para></listitem>
2170 <listitem><para>9 October 2006 — Translation to
2171 Python.</para></listitem>
2173 <listitem><para>1 March 2017 — Color added.
2174 Cloaking device and capture command added from BSD (via Almy's
2175 2013 version)</para></listitem>
2177 <listitem><para>25 March 2019 — At long last, chart entries are
2178 uniformly dot-filled. (Suppressed in the plain and almy
2179 interface styles.)</para></listitem>
2181 <listitem><para>25 August 2023 — Coordinates optionally in
2182 alphameric mode, e.g "b3" rather than "2 - 3". (Suppressed in the
2183 plain and almy interface styles.)</para></listitem>
2188 <para>One as-yet unanswered question is when the code changed from
2189 distance/direction navigation to coordinate offsets. Dave Matuszek
2190 believes it must have been after he stopped working on the game in
projects / super-star-trek.git / blob