STARTREK
For The Rainbow
Running MS DOS
By Jeff Cameron
Version 3.0
This is version 3.0 of STARTREK. Many new features have been added to
the game. Every effort has been made to remove all known bugs, and to make
the game as challenging, fun and easy to play. The game is now ready to
play, if all the required files, are in the current default disk and dir-
ectory. Just enter in STARTREK at the DOS prompt.
Required Files : STARTREK.COM
STARTREK.000
TREK.MSG
TREK.INS <-- The game will play without these last
TREK.CMD <-- two files, but the game instructions
and Command help will not be available.
If STARTREK is entered with no other command line parameters, the game
will create a file called STSCORES.HST if none exists. For more informa-
tion, see the section on "History Files", below.
Learning how to play :
This game is based on the standard command based version of STARTREK.
There are many other versions available that may be better, but this one
is for all those "ORIGINAL" Star Trek fans, that were there on Friday,
September the 8th, 1966, when NBC was premiering the "Sneak Preview" of
their answer to CBS's "Lost In Space".
The game may create one file in the current default DOS directory, only
if none exists. The name of the file is STSCORES.HST, and it contains the
history of the top ten best scores for each class. This distribution of
STARTREK contains a history file of the Author's best games. For more on
history files, read on.
The game asks you if you want instructions. The instructions are on the
file TREK.INS. This file contains ANSI Escape sequences so it can be typed
on the RAINBOW PC (VT102 or higher) screen or printed to a DEC LN03, LA50,
or compatible printer.
The instructions are quite extensive and are written in two sections.
The first part is designed to give you a general overview. Just enough to
get you started. The second section describes some of the many details of
the game.
In addition to the instructions at the beginning of the game, you can
enter the command "COMMANDS", which will give you a list of all the valid
commands for the game, and a complete description of the syntax and func-
tion of each command. This information is also kept in a text file with
ANSI escape sequences, suitable for VT102 or compatible, LN03, LA50 or
LA100 ... etc. The file is called TREK.CMD.
The game is capable of recording it's current state on a file to be re-
played at a later date or time. The OLD and the SAVE commands allow you to
restart an old game, or save the current state respectively. When you use
these commands the game will ask for a file name. You may specify a device
and directory, but if you omit them, STARTREK will look in your current
default DOS directory for the file. You may also specify any extension for
the file, and if you do not, then .SAV is the default.
STARTREK is also able to keep a record of the scores of it's best play-
ers. This is done in a "History File". The History File saves the records
of the top 10 best players for each game level (Novice, Fair, Good, or
Expert). One such history file, of the author's best scores, is provided
with the distribution of the game. There is no facility, yet, to combine
history files.
Along with this distribution is a program called BESTSCOR, which will
report the best scores stored in a history file. If you just enter in the
command BESTSCOR, you will get a listing of the best scores for the norm-
al game history file (STSCORES.HST), or you can enter the file name of
another history file on the command line, to report on another history
file. For example, the command :
C>BESTSCOR AUTHBEST.HST
will give a report on the current best scores done by myself.
Considerations :
o This program is written in Turbo Pascal 3.0 (� Borland Inter-
national) specifically for the Digital Equipment Corporation
RAINBOW PC-100.
o To run the game, just type in the command STARTREK and the game
will run if all of the needed files are in the current default
directory. If you want to play the game, and all of the needed
files are in another directory, you must include a path specifi-
cation on the command line. Ie:
STARTREK PATH=E:\GAMES\STARTREK
o Although STARTREK will run from a floppy disk, it is best run
from a hard disk or better yet a ramdisk. STARTREK uses a direct
access message file and overlays, and can be quite disk in-
tensive, which will slow down responsiveness if the files are
on a slow device.
o As a suggestion, copy the files STARTREK.COM, STARTREK.000,
TREK.MSG, TREK.CMD, and TREK.INS to a directory that is in your
MS/DOS path. Let's say you keep all of your games programs in a
directory in your path called E:\GAMES. Copy the 5 files into
that directory and create a batch file in the same directory
that contains the one command :
STARTREK PATH=E:\GAMES
If the batch file is called ST.BAT, then each time you enter ST
to the DOS prompt, the game will begin, regardless of what your
current default disk and directory are. It would be best to have
the directory on a ramdisk to speed up game response.
o When STARTREK is waiting for you to enter a command, it is con-
sistantly updating the display, and reacts to keyboard inter-
rupts. This can be stopped and held by entering in the command
HOLD.
Where : pathname Is any valid MS/DOS device, and path or
directory specification.
snapfile Is any valid MS/DOS file specification,
-and- histfile complete with optional device, and
directory specifications.
PATH=pathname This DOS command line parameter allows you to specify
the location of all of the required gamefiles, and the
optional instruction and command file. If you omit
this command line parameter, then "PATH=." (or the Cur-
rent default directory is the default. If both PATH=,
and HIST= are specified, the PATH= parameter must be
before the HIST= parameter.
SNAP=snapfile (I shouldn't be telling you this one.) This command
line parameter allows you to specify a "Snapshot" file.
If you specify this option, a snapshot of the entire
current game is placed in the specified file just
after you enter a command, and just before the command
is executed. The snapshot file is in a format that can
be read by the OLD command. If you think you might do
something stupid, where you might get yourself killed,
this option gives you the ability to pick up the game
just before you made a stupid move. (WARNING: Use of
this option slows game response considerably.)
HIST=histfile This command line parameter specifies the path or file
to be used as a game history file. You may specify :
HIST=NONE, or HIST=NUL to disable this option. If you
do not specify a history file, then the program looks
for a file in the current game file path, as specified
by the PATH=pathname parameter above. If still no file
is found, the game will automatically create it in the
game file path directory.
The HIST=histfile can either be a file specification,
a directory specification, or a combination of both.
A directory specification must end with the "\" char-
acter, and may, or may not, contain a device specifica-
tion. A file specification or combination of both must
end with the ".HST" extension.
If just a directory is specified, the filename will be
STSCORES.HST. If just the file name is specified, then
the game will check both the current default directory
and the gamefiles path for the file specified. If no
existing file can be found, it will be created in the
current gamefiles path directory.
File descriptions :
README.TXT This file. (Not Necessary for the game.)
STARTREK.COM Executable image. (Required file)
STARTREK.000 Overlay file. (Required file)
TREK.MSG Direct access message file (Required file)
TREK.INS Beginning instructions file (Optional file)
TREK.CMD Command documentation file (Optional file)
Additional files :
STSCORES.HST Default history file. (Created by playing game)
BESTSCOR.COM Program to read and report
best scores from a history file.
AUTHBEST.HST History file containing the
author's best scores.
Credits :
STARTREK is released into the public domain, and can be copied freely.
It cannot be bought or sold. The name STARTREK is � Paramount Pictures
Corporation, 1969. Your comments, suggestions, bug reports, and
enhancement requests are solicited.
Please send your correspondence to the author ...
Jeff Cameron
22533 S. Vermont Ave. #59
Torrance, Ca. 90502
STARTREK is about 20,000 lines of Turbo Pascal code. I do not include
the source with this distribution, however, I can easily be persuaded to
release the complete source and development aid tools used to develop
the game, at no cost. So if anyone is interested in adapting it to
another host, please let me know.
Much of the game's syntax, functionality, and online documentation
are based on the classic original STARTREK game, initially developed by
David Matuszek and Paul Reynolds. Additional credits are due to Don
Smith and M. Kellogg for their modifications.
Apologies :
o Please forgive my misspellings. (Some of them are intentional, but
most are not.)
o Prior to version 2.0, there was an automatic "Blow Up" date built
in that deleted all the distribution files. This has been removed.
o STARTREK was an exercise in PASCAL for me. I am a "Die-Hard"
FORTRAN programmer and I'm not afraid to use "GO TO"s. Some
of the games reactions are evident of this.
Enhancements :
(1.2) Screen status display has been optimized, so that display
of status, and location in the galaxy and quadrant are
only done once per command, and only if needed.
(1.2) Addition of the command line parameter "PATH=pathname" to
specify directory for needed game files.
(1.2) Addition of the command line parameter "SNAP=snapfile" to
specify a snapshot file.
(1.2) New display for Enterprise self destruct, and Klingon
Commander self destruct.
(1.3) Inclusion of the Time and Energy Bars, on the left of the
Galaxy display, and the Photon Torpedo indicators on the
right of the quadrant display.
(1.3) Version 1.3 uses some of the extended features of
Suitable Solutions MS-DOS version 3.10, but will run
under Digital Equipment's MS-DOS version 2.11.
(2.0) Implementation of the commands ABANDON, CRYSTALS, MINE,
SHUTTLE, and TRANSPORT. This involves new features, like
being the captain of the USS Lollypop, mining and loading
Dilithium crystals, and visiting various planets.
(2.0) "Last good command" recall by pressing the F13 (LF) key.
(2.0) Addition of the new command, HOLD. This command holds the
current game at its current state. If you walk away from
the game while it is running, it will go into the hold
state on its own, after about 10 minutes. The HOLD com-
mand goes into this state immediately.
(2.1) Implementation of the History File capability.
(2.2) Different "End of game" messages, based on if you win or
loose.
(2.2) At least one commander transport if playing as a Novice.
(2.2) If you dock with Dilithium crystals, you are granted more
time.
(2.2) If run into the edge of the galaxy with Dilithium crystals,
you are in for unpleasant results.
(3.0) Some sort of indication has been added when you are in the
same quadrant with a planet with dilithium crystals. But
only under certain conditions. There may be crystals on a
planet, and you may not know until you beam down.
(3.0) Commands involving flashy displays, have been optimized so
display is minimized, if there are characters in the type
ahead buffer.
(3.0) Display of the time and energy bars and the status text
has been optimized to only update when necessary.
(3.0) If somthing unexpected happens durring the course of the
game, the typeahead buffer is purged so you don't execute
a command that you have already entered.
Bug Fixes :
(1.2) At the beginning of the program, if you choose to play an
old game, the orientation of the items in your quadrant
was not retained from the saved game. This problem has
been corrected.
(1.2) Restoring an old game from a file that was not created by
the STARTREK program caused runtime error aborts. There
are now file validity checks. (NOTE : Games saved with
one STARTREK version, will not work with a different ver-
sion.)
(1.2) There was a condition when a Klingon Starbase is created
somewhere in the galaxy, and you shoot phasers before
moving to a new quadrant would cause a runtime error
abort. This problem has been fixed. (This is an obscure
problem caused by a typo. If you have the 1.1 version,
try shooting phasers right after you get the message that
a Klingon base has been established. Amusing results may
occur before the actual Runtime error aborts the program.)
(1.2) There was a bug that occurred when all Klingons are
killed, except for the Klingon Starbase. In version 1.1
the game ended. In version 1.2 you must kill the Klingon
Starbase too, in order to win the game. Just to make
life interesting.
(1.2) In version 1.1, if you are in hyperspace, enemy hits
added to your ship energy and shipboard systems to no
limit. This caused eventual problems later in the game.
In version 1.2 shipboard system levels are limited, and
if ship energy rises too high, the Enterprise explodes.
We have to keep the game in line with physical laws.
(1.2) Version 1.1 did not allow the entry of the characters ":",
"\", and "_" on the command line. Version 1.2 allows
these characters for specifying files for the OLD and
SAVE commands.
(1.2) Version 1.1 would inflict casualties if the Life Support
Systems were down while you are docked. Version 1.2
corrects this problem. If you are docked, your life
support systems are supported by the starbase. (You get
the break on this one.)
(1.2) Version 1.1 would sometimes create a Klingon Starbase in
the same quadrant as a Federation Starbase. This gives
you an unfair advantage insofar a scoring points. This
will no longer occur. Sorry!
(1.2) Version 1.1 would refresh enemies too much when you rest.
Now they can only get so strong.
(1.2) On occasion, when your ship was destroyed by an enemy
attack, and all of your crew lost because of it, you
would then be told that you are alone in your ship, and
that you cannot pilot it alone. This has been fixed so
that you die with your ship.
(1.2) On rare occasions, when you select a "Short" game, the
game would get stuck in an infinite loop, in attempt to
initialize the game. This problem will no longer occur.
(2.1) In version 2.0, if you had some Dilithium crystals on hand
and you requested to load 0 (zero) crystals, you would be
granted the power of the crystals for the next turn,
giving you an unfair advantage. This is no longer true.
(2.2) In previous versions, you used to be able to continually
kill all invaders except the Klingon starbase, and leave
the quadrant, allowing the Klingon base to create more
enemies. Each time you killed Klingons, you would be
granted more time, but when the base created new enemies
the time before the overthrow of the Federation.
(2.2) Because of the previous problem, it was possible to gain
enough points, such that it would overflow the maximum
for a 16 bit Integer (MAXINT). The score limit is now
MAXINT squared (Try and get that far. My best score was
46870). This bug fix makes history files and saved files
from earlier versions incompatible.
(2.2) When you mined Dilithium crystals, you were incorrectly
informed that the number found is that of your total
supply, rather than that which was actually mined.
(2.2) During the initialization of a game, when you are prom-
pted for your secret code word, and your codeword was 8
characters (the maximum), it would go directly to the
verification prompt without entering a carriage return.
(3.0) In prior versions, you could constantly go into a quad-
rant containing a Klingon Starbase, and kill everything
in it except the Klingon Starbase, then leave and come
back, continually racking up points, and granting you
more time. This was especially easy if you had any Di-
lithium crystals loaded. Now, if Klingons are added to
the universe, your time limit diminishes just a bit more
than it increases as you kill them.
(3.0) Use of transporters and/or the shuttle craft now use a
small amount of time and energy instead of none.
(3.0) The total Klingon count in the status display now counts
the Klingon Starbase, even though it does not show up on
Long Range Sensors.
� ((0d(B) 1988 Suitable Solutions Inc.
� ((0d(B) 1981,82,83,85 Microsoft Corp.
� ((0d(B) 1986,87,88 Digital Equipment Corp.
