IFReviewed by
Tom Zuchowski on 2006-05-13 09:12
MAIN PGM Version: 6
Extra Commands: STATUS, HELM, BEAM, COMPUTER, ASSEMBLE
Deleted Commands: INVENTORY, READ
Special Features: Animated Hi-Res Title screen, space travel simulation; timed deadline to complete quest
Playing Time: 2-4 hours
Reviewer Rating: 5.0
Description: "Hokas Tokas turns off his futurevision machine and says Eamon Trek is not your ordinary adventure as it is set in the galaxy Eamon with space sectors. Coordinates are in 3-D from 0-20 so that simple mathematics tells you there are over 9000 space rooms!
"But some sectors have stars with habitable planets or space stations. But beware of the Nebuleans. The United Federation of Eamon occupies half the space, the Nebuleans the other half, with the Neutral Zone in the middle.
"Your assignment is to rescue a scientist, Dr. D. Brown, who has been captured by the Nebuleans. You must complete your quest by Star Date 3750. Hokas ushers you into a clear tube where you teleport to the 23rd century."
Comment: Right off the bat this adventure hits you with a bit of strangeness: it calls itself "Eamon Trek" on the title page and in the intro. This adventure was entered into (and won) the AAA Eamon contest many years ago; Ron Maleika may have changed the name, as he was extremely mindful of not wanting to step on toes.
This is an unabashed clone of Star Trek. Your starship, the Intrepid, is simply laid out in seven rooms, and your crew consists of Sawbones, Scotty, and Mr. Sparks. The space travel mode is fairly clever, the plot develops nicely, and the quest evolves as you travel through space.
Each "planet" consists of 4 or 5 rooms that you beam to and from. The first planet that you visit will be very difficult unless you have seen the Star Trek episode in which Kirk builds a cannon from raw and natural materials.
The game's basic concept, plot, and space layout is excellent. However, the execution of many details was not well done. You must do an inordinate amount of traipsing about the Intrepid, going to each room for a single function. And the transporter only functions from transporter room to transporter room; nearly one-quarter of the rooms in this 58-room adventure are transporter rooms!
The monsters were not well thought out. Fully 27 of the 34 bad guys have names like "#22", and the descriptions all read, "YOU SEE A MASSIVE NEBULEAN CENTURION. HE IS TATTOOED #15" And you will find one of these guys in virtually every room on every planet, resulting in seemingly endless replays of the same combat scenario.
The adventure gets high marks for originality and low marks for execution; (5) is the average.
Difficulty is hard to score. When I first played this long ago, I found it childishly simple and gave it a (3) for difficulty. This time around I was unable to complete it without cheating. I had successfully completed every step, yet I was not permitted to beam down to the last planet, and I could not find my error. I don't know if I missed a subtle clue or if there is a flaw in the code that tracks the sequence of events.
How much you like this one will depend on how much of a Trek fan you are and how well you key on the clues. As I said, this adventure won the AAA Eamon contest, beating "Thror's Ring"; Ron obviously liked it a lot more than I do.
Used with Matthew Clark's kind permition.
Original review available at Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online website.
