Five Star Treks / 810 and DOS II

Space, the final frontier ... if we spend all of our time playing these five versions of Star Trek we will never make it that far. Star Trek was the first computer-craze game to sweep the nation. Every computer in every school had (and still has) a version of the game based on the adventures of the Starship Enterprise. The ATARI versions make any other computer variations of the game took simple. The chart below shows differences in the games and also is a list of those companies producing the games.

Basically the object of the game is to rid the galaxy of the dirty Klingons. In the Adventure International version you must explore all class M planets, and destroy the Klingons only when you are in danger of them attacking you. The Dynacomp Star Trek has the Klingons move if you don't act, and they also hide behind planets making you think it is a standard cruiser, when in actuality it is a powerful battlecruiser. The best graphics/sound combination comes from Adventure International by far. Actually their game borders on a mini-adventure in that the game could take a while to complete. It even has a save-game feature allowing you to save the game up to the point you are at, and later reload it progressing from that point rather than starting from the beginning. The detail in this game is really fascinating - it's almost a Star Raiders without the action; the graphics are that nice.

Quality Software's Star Trek comes in second. Their version is 'clean' looking and takes less time to complete than the Adventure International Trek

  They just improved it by adding a Galactic Map, which the original did not contain. If you don't have the time to play a long game, this is the one to use. The graphics are minimal, however the sound effects are quite nice. Dynacomp's Trek can be tricky to play. It is certainly more difficult to win than are the others, strategy is important as well as being familiar with the game.

Creative Computing's advanced Star Trek is a very expanded version of the original computer Star Trek. All the standard options and rules apply. The 'I couldn't believe it' award goes to Color Software for the slowest computer game I have ever seen. This "3 D Trek" is great if you have trouble falling asleep. Or maybe you can make a move in the morning before you leave, and when you return the computer will have made its' move (an exaggeration, but it is VERY slow). Plus the instructions for the game are rather vague as to what's going on. Too bad, the game looks as though it could have been nice. Oh well.

Getting just one of these games isn't enough. I prefer the first two, however the Creative Computing version and Dynacomp 3.2 Trek contain features the others don't. The other one - forget it!

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STAR TREK 3.2		STAR TREK 3.5		3-D STAR TREK
Dynacomp, Inc.		Adventure International		Color Software
6 Rippingale Rd.		Box 3435		5410 W. 20th St.
Pittsford, NY 14534		Longwood, FL 32750		Indianapolis, IN 46224
Cassette $9.95 24K - Disk 113.95 32K		Cassette $14.95		Cassette $15.00 24K
*CREATIVE COMPUTING STAR TREK		TARI TREK
From: Basic Computer Games (No. 6C)		Quality Software
Creative Computing 6660		Reseda Blvd., Suite 105
P.O. Box 789-M		Reseda, CA 91335
Morristown, NJ 07960		Cassette $11.95 24K - Disk $14.95 32K
*(must be converted for Atari) - $7.50 Book

THE ATARI 810 & DOS 11

The ATARI 8 10 Disk Drive is now supported by the release of the Disk Operating System Reference Manual made available last fall. New drives should be coming through with this manual. A new version of DOS; DOS II, Version 2S, will be available soon for the 810. This new version has a number of differences over the original DOS. DOS II takes up less memory, as it doesn't reside in RAM along side your BASIC or ASSEMBLY language program. When you type in the DOS command, your program in RAM is swapped to a file on diskette - the "MEM.SAV" file. Then DOS is put in RAM for your use. Type "B" and DOS is erased from RAM, and your program is put back in RAM. This allows you to use more RAM for programming rather than have DOS use up 9 or 10 K. DOS 11 does away with the 'N. DEFINE DEVICE' function. 'N' will now create a new "MEM.SAV" file on diskette. You also won't have to return to the MENU on DOS after you execute a command, you can just type in a new command, or hit 'RETURN' for the MENU listing. The four files comprising DOS 11 are: DOS.SYS, DUP.SYS, MEM.SAV, & AUTORUN.SYS. Also, some formatting on DOS 11 is not interchangable with DOS 1. You can run into difficulty renaming a DOS I formatted diskette on DOS 11 (the file name storage differs slightly). DOS 11 supports the point/random access functions on disk now. You may notice how reliable your disk drive is in the way it never loses data transferring from diskette to RAM or visa versa. When data is taken to or from diskette, a 'counter' checks to see that the number of bits transferred matches what was originally in the file or program. *Note that when the final version of DOS 11 is released, some of what has been described may change.