Don't ignore signs, kids.

55 trains call this central station home. More I say, more!

That dungeon can be a bit difficult when you first get there, it's better to get some training and equipment in the city before doing it.

I've noticed. :P I'm gonna do that.
Speaking of the city, it's rather dark outside. Is there a day-night cycle in the game?


Am I seeing right? Those two separate rows of platforms are one station? And out of curiosity, what year is it?

So, i´ve finished The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery.
I have to say that is a game from his time, with A LOT of videos, for each action, again and again. Fortunatelly there is an option to skip them, with the risk to missing some important information.

Firstly, i felt the lack of descriptions of the scenes, a sign of identity of Sierra. And the graphics, well, you must see them with the 1995 eyes. In which mind these were better that 2D backgrounds? Sometimes i felt like i was playing a photoshop demo. These type of games at the end were very expensive, you need the double of personal that in a normal game. A totally film production, in other games i would say "tv films" but in this case, with an opera inside, not. They were crazy.

Actors were amazing, specially Gabriel and Grace. At the beginning i disliked Gabriel, except his hair (what a hair!), because his voice is very different to the first game in which the voice is by Tim Curry, i imagine Gabriel less shy. Grace is pretty and elegant,she is the same role that in "Sins of the Fathers". Both made a great job and create beautiful characters. Van Glober is other character very well done, charming.

It´s a long game and the plot increases in intensity until the end. I´ve waited too many years to play it. The story is amazing, i ´ve search and read a page related history and learnt about Ludwig II of Baviera and his death. In origin this game hadn´t Spanish subtitles and videos has not even English texts.

In this time travel, fortunatelly, i trip with my laptop machine and play it without disc swaping, and had not to listen the "turbine" of my old PC case, people who had a 95-98 machine sure that remember that in those years the power supplies made a lot of noise.

By the way, i achieved almost the entire game punctuation, only left 1 point!! Damn.

ciemnogrodzianin, permission to jump the next year, stop, mission succesful, stop, waiting a new destination, stop, we will see you in 1996, Olympic year!!

Yes, there is. You can find a clock in the game to show you the time.
If you've got any more questions, just ask, Albion is one of my favorite games.

Nice, congrats.


Thanks. I'm pretty sure I've found a clock of some kind, but then I died soon after... ;)

Indeed they are :) I had to increase the maximum station spread to 18 tiles. So you can create a big 18x8 station, and then using the bulldozer tool demolish the inner 4x8 station tiles. Or you can Ctrl left click when you place a second station, and then select which station it should be extension off (limited in the sense that the final station cannot exceed the max station spread).

It's 2140 currently.

Ok, thanks.


Cool, I had no idea. That opens some possibilities.

Hello again fellow time travellers!

Since, I managed to finish the game from 1995 which I was playing this month, I want to share the ending screens with you.

[picture venturi_th]
But first, I had to correct a minor mistake in one of my earlier posts, the Hecatier captain does not look similar to the Venturi. I did create another screenshot to show the Venturian as well as the (rare) Tholian captain, how they are being depicted in the SNES game "Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator".

[pictures 24 & 25]
So, here on picture 24 we can see the last entry in my academy file (score overview) right before the final mission, the 'Kobayashi Maru Test'. (There is no percentage score for the final mission!)
I played the whole game in the 'Durchschnitt' difficulty level (academy rank), completed all of the 20 campaign missions with a perfect score of 100% (a few individual missions have more than one 100%-solution--see my last report with a brief description about each mission). Hence, me and my bridge crew receive all the same (average) grade ('Notendurchschnitt' in German) for graduating from the 'Starfleet Academy'. The actual ending texts do vary a little bit depending on our final total average score.

The top-right image is 'me':
"My great success is the stuff of tales inspiring many generations to come. I have the honour to command the Federation flagship and became one of the most famous captains in the history of Starfleet." -- Yeah, the usual exaggeration for achieving 100%.
(Note for those of you, who thought that they could read German, but still can not understand what is written here and in Elliots text: the problem is not with your reading comprehension but with the not so ideal translation. It seems to me that some of the ending texts do exceed a character limit in their German translation, causing an overflow error and result in a partial text overlapping. Compare the top-right [player] and bottom-right [Elliot / green skin] with the smaller ending descriptions of the others.)
"Our engineer, Robin Brady, became chief engineer on the USS Argosy, discovered beta-tachyons, and received a scientific price for it."
"Elliot, returned to his homeworld, Orion, after serving for Starfleet. Back on Orion he became the leader of a civil rights movement, was sent to the neutral zone, and contributed to the improvement of the diplomatic relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire."
"Our communications officer, Vanda M'Giia, has risen to the rank of Lieutenant Commander before moving to the diplomatic chorps of Starfleet, and took part in successful treaty negotiations."
"Our problematic first officer, Geoff Colond, got to command his own ship--the USS Nil--but later turned down his captain seat in order to teach at the Academy. He remained infamous for his strict discipline and lack of comprehension for social events."
"And finally, the Vulcanian Sturek became a science officer on the USS Shereem--what else--which vanished mysteriously in a nebular, though."

Next, the game threw me right back to the game's main menu. However, as far as game endings from console games go, it s not bad, at all. After our attempt at the 'Kobayashi Maru Test' we got a prolonged discussion with the visiting Admiral Kirk and not just one but six different ending screens for each crew member (which carry over some variations depending on our final score)!
I think, it is a satisfying conclusion to the game.

[picture 26]
As we have seen already some troubles with the German translation in a few of the ending screens, there are some inconsistencies. For instance, when teasing the upcoming visit of James T. Kirk at the Academy, he is called 'Captain (Jim) Kirk' while the 'Kobayashi Maru Test' debriefing calls him 'Admiral Kirk'--see picture 28 on the topic of ingame references in my next post. Likewise, Rotherot introduces himself as 'Commander Alex Rotherot' and later on being referenced as 'Admiral Rotherot'.
But the real bummer were two translation errors during gameplay while taking out our missions that did cause some confusion when I first played the game in my childhood!
Image 26 depicts major events in our very first mission! The mission is to find, remove and destroy a radioactive object from a planet's orbit. Commander Rotherot advises us that our science officer will notify us as soon as we managed to get sufficient distance between us (the radioactive object respectively) and the planet to safely get rid of it. But the German translation of the science officer's message always reads "we are not far away enough to destroy the object", and thus is plain wrong. A similar translation error occures a second time later on.
Beside these it was refreshing to see a translation into German which actually handled well the different pronouns in German, both gender specific as well as addressing someone formally or informally.

For anyone who is interested, I also added a picture with my list of passwords for the German SNES game.
(Comment: the 'Kobayashi Maru Test' is refered to as mission #000 ingame, but I chose #501 for consistency reasons in my list.)

I have not tested, whether or not they are functioning for other language releases, too. A little experimenting only revealed that the passwords basically consist of a block representing our chosen character (male, female, first name, last name), the level of difficulty, the current mission, and the overall average score.
Fun fact, the password is a combination of the available buttons on the SNES controller (minus 'Select' and 'Start'), and is also inserted by each corresponding button input, instead of the usal selecting from the alphabet on a virtual keyboard.

Ok, in my next post I am going to conclude my report about the SNES game "Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator" and show off some funny jokes and references within the game.

Kind regards,
foxgog

Hello once more!

This is probably my last report about "Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator" on the SNES from 1995.

Let us take a look at some of the funny conversation with my crew members and the bar man!
I am going to translate or rather interpret the jokes and hope their meaning does not get lost in translation:

[picture 27]
(top-left & top-right)
After we had our encounter with the Romulan prototype 'Phoenix' in mission number 11 (#301), our communications officer 'Vanda M'Giia' asks: "I am wondering, does a Romulan Phoenix really exist?", we get to answer: "I have no idea, but we could fight as well against airplanes from the second world war.", to which she responds: "That would be ridiculous!"
(middle-left & middle-right)
On completing mission number 17 (#402) in which we had to fight the dangerous Tholians for the first time, our engineer Brady is lamentating, that he "whishes to return to the point when we had to destroy only radioactive objects, because they did not fire back at us". Our sarcastic answer is: "No, (they did not returned fire) they just let us glow in the dark."
(bottom-left & bottom-right)
The bar man, 'Jones', always want us to try one of his new non-alcoholic cocktails. After surviving the conflict (war) with the Tholians he offers us an andorian tea for free, but we refuse it by telling him: "No way, I did not survived the war only to be poisoned to death by one of your experiments!"

Next some ingame references, both to the Star Trek universe lore and other science fiction material:

[pictures 28 & 29]
The first three images (top-left, top-right & middle-left) from picture 28 shows two early (first after mission #302) ingame teaser for the already expected visit of Captain/Admiral James T. Kirk, and an excerpt of his famous 'Kobayashi Maru Test' debriefing speach: "Pray! The Klingons do not take prisoners."
Then we have an external reference to a completely different science fiction universe. Our communications officer 'Vanda M'Giia' wants to know "what we are pondering about?", "About life, the universe, and everything else", we respond. And she comments: "Sounds interesting. Let me know when you reach to a conclusion."
Does it ring a bell for you? -- Indeed, it hints to Douglas Adam's "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"!

Picture 29 highlights the inclusion of 'Harcourt Fenton Mudd' (aka 'Harry Mudd') from the original Star Trek TV series (TOS). He is a not so innocent, untrustworthy and actually criminal merchant, which Captain Kirk a couple of times had the pleasure to deal with or clean up the mess he caused. Our Vulcanian 'Sturek' was not wrong afterall, that "Mr. Mudd by far exceeds any kind of comprehension"! Even the bar man, 'Jones', comments: "Did you had a 'Mudd-simulation'?" And we as the player get to know, that Mr. Mudd is currently in rehabilitation from his criminal activities and had to give Starfleet the permission to utilize his life's story in simulations at the Academy.


In order to sumarize my recent experience with the SNES version of "Starfleet Academy", I enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

+ The imagery, typical sound effects and background music easily captures the feel of the original Star Trek TV show and the first six feature films.
+ The great variety in scenarios, mission design and for its time in available solution alternatives (not all bad decisions or failures automatically lead to a lost mission and repeated try at the same one--only if you aim for a 100% score, and even so, a couple of missions have two ways to achieve that) makes it quite interesting and each new mission intriguing.
+ Engaging in combat is strictly necessary or unavoidable in only 7 (representing 1/3) of all the 21 missions, but possible and viable in up to 16 missions.
+ Being rewarded with a new and stronger (more capable) ship every 5 missions--accompanied by a corresponding new bridge interior--keeps each of the 4 'year' sections fresh.
+ The different main species (Venturi, Romulans, Klingons, Gorn, Tholians) are diferentiated not only by their ship's design and combat capabilities, but also in their reactions when negotiating with them.
+ Considering the technical limitations, some interesting implementations of both some (lore) technologies including the 'cloaking' device, as well as, friendly fire and a ship subsystem damage model.
+ The game's overall pace and progression is reasonably fast, despite the relative slow moving and maneurvering ships in the 3D simulation (adds to the sense of steering capital ships and not dogfighters).
+ Somewhat impressive 3D models (at least of the different starships, each is easily recognizable).

- Some missions are almost like a puzzle with a little counter-intuitive solution (especially, with respect to the limited means available to the player).
- The last stretch of combat-focussed missions in the 'What if' scenarios can get a bit tiresome, because of the spike in the difficulty curve (in particular in mission number 19 (#404))!
- One nearly game-breaking tactic in the ship-to-ship combat with up to four enemies is to provoke enemy fire hitting other ships (friendly fire on enemies), but is highly situational (not so easily repeatable) and depends on a lot of circumstances/luck.
- There are no front, back, backboard, starboard, top or bottom shield sections.
- The lack of utilizing the so-called 'FX-chip' for faster polygon calculations results in a comparable slow realtime 3D rendering in the game and missing of textures.
- Technically, only 4 colours (white, grey, red, and green) are being used on all 3D models. (Planets have more variety and colors even in the sprite-based Star Trek point & click adventure games!)
- Besides minimal background animations, only single static bridge interior screens and no alternative viewpoint or individual station close-ups.
- Minor translation errors can lead to a kind of confusion (German version).


Would I recommend it to newcomers?
I guess, yes.

Do I rate it better than the two years later released PC version of "Starfleet Academy"?
Yes, and no.
Obviously, the technology used is superior in the PC version, the FMV sequences and voice overs add to the atmosphere, and I do like the 'rotating' / switching viewpoint to individual crew stations on the bridge.
But the SNES version is faster paced and has a better feel to it, especially regarding the ship steering as well as the different opportunities or options for completing the missions.


[Bonus: picture bridge_comparison]
A comparison of the 'Enterprise' bridge in the NES game "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary", in the SNES game "Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator", the two MS-DOS games "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary" & "Star Trek: Judgement Rites", and finally the PC game "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy".

See you again in the year 1996!
Kind regards,
foxgog

Minor nitpick: On the screenshot it reads "biplanes from WW1". I suppose that's a reference to the mission in Judgment rites where Trelane poses as a WW1 flying ace and attacks the Enterprise with his biplane.
Never played this console game myself, but in some ways it looks more faithful to the spirit of the tv series than the Starfleet academy pc game. The latter was too exclusively focused on combat.

Was suffering bottlenecks with my previous layout, so decided to completely redesign the central station. Now there are multiple exits from the station that any train can take, and all cargo trains have been redirected to only use the tracks between the 2 stations (both count as the same station however). So far 62 trains are using this central setup, and there doesn't appear to be any bottlenecks anywhere :D

The maintenance depots for the white cargo trains can still be improved though.

My trip to 1995 is almost done, still a couple of days before the space ship leaves for 1996.

Just finished Full Throttle Remastered, Gog edition wich was free a couple of years back. Played on the Surface tablet since it supports touchscreen input !!!!!
You can start throwing rocks (maybe a pair of forks?) since I shamefully used a walkthrough. In my defense it was the first Point and Click game I ever played but found the puzzles too anoying, not too hard, just too inconsistent and random. Even with a walkthrough I spent a awfull lot of time on the bike fight scene, without it I would never finished the game. Why da frak should the bike fight require a particular set of order with the weapons? If it at least made any sense, like a chainsaw beats a small knife and so forth...

I did actually enjoyed the movie (forget the playing parts, was a horrendous chore for me), its great. The voice acting is freaking brilliant, the story was cool and so was the music. I really liked the art style, characters are good and the enviroment kinda reminds me Worms Armageddon/World Party maps.

Did I mention the voice acting was top notch?

I didn't brought my camera to the trip but managed to take a cool picture with the cell phone just at the end (actually replayed the end for that). Ben is BadAss, Evel Knievel style.

Now, to redeem myself for the shame to public admit have used a wakthrough, because no one should ever do that or save scum for that matter, wich I never did, not once, ever, (today...) I am playing Mortal Kombat 3!
That crap of a A.I. is cheap as chips, I do remember some broken moves from my Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) time with friends, back in the day, like subzero freeze spam before landing backwards jump, but boy oh boy is the AI cheating constantly reading moves.
Playing the SNES version on Retroarch, it may take a while before I beat the damn thing, may never happen... I did bought the game (1, 2 and 3 ) on GOG a few years ago but configuring the controller with DOSBox takes time and already have Retroarch setup.

All in all, I enjoyed 1995 but looking foward to the '96 trip where my dear Metal Slug wait for me :D

Edit: fixing a couple of undetected typos. Also, the picture name should read Ben rides Michael Knight's bike