Tag: Star Trek

Klingon Honor Guard Mac Review (1999)

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1999 and is reproduced as originally written, with the original screenshots (click to enlarge). More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacSoft
Tested on	G3 233 MHz 96 MB RAM (total: 131.1 MB) MacOS 8.5.1 (US)
Gameplay	4.5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	4.5 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	3 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Marty Dodge

If one wishes to be truthful I had my doubts about KHG before I played it for the first time. As Babylon 5 aficionado I have always felt STNG and its brethren to be a bit too “caring and sharing” for me. I am by no means a Trekkie. I happy to inform you that one does not need to be a Trekkie to enjoy this game, just a fan of brutal 3D action. I always thought the Klingon were the only interesting race in Star Trek. Now I know why, it is the Bat’leth that I love . This vicious, five bladed, two handed close combat weapon is more fun than any long range weapon in any other game. Cleaving an opponent with your backstroke is the most satisfying experience of any 3D shooter on the market. Unlike most games in the genre, KHG provides the ability to do fancy maneuvers with both the Bat’leth and the D’k Tahg (dagger.) The rest of the weapons in your arsenal are impressive as well and provide more variety and killing power than say Unreal (whose engine KHG uses.)

The gameplay and storyline in KHG is superior to Unreal, making it seem as if one is truly involved in the plot. The game is presented in a way, with extremely good cutscenes, that makes you feel as though you are part of the latest Star Trek movie. But unlike being in a ST movie there are none of those pesky Federation humans running around. As the plot centers around a conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor by fellow Klingons of the traitorous House of Duras, there are few of the other ST races around, in fact the only other humanoids are the so-called Andorians. (A race of pirates and smugglers. Wonder where they came up with that name? And will the tiny country involved sue for slander?) As you are facing fellow Klingons, you are able to see the weapons you can acquire, used on you beforehand.

The sound and graphics in this game are breathtaking, although the soundtrack does get a bit annoying over the course of the game. Much like DV, the game is mostly played in areas that are dimly lit, so it helps to play in a room that does not have too much glare. Logically because it is based on Unreal, the requirements for this game are astronomic. Two rules: give it as much RAM as possible and don’t bother on anything slower than a G3 or a 3Dcard equipped 604. Oddly enough KHG was much more stable than Unreal and so long as it had the full 96RAM I gave it, things ran smoothly, including the cutscenes. Those RMV movies employ actors experienced in the Klingon ethos.

The game is not too hard, but there are some levels that are a bit puzzling. I managed to complete it over a weekend of intense playing but played at a normal rate it should keep one entertained for a good amount of time. I was unable to try the multiplayer aspects of the game, but I will assume that they are great fun, if the “botmatch” is anything to go by. I did manage to explore some of the multiplayer maps and the ones I tried are huge and complete. Editor’s Note: I have played KHG multiplayer matches both over a LAN, and the internet. Although I had some trouble getting started, multiplayer games of KHG are great fun!

Overall I cannot recommend this game enough, I had a blast playing it. The only downside is that it is really a game for those with the latest fast Macs, with lots and lots of RAM. If you are a Star Trek fan, then it is indeed a must have, unless you truly hate the Klingons. As far as I am concerned KHG, is a strong contender for game of the year. “Heghlu’DI’ mobbe’lu’chugu Qaqu’Hegh wanl!”

Find a copy

Klingon Honor Guard has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Klingon Honor Guard on Amazon.

January 15, 1999

Starfleet Academy Mac Review (1998)

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published October 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacPlay
Tested on	Performa 5260/100 Mhz and a PowerMac 8600/300
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	4 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jonathan Dreyer

Note:(Feb 2/98)

On my new PowerMac 8600/300 I can play SFA with all options and sounds on (i had to have VM on as I only have 32 megs of RAM) and it played great! Smooth as can be!

“Take a seat in the captain’s chair as the USS Enterprise warps into space. Starfleet Academy allows the player to command 4 Federation class ships in combat against thirty 3-D rendered space ships from a cloaked Klingon™ Bird of Prey™ to a Romulan™ heavy cruiser. Reprising their original STAR TREK roles, William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Walter Koenig as Commander Chekov and special appearance by George Takei as Captain Sulu appear in full-motion video and interact with the player as never before. A original music score by Ron Jones and the script-writing talents of Dan Greenberg, Andrew Greenberg, Bill Bridge, Sandy Fries, and Star Trek novelist Diane Carey make Starfleet Academy a truly galactic experience.” — Interplay PR

Gameplay

Starfleet Academy has an unusual interface. It successfully combines an adventure game with an action simulation. Before each mission you are usually presented with a video where at certain points you have to choose what your character says, these segments will greatly affect the outcome of the game so you must be very careful when you select. Following the the video segment is your mission, in each mission you will be given a list of objectives to complete before you head back to the Starbase. Sounds simple, yes? No, not only do you have to be a great combat pilot to complete the mission, you have to think like a Starfleet captain, starfleet’s orders are not always right, to complete the mission you have to find the right way to complete the objectives, you may have to take the mission a few times.

I suggest that you use a joystick for the combat simulation segments. The combat segments are usually very fast paced, you must react very quickly to defeat your foes. The key to winning in battles is setting your damage and energy levels for combat before you actually get into combat, to end your battles quickly give your phasers as much power as possible.

Interface

Although Starfleet Academy’s interface is very intuitive, I have one complaint: I can’t find one Mac-like dialog box anywhere in the game, it uses completely graphical buttons. Other than that, I loved the Interface.

Difficulty

SFA allows you to select from the standard 3 different difficulty settings. On the first difficulty setting, “Plebe”, you shouldn’t have any trouble completing the game, that’s why I strongly suggest that you play on the medium difficulty setting.

Bugs

I have only encountered one bug: in the second mission with you have voices turned off the game would crash. I promptly sent in e-mail to MacPlay’s tech support and received a reply 2 days later. To get around this bug they told me to turn on voices for just that level, and viola…

Conclusion

In conclusion, Starfleet Academy is a great game that will give you hours of enjoyment. I must note one caveat, the system requirements: they’re pretty hefty:

80 Mhz PowerPC or better
25 megabytes of RAM FREE

First of all, 80 Mhz doesn’t cut it. Anything less than about 180 Mhz will require you to turn down the graphic option. As for the RAM, the game will run with Virtual Memory or RAM Doubler activated but the video segments will be VERY choppy.

So I say, if your machine can run this game, you will love it even if you don’t like Star Trek.

Find a copy

Starfleet Academy has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Starfleet Academy on Amazon.

October 19, 1998

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Mac Review (1998)

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Viacom Newmedia
Tested on	Performa 5260 / 100 MHz
Gameplay	3 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	4 / 5 apples
Interface	2 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	4 / 5 apples
Overall	3 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jonathan Dreyer

You are a Tirron envoy of the elite Federation diplomatic Corps. Joining forces with the crew of Deep Space Nine, you battle deadly unmanned drones. Track down a murderer on the space station and match strategies with mysterious aliens. All in a struggle to save a Gamma Quadrant race from annihilation and prevent the Deep Space Nine Space Station from suffering the same fate!

Gameplay

This is a first person perspective adventure game. You can move around, open doors, fire phasers, etc.. Beyond that, there are mini games in like manning a phaser to defend the station these use different interfaces. I found moving around in the first person perspective slow, and annoying, besides that the interface is great for the game.There are many different scenes, people and objects to interact in. You choose the choice for what Envoy says. You decide the fate of the Station, as you travel through the station and alien worlds.

Graphics and Sound

Harbinger has many cut-scenes with full 3D graphics, that not only look great, but ran silky smooth on my Performa. As for the gameplay graphics, they were wonderful, fully 3D and beautiful to look at. The scenes in the game were just like the TV show’s sets.The characters in the game were also very good, looking just like there real life counter-parts.

The background sound in Harbinger is excellent, the *EXACT* same as the background sound you hear in episodes of DS9. The hum of the power generators, rumblings in the station. The sound effects in Harbinger are OK, not great, but OK. Some of the sounds are pretty good like the phaser firing, but some are fake sounding like the turbo lift doors opening.

Interface, Difficulty, & Replayability

The first person perspective interface of Harbinger is great graphic wise, but slow and annoying gameplay wise.

Harbinger like all adventure games is challenging, there are hard puzzles to solve and easy puzzles. What sets Harbinger apart are the arcade mini games like defending the station against a drone attack, these make Harbinger much more enjoyable than other adventure games I’ve played recently like ST:TNG A Final Unity.

Harbinger like practically all Adventure games has zero replayability factor, nothing’ll change the second time you play, it’ll be the exact same as the first time you played.

Overall

Overall I enjoyed this game, it was challenging, fresh, and visually pleasing. If somebody asked whether I would recommend this game to them because they were considering it, I would. What I wouldn’t do is recommend this game to somebody who isn’t considering it themselves.

Find a copy

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Amazon.

January 15, 1998