EGA Trek - ADG Episode 321

[@109pooka]

I used to play this so much. There are a few other tricks I've found: 1. You should try to shoot the Mongol supply ships (the green ones) with only small laser bursts. If you damage them enough that way without destroying them, they'll surrender and you'll get their supplies. (I discovered this when trying to shoot back with very broken-down lasers once.) 2. The death ray can also misfire, in which case you won't die, and the enemy won't be destroyed, but the sector will be filled with black holes. 3. If your short-range scanners go out, the "scan" command will at least provide some information on enemy ships in the sector. 4. If you're in the mood to cheat, the laser firing interface doesn't do a proper sign check. If you enter negative numbers there, sometimes they'll shoot a massive amount of energy, but other times you'll gain energy instead. (The number -98304 usually does the latter.) 5. Sometimes the game bugs out and produces Mongol ships with random colors and shield values (the latter shown by the "scan" command).

[@herbiehusker1889]

I have sunk hours upon hours of my life into this game. I love it. Especially the earlier versions that actually call the enemies Klingons and Romulans.

[@Pixelmusement]

The main reason I don't recommend the RGB Classic Games website anymore is because many of the links there are broken now, or randomly break and randomly start working again; You can still get games from there for sure it's just not being maintained properly anymore. :P

[@tsilb]

KZbin just... GETS me. This vid randomly shows up in my feed... I haven't seen this thing in 30 years but instantly recognized it. Keep being awesome.

[@Pixelmusement]

This game definitely has a "look" to it that's easy to pick out! :B

[@alexanderglassgames4170]

I love this kind of tactical space exploration and resource management games, it's pretty much an extinct game genre itself that I know of.

[@BBHood217]

This game is why I name ships "Lexington" in other games.

[@bradencampbell464]

Holy crap, that rakes me back! That one was a huge part of my childhood!

[@DesmondShannon87]

the fact that LGR sent you this game makes it worth watching

[@Pixelmusement]

He's sent me a lot of games; I'm not sure ALL of them are interesting but then, the only way to know for certain is to play 'em! :B

[@StooDogg]

Dug this one up and found a website that allowed it to play in browser. Great game, controls are so simple and elegant - played on levels 1-4 so far successfully, but that death ray is a...... Thing - I got the same 'The ray backfired and mutated half the crew' but I survived, for a short time after, it was like the crew was mutinying, pressed a command and you got a response from engineering saying stuff like 'Dont worry be happy,' and 'Who put you in command anyway.' Smiley face emojis on the main viewer? They had emojis back then???? :o Now, CHALLENGE RUN - Mutate the crew at the start, might take a few misfires, but once it pops, save, then try and play the game with this Red Dwarf style ''You're Captain Arnold Rimmer'' mode?

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi Great game that i played when it was first released. Each version / update has some slight differences, the star trek names had to be removed ( not sure if i read about a letter send in one of the faq or accompanying documents in V3 and newer ), my old 386 has one of the early version and load or land / mine is different, some key strokes are different as well but basically the same A few years ago i almost finished a remake in excel 2003 - i need to find it and finish it If you find the game hard just save the file often and reload when you die Some hints Dont run around full speed Or with shield ups Jump every 4 spares and do long range scan Use the galaxy map / computer option to make the 8x8 sector When you first start use the hail command, a few minuted or say 20 moves later you will get some responses from star bases with there co-ordinated you can view the saved games , it is a simple text file, you can edit it, dont change the date to much it will ruin your score If you are really desperate , use a negative number for phaser , it is a bug and it will charge up your reserves This is the only software that i have placed on every machine i have owned and used for almost 30 years With many enemy use max to max your shields after the enemy shoots you I have used the save game before going to a planet and use teleporter / shuttle, i have re-restored many times and it varies with what you find. Interesting , if you dont save a planet when it asks for help, you find a destroyed settlement Low on energy , if you have raw crystals, save the game then use if , it is a 50/50 it will work, if it does not , restore the game and try again, yo may need to do this a few times to yet a "it worked senario" - i dont know why i load the same saved game 10 times and will get different results, my guess is the program may look at the current time is seconds or hundred of seconds and use that as a randomiser eg if last character of time = 2 then it works or something similar in nature ( well that is how i do it in my basic code ) If life support is low, fix it asap, often i you do a manual fix and concentrate on it for 2 days - most times it works - again if you want a good score, save first and then try the repair Regards George

[@root42]

Yay! EGA Trek! That's something I think EVERYBODY had back in the day. And yes, it was at times totally unfair.

[@antzpantz]

Interesting seeing you alternate between the Enterprise and the Lexington gameplay! 😂

[@EdmondDantes224]

The drought ends, the skies clear... best DOS game reviewer returns for a new year!

[@XanthinZarda]

Welcome back! This is indeed a game I played, but I remember the graphics & names being more...copyright infringing. Probably a previous version.

[@UndrState]

I still have a copy of the Star Trek version of this . Lots of fun .

[@Ribulose15diphosphat]

Descent meets Lemmings ? Sounds like something from Bullfrog. They are known for both strategy and 3D-Graphics.

[@stormthrush37]

I had this game on floppy when it originally was out and I loved it. Good game to cover on the channel!

[@justinbollaert2253]

OMG, i loved this game, it was one of the few shareware games i paid and registered

[@GreySectoid]

Never played this but there's something incredibly nostalgic in these kind of dos games, especially this early "pc beeper" era which introduced me to computers.

[@ScruffyMisguidedAndBlue]

That isn't based on Spacewar, which was the first video game which had realtime gameplay. In 1977 I played what I guess was the origin of EGA Trek on a teletype connected to a university computer, and I thought back then it was called Startrek, or maybe Strek. I did love playing that game as a kid.

[@Pixelmusement]

I probably should clarify that in the video description: No, this isn't based on the "Spacewar" most people are familiar with, but the game itself WAS sometimes called "Spacewar" back on mainframe computers. I thought that name was more common than Star Trek, but I did a little looking following getting this video up and realized that it's the other way around, the Star Trek name was much more common than the Spacewar name. :P

[@KrunoslavSaho]

I remember this one from when I was 9.

[@flash24g]

I'm particularly puzzled that, when entities were renamed, StarBases didn't change. It isn't a settlement on a planet that gives you supplies. It's a Mongol supply station. Settlements are another thing. If a planet requests evacuation, the scanners will show a settlement on the planet, from which you will pick up the settlers. Or if you're too late, a destroyed settlement. I'm not sure what happens if you land on a planet with a settlement when it hasn't sent an evacuation request.

[@TheMoogleMaster]

I had this one on a shareware CD... Along many other versions of this same game.

[@zzco]

My dad used to have WinTrek lmao

[@Pixelmusement]

That doesn't tell us anything; I've played THREE different games, made by different people, ALL called "WinTrek"! XD

[@zzco]

The sticker literally said "WinTrek" and it came on a 5 1/4" floppy disk xD

[@zzco]

I also had a Wolfenstein 3D map editor on 5 1/4" floppy xD

[@retroinspect]

Fans of the text Star Trek games should check out the 2.0 release of Star Fleet 2. It's like the X series of hardcore space sims wrapped in a nerdy text interface and I love it.

[@YDV669]

Reminds of the much earlier mainframe version of this game I used to play, badly, on the IBM-1130 back in high school. No display screens, everything had to print out on the system console by the Selectric ball printer.

[@ChrisFreeman_4Bit]

Love all the flavors of Super Star Trek out there. This one had some new things I hadn’t seen before. I’ll have to check it out.

[@NathanLJustice]

I've never seen this one. Interesting.

[@catfishkempster]

I played the CRAP out of this game on my first real PC. I loved it. Thanks for the video.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Oh MAN! Did I play the *hell* out of this!

[@jaynorthpen]

Loved this game back in the day. Really is one of the best Trek games

[@JeffGraw]

You should do a related game, Krellan Commander, which is pretty much the ultimate evolution of this mini-genre.

[@the_oc_brewpub_sound_guy3071]

I used to play this game quite a bit. It reminds me of another game that I can't remember the name of. In the game I can't remember you'd make ships, they'd go to a star to get resources and return to your base. You'd use those resources to buy more ships to do this even more. In that game you'd make ships like a centipede, you'd add cargo pods, thruster pods, or weapon pods. Every pod you added made the ship longer/slower. Anyone remember that game?

[@Pixelmusement]

Sounds kinda like Star Control 2...? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJ24qXmXpqagoLc

[@the_oc_brewpub_sound_guy3071]

That's a great game, but the one I'm thinking of had graphics more like Startrek EGA. It was a pretty simple game, there wasn't much of a story, and the game mechanics were much more simple than Star Control 2.@@Pixelmusement

[@brendanstone3073]

Stellar Conquest III

[@the_oc_brewpub_sound_guy3071]

@@brendanstone3073 that's exactly it! I played that game quite a bit way back in the day.

[@mpettengill1981]

Spaceward Ho! perhaps?

[@PJBonoVox]

Never played this but the interface still brings out a nostalgic feeling in me. Love the look of these old games.

[@XanthinZarda]

Borland and TurboPascal Win 3 widgets for me.

[@UTUBMRBUZZ]

This game is based on Trek. However its a basic game written in Basic. It was a rather popular little program Several versions was made for different computers like ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro , Atari st and Apple II. The most extensive one was for PC.

[@Pixelmusement]

Its origins go back further than that to mainframe computers in the early 70s, where it was mostly known as "Star Trek", sometimes "Spacewar", and future variants were sometimes just called "Trek". www.mobygames.com/game/91183/star-trek/

[@TyphinHoofbun]

I had some Trek game way back in the day, no clue which one. Black and white, Star Trek themed with Klingons and all, actually made you type "AYE" instead of "YES" if you wanted to play again. I was way too young to figure much out, I probably only understood about half of it. I definitely figured out how to torpedo starbases and get immediately court martialed for it, though. Did that a lot when I got frustrated. ^_^;;

[@Pixelmusement]

That sounds like it might have been one of the many BASIC-coded versions put out in computing magazines. Someone you know (or a local software distributor) may've typed it up, compiled it, and slapped it on a floppy disk. :P

[@roguerifter9724]

I love this game. I played it so many times as a kid. I got it and the Star Trek game of this type on the same shareware collection. They were among the few PC games I played back then where I actually felt like I was playing as the ship's captain.

[@UndrState]

Also , can`t you just use the arrow up and down for shields iirc ?

[@Pixelmusement]

Yep! Those keys work as shortcuts to those commands! I just find it easier to type in the actual commands because my brain doesn't mix shortcuts and typing together very well. :P

[@_JPlays_]

Epilepsy warning around the 12 min mark. That's some serious flashing. Also WB for 2024. Always enjoy new episodes of ADG.

[@Pixelmusement]

I keep this kind of stuff in mind when making my videos since I myself am mildly susceptible; The "flashing" in that moment is not nearly as bad as it looks due to the rate not being constant and the contrast between the main interface and solid black being fairly low. In order for flashing to trigger epilepsy it has to be both high-contrasting colours and/or brightness and at a sustained rate of flashing of 3 Hz or faster. (IE: 3 flashes per second or faster.)

[@theking4mayor]

The best star trek game, period

[@cdoublejj]

see you are still making videos

[@Pixelmusement]

It's my primary source of income; Unless and until that changes I will continue to make videos! :B

[@psycthom]

This is what I lose about ADG - being reminded of games I'd totally forgotten about!!

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

I am glad we sorted all this out so I can pay rent

[@mousebetr]

Egg Trek

[@Pixelmusement]

Or rather, what autocomplete thinks "EGA Trek" is. ;)

[@DaveVelociraptor]

Maybe my memory is incorrect but i remember playing this game with Klingons etc in it. I wonder if I'm wrong or if a version existed with the text changed

[@georgemaragos2378]

Due to a copyright letter sent to the programmer, it had a name change and the newer releases had to lose all the star trek names

[@DaveVelociraptor]

@@georgemaragos2378 ah so I wasn't making it up. I played an earlier version then

[@Pixelmusement]

I briefly show an earlier version at a couple points in the footage. ;)

[@DaveVelociraptor]

@@Pixelmusement Oh I didn't spot that!

[@davidg4288]

So what are these "999" sectors on the long range scan?

[@Pixelmusement]

Quadrants which have gone supernova. Attempting to enter or pass through one will either shoot you elsewhere in the galaxy or destroy you. :P

[@davidg4288]

@@Pixelmusement Got it! I used to play "Star Fleet" (not to be confused with "Startflight") which was a commercial Trek clone that also renamed everything to avoid copyright. It was just 24 row x 80 column text though, not that EGA high resolution mode used so well by EGA Trek. We had an unauthorized Trek on our IBM mainframe at work, I wish I had the Fortran source for it just for posterity. It'd need IBM mainframe emulation to run and the Trek clones are an improvement anyway.

[@stephenbraddy9925]

Trust me: You need to play a game called "Begin: A Tactical Starship Simulation".

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi i had the amiga and dos version of that, great game - the amiga was better as it has some basic speech

[@SteveMacSticky]

Did you do the Picard manoeuvre while playing?

[@Pixelmusement]

You can't since you don't use warp engines for intraquadrant travel, only interquadrant. :P

[@SteveMacSticky]

@@Pixelmusement close... The other Picard manoeuvre....

[@XanthinZarda]

@@SteveMacSticky I don't think the Lexington has a saucer to separate.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@XanthinZarda FUN FACT: If it was still the original Enterprise, which is Constitution Class, it actually CAN separate its saucer! This was never explored in TOS and it's somewhat apocryphal as to if this really was a thing envisioned in the early days of Star Trek, but regardless it DID retroactively become an official thing in the modern comics! :O

[@SteveMacSticky]

@@Pixelmusement okay, the Picard manoeuvre I am referring to is Picard pulling down his uniform vest. But I am impressed you know the in universe manoeuvre

[@СталкерТравушка]

😂 omg i played this 4 hrs... noticing how old and nerdy i am... Btw cant find a review of a dos game that i loved - and it seem to be not really covered. Any information about it is so sparse. Bruce Lee lives - the fall of hong kong palace by software toolworks

[@grahamwilson4053]

Well, the thing about a black hole, it's main distinguishing feature, is it's black! And the thing about space, the colour of space, your basic space colour...is it's black! How are you supposed to see them?

[@Pixelmusement]

Oh, I don't have a problem with not being able to "visually" see them. What I have a problem with is that black holes put out as much gravitational force as a freaking STAR. An advanced starship with sensors able to detect stars and relay their counts on long range scans should ALSO be able to detect black holes and yet somehow doesn't??? Given that the black holes in this game can literally end your run if you so much as touch them you really should be getting warnings from your computer at the VERY LEAST when entering a quadrant with black holes present. :P

[@grahamwilson4053]

@@Pixelmusement Never seen Red Dwarf. :P

[@Pixelmusement]

@@grahamwilson4053 Nope! ...I mean, I suspected you weren't being super-serious but at the same time you didn't have your comment in quotes and it's the internet where tone of voice is hard to convey so... there we are! :B

[@grahamwilson4053]

@@Pixelmusement Well, now you have a suggestion for what to watch sometime.

[@JonnyD79]

I think I'll stick to Visual Star Trek 😝

[@warlock415]

"Dept of SPACE"??

[@Pixelmusement]

That would be the Department of Sentient Protoplasm Against Colonial Encroachment... and if you get that reference you win all the points. ;)

[@warlock415]

@@PixelmusementWhat a ... complex... expansion of that acronym.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@warlock415 I don't even think it's ever actually stated in the cartoon, only the original comics. :P

[@VaterOrlaag]

I mean, calling an alien species "Mongols" isn't any dumber than "Romulans".

[@0011peace]

I perfer star fleet I with its levels and record there is a Dos version though i play the apple 2 version