Judgment Rites – Who Watches the Watchers

 by Will Moczarski

In our second mission, the crew of the Enterprise is looking forward to taking leave on a planet called Nova Atar. Just like in the TOS episode "The Immunity Syndrome", that ain't happening. There's a bit of crew banter about Kazakhstanian Cognac, and then an emergency call from the Science Vessel Demeter interrupts all further planning. Demeter was located in orbit around Balkos III when the ship was suddenly scanned. That alone wouldn't be unsettling, however, the Demeter's commanding officer Gellman tells us that the inhabitants of the planet are just entering their own stone-age. Gellman is concerned that they may have triggered an old defense mechanism from a sunken civilisation. In the spirit of "better safe than sorry" he pulled his ship up to a higher orbit and made an emergency call for good measure. 

In Soviet Russia brandy inwents you.

I run some of the new data by the computer - Nova Atar (our original destination), the Demeter, Balkos III (our new destination), Gellman, and the Balkosi - but learn nothing new. Then I check my trusty star map and head straight for Balkos III. I command Sulu to steer the Enterprise into the planet's orbit and assemble a landing party consisting of the usual suspects. 

Don't be coy, doctor.

Upon arrival we are scanned by the unknown entity but that is hardly surprising if you take into account where we landed. This is not a stone-age environment but rather the remnants of a technologically advanced civilisation. Or maybe not even remnants? What is this set-up? As soon as I regain control, the three computer consoles in the room are suddenly protected by impenetrable force fields. It seems that somebody is a little touchy about their personal data while they don't mind scanning us down to the Bones.

The Clue! - Busted!

Written by MenhirMike

This session started with me having a closer look at my available tools. I really wanted to do the Jeweller the last time, but couldn’t find an accomplice that could open the safe. Would the game really give me a location and no way to burgle it? It’s possible, but it’s had a pretty good progression so far. So I went back and looked through every tool available and found that they sell a cutting torch that only requires a 35% skill in safes, whereas a stethoscope requires a whopping 70%. The stethoscope is faster, cheaper, and creates less noise, but the cutting torch is usable by accomplices I can actually recruit. 

Also makes great Crème brûlée.

I look like Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan in this.

King’s Quest VII - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Written by Michael

Seriously?

Part 2 of our post-Halloween post.  Or pre-Halloween post, depending on your level of optimism, I suppose.

When we last were here, I was making my way to the swamp creature from the blue lagoon, armed with a potion from the local sawbones.  So, through the main gates to what I think of as a garden.  A garden of evil, mind you.

In my last game for the blog, a flower gave me perfume. Now, the tables are turned.

On to the swamp creature.  As he comes after me, I whip out my trusty spray bottle, and poof!  Since he's entirely plant life, he disappears completely. The trusty scarab in my pocket tells me I did a good job. Again, I'm reminded about how the defoliant stinks. This ends up being a clue for something later.

Judgment Rites – I hope you like to click on computers a lot.

 by Will Moczarski

Last time I promised to take a look at the manual with you and walk you through it before starting my first mission in Judgment Rites. However, the manual is quite long (36 pages) and takes a no-nonsense approach to explaining the game, meaning it is far more informative and much less entertaining than the manual for, say, Pepper's Adventures in Time.

Two pages stand out, though. Firstly, there is a cute little text from the team about what it means to be a Trekkie and that it has been a great privilege to work on a Star Trek game (shown above). And then there is this beautiful black & white picture of the team: 

What looks like a "T" located near the middle of the team is actually an "I".

There's also some information about the factions that are likely to bother you at some point in the game (Elasi, Romulans, Klingons). And of course it contains an in-depth explanation of the interface which is truly necessary if you've never before played one of Interplay's Star Trek adventure games. It's very similar to the one used in 25th Anniversary as there are two main areas that work a bit differently. You start out on the bridge which is where you can be pulled into bothersome space fights or consult Mr. Spock's computer using a keyword system not unlike, say, conversations in some of the earlier Ultima games, meaning if you get it wrong even just a little bit the fancy 23rd century computer won't know what the hell you're asking it about. If you navigate to the correct section of the star map (more on that below) you will advance the main plot – if you go just about anywhere else, it's more space fights for you. 

The Clue! - Now We’re Playing With Power

Written by MenhirMike

Last time, I ended up liberating the bones of Karl Marx, but unfortunately the police liberated my car from me. So I started this session with a trip to Cars & Vans, Wellington Road to buy a new one. You can go to the parking lot and look at available cars, which includes the cheap Fiat Topolio in various model years. But since that was only a 2-seater, I turned to the 4 seater options instead, of which four fit my budget of 1797 pounds.

• Morris Minor 1948 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 66% condition, 40% capacity, 17% conspicuousness) for 1260 pounds

• Morris Minor 1950 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 78% condition, 40% capacity, 23% conspicuousness) for 1490 pounds

• Morris Minor 1953 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 94% condition, 40% capacity, 28% conspicuousness) for 1780 pounds

• Jeep 1940 (54 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 27% condition, 42% capacity, 76% conspicuousness) for 1010 pounds

The 1945 CJ (“Civilian Jeep”) was the first mass-produced civilian four-wheel drive car