Tau Ceti is a game set in the future, not just
any future, but a future whose destiny was set in 2047
by the discovery of the Interstellar Drive. Using hydrogen
scoops, spaceships could now collect the hydrogen constantly
drifting on the flowing solar tides and use it as fuel,
allowing them to travel deep into space. Three years
later the first wave of Colonists left Earth and headed
for four G type stars; Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, Van
Maanen's Star and Beta Hydri. Mankind's colonisation
of the stars had at last begun.
The
planet of Tau Ceti was the most inhospitable of the
quartet and for ninety years the colonials battled adverse
conditions, eventually building thirty cities and a
strong trade in mining, robot technology and hydroponics.
Everything had just started to tick smoothly when disaster
struck -- a vicious plague known as Encke's Syndrome
swept across the planet all but wiping out the population.
The few who survived fled, leaving the planet to the
robot maintenance systems.
The
doctors and bacteriologists on Earth immediately began
researching the deadly virus and after two years discovered
the cure, and links between the other colonies were
resumed. It was decided by the League of Planets that
Tau Ceti should be recolonised, and a few months later
a craft set off to the barren planet. When it arrived
it reported that a meteor had crashed into the planet
but none of the buildings and installations in the various
cities seemed to be damaged, so the landing procedure
went ahead. Back on Earth mission control monitored
the landing as usual, but picked up huge static interference.
It was too late to warn the occupants of the colony
craft of any danger because whatever was going to happen
had already happened -- the great distance between Earth
and Tau Ceti meant that any radio transmissions took
hours to reach mission control. All they could do was
watch helplessly as the static cloud enveloped the ship
. . . no further transmissions were received.
A
remote satellite probe was sent down to the planet's
surface and it became apparent that the radiation burst
emitted by the impact of the meteor had caused the automatic
robot systems to run amok, destroying anything they
considered to be hostile. Plans were drawn up and it
was decided that the only way to bring the robot systems
back to manual control was to send in an armed skimmer
to shut down the massive fusion reactor in the planet's
capital city, Centralis. Seven years later, after much
research, discussion and training, a solo ship entered
the atmosphere, with you as its pilot.
The
survival and success of your mission depends entirety
on your ability to control the ground skimmer. This
useful little armoured craft has been especially customised
for your mission and has many useful features. Nodding
dog, furry dice and rear window tail lights have tastefully
added to the craft to give you that certain hero credibility.
Other offensive gear includes eight heat seeking missiles,
eight anti-missile missiles, eight flares and a ruby
single mounted laser. For information during your mission
a standard JCN computer has been fully debugged and
mounted to the side of the main viewscreen. The craft
travels low along the ground, although the actual height
of its transit can be changed slightly. Getting from
one city to the other is done by flying over a jump
pad and pressing the J key -- this transports you to
another city elsewhere on the planet.
The
screen is split into three main areas: The view screen,
the computer readout area and the information display
area (which is split into five sub areas). The view
screen displays whatever is on the outside of the craft
and the computer area is text readout which also allows
text input so you can interact with the computer. The
information section displays a radar map of the locality
along with game time elapsed, direction bearing, current
location and status. There are also two direction finders,
one which points towards the centre of the city you're
currently trundling around and the other which paints
towards the nearest jump pad.
The
computer has several functions which can only be accessed
while the skimmer is docked. Typing MAP
gives a picture of the planet which appears in the review
screen. You can zoom into the planet's surface and using
arrow icons to scroll the map you can see were all the
cities (there are 32) lie. Pressing the fire button
produces the prompt 'which city' and typing in the name
of one of the cities gives information on the chosen
subject. If PAD is typed, a notepad
springs into view on which notes can be jotted dawn
(highly useful is this). The game can also be SAVEd,
an old game LOADed, the KEYS
redefined, the ship repaired and re-equipped with more
fuel and ammo, and the sights switched on or off.
The
game starts with the skimmer docked with the Gal-Corp
landing craft. Typing LAUNCH into
the JCN computer ejects the skimmer
from the warmth of the landing craft into the barren
desert city of Reema. The planet of Tau Ceti has one
sun which gently moves across the heavens, causing the
shadows on the different buildings to change. When it
sets, though, you are plunged into complete darkness,
requiring the skimmer's infra red system to be switched
on.
Some
of the cities have automatic robot drone ships guarding
them, others are heavily fortified by laser towers.
When you encounter an offensive object it's best to
destroy it as quickly as possible -- if you don't and
it starts firing at you, the skimmer's defensive shield
becomes diminished and if you're not careful the ship
could be destroyed.
The
actual idea of the game is to locate the forty pieces
of reactor rods, assemble them into twenty full rods
and plonk them in the central reactor at Centralis,
done by flying around and docking with the various dockable
buildings. When docked you're told whether there are
any rods present, if so they're automatically picked
up and taken along with you. Assembling can only be
done when docked. Typing RODS
results in the Rods screen being displayed. The process
of fixing the rods together is done with the aid of
a cursor which can be moved over a piece, picked up
and placed in one of the six windows. You can then flick
through the other pieces to look for one that fits the
other half. When a likely piece comes into view it can
be picked up and placed on the other half. Pressing
the fire button puts it into place and it's automatically
assembled if it does fit. By the way, a piece might
need to be flipped horizontally or vertically before
it fits and there are icons on the screen to allow you
to do so.
When
all the pieces have been assembled you have to make
your way to the heavily guarded Centralis reactor and
dock with it Typing REACTOR puts
you in the reactor room and you can put all the rods
in place. Simple eh? You're forgetting that the place
is irradiated and too much time there spells certain
doom . . .
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