Star Cruiser (X68000): Ye Olde Slaughterwad

Based on what happened last time, I should head to Jupiter first, then look for the hyperspace gate to Rigel. First, I need to get off Saturn. Despite usually being fairly easy, this is tricky. Remember how I was saying this was simple up/down, left/right movement before? Well, if you go upside down, you're upside down until you turn back around. Even if you land and come out again. That, combined with how the pirates are actually bothering to take advantage of 3D space is troublesome. There's no using that radar when an enemy is right on top of you.

The ferry to Io is $1200. Which by any measure is costly when I could travel there in my spaceship for less, but you can't, so I'm being extorted. For another town on a moon around Jupiter. There's a repair shop, a place where I can sell my decoy flares, and then a bar where I meet Daniel again. He's got some info on where some Solar Wind troops are, but I need to pay to get them. At least this is a reasonable price.

But hang on, there's no place I can buy decoy flares! Just a store I can sell things at. So I look around some more and find a secret pathway to a dungeon. Oh, good. Secret passages, new varieties of enemies, which aren't too bad, but it's just ever slightly more tedious. And what's inside this dungeon? Metal ore, which I can't yet sell. Well, I guess I better head for where the Solar Wind ships are, which is near Saturn, but not quite on it.

It turns out that this isn't just a group of Solar Wind troops, it's the leader of Solar Wind, in the Cutty Sark. Uh-oh, that's not a good sign. I don't have decoy flares. He's got what appears at first to be two guys with him, but are actually after images or illusions. I can't tell because I quickly enough got the right one and hammered it. But, that said one of these days I should probably learn to stop chasing enemies and ignoring getting shot at. The big cheese is gone, and I'm $8000 richer.

Cherenkov calls me after to congratulate me. He tells me to head out to Joshua Aykroyd in the Rigel Kent system, which I previously just called Rigel. I'm to find the Gravity Catapult, and apparently until now I didn't have the pass for it. I love not having the manual. That said, the question is if I should go there by myself or go back to Solar Wind's Mars base to take out their remaining troops. I decide to since it's on my way of trying to find the place. There's nothing really worth talking about there, I just end up clearing out a few groups of enemies and pick up a little money.

At this point it occurs to me to check the map to see where the Catapault is, and it's near Saturn. Huh, I never saw that earlier. After getting my pass and paying the fee, I get a neat little cutscene of getting shot out of the catapult. Once I'm in Rigel, a guy blocks my path and tells me to head to some building where Joshua is waiting for me.

Joshua isn't happy to work with Brian, but since this is an emergency, he has no choice. Dude has issues, because Brian makes an off-the-cuff joke before asking what he's doing and this guy bites his head off. Terrorists have taken over Axis Station 3 and are producing weapons there. Find out what kind and take them out. Easy, peasy. I recharge and buy a Beam Booster 2 at the local shop. Hopefully that improves something.

Rigel Kent is a two star system. A yellow star and a red dwarf. Oddly, I remember that the red dwarf had strong gravity, so getting in there is tricky. I also remember the names Folder, Fantasia, Fowl/Egg and Hurricane, because some of those I commented on at the time. I do not remember Cherry Shuffle. I would like to think I would remember that. I start at Axis Station 1, which is in the down-right position around Rigel Kent A, Axis Station 3 is up-right to it.

The distances between places are quite a bit longer than on Earth, and hostile ships are now labeled enemy. Fitting, since they're terrorists. They're not like the mysterious ones I couldn't kill around the one station, but they're a step above the ones I could kill. Since they give more money in some cases. The ones I took out getting there don't seem any more dangerous than the last ones, but I did just upgrade my damage.

At first Axis Station 3 seems like a dungeon, but it's actually a town with a dungeon. The first building I enter reveals why the terrorists have captured this place, they're manufacturing weapons they need to assassinate the alien ambassador. Rather than get an explanation as to why they need specialized weapons to take out the alien envoy, presumably star ships, the guy talks about their ethics. You can guess, human supremacists, aliens can go suck it.

After clearing out the central area, I have two teleports I can take. One which was completely clear, and one which was guarded by some soldiers. I take the later, and I immediately regret my choice. Four teleports, each guarded by two guards. If I'm about to go through these guys only to get screwed I'm going to be so ticked off. The east path I go through leads back to the starting area, though still not able to return to my spaceship. At least I can recharge. North...just teleports me back to the center. West leads me to a different place like the first. Is this how this level is going? Glad I have plenty of cash from traveling around the Solar System, because this is a drain on my finances.

Interestingly, once I get through the final teleport in the second area, I'm sent back to my ship. It's one of the teleports in the first area which leads to the important stuff, guarded by a strange enemy which just eats damage. Take him out and it's a one-way trip, leading to a place with an elevator. There's a set of VOID Commanders asking why I'm doing what I'm doing, saying that the aliens want to kill all of us. Which is a strange statement from a guy wearing a domino mask over a bird helmet. Nice to see we're getting some concrete motivation for our villains since the backstory.

I'm running really low on energy, and now that I'm in this section there's no way back to recharge. Which is unfortunate. There's just not enough energy units lying around, just a ton of repair units. Even if I've been getting hit, I just haven't been getting hit enough for that to hurt. It's just the slow drain of energy on my ship from fighting and recharging my shield which is causing it, and I finally die for once midway through a fight with some pyramid ships. Nothing special happens.

After I reload, I make sure to get a full charge before heading into the area, then only going for things that either give me energy or move me forward. This makes things a lot easier, as is the realization that the pyramid ships aren't that special. I find another information card, in which I find out that the next shipment of "ducks" will arrive soon and they'll be "cutting them up". At first I think this is a metaphor for their weapons, but then I realize that ducks are aliens. Wait, Domestic Duck? And I didn't realize that "Planet Folder" referred to the planet Folder until later.

A second card tells me that the duck is about to play and the hunter needs a good gun or trap. It's next to another energy tank, which is full and very appreciated. There's nothing else to do here on this floor, so I wonder if I've missed something until I head back to the elevator and realize there's another floor. Here one of the various mocking commanders tell me that their weapon is already at the location, and the aliens will soon disappear forever. This guy is very confident in their equipment.

After going to the end of this section, I end up getting teleported near the start of this floor. At first I think it's a teleporter maze until I get teleported back to the same area. This confuses me for a moment, as I even go back to the elevator down to an earlier floor. It takes me a bit of searching, but there's secret passage which leads to the teleporter I need to get out of here. Whew, that was a lot of going over the same fights over and over again, but I'm done. I head back to Axis Station 1 to see what I need to do next.

Joshua says Brian was fast in clearing out the base before receiving the information. Apparently they're heading to Folder next, and that's where I should go. Folder is the third planet from Rigel Kent A, up and right from the star. From where I am, it's just up. Do you know the strangest thing that I've realized as I go across the system? There are barely anything more than a handful of pirates hanging around. Fortunately, the ones that are around more than make up for what I'm losing on fuel, but it is strange. Usually later levels have more enemies, not less.

I arrive at Folder just in time it seems. Star ships which have weapons are forbidden from entering the planet, but before Brian can get permission, something happens to the space traffic controller. Brian's going in without asking for permission. This place is a full on dungeon, with a boss fight right at the start. Multiple shields a shot, and firing off more bullets than the average guy. Fortunately, afterwards there's nothing but normal guys. Well, normal for this stage of the game, anyway.

There's another figure standing, and I fear it's another boss, but it's actually Diana. She plays captain obvious a bit, and she knows it. But at least she tells me that the terrorists want to kill all aliens. I've got about thirty foes to deal with before I can rescue the ambassador. Thirty not so well trained foes is what she says, but they're really the normal guys. After a few more, I run low on fuel and worry if I'll need to gamble with staying or if I can go somewhere else. I can.

After I get back, I start finding big energy tanks containing 5k units. That's half of one energy tank, which is a lot. I also find a couple sacks of money around, which I'm sure was intended to not be thought of or be some terrorist's cash, but it feels to me like I just stole some unlucky guy's money. Sometimes being a game with a story in an era where a lot of stuff was still very abstract for various reasons can be weird.

I find the ambassador at the end of a corridor which I don't have much reason to go down. He looks like Martian Manhunter and the Coneheads had a baby. Brian tells him to head to a safer zone now that he's cleared out most of the place. The way I did have some reason to go down eventually leads to another commander who actually surrenders and offers me information. The building behind him is their hideout; A factory which as a prototype laser that's as powerful as the one on a battleship. Which I presume is powerful since he's making such a comparison.

This actually leads to a town. Where I can buy a nuke shield, which doubles my shield strength, and a place which sells decoy flares. I mean, I don't need it anymore, but maybe it'll help. If I can ever figure out how to use it. There's also autobullets and a gravity gun. I'm not really sure what either do just yet, and I'll wait until later to figure it out. In the meantime, I find the way to the factory, guarded by a terrorist in disguise.

As I'm in the middle of fighting one group of enemies, I decide to try out the decoy flares. I find out that they work when you open the menu. Well, maybe on space ships, if you use a decoy flare on the ground, it crashes the game. So, after restarting I go further, finding a door blocked by a fake building, which turns out to be a trap which destroys my shields.

I find the switch, and head into the inner factory. There's an unmarked trap which damages my shields after I walk over it. It activates every time. Inside is a single enemy, a guy with a weird, missile tank design. I fight him cleverly, a bit farther than I usually do in order to avoid his shots. I suspect getting hit would hurt me. And then it's just sort of over. Is that it? I was kind of expecting something to happen after winning.

The rest of the guys are no trouble either, and lead to nothing new. But, on my way out, Diana is there, ready to congratulate me on my success. They exchange a bit of information, with Diana saying that they know nothing of VOID's next move. She gives Brian a card to get his ship tuned up by a Meister on Station 2, which is where I'll go next time.

This Session: 3 hours 15 minutes

Total Time: 9 hours 55 minutes

Star Cruiser (Sharp X68000): Down to the Federal Level

The trip to Venus takes me past Mercury, because Venus is "right", Mercury "down" and Earth "lower right" in their orbits. It's a quiet trip, because the only pirates are near Earth for some reason. Guess that Brian is the last person to hear about the planned Hunter Guild. Venus itself looks much like a typical sci-fi planet. Guess some terraforming went on.

Once I touch down, there are a lot of space ships around and a guy blocking my path. He's not Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, but rather Masashi Clark, the head honcho of the new Hunter Guild. Brian apparently isn't that well known, because Clark only found out about him from Daniel. Clark is eager to have Brian help out, but Brian wants to know what it is he's supposed to do.

Before Clark can answer, VOID attacks...and then some overweight blond guy from the "Federal" agency arrests Clark for bombing the space port. Huh? After he drags him off, we get a Luke Skywalker-looking guy, who is called David Gede. David reacts with confusion at the whole mess, and Brian is the one who decides they need to do something to get Clark off the hook for a crime he didn't commit. Then David acts like he's in charge here. They split up, and I have to look for suspicious people.

I end up heading for the local bar first, called Blue Goddess. I'm not aware of any connection of Venus or Ishtar to the color blue, so this is exclusively just a reference to how this planet is now blue. Once the guy finishes introducing the bar, this guy chimes in. Boy oh boy, that is a fashion choice. Grill on head over a boxing helmet feels like something someone took from a joke game or some messed up horror movie. He asserts that Federal Patrol knows what's going on, they just needed a scapegoat because they were unwilling to do the real work. I wonder if they deal with alcohol and tobacco too? He claims that Solar Wind paid them off, and Brian says that VOID is powerful enough to do that. Really? The guys we stole a ship from consequence free? He finishes by telling me they have a base in the park with the fountain.

After taking an embarrassing amount of time, I find the fountain. Gee, I wonder who these guys are? This dungeon is the toughest one yet, because you're locked into it after a certain point and these are the fights where you have to constantly keep on the guys to hit them. There's also very little spare energy hanging around, and yeah, there are a ton of hidden passageways, some which are just there to throw you off.
 

At the end is the Solar Winds' leader, Leonov, who is quite the character. He's not especially tough for an enemy at this point, it's just that I barely had any energy by the time I reached him that it wasn't a guarantee that I'd be able to take him. What he's actually capable of is doing considerable damage to my shield, that I beat him on the first try was incredible. Afterwards, he begs for his life, and Brian makes sure to give it, since he needs him to free Clark.

After recharging my starship, I head to the Federal Patrol office. I was here before, but apparently the guy in charge doesn't consider Brian a trustworthy source. Brian is just...perfect as the obnoxious competent person while the patrol guy is incredibly sleezy even as he offers Brian a job. In fact, it's an actual job. Diana Gaddis, a Patrol officer, is MIA and they need her back. I actually remember her from the Genesis version, vaguely, since she was a main character. Guess we're getting on track for the plot. Now I just have to head to Earth where the Solar Wind base she tried to infiltrate was...only it's been two months and they've probably moved her. Brian even says she's probably dead. I see we're leaning heavily into the governmental incompetence theme...Still, we're getting 5k...which is...well, it's something. Before he goes, he mentions his name is Cherenkov, which I also remember from the Genesis version.

As I head to my [conveniently unbombed] Star Cruiser, Clark is waiting for me. He thanks me for getting him out of the Feds' custody and still plans on having a meeting for the Hunter's Guild. Brian says he'll attend one later, but he has an important task ahead of him, and the two leave in good company. I meanwhile, have to do a little grinding to get my cash back up and find out where I need to go. Starting with Earth seems as good as anywhere. 

Something I've neglected to mention so far is that on Earth and on Venus, there were information cards that I couldn't read until I got an Analyzer I. Since until now there wasn't a need to check the cards, I do so to figure out if they tell me where Diana is. It doesn't say, but does mention that Solar Wind has another Star Cruiser called the Cutty Sark. (I get the reference, but every time I hear that name it's goofy) 

The path back to Earth ends up taking me through a few fights, but for the most part, I'm making money on these. When I get near Earth, Daniel calls me up. Right in the middle of a fight, and I thought getting a call while driving was annoying. Casually, the two talk, with Brian asking where any Solar Wind bases are, and after being assured he'll get something in return, gives me the location of a guy called General Arsys. Clever.

This leads to a place out in the middle of nowhere. At first I get a message that there's a weak laser beam acting as a sensor, then several moments of nothing. It's only when waiting there for a moment do I get a call. General Arsys...is Lorne Green. Interesting choice. He knows who Brian is, but doesn't know he's looking for a Solar Wind base. He wants 2k for it. I'm then told that there are four bases in the Solar System, Jupiter, Mercury, Earth and Mars, the one I haven't already destroyed. Well, that solves that.
 

Mars is further up on the other side of the star, past Venus and a place called Station-2. Since I'm already heading that way, why not? It's another town, complete with a bar, wherein I hear a rumor that there's something interesting in the orbit of Saturn. There's a 50% chance "interesting" is something that's going to kill me, but I figure since Diana's been in custody for a few months, another day isn't going to kill her.

Saturn is farther out than any other location so far, since it's nearly as far away from Jupiter as most are from the Sun. The trip takes a lot out of my energy, but thankfully ships, while slightly tougher out here, give 400 a pop, which makes up for my loss. This leads to some trouble. How am I supposed to deal with this? Go to Saturn? This leads me to Titan station, where Federal Patrol HQ is, and I just realized I could have done this after freeing Diana, because the guy has orders from Cherenkov. It gets worse, because I realize that orbit could mean the red line around the planet indicating...the orbit. Well, hey, at least I know where I'm headed after I get Diana. 

Mars is a pretty decent place, seems somewhat tropical in design. Or it would if the walls weren't all untextured polygon blocks with the occasion cherry blossom which just looks like a vague tree. The local bar is Red Sand. In which I find out that this is actually a pretty terrible place rife with theft and crime. So, Space Los Angeles, minus the film industry. A random guy tells me that a thief is hiding in one of the trees near the gate to the old mine.

I look through all the trees and find nothing. Well, maybe I'm missing something here? There's a use function on my menu, but that needs an actual item, along with a move function. So I try that on the trees, and eventually find a path, leading to a secret wall, leading to the switch which opens the gate. At which point, I get captured by a guy like the one I captured back on Venus.

 

My stint in jail is quite short, because someone blows up the door, and now I have no shield. A short walk later and I meet my savior...Diana Gaddis, who I remember being blonde in the Genesis version. EGA purple is certainly a different hair color. Brian informs her of his mission to rescue her, but she refuses because she's still on-duty. Apparently she freed a random Hunter for...no reason other than the plot requiring it. Hey, at least I have a card to give them. (It tells me that in order to take out the Cutty Sark, I need to use flares, which can be found on Io among other places)

The dungeon is more complex than past ones. Entirely non-linear design just full of enemies. It doesn't take that much energy to restore my shields, and there are fuel tanks around, but I'm still on a limited amount of fuel until I get out. There's a new enemy type, which doesn't seem harder than past variations, they're not shooting as much, but sometimes there are three of them. So, I'm still getting hit. Curiously, the groups of two give more money than the groups of three.

I get out, and decide to leave the base alone for now, despite how pointless this seems. Sure, I COULD take out the last major group of Solar Wind...or I could let Diana do her job. I recharge, and then head off to Station 3, a space station located in Jupiter's orbit. I'm doing this, not just to get a little more cash, but to see where the "interesting" thing in its orbit is. Station 3 isn't too interesting, the bar there tells me things I already knew, VOID is behind Solar Wind, Solar Wind has a fancy new ship they're using against Hunters. And as I'm almost at Jupiter, I realize that it was supposed to be Saturn, not Jupiter. Sigh...

Between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn is Station 1, which really just serves as a small stopping point. Odd, since it isn't that far off from Jupiter and there aren't that many guys around. There's only repair shops and a bar there, which just tells me more stuff I already knew, Solar Wind is gearing up for war, and someone stole one of their new Star Cruisers. After that, the orbit of Saturn is mostly just empty space for a while. I set my ship on autopilot and mostly sit back as it goes along. Not like someone's going to shoot at me, but I am worried that I'll miss whatever's important here. Going around at full speed is quite fast, but it's the easiest way.

On the opposite end of Saturn's orbit, but not actually in it, is Station 4. Nothing in here but a bar, trees and a fuel station. Oddly, the random enemies outside of here are considerably tougher than the others. At least, they were taking out a good chunk of my shields and I wasn't doing much to hurt them. That's pretty much all I find out in the orbit of Saturn. Hopefully I just need to trip an event flag later and I didn't actually miss something.
 

When I finally make it back to Cherenkov, he's subdued at first. Then we go over information from the card. Since Brian needs permission to go to Io, he'll get it for him. Apparently there's no money to be had in dealing with Solar Wind and VOID just yet, so Cherenkov tells us to head to the Rigel system and escort an alien ambassador. He tells me to kill all the terrorists trying to assassinate him. Well, that shouldn't be too hard.

I'll leave it here. We've got a nice, new objective and I've seen most of what the Solar System has to offer. Next time, we'll find out how the Rigel system looks, or possibly see a game from 1984. I threatened that last time, but honestly, I'm still debating whether or not to keep or toss one of the last four games.

This Session: 2 hours 40 minutes

Total Time: 6 hours 40 minutes

Star Cruiser (Sharp X68000): Wandering Around the Solar System

I head back to town and head for the Great Red Spot, to see what they have to say. Might as well, right? The bartender talks about Brian's new ship, which was made by the Solar Wind, which doesn't bode well. In case you weren't paying attention, this is not the big bad organization mentioned in the opening crawl, that's VOID. This is actually all I can do right now on Ganymede, because once again, the weapons guy says my ship needs to be remodeled before I can use the new weapon. Sigh...

Once again, I'm rushed as I leave the planet, so now's as good a time as any to talk about the space combat. As I said before, enemies try to orbit you while shooting slow moving projectiles that you can shoot down. If you're behind them, they won't get out of the way in a real hurry, but they're still shooting at you. The problem here is not taking them out, few take more than a few shots and they don't move too fast. It's just that finding them is a bit tricky. The game includes both a scanner and arrows on the HUD if you stop for a moment, but it's still a bit tricky turning around to aim at them.

My next destination is the colony in the asteroid belt, which I imagine was explicitly mentioned in the manual, but the only thing that seems appropriate is Colony-1 in the map screen. At first I prepare myself for a long journey south, but I find auto on the menu, and sensing that I have a chance at going where I want, use it. This is the only place so far that mentions the coordinates of places, which is kind of important in a space game. Note, this does not actually make things go faster, it just does the flight for you. Hope you enjoy waiting! And if you have to get out to attack someone, your speed automatically drops to zero.

After dodging a surprising number of pirates and asteroids, I make it to Colony-1, which has a unique-looking skybox. It's a nice place, and this time there are places that buy and sell things. I find a store that sells a booster. I have no idea what it actually does or if I'll need to press a button, but I have it now. I can also sell ores I find, among other things. The translation file mentions that selling the only gun you have crashes the game...which seems self-evidently bad, so I wasn't planning on it.

The local bar, Asteroid, is much like the last bar, except the guy doesn't know where the Meister is. That's okay, there's a mysterious hallway leading to arrows pointing in one direction. This is a dungeon, I guess. The arrows move you in one direction, you can kind of go against the grain, but you shouldn't do that too much, energy, after all. The inside is mostly straight-forward. More enemies, gates and levers. The game then decides to violate a prime rule of game design, by having you try to find a secret passage into an area with no designated path. As in, walking through walls. Yeah, this was the era of JRPGs occasionally requiring that and it was obvious, but I sense this is going to be a theme.

You need the switches outside pulled so you can pull the switch inside the secret area, otherwise you can only talk to the Meister's apprentice. Once you've done that, the Meister, Hidari assumes you're a villain with VOID and attacks you. He's the hardest foe yet, it takes more than a single salvo of blaster shots to take him out. Meister Hidari stops the fight, since he's figured out that we're not here to kill him, and our hero introduces himself, Brian Wright, hunter. Glad to hear we finally got his full name. Apparently the Star Cruisers were actually made by VOID. Interesting.

Hidari will fix up the ship, but first I need to head to Mercury to get the materials he needs. Side note, I still have 1.5k money over the cheat threshold, but obviously that could change at any moment. So as I head to Mercury, I make sure not to run away from anyone who comes after me. It's a handy little racket, and surprisingly rewarding. I'm sure if I have to chase after dozens of guys it will be, but for now taking out a bunch of guys at $150 a pop is a great deal.

Since it was on the way to Mercury, I decide to check out Earth. This was really just an excuse to recharge my ship, I didn't expect anything to happen, but as I enter, I get a call from Daniel Gibson, Brian's friend from the Solar Wind base. The last one, because he's been captured again. Huh, I thought this was going to be a minor detour, but it turns out I've found the plot. Well played, developers. After getting a recharge, I check out the town further, and it turns out that Solar Wind is just a group of VOID mercenaries. Glad we explained it on a random detour.

Also, Hidari's granddaughter is living in a random building on Earth, and Brian asks why she's living there with, "Why on Earth, of all the places". I don't care if that's something the translator added, that's a clever line. Apparently her parents were killed, and she too, wants Brian to take out VOID. Now I just need to find their base. It's tricky, since it's actually behind all the shops in such a way you can easily look, but once you get up close, it's obvious. Unfortunately, Brian thinks rushing in is foolish and he should get his ship upgraded first. You know...the ship he isn't taking inside a ground base. Well, Daniel can go get tortured for a few days while I get it upgraded.

The trip to Mercury goes without any trouble. Unfortunately, Mercury seems to be a dungeon. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that this means I have to travel back to Earth or somewhere if I need to get more energy. The level, as per usual, has various scattered energy cans, along with repair modules, but apparently my style of combat is slightly hard on my energy banks. Hey, I appreciate a "natural" opportunity to get more money off spaceships rather than just wandering around.

That said, this level goes all in on secret walls. In order to head through anything, you need to go through two hidden passageways, and there's some more stuff hidden in the walls. Not the big stuff, like the crate you need or more importantly, an energy tank. Which doubles my current energy to 20k at maximum and has 10k of that when I pick it up. Meaning I can clear out the rest of the dungeon right off. With that, it's a short couple of jumps back to Colony-1.

Hidari expects something from Brian before he upgrades the ship, he wants me to talk to his granddaughter on Earth. No, it doesn't count that I already talked to her, I need to go again. Glad we're doing this while Daniel gets whatever kooky torture VOID has cooked up, I'm sure he'll appreciate it when we find his smoking body barely clinging to life. Well, at least I can take out some pirates while I'm at it.
 

Once I'm there, the two exchange pleasantries almost as much as if Hidari was there himself. Like someone isn't in captivity right now. That said, this trip isn't entirely useless, because Yuko has a container I need to bring to Hidari. I find it amusing that once I get back Hidari complains about her being a pain, as if he wasn't just one. But the container is very useful, because it's a quantum engine. I need to go off somewhere for a moment while he fixes it. Actually going off somewhere.

Going through town, nothing has changed except that there's another hunter's spaceship blocking the way out. I suppose that's one way to stop me from going off. After finding that there's a teleport back to the Meister's house, I realize that I haven't tried his apprentice again. Apparently, Hidari likes Brian so much that he's doing the work himself. This is enough to get the work done, so I head back and Hidari tells me that I can equip a quantum laser, engine, along with nuclear shield and a beam booster #2. It's also for free, since Hidari hates the guts of the Solar Wind group since they killed his son and daughter in-law.

Finally, I can save Daniel from whatever horrible tortures have been going on there. I note that I have not yet upgrade my gun, because I couldn't find it on Colony-1 and Earth doesn't have it. My objectives say that I should rescue Gibson before continuing with my objective, which is either further upgrading the Star Cruiser or actually going after VOID. Either way, for such a high end cruiser, I sure do have to spend a lot of time and effort getting it up to snuff.

Getting this done before getting a new gun turns out to be a mistake. See, I'm not having any trouble dealing with the guys in this new dungeon, but they are splitting up and trying to flank me, and they are taking more shots. One energy tank seems to effectively deal with four groups. So once again, I leave Daniel to get tortured and head back to Ganymede. The new engine, incidentally? Seems to be doing nothing in terms of speed or turning ability, it's just there.

The quantum beam makes a world of difference, even against random fliers. I'm gunning them down in one or two shots. By the time I go back to Earth I'm practically back to what I was before buying it. Unfortunately, this isn't translating into ground combat. They're still taking a ton of shots and running around too fast to make hitting them difficult. I'm not sure that the $90 an encounter is really matching what I'm paying, but the five grand lying around helps bridge that gap.

The level itself is a series of small mazes with teleporters leading between them. Go through a teleporter, and you end up in a new mini-maze where you need to fight to get to the teleport back. Rinse and repeat until you reach a switch which opens up a door near the start. Where Daniel is. Once I'm there, Daniel thanks me for showing up in what could be construed as either sarcasm or genuine thanks, but is the latter. Because he then offers me info on the Solar Wind.

I'll leave it here for now. Next time, we'll see Venus, or possibly get a minor detour to some other game. I have been neglecting 1984 for a bit now.

This Session: 2 hours 50 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours

Star Cruiser (Sharp X68000): Reintroduction

When we think of the first FPS, we usually think of something ID Software did. Wolfenstein 3D if you're normal, Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D if you're not. If you're willing to go a bit out there, you'll say Battlezone. A lot of the stuff in-between is usually out there enough that you could call them pretenders for whatever reason or obscure enough that nobody is really advocating for them. But there's a curious omission in these discussions.

Star Cruiser is that omission, being a RPG/FPS/space sim hybrid at a time when that's a really impressive thing to put out. It is also, for my money, the first real FPS, depending on if it was released before Midimaze or not. I'm not entirely sure why this game has escaped so much notice, but since it was Japanese-only for the longest time in a genre which, by numbers, primarily originates in North America, the UK and former Soviet states, and is enjoyed by the type of gamer who does not enjoy games that come from Japan...well, I have my theory.

Before I played the Genesis version, which by what I've read, is very different than the original computer versions. Foul language, money, and apparently other things which I seem to have forgotten are changed. It promises to be worth coming back to this game for no other reason.

The story is, as told through an intro text crawl, it's the 25th century, humanity has expanded to the stars and met with a group of aliens called the Galactic Council. Which is an interesting choice, assuming it was a choice and not wonky translation. There's some sign that the translation isn't the best, though I will say that I'm not going to read it in the original language if I can get away with it. Rebels, dissatisfied with humanity going at peace with aliens, rebel, but are quickly put down. The rebellion leader, Geist Nidoman is never found.

In an expanding nearby system, the federal government is unable to maintain security and it becomes full of pirates and criminals. An evil organization called VOID became going over human space, with a leader called Dark Champion, who I am sure is not connected to Geist Nidoman whatsoever. (I do not actually remember much of the plot, except the war crimes) It seems that the galaxy is entering a dark era. Fortunately, there are hunters who will stand in the face of evil. (Bounty hunters, they just like omitting the bounty part because it sounds cooler)
 

Thus we enter our protagonist, who is unnamed at the start. He's got into a bad firefight with some ruffians, and now his ship has crashed inside the hanger of the ruffians mothership. This part isn't explained as much as implied to you. Nor are the controls, either in the game itself or in the accompanying text file with the translation. As I doubt there's a translated manual floating around, I brute-forced it. Numpad moves and enter/space is menu.

What the text file does explain, however, is that if you keep checking the crashed wreckage, you get a thousand space dollars...check it twice more, and you get 100k. The reason for this is that the game can be very grindy. Since I can't come back here, I'll go for 200k but try to avoid spending that until it becomes clear that not spending that is going to add several hours to the playtime. (By normally checking the wreckage, you have 2k in total) This is different than the Genesis version in basically every way so far, since we started in a training sim, and garages fix everything for free. I have no idea if this is supposed to be like American money or if this is yen with a dollar sign. For the later, roughly 100¥ is $1 USD, so 2k is $20 USD, 200k is $2,000. (For European readers, while there's supposed to be a 1=1 exchange rate, it's closer to 1.3 USD to 1 Euro, I have no idea about any other currency)

On the opposite side of the start is a...let's go with tank, sitting there, waiting for me to touch it. You can interact with things by moving up towards it. Movement uses the numpad rather than the arrows. Once you've touched it you're taken to a combat screen, like a JRPG. Here, the two of you duel it out. Space fires and shift activates strafing, but befitting that this is the game's first encounter and likely everyone in Japan's first FPS, this is easy for a skilled player like myself. This nets me $30. Note, this means I need to fight about 75 guys before I can reach my starting capital if this is any indication of what I get from random enemies.

Past this is a fork in the road, one leading to a locked door, and one leading to another person. This is Daniel, who is friendly. He offers to help, but our hero is too badass for this. Daniel asks what our hero did here to result in this situation. All hero says in response is that his $400k starship is wrecked. So, we're going to have to steal a fancy new type of starship from this base. Which is good, since apparently these are the bad guys. Portraits are still anime-esque, but at least the artists have actually observed a real human at some point.
 

Behind him is a lever which opens the locked door. Further on is a short maze full of guards, locked doors and levers. I have a limited amount of energy, but this is not terribly difficult. Since I can shoot enemy shots, and enemies here die in one hit, most of the foes don't offer me any trouble. Quickly enough, I find a starship and Daniel tells me to take it and get out, while he blows up the base....and I try the starship again and the same thing happens. Turns out that this is Daniel's spaceship and I need to find the new one elsewhere. You have all this text and you couldn't tell me that? I know the translators messed around with the writing a little bit, make it clearer!

After going back through the cleared maze, I find the new type of starship and get a cutscene of my guy escaping and heading out into space as the base explodes. Immediately after, Daniel calls us up to ask us how the new starship is going. Premature asking of this aside, he mentions our hero's name, Brian. Brian mentions that the ship is the...Star Cruiser, and while the design is very good, the equipment isn't. Now we've got to head to Ganymede to have it tuned up.

 

Now we're in space and have the whole solar system to explore. But if I remember the game from before, and I mostly don't, there's not going to be any point in doing anything but heading to Ganymede. The problem here is that finding Jupiter is not entirely straight-forward. That is, assuming you don't use your eyes and head for the planet, like I failed to do. It does help that there are enemies right outside the area as soon as you start.

Space combat is how you'd expect, mostly normal. Numpad moves, up and down are reversed. Space shoots, enter is menu. The up and down arrows control your speed, so adjusting that in the heat of combat is tricky. You go more or less normally. What's weird is that enemies don't move like you'd expect. They go around you in a circle while shooting at you sideways. Shooting at you sideways. It's also fairly difficult to get away, but generally speaking, as long as you can get a bead on them, it's not too difficult to shoot them and their shots down. It's just that getting a bead on them is tricky. Each gives either 150 or 400 credits, which doesn't seem too bad. 

Ganymede is a ground level town, meaning you aren't in your ship, and you move around...like any normal town in a JRPG. Except you're slowly using energy as you move. Hope you weren't planning on wandering around that much...This may be why the translation includes the money cheat.

Ganymede has quite a few buildings to explore, unfortunately the first two are a shuttle service to Io and a place where I can get a new gun. Useful, but I want to wait until I know what the actual damage is first. Fortunately, place number three has the recharge garage. Full charge is under 400 and a repair is a 100, pretty close to what I just earned. Whereupon I find out that my ship is otherwise fine. Hmm, that glowing shield bar says otherwise, am I supposed to fix that on my own? Yes, and it turns out that with that, it costs 624 for energy repair. Putting me under the 2k I'm supposed to start with. Uh-oh. There's also a place that repairs shields a bit down, but I'm not sure what their actual price is at this moment, beyond 150 for presumably very little shield.

Location number three is the Great Red Spot. (Wasn't it Big Red Spot?) Brian straight-up tells the bartender he wants his ship turned, because that is what you tell bartenders. Of course, since the bartender immediately tells us that the kind of people who tune up starships are "meisters", because calling yourself an engineer is passe. (Next time on the FPSmeister...) Brian, who already knows this, asks where to find one. He tells me to go to the slums beyond the forest, because meisters choose secluded places full of bandits.

 

It's not too hard to find the path to the slums, because someone's in front of it. A...friendly (?) woman who seems like she's trying impersonate Michael Jackson. No further interaction, she then disappears. Fair enough. Well, inside this are a few non-random encounters, which have two guys, who are not very hard, but until you realize there are two of them, can cause a little confusion. Unfortunately, I get gotten a few times and despite the increase in damage, they give me $30 an encounter. Not per ship, per encounter. They do increase as some of these guys get tougher...to $50 and $60. So I head out into space and take out a few hostiles. After fixing myself up, I'm now slightly above where I started.

While there are some assorted drops here, like bags of money and free energy, a lot of this is just grinding away at a series of hostiles. Enemies do the whole strafing thing, constantly, along with turning around far faster than you. I imagine at some point these guys will become tricky, but for now, these are only noteable in the volume they come in. Soon enough, I'm at my destination.

The meister, who answers the door like he lives in the Upper East Side, asks what he can do for Brian. He goes out and says he wants to modify his unique and non-replaceable Star Cruiser, which he technically isn't the legal owner of. How much does this cost, you may ask? $2000. For the record, with the stuff I have from the wreckage and the stuff I picked up, I have enough for that and the next level of gun. Perfect!

The guy continues to tell me that he's made several machines usable, automatic tracking bullet, beam booster and ore processing machine, all #1. Beam booster is important since there's a category on my dialog HUD for it, but I don't know what it is. I guess the ore processing machine allows me to get asteroids or something. The automatic tracking bullet is beyond me. The meister then tells me to find Meister Hidari in the colony in the asteroid belt, since several systems on the ship are beyond him.

And this is where I'll leave off, with a simple, easy to follow objective as my next goal. As insane as this game feels so far in terms of grinding, it's still eons ahead of what I was doing in Elite. Remember, if I didn't cheat in that, I would have spent eight hours getting a slight amount of money. In this, I'm still above what I started with and even when I get the next gun, I still will be.

This Session: 1 hour 10 minutes