Following the release of The Promethean Prophecy, Simon & Schuster Interactive published Star Trek: the Kobayashi Alternative by Micromosaics. A text-based adventure game, it placed the player in control of the starship Enterprise, exploring various planets and carrying out scenarios based on those from the classic 1960's show.
Similar in tone to The Promanthean Prophecy, the Kobayashi Alternative is nonetheless a more challenging, open experience. The addition of wider bridge and ship controls makes the game a more daunting and sometimes frustrating place to live, in addition to all the regular exploration players can do. All this comes with a time limit, making the game a short-lived, if enjoyable experience.
It's a shame too, because of the wide variety of actions the player is provided with. The player may speak with just about anyone onboard the ship, including staple favorites like Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov. There simply isn't time, however, and it can either make for a marvelous amount of replay, or a sour note that necessitates completing the game on-schedule.
The scenarios themselves are the work of Diane Duane, a writer only too familiar with Star Trek on the whole. She is known for several non-canon but authorized novels in both the original series and The Next Generation periods, including Dark Mirror, and Spock's World.
For completions, this game should be a gem. Deck after deck of the ship is available to explore, though large expanses of it are nondescript hallways.
There are no real graphics and only limited sound to speak of, being a text adventure. It is, however, rather intuitive for its era, providing a clear set of instructions for all ship functions and logical answer and inquiry choices during scenarios. Two versions of the game exist, one produced in 1985, and a slight refurbish in 1987. The refurbished game sports slightly more pleasing colors and menus, with a better font available and an overall more "Star Trek" theme to the whole affair.
The game was produced for the Apple II, Amiga, Commodore 64, and MS DOS. Little variation exists between any of the releases, being that it taxed none of them in a graphical manner.
All in all, a fun game, though challenging and certainly showing its age.
Written by:
~Hidoshi
