"Star Command Sigma" by ASCII 1982

I had noticed several screen shots of a game called "Star Command Sigma" for the NEC PC6001. It looked like a BASIC game-- a rendition of the vast family tree of Star Trek games-- But since it was by ASCII, a major software company in Japan from the early days of home computing in the 80s, I expected that it would be especially well done. So when I finally got an emulator working for the NEC PC 6001 and located a huge repository of software, I went looking for it. I was able to list it to a file and get the source code. It was not hard to translate.

I have done other games from the NEC PC-6001 using James the Animal Tamer's Virtual NECTrek PC, which was a short lived North American variation of the PC-6001. The BASICs are similar Microsoft variations and the fact that they both use the Motorola MC6847 video chip makes things fairly straightforward.  The NEC uses LOCATE instead of PRINT@, but I just switch its two X and Y arguments to PRINT@X+32*Y, and get the same results. The NEC has some fancy graphics modes, such as the ability to define a virtual console/window on part of the screen, and some super sound generation. But I was able to translate most of this stuff in a downgraded way. One advantage of the MC-10 is that its screen printing and BASIC generally run faster. There is a speed sacrifice to be paid for all the NECs fancy abilities.

Here are some comparisons screenshots of the game working on the PC-6001 emulator and the Virtual MC-10.  They show some of the differences in how the two computer systems implement the MC6847:

NEC PC-6001

MC-10

The NEC allows all the possible character colour layouts provided by the VDG, whereas the MC-10 can only easily access black on green text. The NEC also has an extended character set with lowercase and special symbols, such the degree symbol (little raised circle), which is used in the game.

You'll notice that the Klingon's are called "KLIMZONs" in the NEC variation. However, ASCII provide a variable for storing the name, so you can easily change it to Klingons. I guess they had to worry about copyright infringement, but they wanted customers to be able to easily switch  to full copyright infringement mode if they desired. You'll notice though that they still use an "E" for your ship (I wonder what that stands for?).

ASCII also embedded some strange characters at the beginning of each of the main menu item titles as they were listed in the DATA statements. These weird characters are processed when the titles are read in and combined in a single variable that reads "by ASCII." I guess they were a little worried about copyright infringement of their own. It's kind of like Bill Gates multiple Easter eggs hidden in Microsoft BASIC, such as in the original Commodore BASIC for the PET, that can print out "Microsoft." If any one tried to pirate the code, Bill could just hit a few keystrokes and reveal the Easter egg message and claim ownership!  I thought of switching it to "JimG2022" or some such, but in the end, it's their program.  If they come gunning for me they can happily sell my version to the massive legions of MC-10 users out there!

The music is a bit of a mess.  First of all I don't read music.  Second, the MC-10 only has a simple SOUND command, and not the fancy PLAY command of the NEC.  Still I have butchered the notes listed in those PLAY commands to get some meagre semblance of the original musical refrains for the intro, win and lose screens. I had to be somewhat creative in the implementation of sound effects, but sometimes the program also used the simpler SOUND command, and in other cases I tried to take clues from the notes listed in PLAY commands.

The scrolling "window" allowed for by the CONSOLE command of the NEC had to be dispensed with.  Instead I went with a system of the top of the bottom half of the screen being used for commands, the middle for messages and help info, and the bottom line for combat messages. No scrolling is allowed.  Instead, as messages roll in, a small left pointing arrow appears in the bottom right corner.  When it does, you can hit a key to skip directly to the next message/event. Otherwise a brief pause will occur to allow the player to read the message before it is replaced or erased.

The game is very feature rich. There are options that I have not seen implemented in any other variation of the classic Super Star Trek game. I wont go into complete detail here, but it is a very well-thought out set of command options that will make for a challenging set of tactical decisions as you try to destroy all the Klingons, Oh, I mean Klimzons. The enemies even occasionally shoot torpedoes back at you, which you can launch a counter measure against using the

QWE

  ASD

   ZXC

direction keys.  The NEC used the STICK command to read a direction from the joystick, but I switched it to this keypad arrangement. Hit one of these keys just after the enemy launches a torpedo (or when the left pointing "continue arrow" message is displayed) and you might get lucky in destroying the incoming torpedo. The enemies even move during combat (and other times) so you will find that occasionally they warp out of the way of danger or new ships can arrive to complicate your life.

Below is a playthrough. I lose. I didn't realize that a feature that allows you to get energy from a star is "paid for" by sucking time off of your countdown timer.  If I hadn't been so greedy (and ignorant of how all the features are interconnected) I might just have won!  See if you can spot the moment of my fateful decision...

While investigating the game I also discovered that ASCII went on to make a fancier graphic character version for the MSX line of computers:

So the MC-10 now has a neat little game recovered from the early 1980s to help it to keep pace with the "big boy" systems of the 8-bit era. I wonder of Mr. Godai (listed in the title screen above) is the same programmer who made the version for the NEC?  If so, thank you Mr. H. Godai for a wonderful game.

Addendum

I modified the title page to make the sigma look more like the original:

I also fixed up some of the more awkward "Engrish" phraseology, such as "Torpedo is breakdown."  I changed this to "torpedo damaged" and modified "Klingon" to plural "Klingons" (etc.) on the status screen.  I still don't know what "Offensive cycle" means and what the number attached to it represents.  It's probably something like "threat level" or possibly, the number of combats you have had with Klingons, or something like that. If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate hearing them. Perhaps I'll change it if I figure it out.

I added plurals and gender neutral terms to the status report

Addendum to the Addendum

Curtis Boyle mentioned the program on the Cocotalk web show and commented that it was good to see a nice version of Star Trek on the MC-10.  However, it is actually an addition to a number of other Trek variations that I have ported to the MC-10 as part of my efforts to collect up classic BASIC programs for preservation purposes.  It's not Curtis's fault that he wasn't aware of these wider efforts on my part, although I might have made him feel that way when I made a video to bring these other Trek programs to his attention. I didn't mean to offend (Sorry Curtis).  Just goes to show how much tone is lacking from the quick messaging that forms such a part of digital life today. Much thanks to Curtis for the great job he does presenting the details of the projects and activities of the community. In any case, here's the vid with a run down of some of the other Trek offerings on the MC-10:

For an "all Trek" themed game list for the online MC-10 emulator on the Internet Archive just search on "Star Trek" here: https://archive.org/details/@james_gerrie

Addendum to the Addendum Addendum

Noticed some spelling mistakes in the "Encounter in the Near Tholian Sector" game while reviewing my video. Don't know if those are mine from the porting process or from the original, but in any case I've fixed them up.