Centauri Alliance review
By Andrew Roughan
Copyright (c) 1990 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
Needed: 64k Apple //+, //e, //c or //GS
5.25" disk drive (2 drives recommended)
Or one 3.5" disk drive
Optional: Joystick
Mouse (mouse recommended)
"In the year AD 2214, in the system of Alpha Centauri, six races formed a historic alliance. Their dream: Peace throughout the galaxy."
That passage comes from the back of the impressive hexagonal box which holds three protected double sided 5.25" disks, a 53 page reference manual, 24 page field guide, "Local Space" map and the psionic ability chart.
Centauri Alliance is a role playing game in the tradition of Wizardry and Might & Magic. You control up to eight characters in a party which roams space and kills the bad guys.
The overall object of the game is to keep the peace and prevent pieces of the legendary Fractyr Fist from falling into hostile hands. This is accomplished by directing your party to complete numerous small missions which usually begin at a base on one of the eleven possible worlds to explore. Many of these missions have time deadlines which can be critical - even fatal - if missed.
The characters in your party can be one of six races, with varying levels of the six different attributes. Each character can also specialise in different combat, psionic (mental), technical and metamorph skills. Already contained on the 'roster' disk is an impressive 'Allies' party which you can use to get straight into the game. Alternatively you can create your own characters from scratch.
One interesting feature is the ability to transfer characters from the Bard's Tale series, Wizardry 1,2 or 3, Ultima 3 and Might & Magic. While being transferred, your characters are slightly "subdued to reflect their proper place in a futuristic universe". One slightly annoying thing about this feature is that only one character can be transferred at a time.
Once created, your party can be grouped under a collective name, e.g. The Avengers, and next time you want to load the whole party, you only have to enter the party name and all the characters will be automatically loaded.
The bad guys are alien creatures from outside the alliance and 'Mechanoid' robots. Both can be enticed to join your party or you may prefer to fight them to the death.
Combat takes place on a 3-d hex grid upon which your party and the foe maneuver. You have the choice of melee, firing, reloading, dodging, psionic attack, activating an object which you are carrying, moving to another position, or if your opponents are too good, fleeing.
Weaponry falls under four classifications, Hand-held, thrown, projectile and energy. 'Psionics' are mental abilities which cover ten levels of control and illusion over mind, body and matter.
Your characters can also possess technical Abilities in hardware, weaponry, 'bio' (medicine) and 'ancient' (non-alliance weaponry).
Characters can enhance their knowledge of combat, technical, psionic and metamorph skills by undertaking training at the academy after gaining enough experience points.
The graphics display consists of a nine line information area at the bottom which displays character and combat information, and options available at various places such as the Starport, Armoury, Biotech, and the Academy. The top half of the screen is divided into three sections. The middle section is a 3-d map and combat area. To the right of this is the current roster list and to the left is a 'buttons' area for the currently active options. On a monochrome monitor, the graphics look reasonable, but those with a colour monitor may be disappointed by the limitation of the six colours used in normal high-resolution graphics.
Personally, I would have preferred a bigger combat display, this may have encouraged more work to be put into the images of the enemy which are quite small and lack detail. This fact makes me wonder whether the combat display was really planned or whether it was done this way primarily to be different and just slapped in.
Movement control is via the keyboard, joystick or mouse. With the joystick or mouse you can point to a direction on the 3-d map display, click the button and advance or turn corners. Option control is also via the keyboard or your chosen input device.
One nice feature is the ability for Centauri Alliance to automatically map areas which you have been in on a certain level. Be sure to copy it to paper though! It is lost once you go up, down or star voyage to another level or place.
There is no new concept introduced by Centauri Alliance, in fact a quite appropriate summary of this program would be that it is a complex science fiction role playing game which has elements of space travel like Tracer Sanction, graphic city exploration like Wizardry or Might & Magic, combat like Archon and quest similar to Ultima.
Documentation 7
Ease to get started 8
Playability 7
Graphics 6
Value 7
Overall 7
Centauri Alliance is distributed through Dataflow Computer Services for $84.95
Thanks to Dataflow for the review copy.
Dataflow Computer Services
134 Barcom Ave
Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011
(02) 331-6153

THIS CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 2007, APPLE MACINTOSH USERS' GROUP, SYDNEY
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Permission is hereby granted for non-profit user groups to republish this content.
PLEASE CREDIT THE AUTHOR AND THE SOURCE: Applecations, publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia

THIS PAGE COPYRIGHT © 2007, ANDREW ROUGHAN