|
Written by two Germans, programmer Oliver Lenzko, and graphics designer Jochen Burkhardt (calling themselves J&O Software, after their first initials). Despite the misleading title and description on the box, Trek 96 has absolutely nothing to do with Commander Keen, and is actually a watered-down clone of the classic mainframe title, Star Trek. The player controls the Starship Enterprise (viewed from an unusual perspective), searching the galaxy for enemies whilst balancing energy levels between offensive and defensive capabilities. When an enemy is encountered, the game shifts into "Red alert" mode, and combat can be begun. Your mission is complete when all enemies in the galaxy are destroyed. As there are no in-game references to Commander Keen (the splash-screen saying only Trek 96), it's entirely possible that CYBERDIGITAL added Commander Keen to the title, many years after the series' popularity had peaked, in some misguided attempt to increase market share. It is strange that it was published at all, given that not only did it infringe on id Software's Commander Keen copyright, but also infringed on the Star Trek copyright, which Paramount Pictures is known to protect vigorously. It is also interesting that it was published on CD-ROM, given that the game files could have easily fit on a single 3.5" floppy disk, still a popular format in 1997 (and undoubtedly still cheaper to produce at the time). |
