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By Andrew Black.
U.I.M.-Ultra Intelligent Machine.
By-The Fourth Dimension, P.O.Box 4444,
Sheffield. Tel=(0742) 700661.
Price=£19-95(5¼"), £21-95(3½").
Needs=B/B+(with 16k SWR),Master,Compact
It is set in the future where the
greenhouse effect has caused the polar
ice caps to melt and plunged humanity
underwater. Now in the ocean depths
there are ports and networks. There are
256 ports in a network and 256 networks-
quite a big one eh? Now comes the
problem, back in the good old days,
when the first pioneers went into the
ocean, they built machines called
Replicators. These machines were able to
explore the depths of the ocean that *
the pioneers could not reach themselves
and were able to reproduce copies of
themselves. Unfortunately someting went
wrong, the machines mutated and, guess
what, they're out to destroy humanity.
The solution to all of this is the UIM,
which apparently knows the anwser to
everything, but where is it? Your quest
is to find the UIM and at the same time
make as much money as you can.
You are equipped initially with a
submarine called a BLACK SATYAR and a
low power generator (weapon); three of
four missiles, a flare, a sea mine,
low grade shields, and $400 Network
Dollars. There are a number of ways of
earning money; buying and selling on the
commodities market, share dealings,
currency exchange, industrial
manufacturing, bounty hunting, piracy
and missions. You must build up your
cash reserves to buy more equipment *
for your ship to enable you to survive
and find the UIM. One of the most
important pieces of equipment is the
central computer which allows you to
load helpful modules such as
navigational aids, mission modules etc.
The layout of the screen is interesting,
split into two, the upper half
containing the actual game area and the
bottom half radar displays, energy bars
etc. The graphics used are vector and
are certainly very good, without any
flicker I might add. But the general
comtrol of the craft is more difficult,
it tends to jump around instead of
flowing like ELITE.
Travel between ports is a bit strange at
first but you soon get used to it. After
leaving the port press H and you are
sent on a sub-orbital trajectory into
the atmosphere, this is called re-entry*
You have to keep your craft on target
using the control keys, if you don't
your heat shield will disintegrate and
you get the end of game message. You
can buy another heat shield after yours
has been worn away but preserving it
saves money. There is a re-entry module
that you can buy that, although it isn't
perfect, it is a marked improvement on
what I could do. Once you re-enter the
water head for the marker buoy as fast
as you can, you can engage in combat if
you like, but you won't last long if
you've just started. Once you are close
enough to the buoy you will be docked
automatically.
The amount of equipment that is
avaliable is quite amazing, all together
about 31 pieces, plus there is other
unlisted equipment you can get for doing
missions. The mission module is perhaps
the most important piece of equipment *
The missions are vital in the hunt for
the UIM, these enable you to get onto
the next network. The missions are of
the fetch and carry variety. You can get
rewards for doing these such as money or
special equipment or sometimes nothing.
But always on completion you are moved
onto the next network.
Combat is much the same as ELITE but you
have more ways of defending and
attacking. There are 4 different types
of generators ranging from the most
powrful to the weakest. There are flares
that are supposed to distract enemy
missiles, sea mines which you drop- you
can blow yourself up if you are not
careful. The radar display is a bit
difficult to follow at first but you
soon get the hang of it.
ELITE and UIM are much alike, but there
are some distinct differences, UIM for *
instance has a lot more going for it,
the variety of equipment and so on. The
sheer amount of work put into developing
the game shows and the potential for it
is enormous. Having said all that I feel
that certain things cannot go
unmentioned, the manual is not as always
as clear as it could be, the general
display is much more coarser, colours
used are at times a bit sickly. And I am
afraid that one of the most essential
qualities for me is missing-
Addictiveness. The game doesn't have you
coming back for more as other games
would, just to get that little bit
further. After about a month or so of
playing I have given it up as it no
longer holds any interest for me. But
that is only my opinion and I dare say a
great many others will disagree, as for
me its back to ELITE.