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''MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy'' is a 1990 space science fiction role-playing video game based on the ''Traveller'' series and was produced by Game Designers' Workshop licensee Paragon Software for Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS operating environments. The game is set within the ''Official Traveller Universe'' and features character creation and other aspects of game mechanics compatible with prior ''Traveller'' products. The player controls up to five ex-military adventurers whose objective is to save their civilization, the Imperium, from a conspiracy instigated by the Zhodani, a rival spacefaring race, and aided by the actions of a traitor named Konrad Kiefer. Gameplay features real-time planetary and space exploration, combat, trading, and interaction with various non-player characters in eight solar systems containing twenty-eight visitable planets. Development presented Paragon with technical challenges because this game, distributed on floppy disks for computers hosting as little as 512 KB RAM, simulates the detailed game mechanics of the ''Traveller'' tabletop role-playing games within a sizable game world. To meet the difficulties posed by these hardware limitations, Paragon chose to excise or simplify some elements familiar to players of earlier ''Traveller'' games. Reception was very mixed. Some reviewers rated it highly and praised its playability and depth of gameplay. Others reviewed the game less favorably;〔〔 substantial criticism was directed towards its handling of ground combat. ''Computer Gaming World'' listed it as the fourth worst game of all time in its November 1996 issue.〔 A sequel, ''MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients'', was published in 1991; a second sequel was planned but never released. == Gameplay == Before players may begin a new game, a party of adventurers must be created. A pre-generated party is available for quick entry into the game,〔Lennon 1990, p. 36.〕 but players may also create new party members. The character creation process begins with the player being presented with basic character profiles possessing randomly generated attributes. The player has the option to accept the displayed character or "re-roll" to generate a new profile with another set of attributes. An accepted character is enrolled in a military career, chosen by the player from the Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts or Merchants. The player guides the character through consecutive four-year terms to obtain training in various skills and earn service benefits such as retirement pay. The longer characters remain in the service, the more skills and benefits they are able to acquire, but they do so at the risk of diminished attributes due to old age or injury, or even death. When a character retires or "musters out", he or she is added to the pool of available adventurers from which a party is chosen by the player to begin the game.〔〔Lennon 1990, pp. 17-26.〕 If a character is killed during the course of the game, the player may recruit a new party member in some planetary spaceports.〔 The game begins in a city on the planet Efate. Here, as on all explorable planets in this game, the player observes the party and its surroundings from a directly overhead point of view and issues commands via hotkeys or clickable icons displayed onscreen.〔Lichtmann 1990, p. 18.〕 The explorable terrain of planets is limited to certain cities and immediately adjacent regions. Cities feature several types of buildings that are a recurrent feature on most planets, including a store for purchasing or selling armor, weapons and other items, a library, a hospital, a police station, and a starport for launching and outfitting a spaceship. Some cities host additional visitable buildings which may include a tavern or a hotel in which important non-player characters are located.〔Lennon 1990, p. 92-94.〕 Building types are color-coded for easier player identification.〔 The player directs the party's movements and issues commands to perform various actions such as communicating with non-player characters, using objects or firing a weapon. Combat takes place in real-time and requires the player to direct individual party members to target opponents and fire their weapons, reload, or move to a better position.〔Lennon 1990, p. 95.〕 Space travel forms an important aspect of gameplay. When traveling within a single solar system, the ship and its surroundings are viewed from a third-person perspective on an "In System Travel Screen." Navigation takes place in real-time as the player maneuvers the ship between explorable worlds, visits a gas giant to refuel, or engages in combat with other spaceships. Some solar systems contain more than one explorable planet, but most such planets in the game may be reached only after the player's spaceship has been outfitted with a "jump drive" capable of interstellar travel and accompanying computer software to control it.〔〔Lennon 1990, pp. 39-40.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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