Tron's Star Trek — Tutorial

Welcome aboard, Captain. This tutorial covers everything you need to command the U.S.S. Enterprise and clear the galaxy of Klingon warships.

How to Begin

Launch the game from the Tronsoft Games library. A new mission is generated automatically: an 8×8 galaxy seeded with Klingon warships, a handful of starbases, and stars. Your goal appears in the Captain's Log at the bottom of the screen — destroy every Klingon warship before the stardate clock runs out or your energy is gone. Press New Mission at any time to start over.

The Bridge Screens

The console has three viewscreens, selected by the tabs (or keys 1, 2, 3):

• Short Range — the sector map of your current quadrant, where you move and fight.
• Long Range — the galaxy map, where you warp between quadrants.
• Damage Control — the systems report, where you repair the ship.

Reading the Map

On the Long Range screen each scanned quadrant shows three digits — Klingons, Bases, Stars — and the energy cost to warp there.

Movement (Navigation)

Impulse (within a quadrant): on the Short Range screen, click any empty sector to fly there. Distance costs energy.

Warp (between quadrants): on the Long Range screen, click any quadrant to jump to it, or use Set Course (Warp) to type coordinates. Warp costs more energy over longer distances and when your warp engines are damaged.

Auto-navigation: Nearest Enemy (LRS) and Nearest Base & Dock (LRS) automatically warp across quadrants to the nearest target your long-range sensors have revealed, then close in. Run a Long Range Scan first so the sensors know where things are.

Turn Order

The game is turn-based. Each action you take — moving, firing, scanning, repairing — counts as your turn, after which every Klingon in your quadrant returns fire. Docking at a starbase makes you safe from attack.

Combat

Phasers (P): enter an energy amount to fire. Damage is split across all Klingons in the quadrant and falls off with distance.

Photon torpedoes (T): arm a torpedo, then click near an enemy. The torpedo locks onto the nearest Klingon and homes in — but a star in its path will absorb it, so mind your firing lines.

Shields (S): transfer energy into your shields to absorb hits. Raise them before a fight; note that they must be down to beam a boarding party.

Boarding parties (B): with shields down and a Klingon within transporter range, beam an assault team aboard the enemy ship. Softening the Klingon with phasers first improves your odds. Success captures the vessel and salvages energy (and sometimes a torpedo); failure costs crew.

Damage and Repair

Enemy fire can knock out any of eight subsystems (warp engines, sensors, phasers, torpedo tubes, shields, transporter, computer). On the Damage Control screen you can:

• Emergency Repair — divert reserve energy to fix one system instantly.
• Hold Position & Effect Repairs (R) — wait several stardates while the crew works (free, but time passes and enemies keep firing).
• Dock at a starbase — repairs everything and refuels for free.

Docking

Move adjacent to a starbase (⬣) on the Short Range screen and press D, or use Nearest Base & Dock. Docking restores energy, torpedoes, crew, and all systems to full.

Winning

Destroy every Klingon warship in the galaxy. The mission-complete screen shows your final stardate and remaining energy.

Losing

You lose if the stardate clock runs out with Klingons remaining, if your energy and shields both reach zero (dead in space), or if your crew is wiped out by failed boarding actions and enemy fire.

Saving and Restarting

This release does not save progress between sessions; each mission is a fresh game. Press New Mission (or the button on the end-of-game screen) to generate a new galaxy at any time.