PSI-5 Trading Company

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PSI-5 Trading Company is a computer game . It is a space trading simulation developed by Accolade in 1985 . In contrast to most other such games, the player cannot control his spaceship himself, but has to assemble its crew from a number of different personalities and then command them during the flight. The computer game was an average success.

Systems and data carriers

The game was released for various computer systems, including Apple II , Sinclair ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC and MS-DOS . The Commodore 64 version, which is probably the best-selling in Germany , was available on diskette and cassette. Remarkable: The German description stated that the version on cassette did not allow the crew to choose freely. However, if you turned the data cassette over and loaded the program on the back, you could choose the team yourself at the expense of significantly longer loading times.

crew

The player can first choose an applicant from a funny crew for each of the different ship departments, including many aliens and robots. Each candidate is described in a short profile. Different candidates for the individual positions in the team differ e.g. B. in their degree of independence, in their efficiency, in their foresight for possible impending problems, in their obedience, in their stress tolerance, in their physical susceptibility to problems with the life support system and in their ability to work in a team. There is no single best team; every candidate has advantages and disadvantages. For example, robots are particularly obedient and stress-tolerant, but also particularly dependent and not able to work in a team. Every possible team member has their own cartoon-like animations in the game.

  • Weapons Department: Boris, Q6-D, Yeela, Al, Skulard, Grolo
  • Observation department: Jaru, Churglik, Phyzo, Nargo, Mike, Blustan (Octopus)
  • Navigation department: Nik, KLG-7A, Tegra, Broxaag, Aymu, Yenx (yellow trunk)
  • Technical Department: Craven, Anthony, VX-4, Fligronk, Sheema, Wilfo (Elf)
  • Repair department: Anxy, Bru, T3XR9, Volfgank, Ryblo, Swiglitz

Game flow

The game can only be played by one player. The aim is to transport a valuable cargo from the starting planet as undamaged as possible through a pirate-infested space to the target planet, whereby three different routes with different hazard potentials and correspondingly different rewards are available.

To do this, the player must give orders to the crew. Above all, it is important to make quick considerations and set priorities, for example in order to recognize different attackers in good time, to fight in a meaningful order with the correct weapons, to allocate energy correctly for different purposes, to let evasive maneuvers fly without the goal of the To lose sight of the trip for too long, to keep the life support systems in operation, to have the most serious damage caused by attacks first repaired by the limited repair robots, etc. The cargo can be plundered by pirates who are not repelled in time, various technical systems can be damaged individually whereby the player often has to improvise. Crew members can get stressed during the flight - which makes them start making mistakes. Crew members can also die if the spaceship is damaged too badly.

The game is lost if the ship is irreparably destroyed or completely looted. It is won when the target planet is reached with at least part of the charge. In this case, the player's score depends on the route chosen (more difficult routes give more points), the amount of cargo saved and the flight time; the faster the cargo arrives, the more points you get.

Screen layout

In the upper left corner is the space view. The crew member of the department that has just been activated can be seen at the top right. There is a narrow display bar underneath. In the lower half there are text fields for the details of the respective department - for example lists of identified attackers or information about which robots are currently assigned to which repairs.

graphic

The graphics quality was above average. The crew's animations were particularly popular. The graphic designer was Mimi Doggett, who was also involved in a number of other Accolade games.

Sound

The sound of the C64 version was considered very good by many reviewers and the SID music pieces by Ed Bogas as diverse.

Ports

Web links