Post subject: Star Trek Judgment Rites
Editor, Expert player (2327)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3927
Location: Germany
This is a direct sequel to "25th Anniversary". I started to play on DosBox to get familiar with the game. It looks like you can no longer get bad endings and keep going. Bad endings will result in game overs, it seems. Some parts of the game such as cinematics, animations etc. can be sped up by keypress. I think although this game is a tad longer than its predecessor, it can still be completed in a reasonable length of time, maybe 15~30 minutes. There are 3 difficulty settings:
  • Cadet - No ship combat
  • Graduate - Easy ship combat
  • Officer - Hard ship combat
It would seem Cadet is the go-to choice for TAS as it allows to skip some parts of the game. On the other hand, ship combat is interesting to watch and beating the game on hardest difficulty is impressive. Bad Endings: Mission 1: When the barrier is disabled in the special project room, failing to use red phaser on the monster will result in mission failure (and Earth's destruction) Mission 1: Breddell and enemy crew men can defeat/kill you. Mission 2: Fail the puzzle 3 times, will result in getting raided by cave men and having to beam out. Starfleet will strip you of your Captain title. Mission 3: Wait too long for the fire to spread, results in your death. Mission 4: Use red phaser on any machinery, results in abrupt mission failure. Starfleet will strip you of your Captain title. Mission 5: In the alien dimension, use red phaser on the alien on the ground. Will result in your death. Mission 5: Choosing bad dialogue options on the Savant will cause him to disappear resulting in your death. Mission 6: (todo) Mission 7: Mission 8: Bugs: In some rooms, clicking on a door or entrance and then bringing up the options menu will cause Kirk to walk into the entrance, sometimes inside a wall or out of bounds. This seems to be only graphical though. Mission 1 (first room to second room) and Mission 4 (pretty much all entrances) have examples of this.
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4042
If the added content is non-trivial, I also vote for Officer.
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Editor, Expert player (2327)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3927
Location: Germany
I completed the game and now I'm playing through it a 2nd time on the hard difficulty for researching. I'm not really sure if I will keep going much longer but here are some more notes:
  • There are many more typos and dialogue textbox bugs than in the previous game. But then again there are many more story progressions and possible options to explore than in the predecessor.
  • Here is a good guide that has helped a lot so far: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564907-star-trek-judgment-rites/faqs/12717
  • In mission 1, while locked in the detention room, if you have Kirk move into the barrier while bringing up the options menu, he may get repelled back inside walls. He will then be stuck and the game is unwinnable.
  • In mission 7, while Rackaback (the strong dude who blocks you) is conscious, if you use medicine on him it will cause the game to crash with this message:
    Internal error:
    Not found?talks.ANM
    Game aborted...
  • At one point in my testing, while I was restarting the game, the audio was completely missing. I then noticed that the Kirk-menu was missing audio options so it looked like this: The SFX button would behave as the "load savegame" option there. I don't know what caused this bug to happen.
  • Another bug that once happened was that the game froze during the intro cinematics. I was clicking very fast but I couldn't reproduce this bug.
  • During ship combat there is a L hotkey (lock-on) which causes a square to be drawn inside enemy ships. It looks like this: I was confused when I saw this at first because I thought I had triggered something debug related.
  • I'm working on a route. Since it seems the game will cause you to gameover if you fail too much, it makes routing more complicated but I'm focusing on the fastest way to complete each mission for now. The route:
    === Difficulty: Officer 
    
    === Mission 1
    Clear all dialogue
    Starmap --> 12
    Dialogue 1
    Defeat Elasi two ships
    Dialogue 1
    (B) Beam
    Dialogue 1, 1
    
    === Detention room
    Talk 2, 3, 1, 2
    Get Communicator, Phasers, Tricorders
    Go right
    
    === Right Hallway (Executive Quarters)
    Go left yellow
    Get filter
    Leave
    
    Go right red
    Get dummies
    Leave
    
    === Left Hallway
    Use green phaser on both enemies
    (If one of your guys is down, using medicine on him may result in faster recovery)
    
    Go left red
    Use filter
    Use dummies on teleporters - 1
    Use Spock on all 2 computers OR use red phaser on all 2 computers
    Leave
    
    Go right yellow
    Use green phaser on both enemies
    Use Spock on the topmost computer OR use red phaser on topmost computer
    Leave
    
    To left blue
    Use green phaser on enemy
    Use Spock on Chess board - 3, 3
    Use both Tricorders and then Spcok on the left controls
    Leave
    
    === Right Hallway
    Go left blue
    Use red phaser on monster
    Use Spock on left computer
    Leave
    
    Use Kirk on controls next to the right yellow door
    
    Go right yellow door
    Dialogue 1
    Use green phaser on Breddell
    Use Spock on bookmark
    Get book on table
    Get Dartboard
    Use Spock on hidden controls
    
    === Mission 2
    Starmap --> 19
    Orbit (O)
    Beam (B)
    
    Use Spock on door panel
    Go through top door
    Use Spock on rightmost door panel
    Go through rightmost door
    
    Pick up cube, switch, cable, bridge unit, screen
    Use Spock on right controls (--> you receive badge)
    Use Spock on left controls (--> you receive plastic battery)
    Use badge on left device
    Use plastic battery on left device
    Use Spock on left device
    Use Spock on leftmost door panel
    Go through left door
    
    Use plastic badge battery on the small device
    Go through top door
    
    Use cube on device
    Use screen on device - 1, 2
    Pick correct shape
    
    Go through 3rd door from the right
    Use switch on huge unit's panel
    Go left door
    
    Go leftmost door
    Use bridge unit on left pillar - 1
    Use cable on pillar
    Use Spock on pillar - 1
    
    === Mission 3
Editor, Expert player (2327)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3927
Location: Germany
Haven't progressed since my previous post but just wanted to say I'm interested in looking for glitches and version differences. When it comes down to TASing the floppy version of this, I will be interested in bugs that were in that early version of the game. There seems to be a) Floppy DOS, b) CD DOS and c) CD Mac. CD Mac is said to be the definitive and latest version which fixes bugs that were in the CD DOS version. This post talks about "the woman who gets stuck in the door in the Trelane episode" which can occur in the CD DOS version.
Editor, Expert player (2327)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3927
Location: Germany
Mission 3 This seems to be the fastest course of action:
Starmap --> 2
Dialogue - 3 ("surrender")
Ship combat --> Die on purpose or kill, whichever is faster

=== Prison cellar
Use crate
Get schnapps
Get stick on floor
Use schnapps on straw
Use stick on straw
Talk to guard - 2 ("don't be a fool")
Leave

=== East Street
Use guard
Enter Tavern

=== Tavern
Dialogue - 1 ("Excuse me, but...")
Use McCoy on beer
Leave

=== East Street
Enter Shop

=== Shop
Get food package
Get broom
Get rope
Leave

=== East Street
Go left

=== West Street
Enter right house

=== Right house
Use broom on floor to get money
Leave

=== West Street
Enter School

=== School
Talk to guard - 3 ("Vote")
Use tricorder on chalkboard
Leave

=== West Street
Go left

=== Battlefield
Inspect soldier
Talk to soldier (3) about locket to get letter
Go right

=== West Street
Go right

=== East Street
Enter Tavern

=== Tavern
Use letter on girl
Enter Poker room

=== Poker room
Talk to Sundgard
Talk to Sundgard - 4 ("Rumor about chalkboard")
Leave

=== Tavern
Leave

=== East Street
Go left

=== West Street
Use food package on dog
Use McCoy on dog
Enter Armory

=== Armory
Take rifle
Use rope on general
Use medicine on general
Use rifle on general to get signed letter
Use Spock on general
Use Spock on safe
Take Explosives
Leave

=== West Street
Go left

=== Battlefield
Talk to soldier (3) to get locket
Go right

=== West Street
Go right

=== East Street
Enter Tavern

=== Tavern
Enter Poker room

=== Poker room
Give signed letter to Sundgard
Talk to Sungard (3) about chalkboard
Use money on poker table to get more money
Leave

=== Tavern
Talk to principal about chalkboard
Take paper
Leave

=== East Street
Go left

=== West Street
Enter school

=== School
Use paper on teacher to get chalkboard
Leave

=== West Street
Go right

=== East Street
Enter shop

=== Shop
Use money on clock to get clock
Leave

=== East Street
Go right

=== Plane 
Use chalkboard on plane
Use Clock on plane
Use Locket on plane
Use Explosives on plane

=== Trelane's room
Dialogue - 3
Talk to Trelane - 1, 1, 1 ("sad lonely boy"-ending)
Mission 4:
Starmap --> 11
Orbit (O)
Beam (B)

=== Outside
Go right (Antenna 1)
Use tricorder on Antenna controls
Use tricorder on rock formation
Use communicator
Go up left (antenna 2)
Use tricorder on antenna controls
Use communicator
Use Spock on antenna controls
Go back
Go back
Enter building

=== Inside building
Go left
Talk to Wizznr - 1,1
Go right
Go right
Talk to Azrah - 2,2,1,1
Get Sample
Go left
Go left
Use Spock on controls
Talk to Wizznr - 2,1
Get Sample
Go right
Use yellow Sample on left tank
Use blue Sample on left tank
Talk to Ensign - 3,1,1
Use blue Sample on left tank
Use Ensign on left controls
Use green phaser on right tank
Use Ensign on right controls
Get green Sample
Go forward

Use green sample on machine slot
Dialogue - 2 or 3
Mission 5
Starmap --> 15

=== Bridge
Talk to Uhura
Talk to Spock
Use Spock on leftmost controls
Use Spock on leftmost controls - 1 ("Go ahead")
Use Sulu on leftmost controls
Leave

=== Auxiliary Control
Go forward
Use medical tricorder on Alien
Leave

=== Sickbay
Enter room
Talk to McCoy
Leave

=== Engineering
Enter room
Dialogue - 1
Use vurian gas on device panel
Use left controls

=== Auxiliary Control
Use right controls

=== Transporter Room

=== Alien Dimension Left Room
Go right

=== Alien Dimension Middle Room
Take pouch
Go left

=== Alien Dimension Left Room
Use pouch on blue orbs
Talk to Vurian - 1,3
Go right

=== Alien Dimension Middle Room
Dialogue - 3
Use pouch on savant
Dialogue - 1,1