Description
Setup
The player selects the crew to man the ship. Each ship department has various candidates, including aliens and robots. Each candidate is described in a short profile. The candidates differ in abilities, for example, in their degree of autonomy, efficiency, foresight for possible imminent problems, obedience, stress tolerance, physical vulnerability and teamwork. A single "best team" does not exist, since every candidate has advantages and disadvantages. Robots are, for example, particularly obedient and stress-tolerant, but also particularly dependent and poor team players. The team members are animated throughout the game. ;Candidates: * Weapons Department: Boris, Q6-D, Yeela, Al, Skulard, Grolo * Scanning Department: Jaru, Churglik, Phyzo, Nargo, Mike, Blustan * Navigation Department: Nik, KLG-7A, Tegra, Broxaag, Aymu, Yenx * Engineering Department: Craven, Anthony, VX-4, Fligronk, Sheema, Wilfo * Repair Department: Anxy, Bru, T3XR9, Volfgank, Ryblo, SwiglitzGameplay
The game is played by a single player. The aim is to transport a valuable cargo from the starting planets through a pirate-infested space as undamaged as possible. The target planets have three different routes with different hazards and correspondingly different levels of rewards. The player must give the crew orders to operate and pilot the ship. Herein lies the difficulty: the player must make quick decisions and set priorities in order to handle, for example, several attackers in time and fight them in a sensible manner, with the right weapons and to divide energy for various purposes, such as flying evasive manoeuvres and keeping the life support systems in operation and repairing damage with the limited availability of repair robots, etc. The cargo can be looted by pirates if they aren't fended off in time. Various technical systems can be individually damaged, so the player must often improvise. Crew members can become stressed during flight, so they start to make mistakes. Crew members can also die if the ship becomes too badly damaged. The game is lost if the ship is destroyed beyond repair or completely looted. Victory is achieved by arriving at the target planet having at least one portion of the cargo. The player's score depends on the route chosen (difficult routes give more points), the amount of salvaged cargo and the flight time. The faster the cargo arrives, the more points are awarded.Graphics
In the user interface, the upper left corner is the space view. The top right displays the crew member in the active department. Below this is a narrow indicator bar. The bottom half of the screen is occupied with text fields to follow the details of the respective department, such as lists of detected attackers or details on which robots are divided among repairs.Sound
The sound of the Commodore 64 version was rated very good by many reviewers, and the SID music byReception
'' Computer Gaming World'' in 1986 called ''Psi-5 Trading Company'' "both challenging and fast-moving. It is extremely absorbing as one crisis after another bombards the player", and concluded that it "blends 'fog of war', tactical options, and smooth playability into an exciting challenge and a stirring space adventure". A 1994 survey of strategic space games set in the year 2000 and later gave the game two-plus stars out of five, stating that as "One of the first 'alien trading' games, it was interesting in its time".Ports
The original Commodore 64 version was released in 1985. Ports to other systems followed: * Amstrad CPC, 1985 * Amstrad PCW, 1986 * Apple II, 1985 * IBM PC compatibles with CGA graphics, 1986 * ZX Spectrum, 1986Comic story
''Psi-5 Trading Company'' featured in six episodes of '' Computer Warrior'' in British comic ''Legacy
In 2022, a 20th Anniversary Edition remake by programmer, designer and musician Gary Wong was made available for free.References
External links
* * {{IAg, id=msdos_Psi-5_Trading_Company_1986, platform=MS-DOS