RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA   
(Trillium)   

Written:   1984 by Ronald Martinez   
Genre:     Sci-fi   
Runs on:   C64, Apple II, PC   
Review by: Jacob Gunness (Apple Version)   


Imagine mankind's first contact with beings from another world. It's a tantalising premise - so tantalising, in fact, that it's been used over and over again. You have movies like 2001, Close Encounters and Contact, and you have a book like Rendezvous With Rama, the classic 1973 novel by sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke. about an immense object hurtling through the solar system. Upon closer inspection, the object turns out to be a space ship of gigantic proportions, rather than a natural object. Of course, such an opportunity cannot be wasted, so an expedition to explore the ship - called Rama - is planned with great haste, and a ship is dispatched to make a rendezvous. Mr. Clarke must have been really pleased with his idea, since he has found it necessary to release 3 sequels of varying quality. In addition, RWR is also headed for the big screen, helmed by none other than David "Seven / Fight Club" Fincher and reportedly starring Morgan Freeman.   

Hmm now for the computer bit! RWR has also been turned into two games: a 1996 offering from Sierra and Telarium's 1984 game, which is today's subject. In the game, you begin on the Endeavour, the space ship sent out to encounter Rama. After gathering some equipment, you make your way to the bridge where your first job is to land on Rama. This can be done in two ways - the masochists will go through an arcade game of Telarium's usual appalling quality and the rest of us can relax and let the computer handle the landing process automatically.   Once you've docked, you'll be better off with some help, and the ship offers this in the form of Simps, a sort of dim-witted robot monkey, which can do different sorts of tasks for you. It does require a bit of programming to get it to work - do it the wrong way and the stupid thing will short circuit! (whatever happened to good old-fashioned fuses?). Accompanied by Goldie, your selected simp, you must make your way through a series of airlocks to enter the actual ship - and the actual game.   

After a short while, you'll reach a large platform with 3 stairways, each descending into different parts of the large plain that spans the larger part of the ship. And we *are* talking "large" here. The ship is around 10 miles long! Basically it's divided into a northern and a southern part, with a ocean - of sorts - and an island in the middle. Dotted around in the landscape are some structures that - for lack of a better term - are called cities. Apart from the cities, you will once in a while come across a location that has some sort of device that you can try to manipulate. Here the first problem arises. Granted, the ship is supposed to be huge, but from a gaming perspective, putting in hundreds of empty locations to underline that fact is *not* a clever decision. To move from one interesting location to another, you could wind up crossing 15 empty locations! It's just plain dull!! Either the designers acknowledged this problem, or perhaps they added it as a copy protection, because they decided to put a detailed map of the ship in the game box. Without it, it *is* possible to play the game, but you'll just waste a lot of time getting from A to B. And since you can't tell from the description whether the location you're in right now is adjacent to anything remotely interesting, it's mostly a matter of guessing your way around. Duh! It's possible to draw a map, but at times the locations' layout really defy logic.   

You begin in the northern section where you can travel around for a bit (that's putting it mildly!) You can visit any of the cities but they're almost identical so after climbing around different buildings for a while you'll soon tire of that. As stated earlier, you'll also come across different devices. They all appear to be of the classic 50's sci-fi movie sort - you know, the kind that makes all sorts of funny noises and lights, but doesn't appear to do anything. Stick around for a bit, if you please, but nothing much really happens. I stuck around for 15 years, mostly because I didn't have a clue about what to do! But finally, one day, after restarting for the umpteenth time, I discovered something new (I'm just soooo patient!) You're carrying around a small portable aeroplane, which - courtesy of yet another abysmal arcade game - will allow you to fly to the southern section. It's a lot smaller than the northern part, and it's even more dotted with funny gadgets and weird machines. Which, mind you, you can muck about with to your heart's content.   

"But what about the aliens???", I hear you cry. "Where are they???" Good question - because you don't find any! At least not in the beginning. The only "living" creatures you meet are some strange robot spiders that travel around the ship doing maintenance. As for the Ramans themselves, they seem to have vanished. The ultimate goal of the game becomes to discover what has happened to the aliens, and where the ship originated from. 

Technically, the game follows Telarium's usual standard, which means neat graphics, a decent parser and loads of well-written text. Usually, Telarium's games have few puzzles but a great story that maintains interest. In RWR, you are mostly left to your own devices. You wander around and wonder what to do next. After working a number of machines - or rather, trying to - you get a nagging feeling that it doesn't really matter. Getting some strange machine to work is satisfying at first, but if it doesn't have much overall purpose, you soon tire of it. As for the story, it's screaming for some development. Whatever little story there is originates from the radio contact you have with your crew (which you can always ask for ADVICE). And somehow, it just doesn't fit the bill.   

The problem is obvious. In a novel, describing the marvels of a largely incomprehensible alien civilisation can be plain fascinating. And really, it worked wonders in the book. Now, in a game, you really must have a sense of purpose and of accomplishment (like: "you won!" :o) Having the player running around looking at amazing technology in a vast spaceship isn't enough. RWR isn't a disaster - far from it - and had it been released by most other companies, it would be a decent adventure. However, with Telarium's track record, we've come to expect something more. As it is now, the game mostly resembles a touch'n'feel museum. Make it all the way to the end, and you *will* get a glimpse of a Greater Purpose. But man, what a journey to get there   


Vocab/parser 7   
Story        5   
(Interesting premise, but rather weak puzzles and virtually no story.)
Atmosphere   8   
(Excellent writing often gives you a sense of "being there") 
Graphics     5   
(Neat, but repetitive)
Overall      6   
(Not bad, but could have been so much better. And let's cut down the walk- around-without-a-purpose factor!)