## Description
_Major Istar: Under the Doomed Sea_ is a text adventure set in the future
where in the beginning of the 21st century the human-driven destruction of
Earth’s surface has driven mankind to build underwater cities. The player
assumes the role of Major Camerion J. Istar (Aquanaut 471 in the UK version) a
member of the Oceanic Federation tasked with keeping the peace in the
underwater world. The game starts aboard a submarine headed towards the
scientific research station Trident Dome. While en route you receive a
distress call from service droid Huey-14, but it is cut off before it can
explain the problem. Your goal is to solve the mystery regarding the SOS
transmission and save the research facility. In addition to the normal
graphical text adventure you will also face three arcade style event sequences
requiring a joystick.
The game screen is divided in two parts, with the top showing the environment
in colour and the name of the location, and the bottom half the text
description. Single stroke keys can be used to move around (N, S, E, W, U, and
D) and there are more than 100 hundred locations. The command parser is a
standard verb noun type. You can also save your current location to
diskette/cassette for restart later. Next to the adventure parts there are
three arcade games that need to be completed. Failure for these does not end
the game, but transports Aquanaut 471 back to an earlier location to travel
back and give it another try. The mini-games involve docking the submarine on
to a platform while avoiding objects, and two security games where a platform
needs to be reached while avoiding robot guards. The security games are
largely identical in design, but in the second one the robots move quicker and
have a different movement pattern.
Major Istar: Under the Doomed Sea