Those crazy astronauts (Daniel Henderson and Roby Sherman) who brought you that terrestrial
brain stumper, Murder Manor, have returned with a game of space travel, exploration, and wormholes!
In Orion Trail, players take on the role of intrepid space pioneers, to make the treacherous journey across the length of the Orion Belt to reach a planet known as Oregon IV — An unexplored world full of free space and the possibility of precious metals!
Some of you earth creatures are familiar with the Apple II game ‘The Oregon Trail’, well, forget everything you know, load your ship with supplies and join us on this epic journey through the cosmos… Encounter space pirates, robots, clouds of nanobots, and much, much more!
System Requirements & Loading
The Orion Trail is designed to work on all 128k Apple IIs that support double lo-res and comes on one action packed 143k Disk Image. Please note.. IIgs and IIc+ users should set their system speed to normal or the game will prove practically impossible to play. Simply place the disk / image in a bootable 5.25” drive and start your Apple.
Starting Your Interstellar Journey!
Once the game has started you can choose from 3 difficulty levels… ‘Cadet’, ‘Ensign’ and ‘Space Ace’. We strongly recommend beginners to try ‘Cadet’ before moving on to the harder levels as hunting and defending your ship become more of a challenge on the higher difficulty settings.
Journey Length
You can also choose the length of your journey to Oregon IV:
Short – 2.04 light years
Medium – 2.50 light years
Long – 3.20 light years
As you become more of an expert, the longer journeys will become more enjoyable but feel free to go wherever the whim takes you… there’s a whole universe out there to explore!
Buying Supplies
You are going to need a few things on your star journey. Have you thought about food, lasers, space furs? Probably not! Don’t worry, when you come to my shop ask for Oric and as a ‘Cadet’ I will guide you as you spend your hard-earned credits as to how much of everything you need. Remember, when you run low on things, look for a stardock to buy more and, keep it to yourself, but why not ask to check the black market. As you become more expert you probably won’t need help but rest assured we never run out of stock!
Travel, Events & Battles
The best part of the journey is getting there so, as long as you have everything you need, get moving! You will encounter many different situations or ‘events’ which will affect the time you take to reach your destination and may result in loss of certain supplies so keep an eye on your inventory and make changes / re-stock whenever you can. Sometimes you will be asked to make a choice which may result in a battle with a space ‘foe’, get your sharp shooting head on and press any key when the laser sights are nearest to the centre of the screen.. good luck!!
Food & Hunting
Food is critical to all life-forms so keep an eye on your food level. If it gets low you could call in to a stardock, change the rate of your food consumption or go hunting on the nearest planet. There is nothing more satisfying than zapping a small, tentacled alien from orbit! Of course you will need lasers to hunt and sharp-shooting skills. Press any key when your laser sights are nearest the center of the screen!
Arrival!
Eventually, you might actually reach your destination. If you do, congratulations! We would love to see your top scores so send them to spork300@gmail.com. We’d also love your feedback on the game (which keeps us motivated to create more new things!)
And don’t forget! The journey to Oregon IV will different each time so be sure to try the game again and again! We’d also recommend you try different difficulty and journey length settings!
