Clive Gringras explores the potential of Karma

When compared to the 16-bit games machines, the market for recreational programs on the Archimedes is essentially poor.

All we have are the old favourites: Shoot-'em-ups with better graphics and better sound, flight simulators that are smoother with more realistic landscapes and so on. But have the games actually improved?

Anyone who has played on the 32-bit Archimedes or a games machine and the same thing on an 8-bit BBC Micro must admit that the speed, graphics and sound improvements that the Archimedes contributes adds little to the playability of the games - Sim City is a case in point.

It is still the BBC Micro which hosts the best Acorn game of all time: Elite, a multi-layered extravaganza on a 32K macine: If a player was interested in fighting, they need never mine or sun scoop.

Similarly, another player could enjoy it equally as well by trading food across the galaxies. Admittedly the graphics and sound weren't great, but extras don't ensure excellence.

But now a game that really stretches the Archimedes is due - *real soon now* - for release. Karma is a totally new concept for micros, the first "life model" available to the general public. At its most basic level, Karma is a 3D space adventure, which is in itself nothing new.

But Karma is far bigger and superbly detailed. Instead of the player being the centre of attention, he or she is only as significant as the other ships.

Your screen shows the view from the vehicle. All graphics are realistic, fully shaded according to the relative position of the sun and animated smoothly. Artificial objects from as small as 1 metre up to 2 kilometres can be seen at distances from as short as 1 centimetre to 450,000,000,000 kilometres on the same scale.

The Karma galaxy is 8,000 light years across and contains some 2,400 solar systems and has the appropriate shape, star type occurrences and star density variations found in reality.

Each solar system contains planets and moons. Each planet, factors allowing - surface temperature, atmosphere, day and night lengths - may be inhabited. Rather than the planet data being invented by the programmers, it is determined by actual astronomical phenomena.

Planetary civilisations also have identities: The variables concerning each civilisation are consistent with their environment. For example, the principle industry of a planet near its sun could be farming. Similarly, older civilisations are likely to be more technologically advanced.

Information relating to drive types, weaponry and the like can be gleaned using the on-board computer, Tris. Ships are not only encountered in their own systems, but colonisation and extensive stellar travel are actively occurring throughout the galaxy.

Each civilisation has historic data, to be found or to be told - by other characters in the galaxy - helping the player to understand the importance of various places and understand civilisations' current inter-relations in a wider context.

In Karma the more you know, the better you will be able to play explorations and understand the cause of certain events.

Even the individuals in other craft can be spoken to via Tris. These people - not necessarily human - have identities and personalities.

Here's what could happen:

A player arrives at a comet mining community on the outskirts of a solar system dominated by a huge, red giant sun. As he draws nearer, by scanning he establishes the presence of a craft leaving the scene.

Sensors reveal information of its technology. The craft's civilisation is advanced, as is indicated by its equipment. The player decides an attack would be unwise and attempts instead to communicate with the craft.

Using his communications console and via Tris, he hails the craft and receives a reply. The player asks the craft's identity and discovers from the captain that it's a shuttle, carrying workers to a corporate residential space station, from an ore processing space station.

The player stops the communication and choose to follow the shuttle. He draws in closer as the workers are being transferred into the residential station. The player decides to scan one of the "beam-boxes" being used to transfer the workers and detects life (the workers) inside.

Later, some workers begin to board a shuttle going to a nightclub on the other side of the solar system. Following the shuttle, the player arrives at this club. Some 20 seconds after parking in the ship-park the player receives a distress message from a mineralogist who seems to have been attacked by some drunken miners...