- History
- Background information
- Technical drawings, definitions and explanations of the technology used
- 360 degree panoramas, video clips and CG animations of the ship
- In jokes
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Product Description
The technical manual is written from the perspective of the 24th century, where The Next Generation is set. It contains a wealth of behind-the-scenes trivia and technical content. But don't worry about the information will fall into the wrong hand, as the book states elements of it may be false or misleading in order to mislead "Threat" forces. :)
The ideas developed for the technical manual, or its predecessor, are so good that they were later incorporated into the storylines of the TV series and movies. Most notably, a concept drawing from the manual describing an emergency landing of the saucer section. Also first seen in the technical manual were the Nova-class starship and the USS Galaxy.
The book contains explanations of Warp drive (including a chart), the Transporter, the replicator, holodecks, phasers and photon torpedoes, impulse drive, the warp core (including a chemical formula for dilithium), subspace radio, saucer separation and landing, the computer, and the various auxiliary craft of the Enterprise. It also contains a section regarding the history of the development of the Galaxy-class ships.
Besides the more serious material, the manual also contains a number of inside jokesm such as
A readable version of the medical display with the words "Medical Insurance Coverage Available" visible.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece!!!,
By
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Star Trek The Next Generation INteractive Technical Manual U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (CD-ROM)
Anyone who can call themselves a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation will definitely want to get their hands on the Interactive Technical Manual. I recall that back in '94 after I was made aware of the existence of this reference software I found myself left nothing short of astounded by what it proposed it could do; I even bought it several years before I purchased my first PC! (yes, classic obsessed fan!)As an ardent fan of the series I was (and in many respects still am!) enamoured by the Enterprise-D. The high standards to which the sets for the ship were presented to us on screen made it no effort at all to eliminate your disbelief and allow your imagination to run away with it! Visually, I can't think of any other television show that was airing at that time that was as interesting (or as pretty!) to look at! Unfortunately it became apparent that to progress the plot of the feature film Star Trek Generations those gorgeous sets had to be trashed however before that film got off the ground some genius at Simon and Schuster created (or at least collaborated with Apple QuickTime) this incredible software which presents the user with several 360 degree panorams of pretty much all the Enterprise-D sets; It's all photographic, all of the rooms are fully decorated and properly lit as though you were seeing these rooms on any episode of the show. There are countless objects to look at as well as video clips/CG animations of the ship. The reference text is clearly lifted from the paperback equivalent of this guide, you'll have Majel Barrett contributing her voice for the role of the Enterprise computer and there's a load of behind-the-scenes trivia shoe-horned in too. This is a truly amazing and beautifully presented archive to science fictions coolest spaceship! The good stuff aside, there are aspects to this software you should be made aware of: I seem to recall that this piece of software was the first program that I had attempted to install and run on my first ever PC, custom built by yours truly back in 1998. This software was a total nightmare to get running and it certainly wasn't down to the spec of my machine. Despite the programmes outstanding achievements in bringing this very fictional universe to the fans it was pretty evident that the software wasn't all that well written - THIS THING IS FRUSTRAITINGLY UNSTABLE!!! That said however it was possible to settle the software down by checking out and working through the readme file which instructs you to follow a somewhat tiresome installation routine; honestly it did seem to help. PC's and operating systems have obviously moved on considerably since 1994 (and 1998) but be assured that the software still works on Windows XP Pro. You should note however that although you may be able to get the thing running the panorams get twitchy and crash the program if you have a monsterous graphics card that's got its resolution and accelerator functions set to maximum. You have to dumb the resolution down to ideally nothing more than 1024 x 768, the colours down to 16-Bit (medium) and in the advanced settings click on the troubleshooting tab and slide the accelerator functions down a few notches! I'm using a 512-Meg NVIDIA GeForce 6800 graphics card which has a tendency to get a little hyperactive and yet it does run this software just fine! Despite all the hassel of getting the thing running I have still rated this software the full five stars. You simply can't fault art this valuable!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific "Tech-head-ish" fun, hobbled slightly by Apple Software, though.,
By
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Star Trek The Next Generation INteractive Technical Manual U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (CD-ROM)
This, and its several "sister products" also from Simon & Schuster, are terrific fun for "serious" fans of Star Trek in general, and of TNG in particular.This is not a "game," at all, though, so please don't buy it if you're looking for a way to run around inside the Enterprise shooting Borg. It is a "serious" technical work, and will only be of interest to people who enjoy knowing how things work (or how fictional things are supposed to work). The program is built upon the Quicktime for Windows (v2.x) software base. Quicktime is used for all video, and for all "3D panoramas," and all "manipulatable objects" throughout this program. And, unfortunately, Apple has failed, utterly, to support this older form of Quicktime. They basically released a newer, totally incompatible software package under the same name, and removed all support for the older version. Now, you CAN get this working in Windows XP, given the right hardware and OS configuration, but it's a serious pain. And installing the newer versions of Quicktime will simply disable the program, so if you ever want to use "modern" Quicktime, you're out of luck. Fortunately, you can install Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows 98 in a "Microsoft Virtual Machine" and get this to work flawlessly, especially if you have any newer hardware which allows "hardware virtualization" within the virtual machine (otherwise, the virtual machine may run too slowly to make this worth your while). My advice? On my Windows 7 and Windows XP machines, I have MS Virtual Machines running Windows 98SE, and I have ALL of the Simon and Schuster reference works on this virtual machine. This means both versions of the Encyclopedia (the original "Omnipedia" and the later multi-CD Encyclopedia), the Technical manual and "The Captain's Chair" (which provides more limited information about multiple ships, including the 1701, the 1701-D, the 1701-E, Voyager and Defiant, albeit in higher resolution and quality). The "Captain's Chair" installed Quicktime 3, while the rest of these use Quicktime 2. Fortunately, these two versions CAN (despite some comments on here) "live side by side" on a single system. It wasn't until Quicktime 4 that this ceased to be the case. In order to get things to work just perfectly, you'll likely want both the 16-bit and 32-bit versions of Quicktime 2.1.2 installed, and then just allow the 3.0 version from "The Captain's Chair" CD to install as well. All of this, in one "Virtual Machine," will give you full, unfettered and unlimited access to these great programs, despite the issues (which are PURELY APPLE'S FAULT, mind you) with Quicktime compatibility. I've tried, for years, to come up with a way to get older Quicktime-based programs to work on a modern machine, and have had some limited success, but the Virtual Machine approach work perfectly well... especially considering that MS provides their VM for free now, so as long as you have an old copy of Win95 or Win98, you're golden! What is this, really? It's an electronics version of the printed Technical manual, primarily, but it's much more interactive. There are animated "fun things to do" (like blowing up an enemy ship by hitting the right button on Worf's console, for example), and the ability to examine in a simulated "first-person perspective" the interior of the ship (through QuicktimeVR panorama images taken on-set, when the TNG sets were still in existence). You can "drill down" into any subject you wish, from a logical location... for instance, when in Engineering you can dig deeply enough down to find out the sequence involved in starting the warp engines up. You never HAVE to read any of this stuff, of course. They have interactive, animated charts and graphs... they have objects (real screen-used props) recorded in "VR format" which you can spin freely to examine. They have recorded video clips, some of which are from the show and some of which are custom CG creations for this software, demonstrating or clarifying certain "facts" in the reference. There's a narrated "guided tour" provided by Commander Riker, which is a good way to start off with this package. Or, you can just "explore on your own initiative," if you prefer. This isn't for everyone, but if you're like me, and love technology (even fictional technology), you'll enjoy this. But to do so, because Apple basically disabled the software of anyone who ever used their Quicktime software earlier on, you'll really only be able to do so in a "virtual machine." That's not really a problem, though, is it?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
READ BEFORE BUYING!!!,
By Robert (Virginia) - See all my reviews
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Star Trek The Next Generation INteractive Technical Manual U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (CD-ROM)
I had bought this game awhile back and would have liked to know the information posted below. This is for informative purposes only NOT to influence buyers, just to inform.It is very difficult to get the Interactive Technical Manual to work in operating systems newer than Microsoft Windows 3.1, for which it was designed. It is possible to get it working on Windows 9x, but one must seek out the 16-bit version of Quicktime 2.1.2. The included Quicktime does not work correctly with Windows 9x. Quicktime 2.1.2 16-bit can have problems with various video card drivers. These can be remedied by changing video display options within Quicktime's applet inside the Windows control panel. On Windows NT-based operating systems, such as Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, it is not possible to operate the program natively. However, it can be run inside a Microsoft Virtual PC-emulated Windows 9x system. This software is available as a free download from Microsoft, but the user must own Windows 95 or 98. The program runs at 640×480 resolution and will be letterboxed if the system is running at a higher resolution. The program documentation recommends 8-bit color depth, probably due to performance concerns, but it does look better if 32-bit color is used. A version 2.0 of this program was released and distributed as a bonus disc with one of The Next Generation DVD season box sets at Best Buy. The upgrade replaced the 16-bit program with a new 32-bit version that uses QuickTime 4.0 or above. Windows NT-based users could move the program files and main font to the appropriate folders manually to bypass any issues with the installer not running correctly. The 32-bit upgrade also allowed the program to run on 64-bit architectures. Thanks for reading, Robert.
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