The Official Guide to J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 1.0.0
Copyright © 1997 Sierra On-Line, Inc.

This is the first version of The Official Guide to J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5.
An interactive multimedia reference featuring many aspects of the Babylon 5 universe, upon startup, you are asked to select one of three choices as your guide for your tour. After clicking the door to the Tourism Bureau, you are presented with the main screen. The main screen is divided into seven categories: DIRECTORY, SHIPS, AH-PUC'S WEAPONS, BABCOM, EMERGENCY, GOVERNMENTS, and PLACES TO GO.
DIRECTORY is a listing of key Babylon 5 characters. They include Lyta Alexander, Security Chief Zack Allan, Brother Theo Ankises, Timothy Chase, Marcus Cole, Lieutenant David Corwin, Attache Vir Cotto, Ambassador Delenn, Dr. Stephen Franklin, Michael Garibaldi, Ambassador G'KAR, Dr, Lillian Hobbs, Captain Susan Ivanova, Attache Lennier, Ambassador Londo Mollari, Captain John Sheridan, and Ashi Van Troc. Highlighting a name in the list will show a picture of the character. Clicking a name in the list will show a screen with detailed information about that character along with a brief video that can be played featuring the character from one or more Babylon 5 episodes.
SHIPS displays a screen showing pictures of 20 Babylon 5 spacecraft and a jumpgate. Clicking on a ship or the jumpgate will display a screen with detailed information about that item along with a brief video that can be played featuring the item from one or more Babylon 5 episodes.
AH-PUC'S WEAPONS features a display rack of 16 types of weapons used in the Babylon 5 universe along with a video screen. The weapons include a Tromo PPG Rifle, Centauri Sword, Sword, Sha'ann PPG Pistol, EarthForce Issue Auricon PPG Pistol, Tromo PPG Pistol, Centauri Assassination Weapon, Custom Weapon, Minbari Pike, EarthForce Issue Auricon PPG Sniper Rifle, Westlake & Grummon PPG Pistol, Kalat PPG Pistol, Unknown Salvage, Tho'val PPG Pistol, EarthForce Issue Auricon PPG Rifle, and EarthForce Issue Auricon PPG Assault Rifle. Clicking on a weapon image identifies it beneath the video screen. Clicking play will show a short video of one or more Babylon 5 episodes in which the selected weapon was used. There are no videos for five of the weapons (Tromo PPG Rifle, Sha'ann PPG Pistol, EarthForce Issue Auricon PPG Sniper Rifle, Unknown Salvage, and Tho'val PPG Pistol). For these weapons, a close-up still image of the weapon is displayed and NO VIDEO AVAILABLE is displayed.
BABCOM shows a display of a broken BABCOM terminal with distorted video displays and sounds of static and garbled voices (sound bites of actual dialog from Babylon 5 episodes). Clicking the BABCOM screen will play a sound bite from various Babylon 5 episodes from various Babylon 5 characters.
'You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out. You put your whole self in, And you turn yourself about. You do the hokey-pokey, You give a little shout. That's what it's all about!'
EMERGENCY looks like an industrial warning sign from which you can play seven warning sirens by clicking their individual buttons or hear all of them sequentially by clicking the all button. They include Decompression, Gravity Loss, Fire, Infestation, Medical Emergency, Power Loss, and Red Alert.
There is also an Emergency Data Delete button that, when clicked, displays a screen showing various data types and options to continue to delete the data or cancel. Clicking cancel takes you back to the sirens screen. Clicking continue deletes the data, showing the blanking of dozens of colored grid squares. After the data is deleted, the screen displays DATA DELETED and goes completely black.
Then Lorien asks these ominous questions: 'Who are you?' 'What do you want?' 'Why are you here?' 'Where are you going?' After which, three tumbling buttons come toward you from the center of the screen, all of which say, 'I DON'T KNOW.'
Clicking the top 'I DON'T KNOW' button plays the audio: (Sheridan) 'There's ... so much I still don't understand.' (Lorien) 'As it should be.'
Clicking the center 'I DON'T KNOW' button plays the audio: (Sheridan) 'But I can hope.' (Lorien) 'Hope is all we have.'
Clicking the bottom 'I DON'T KNOW' button plays the audio: (Lorien) 'It's easy to find something worth dying for. Do you have anything worth living for?'
GOVERNMENTS is a listing of 16 Babylon 5 governments: Abbai Matriarchate, Centarui Republic, Earth Alliance, Marga Chulda, Hyach, Llort, Narn Regime, Vree, Brakiri, Drazi Freehold, Gaim Intelligence, Androma Republic, The Interstellar Alliance, Minbari Federation, Pak'ma'ra, and Ingyo. Clicking an item displays a screen with information about that government and a screen to play a video of scenes from Babylon 5 episodes featuring that government's planets, cities, citizens, etc.
PLACES TO GO features 34 places inside Babylon 5: Alien Sector, Banquet Room, Bazaar, Casino, C'n'C, Concourse, Conference Rooms, Council Chamber, Dark Star, Docks, Doug's Dougout, Earhart's, Eclipse Cafe, Eight to the Bar, Fresh Air, Garden, Immigration/Passenger Lounge, Info.Services, Lecture Hall, Living Quarters: Economy, Living Quarters: Business, Living Quarters: Luxury, Maze, MedLab, Monorail, Observation Deck, Ombuds, Rec Center, Religion: Human Christian, Religion: Human Jewish, Religion: Minbari, Religion: Centauri, Security, and Zocolo.
Selecting an item shows a full-screen photo of that area (most are scenes from Babylon 5 episodes, some are set photos). After selecting an item, clicking the Doc button in the upper left of the screen will display a blue window with detailed information about that area of the Station.
At the bottom of most of the screens are navigation buttons to take you back a screen, return to the main screen, change guides, access help, and display the program credits. Help is a single screen explaining the splash screen, task bar buttons, Tourism Bureau screen, main screen, weapons screen, and places to go screen. Program credits displays a list of credits for the production and portions of the program. Clicking the Quit button displays a screen asking if you want to Exit Babylon 5 with Yes and No buttons. Clicking No returns to the main screen. Clicking Yes shows a brief ad screen.
Also included is Sierra Utilities, a screen that allows the program to be registered, AutoUpdate, uninstall, support (a Windows-based troubleshooting help file), view the Readme file, and visit Sierra's websites.
It is interesting to note that this program was made before the fourth season of Babylon 5 had finished its original television broadcast. There is no information on characters or events from Babylon 5's fifth and final season. But the audio in the first EMERGENCY 'I DON'T KNOW' is from the 5th season's last episode.
Also, four major characters from Babylon 5's first four seasons, Commander Sinclair, Kosh, Bester, and Talia Winters, are not featured in this program. None are present in the DIRECTORY, Vorlon is not present in GOVERNMENTS, and while Commander Sinclair, Kosh, and Bester are present in some videos, Talia Winters is not. Bester has one sound bite in BABCOM. And while one-time, one-episode characters such as Timothy Chase and Ashi Van Troc are listed in DIRECTORY, Morden, present in episodes throughout the first four seasons, is not.
This title requires the CD-ROM disc to be present to run. The Start Menu shortcut points to the program on the CD-ROM disc.
'Would you like some spoo? It's quite fresh this week.'
This version was released on CD-ROM.
Total install size: 5.90MB