YMMV / Reunion (1994)

• Obvious Beta: While bugs aren't that obvious, there are a lot of hints of what the game could have been.
  • In the floppy version, memory gets corrupted randomly. Mining stations too full to give ore were another trouble.
  • Skipping the intro has a small (several percent) chance to crash the game.
  • Bar scenes always display the protagonist as male.
  • NPCs in the bar have a lot of unused potential. Studying the game resources reveals sprites for characters that never appear.
  • The Eran's look is inconsistent. On the bar stool he(?) looks like a big black beetle, in all other pictures he is a humanoid with lumpy red skin. No explanation is given.
  • There are Druedians in the bar right from the start. They are aliens, they don't originate from New Earth, yet everybody ignores them. Probably their abilities for espionage help.
  • You can research and build colony buildings that would be useful for ground battles, like Ion Cannon. But ground battles are fought on a separate screen where the colony doesn't appear.
  • You can do a lot to protect your other colonies, but never need it, since enemies target only New Earth.
  • Some events look like stubs that could have become alternative plot routes, but were never implemented. For example, translator research is triggered by first contact with any aliens. Except that you can only meet Jaanosians or Morgruls and you die a few hours after meeting Morgruls.
  • All cases of Gameplay and Story Segregation could be caused by this. For example, when people stay in the evacuated colony right until it is destroyed by supernova.
  • Big cargo ships can be equipped with weapons, but cannot use them. Even if you build Privateers, all pirating is done by a pirate you hire.
  • Colonies have to build various production facilities, but the only place that builds ships, ground combat units, mining robots and such is New Earth.
  • Theme Naming only applies to planets and moons in the Amnesty system. The rest just get boring numbers.
  • No way to automate shuttling of ores.
  • Ground combat controls are rather awkward, while Computers Are Fast.
  • In early 1990s Copy Protection was present in floppy versions of most games, but normally got removed from CD versions. Yet, CD version of Reunion does ask for passwords.
  • The name of the Syronian renegade alternates between MRX and MXR in the same dialogue. He's The Man Behind the Man from the prologue and supposed main villain, but never appears in person, is named in only 1 scene and mentioned in maybe 2 more.
  • Planet type for two of Syronian moons is "No" (sic). They use the same graphics as "Enhanced".

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