Looking to take a close look at Star Trek: The Next Generation Klingon Honor Guard? MicroProse has released a small patch for curious gamers that will let them (those who own Unreal, at least) try out a powerful weapon called the Sith Har Blaster. If you haven't heard, Klingon Honor Guard will use the Unreal engine to re-create the Klingon Empire on the PC.

　　To install the weapon into Unreal, you'll need to unzip the files and place the files into these directories:

　　\Unreal\Sounds - KlingonSFX01.uax\Unreal\Textures - WeaponFX01.utx\Unreal\System - Klingons.utx

　　Then while you're playing the game, type "summon klingons.sithhar" and the weapon will appear in front of you. If you can't remember the directions and are offline, there's a readme.txt file that explains the whole process as well.

　　When fired, the weapon emits a laser that will ionize a path leading toward your target. Immediately after the first shot, the second shot sends a pulse of accelerated particles down the ionized path, damaging whatever it hits with impact and heat. As with other weapons in Unreal, the blaster has two modes of firing: one sends a steady series of pulses into a target, and the other releases an entire fuel cell into its target.

　　The blaster is taken from the Drema IV episode of ST:TNG where a planet suffering from severe electrical storms (from hefty amounts of seismic activity) is graced with a group of scientists that figure out how to master particle physics. The Sith Har order of assassins figures out how to use this knowledge to create the powerful weapon.

　　Klingon Honor Guard will attempt to re-create the feel of the Klingon Empire on Windows 95/98 with a new storyline, ten new weapons (six created just for the game), more than 20 creatures and enemies, seven 3D worlds, more than 25 interactive levels taking place on space stations and alien cities, and an intelligent AI. The game is due for release this fall.