Star Trek Games
Numerous games were developed based on Star Trek . Only officially licensed games are listed here; the list of unofficial Star Trek games is much longer and goes back to the 1970s .
Computer games
Adventures
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is an adventure adventure that was published by Interplay Productions for MS-DOS in 1992 on the occasion of the 25th birthday of the Star Trek universe and later ported to Amiga , Mac OS Classic , Microsoft Windows and Linux . The game took the player through several short episodes presented in the style of individual episodes of the original series. These episodes were linked in part by battles between the Enterprise and enemy spaceships. These action sequences were perceived by many players as the greatest criticism of the otherwise successful adventure. Noteworthy was the release of a CD version that set the dialogues of the game to music using the original voices of the series.
Under the same title, an action-adventure was released for the NES in 1991 , which was also developed by Interplay but published by the Konami subsidiary Ultra Software Corporation , and in 1992 a shoot 'em up for the Game Boy by Visual Concepts Entertainment , also distributed by Ultra Software.
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
The direct sequel to Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary , released in 1993 . The game setup is identical, only a new storyline was offered. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Star Trek: Judgment Rites is still considered by many players to be one of the best Star Trek games.
Star Trek: A Final Unity
In 1995 this adventure from Spectrum HoloByte was published by the publisher Microprose. It is set in the era of Captain Picard on the USS Enterprise D. The game alternates between external missions on planets or stations and space battles. In the field missions the player can switch back and forth between different characters. Various puzzles have to be solved. To support the plot, rendered scenes were inserted as a film.
Star Trek: The Uprising
In 1999 this adventure (original title Star Trek: Hidden Evil ) was released as a continuation of the plot of the STNG movie Der Aufstand at Activision. This commissioned work was created in Presto Studios. The player takes on the role of Ensign Sovok. As with the earlier adventures, the actors of the series, here Next Generation, took over the voice acting. The reviews were largely negative and resulted in a rating score of only 53%. The game was described as too short and too listless to work out. The action sequences were rather annoying. The studio had only had a year for this production.
Massive multiplayer online roleplaying game
Star Trek: Online
The development of this mass multiplayer online role-playing game ( English. MMORPG) was stopped by the developer company P2 Entertainment Inc., formerly Perpetual Entertainment Inc., and both the license and the content were sold to Cryptic Studios . Since this sale did not contain the game code, the release date in early 2009, as announced by P2 Entertainment Inc., could not be met.
The player can choose his own character from several races (e.g. Andorians, Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Tellarites, Trill, Bolians, Ferengi or Cardassians). It is also possible to create your own breed. The player is also allowed to design his spaceship individually. The release date was announced on the Cryptic website on February 2, 2010, and the game has been available since then.
The closed beta phase, in which players can test Star Trek: Online in advance, ran from the end of October 2009 to January 12, 2010. After that, the open beta phase ran, during which all pre-orderers and selected persons and holders of PR accounts ran were allowed to participate. The game is now free to play.
Simulations
Star Trek: Klingon Academy
Star Trek: Bridge Commander
Star Trek: Bridge Commander , published by Totally Games in 2002 , is a kind of "flight simulation" in which the player takes a seat in the captain's chair and commands a ship. Bridge and outside world are fully animated in 3D. In addition to various multiplayer modes, the game offers two single player modes in which the player can either follow a story or put together their own battle constellations. The story is set shortly after the Dominion War and deals with a scenario in which a revitalized Cardassia again causes unrest in the quadrant. In the course of the plot, the player first takes command of the fictional Galaxy-class ship USS Dauntless and later of the USS Sovereign (first ship of the ship class of the same name). The events are commented on in cutscenes by the members of the five-man leadership crew in their logbooks.
Another special feature is the voice support published by Totally Games , so as a captain you can also give commands with your voice. For this, however, Gamevoice or Game Commander 2 is required, originally the voice commands should be implemented directly in the game.
A very active “modding community” has formed around the game, adding new 3D objects and functions to the game. Thanks to a Python- based interface, the game is particularly “mod-friendly”. In the meantime, almost every ship from Star Trek and even Star Wars has been implemented for Bridge Commander.
A special feature that sets Star Trek: Bridge Commander apart from other games is the limited edition. Publisher Activision prematurely returned the Star Trek license to Paramount - at this point only 5000 copies of the PC game had been produced. The high quality of content and the small number of copies of the game have resulted in flawless original versions of Star Trek: Bridge Commander fetching high collector prices. Amounts in the amount of new full-price games are not uncommon on sales platforms. The game often reaches even higher prices at trade fairs and conventions. There will definitely not be a new edition, since without the Activision license the distribution and production rights are missing.
Star Trek: Legacy
Star Trek: Legacy is an action-based Star Trek game similar to the Starfleet Command series. The license from developer Bethesda Softworks covers all Star Trek cycles. In Germany the game is distributed by Ubisoft GmbH and was released on December 21, 2006. In addition, a version for the Xbox 360 was released at the same time .
Due to the short development time and the goal of bringing the game to the market for Christmas, some of the planned features have been left out. In addition, in addition to the story, the gameplay could not convince. Nevertheless, with various mods , such as the "Ultimate Universe Mod", the "Trek Battles Mod" and the "Legendary Generations Mod", a considerable expansion of the game was created.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew
Star Trek: Bridge Crew, is a bridge simulation that was developed exclusively for virtual reality . The game was released on May 30, 2017 on the three VR platforms PlayStation VR , HTC Vive and Oculus Rift - all platforms can play together. The gameplay is very similar to the "Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator". Together with up to 3 other players, you occupy a position on the bridge of the USS Aegis (NX-1787) or the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). Available roles of captain, helmsman, tactical officer and engineer. The focus here is less on the game mechanics of the individual roles and more on the communication between the players. In addition to the immersion typical of VR , the social presence increases the feeling of being part of a real bridge cast.
The background story takes place in the new timeline, the aim of the 7 missions of the campaign is to search for a new homeworld for the Vulcans. In addition to the main missions, there are automatically generated random missions in different categories. Alternatively, these missions can also be played in the original Enterprise.
Shooter
Star Trek: Generations
"Star Trek: Generations" by Microprose from 1997 is probably the first Star Trek first-person shooter . The story is based on the film of the same name (German title: Star Trek: Meeting of Generations ), whereby it is influenced by the actions of the player.
As in the film, the aim of the game is to prevent the villain "Doctor Soran" from entering a paradisiacal dimension called "Nexus" by destroying entire solar systems. During the missions, special care must be taken to avoid collateral damage as much as possible. If too many crucial missions are completed unsuccessfully, the player is removed from the mission and the game is lost.
In the primary missions in the game, the so-called external missions, which run in the form of a first-person shooter, the player takes on the role of one of the protagonists known from the film and is beamed to planets, ships or space stations, where tasks have to be completed on their own . The goal is often to prevent a sun-destroying trilithium weapon from being launched, or to prevent Soran from collecting trilitium, the success or failure of the latter being of little consequence to the outcome of the game. The tasks lie in solving puzzles, but also in jumping, diving and swimming exercises. The main difference to other shooters lies in the many undercover missions, in which it is advisable to avoid violent conflicts and not to lose your camouflage. In the unavoidable fights, the number of opponents is limited.
A total of eleven external missions can be played, but only a small selection, unconsciously influenced by the actions of the player himself, has to be completed in the respective game round. This characteristic, which is unusual for first-person shooters, has a decisive effect on the story and its duration.
The maps are very extensive, with many details that have no meaning in the game itself. This outweighs the average quality of the graphics. For example, many rooms that are not important for the mission can be entered, which further increases the fun of puzzling. The player subconsciously chooses and orders the missions himself, which gives him a lot of freedom and each game is different.
Between the field missions you can take control of the Enterprise in the stellar cartography , order it to various destinations in the system, carry out scans of the objects or open battles against foreign naval units. Here you switch to a tactical mode, in which you can follow the battle on the main screen and give necessary commands. In the course of the game you often have to face Soran in a spaceship battle, who in the course of the game enters into alliances with Klingons, Romulans and Chodak.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard is a first-person shooter released by Microprose in 1998. The game is based on the first version of the Unreal Engine . You play as a new member of the Klingon Honor Guard, which consists of the best warriors in the Empire. A bomb attack was carried out on Chancellor Gowron and the high council. Gowron and a few other members of the council barely survived, and now the goal is to track down those responsible. You will receive instructions from Captain Kurn and will be brought to different places with his spaceship (including Rura Penthe, Qualor II, an Andorian star base and Klingon spaceships). The trail first leads to Lursa and B'Etor .
When looking for those responsible, the player has a large number of different weapons at his disposal (including Bat'leth, D'k tahg and disruptor rifles). a. to Andorians , Nausicaans, and Letheans. In the course of the game there are sections in which you have to move and fight with a space suit and magnetic boots in space on the shell of a starbase or a spaceship.
Due to the depiction of violence in Germany, the shooter was only released in a cut version without depicting blood.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen was developed by Collective Studios and released in 2000. It is a third person action game. In the beginning, a Bajoran research vessel is attacked by an unknown species, the Grigari. Shortly thereafter, an old friend of Major Kira's appears on Deep Space Nine and persuades Captain Sisko to investigate an ancient temple on a Bajor moon. There Worf and Captain Sisko discover a monument on which the story of the three rotating bodies of the Pah spirits is written. But this discovery does not remain a secret and so the hunt for the rotating bodies begins, because these must not fall into the hands of the Dominion .
The game uses the first version of the Unreal Engine , but can take advantage of it very well. The game does not have a multiplayer mode and the three characters that you can play (Captain Sisko, Major Kira and Worf) often go through the same levels from different perspectives and sometimes have different weapons, but do not differ much in their gameplay.
On March 3, 2006, Fusioncreativedesign released an expansion for The Fallen: Convergence. It takes place about 9 months after The Fallen. A secret Federation / Cardassian facility on SR-III sends out a distress call. Sisko, Kira and Worf have to go back to SR-III to answer the emergency call. The Cardassians' phaser beam is now red, Sisko, Kira and Worf take turns, the Grigari have been improved, the old dialogues have been used (also the boss of Fusioncreativedesign, Eric, C. Reuter, speaks in Convergence). Except for those from Reuter, all dialogues in the German version of TF are German (with English subtitles). The player also has to go back to the USS Ulysses.
There was also a The Fallen adaptation called Lethality and a 3 level mission for Worf, in which he had to free the USS Gage from the hands of Dominion and Admiral Ross.
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force
- see main article Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force is a first-person shooter - computer game developed by Raven Software , 2000 brought by Activision on the market. It uses the Quake III Arena - game engine from id Software . The player takes on the role of a crew member on the USS Voyager .
- content
The USS Voyager is attacked by an unknown ship on her way home from the distant Delta Quadrant. Although the crew around Captain Janeway is able to repel the attack of the foreign ship, they are teleported to a remote spaceship cemetery when it is destroyed. The Voyager was badly damaged by the attack and is incapable of fighting or maneuvering. For this reason, the "Hazard Team", a special elite force for particularly delicate missions, is tasked with freeing the Federation ship from its predicament.
The player in the person of the young ensign Alexander Munro (or Alexandria Munro) now has the task of leading the hazard team through dangerous missions on foreign space stations, infiltrating Klingon ships and, in addition to Voyager, even saving the galaxy from an extraterrestrial threat .
The well-known hand phaser, the phaser rifle and other weapons that are collected in the game are available. A special weapon, the infinity modulator (U-Mod), was developed by Seven of Nine to even penetrate the Borg personal protection shields.
- Multiplayer mode
In the multiplayer mode there are the well-known game modes Capture the Flag (CTF), Free For All (FFA, called in Elite Force "Holomatch" - HM), Team Death Match (TDM, called in Elite Force "Team Holomatch" - THM) as well as a duel mode.
With version 1.2 of the game, so-called PMod game modes were added. These include, for example, variants of Last Man Standing and Instagib.
Star Trek: Elite Force II
Star Trek: Elite Force II is a first-person shooter developed by Ritual Entertainment and released by Activision on June 20, 2003 .
This game is the sequel to Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force . As in the first part, you slip into the role of Alexander Munro, a member of the Starfleet “Hazard Team”. The Hazard Team was set up to tackle particularly delicate missions.
The story begins on the USS Voyager, which has now returned to the Alpha Quadrant. But before she can return to Earth, she is held by the Borg . The first mission therefore takes place on a Borg sphere. Following this, Voyager returns to Earth, where the Hazard team learns that it is about to be disbanded. However, a few years later, the idea of a hazard team is promoted by Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard revived that of his ship, which this USS Enterprise E , set up. Munro is also back with the party and is now experiencing a number of missions, most of which involve open combat and only rarely sneaking or quiet sections.
Star Trek: Elite Force 2 is based on an improved Quake III Arena game engine. The graphics engine only achieves mediocre results in the outdoor areas and therefore cannot keep up with games such as FarCry in this area , but the interiors are quite good thanks to the high-resolution textures . The scripting system of the first part has been improved and enables developers to run controlled actions in the game worlds. This is now also possible in multiplayer mode , in which several people can play over the Internet or a LAN .
Strategy games
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation is a turn-based strategy game published by Microprose in 1999 and heavily inspired by Master of Orion II (also published by Microprose). Even if the title suggests otherwise: At the beginning of the game, the player can choose from five races (Federation, Cardassians, Romulans, Klingons, Ferengi), whose fortunes he can then guide. Each playable race had its own typical user interface, as you know from the series. The player begins with the planetary expansion of his empire in order to increase the range of his ships and to be able to reach other planets, besides economic aspects. He can act diplomatically as well as warlike to integrate a new planet into his empire. The goal is the domination of one's own empire over that of the others.
Each people has a number of peculiarities: the Federation has advantages in diplomacy and science, the Ferengi are strong in business and corruption, Cardassians and Romulans have excellent espionage and sabotage skills, while the Klingons have military strengths.
In addition to these empires, there are countless other well-known races from the Star Trek universe - from A for Andorians to Z for Zakdorn. These too have different abilities that are made available to one's own empire after incorporation (whether through diplomacy, bribery or submission).
Natural disasters and famines on individual planets can make life difficult. Even less nice groupings of the Star Trek universe can appear and destroy entire planets and fleets (for example the Borg or the crystal beings).
In addition, there is of course the possibility of attacking other empires. The space battles can run automatically if desired. A special feature is the individual development option for spaceships.
- Multiplayer mode
In addition to a single player mode , a multiplayer mode is also implemented. You can also play against human opponents via a LAN , for example .
- Successor game
Birth of the Federation never received an official successor . Instead, fans have tried to create a successor themselves. One of these games was later renamed Birth of the Empires and all Star Trek specific content was removed. The Star Trek: Supremacy project, however, is still active and provides new versions at irregular intervals via the Bitbucket platform .
Star Trek: Armada
The real-time strategy game published by Activision in 2000 puts the player in the command position of various Star Trek races, namely the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans and the Borg. The player must collect resources (Dilithium), build space stations and shipyards, and conduct research. In order to defeat the enemy in varied missions, it is usually not necessary to do anything more than build tons of ships and throw them at the enemy. However, in multiplayer battles there is strategic depth through siege units and a special ability of each spaceship.
The campaign contains 4 missions for each people as well as four further missions in which an alliance of Federation, Klingons and Romulans can fight the Borg. In the course of the campaign, the player encounters other races such as the Dominion, Ferengi, Cardassians and (the only in-game) species 9341.
The operational area is shown in three dimensions, but in the first part there is no real depth dimension into which spaceships can penetrate. This was only retrofitted in the successor "Star Trek: Armada II".
Star Trek: Armada II
Activision released the sequel in 2001. In addition to the races from the first part, Cardassians and Species 8472 have been added. Other ships and stations have been added to the other peoples, i.e. the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Borg. The peoples' campaigns have been extended, but in contrast to the first part, there is no longer a separate campaign for each people.
In addition to the dilithium resource from the first part, there is now also metal and (except in the case of the Borg) latinum, whereby latinum can be obtained either through mining from latinum mists or through trade. Species 8472 has its own resource with biomass.
Card games
Star Trek Customizable Card Game (ST-CCG)
also: STCCG
The Star Trek Customizable Card Game was developed by the Decipher company in 1994 and is a turn-based trading card game for two players. As the second trading card game ever (the first was Magic: The Gathering ), it had to struggle with some starting difficulties.
The basic idea of the game is based on solving so-called missions, for which certain requirements must be met in order to be able to do this. These requirements mostly relate to characteristics of characters such as diplomacy, engineering, etc. Both the characters and all other cards are taken directly from the respective Star Trek series, but this does not mean that certain episodes are simply replayed. It is difficult to list all the game principles here, however, as the ST-CCG is very complex and therefore it should only be said here that 100 points must be gained by solving missions in order to win the game. However, the opposing player tries to gain 100 points himself and to prevent the other player from achieving the required number of points, for which some card types (interrupts, events, dilemmas etc.) can be used.
The well-known characters mentioned, as well as spaceships, events, etc. initially only referred to the series Spaceship Enterprise: The Next Century (TNG) and only later were elements of other Star Trek series and even the films added, so one follows small overview of the so-called Premiere Edition , as well as the following different "Expansions" (an extension with new cards).
The Premiere Edition was published in 1994 and was only about the TNG series. This was also the case with the two subsequent "Expansions" Alternate Universe (1995) and Q-Continuum (1996).
Alternate Universe put its main focus on alternative realities, such as time travel, other dimensions, etc., while the expansion Q-Continuum was mainly about Q, a frequently occurring almighty being in the TNG series.
In 1997, Decipher not only got the TNG license renewal, but also got the license for all other series and movies, the images and story of which were incorporated in the upcoming expansions.
This is how the extensions First Contact (1997), Deep Space Nine (1998), The Dominion (1999), Blaze of Glory (1999), Rules of Acquisition (1999); The Troubles with Tribbles (2000), Reflections (2000), Mirror, Mirror (2000), Voyager (2001), The Borg (2001), Holodeck Adventures (2001) and most recently The Motion Pictures (2002).
Between these expansions, different boxes came out, which mostly contained several "boosters" (a pack of an expansion with cards of different frequencies) of several expansions, but above all also premium cards, which are more or less the previous versions of cards that were to appear in later expansions. represented. The last box (and at the same time the last product of the First Edition) was All Good Things (2003), which bore the same title as the final episode of TNG and also skilfully concluded the First Edition. With the included “Premiumcards” the last open “Broken Links” were closed, that is, cards that were mentioned on others but did not yet exist were published at the end.
After these numerous expansions, the game was about to end in 2002 - more and more complicated special regulations and the spiral of increasingly stronger cards deterred many newcomers. In 2006 a small set of 18 foils with the theme Star Trek: Enterprise was released - as a small concession to the 1E fans.
However, the loyal fan base ensured that the game concept was not completely discarded. The game has been available as a second edition since 2001 with a new layout and revised rules, but some of the cards are also backwards compatible and then fully playable in the first edition.
TOS card game from Skybox
While Decipher held the TNG rights for a card game, Skybox realized a card game based on the TOS license ( The Original Series ). However, this game failed due to the direct competition with the already established ST-CCG and the restriction that you could only play the crew of the TOS-Enterprise, while with the Decipher variant you could and not play different "affiliations" (peoples) Main characters was bound.
Tribbles Customizable Card Game
In 2000, with the expansion Trouble with Tribbles , Decipher brought not only the OS universe into the ST-CCG, but also the card type with the popular Tribbles. The specialty here was on icons not relevant to ST-CCG, but on the Tribbles CCG. For this game there was only a full 4-player box in which the Tribble cards were only Tribble CCG oriented (instead of the ST-CCG game text there is something about the scene from which the picture is.) However, they are Tribble cards from the ST-CCG are compatible and complement this set, which is reminiscent of UNO with its gameplay.
TrekWar - The Battle Card Game
Since 2005 there has been an unlicensed freeware card game developed by RWTH Aachen students. The maps are not sold in stores, but are offered for download as a printout on a non-commercial basis. So far there are two playable sides: The Federation and the Dominion. Since 2007 there has also been an implementation for the card game client OCTGN, which enables games over the Internet.
Role play
Based on Star Trek, various pen & paper role-playing games have been developed and published in English. These include:
- Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier , developed by Heritage Models in 1978;
- Star Trek: The Role Playing Game , published by FASA 1982-1989;
- Prime Directive , first developed in 1993 by Task Force Games, then in 2002 by Steve Jackson Games on the basis of the GURPS system, reissued in 2005 on the basis of the d20 system ;
- Star Trek Roleplaying Game , first produced by Last Unicorn Games from 1998, then, after the license change, reworked by Decipher from 2002.
In addition, there are also very popular role-playing games via email (PbEM) , chat role-playing games , RPG-X (Mod) role-playing games or those that take place in forums. They allow fans to slip into the role of characters in the Star Trek universe and experience adventures. The medium of e-mail or forums enables asynchronous communication, which enables distributed games with people from all time zones. As a synchronous form of communication, chat has the essential advantage of immediate feedback without waiting.
Board games
Star Trek. The next century
Star Trek. The Next Century with the sub-title A Klingon Challenge describes itself as an interactive video board game . It is a board game for three to six players, ages eight and up, by MB Spiele. The players move parallel to a running video (60 minutes long and thus limiting the playing time) over a playing field that depicts the Enterprise NCC 1701-D from Starship Enterprise: The Next Century .
The aim of the game is to stop the Klingon shown on the video who, according to the background story, kidnapped the Enterprise. You play with a lot of what the Star Trek universe has to offer - communicators, phasers, tricorders, stasis fields, transporters, Jefferies tubes ...
The label on the accompanying cassette reads “Episode 1”, suggesting that this is the first in a series of video board games, but no more have been made.
Star Fleet Battles
A board strategy game from 1979, which was implemented on the computer as Starfleet Command (see here ). It still enjoys a large fan base on the Internet (see web links). Star Fleet Battles itself is mostly played in America. Tournaments are also held regularly.
Star Fleet Battles is mainly based on Star Trek and is licensed for the period between the foundation of the federation and the next generation. In addition to the well-known peoples such as the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Gorn and Tholians, there are also other peoples, namely Lyran, Kzinti, Hydrans, Andromedans, Seltorians, Jindarians, Orions and alliances such as WYN and ISC as well as subgroups and splits Democratic Republic of Lyran, Neo -Tholians.
Most of the peoples wage war with each other, later two groups form and fight each other: the Klingon and Lyran coalition supported by the Romulans, the Alliance Federation, Gorn and Kzinti, which are allied with the Hydrans. Tholians support the Alliance but do not join it. WYN, Orion and ISC are involved in the fighting, but since they fight both sides for different reasons, they only add to the chaos.
literature
- Dennis Andree, Raphael Süs: Star Trek computer games - these are the adventures ... (PDF; 2.7 MB), in: Website of the FH Kaiserslautern , approx. 2010
- Steve Kelley: Star Trek: The Collectibles , Krause Publications, Iola 2008, ISBN 978-0-89689-637-6
- Markus Kettner: From Text Adventure to Polygon Monster - The History of the "Star Trek" Games from 1985 to the Present ( Memento from February 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), in: TrekZone Network from Sep 8. 2004
Web links
- Link catalog on the topic of Star Trek games at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- Games in the Star Trek Wiki Memory Alpha
Individual evidence
- ↑ Star Trek Online Frequently Asked Questions
- ↑ See Ansgar Steidle: Space Action. Star Trek: Legacy In: PC Games Online January 13, 2007; see. also Michael Graf: Today is a good day to be angry. Star Trek Legacy . In: GameStar 02/2007.
- ↑ Games at Raven Software
- ↑ TrekWar - The Battle Card Game
- ↑ The most important Star Trek fan role-playing games are listed in the Wiki Memory Alpha : Star Trek: Fan role-playing games .
