Star Trek Game Thread - Set phaser.o-- Ah, forget it.

[SFC3]

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2000's Star Trek Armada
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2002's Star Trek: Bridge Commander

This thread is for discussion of all Star Trek games, (i.e. Armada, Bridge Commander, Legacy and etc.)
Mods and indie games (non-profit games like Star Trek: Excalibur) is also discussable in the thread.

Starting from the Beginning (quoted from Star Trek Gamers)

The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming
The Beginning
1992 To 1994

By the time the 90's rolled on Star Trek: The Next Generation was gaining momentum as one of the top Sci-Fi shows of the early 90's. With a massive following and even larger ratings no one thought of the fledgling PC gaming world as a viable source of income.

Early fan based games like MTrek and NetTrek was making there rounds and gaining a lot of momentum and popularity in the trek fan base who had computers and connections able to keep up with the basic games but no one really tried to make or produce a full out mass market game, the reason was Viacom wasn't interested. Back then in the early 90's the super computers that are now available with gigahertz of processing power was a fairytale to the PC users of the day, if you had a 33mhz processor and 8mb of ram you was considered a god in the world of PC gaming, nowadays modern day Graphics Card processors run 10 times faster than the main processors of PC's released even 5 years ago, how times change.

Gaming back in the early part of the 90's was mostly the domain of the small console world. Companies like Nintendo and Sega had the market cornered as the new wave of consoles like the SNES outstripped the performance of the large bulky 80386 IBM compatibles that lay in the bedroom of some homes. Other styles of "Personal Computers" like the Amiga and Atari ST series were based on the same older chipsets of the 80X series but were cut down and mainly used for gaming. Companies like Activision started out on the Amiga and Atari. It wasn't until the turn of the 90's when good stable SVGA graphics cards like the Trident Tornado 3D running with 4mb to 8mb of memory was released that things started to change in favour of the PC user.

The gaming industry itself was also fragile. Many companies started out there lives in the early 90's and cut there teeth on the Amiga and Atari systems by making games which ran on the old 2D based scroll system of game play. 1990 to 1995 was basically a blank slate as far as PC gaming goes, this was before the time of the massive FPS hits of Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake, this was the time of the single player games where you complete the game and then shelf it, and no one even thought of making a star trek game to cater for the growing audience of Star Trek fans. All that changed in the latter half of 1992 though.

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1992 - Interplay step on the scene as the first game publisher

1992 seen the first stirrings inside the massive company of Viacom as it was quietly announced that the Star Trek franchise would spin off chunks of the new PC gaming section to willing producers. First in line was Interplay. Interplay itself, even at that time was one of the older companies, having first been founded in 1983 they had grown and risen in fame as producers and developers of programs and games. A lot of people started to take notice of the new trek franchise and what Interplay was going to do for there first foray into the world of Star Trek PC gaming. Interplay themselves knew that the first Star Trek mass distributed PC game would set the trend for the gaming franchise for the next few years.

Using the new technologies and pushing the envelope of the old 80386 machines they spent a good few months just altering and adding different parts of code from other games they were developing internally. This was going to be the first Star Trek game ever officially produced for the franchise and it just had to be a good one.

What they came up within less than a year is still hailed as a timeless classic of early gaming history, and is still one of the top selling game's of all time for the Star Trek franchise...Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.
25th Anniversary
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Star Trek: 25th Anniversary - The first produced and licensed graphical PC game for Trek

In the winter of 1993 when 25th Anniversary was released it was given the specs of a 386X machine to run it and 2mb of RAM. Doesn't sound like a lot these days, but back then its was a mid to high end PC needed to run the game. Interplay, before the Titus takeover in the latter end of 1999 was a well known company for there story telling abilities in game, and that's what 25th anniversary was, a TOS episode. Interplay pulled out all the stops for this one single game, voice casting of the original crew and the limit's pushed even further for the old 2d scroll engine that had been used so many times before by other companies. Thought and depth was put into the game play as well so instead of running around shooting things the player had to think of ways to solve a problem, yes, 25th anniversary was top of the game selling list in a lot of countries worldwide.

It was also one of the first games produced which pushed the old 2d scroll engines to there limit's. Other game developers (including Activision who was not a part of the franchise at that time) took what Interplay had done with 25th Anniversary and used it in there own subsequent releases. 25th Anniversary was not just the first Star Trek game, it was the first mile stone of the PC gaming industry. Even though 25th Anniversary is now more than a decade old the way the story line of the game progressed and the intuitive user interface still makes it a playable classic...if you can get the thing to run on XP that is :)

While all this was going on though 2 other companies had stepped into the Trek PC game market. Simon & Schuster and Spectrum Holobyte (later renamed to Microprose) was busily developing games of there own. However Simon & Schuster had already had over 10 years of experience dealing with Star Trek on personal computers. S&S by that time was part of the Viacom company and had already released games like The Kobayashi Alternative and The Rebel Universe in the late 80's however they were not real graphical games and only really text adventures, and they didn't sell all that well either.

S&S was already a well founded part of the Star Trek franchise. Viacom used S&S to publish the many volumes of books and small tech manuals that they were producing and by 1993 when S&S officially stepped into the gaming franchise a lot of people already had respect for the work S&S done on the technical side. Both Spectrum Holobyte and S&S announced in 1992 they they were both planning games releases for the following year, however everything got drowned out by the critical acclaim for Interplay's 25th anniversary.

Simon & Schuster went down a completely different path though. S&S are more noted for publishing books and tech manuals rather than games, and they announced something completely different, CD ROM based manuals and tech books.
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S&S take the tech manual and interactive CD ROM road

Although not really a "game" the first foray into this new line in the Star Trek game franchise was the TNG Interactive Manual. That was then followed in the mid 90's by Star Trek: Klingon and Star Trek: Borg, both of which was an in-depth manual and tech CD on both of the races with cut scenes from the different episodes which featured both races. Although Klingon and Borg was not big sellers the TNG Interactive manual was, gaining notoriety amongst the TNG fans as the "bible" of canon tech for the TNG series. While S&S was doing there own thing it started to become obvious to some people that Spectrum Holobyte and Interplay was sooner or later going to be at loggerheads with each other for the best selling games.

By the end of 1993 Spectrum Holobyte was already late with the projected release of there first game A Final Unity. Final Unity was supposed to be released in the same month as Interplay's Star Trek: 25th Anniversary but whether due to programming issues or the sheer problem of coding games of that time it was announced in Jan of 1994 that AFU would be released by the fall of that year, however, it was still held back. While S&S was busy making manuals and Spectrum Holobyte was cancelling release dates and changing there name to Microprose, 1994 seen Interplay hitting the same top mark with there second major Star Trek game release...Judgement Rites.

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Interplay's 1994 release - Judgement Rites

Less than a year after the release of 25th Anniversary Judgement Rites was basically the exact same game as 25th Anniversary but with a slightly better engine. However, no one really noticed the game play and style was the same and once more Interplay was hailed as a pioneer of the gaming industry as they watched Judgement Rites take the top spot in a lot of gaming journals and media magazines. The game was such a massive success that Interplay went on to develop and release an "expansion pack" which added voice over's to the game as well, bringing them in even more money. Riding high on the success of there first 2 games Interplay decided to go for broke and in 1994 announced the development of what they called "An interactive theatre journey into the world of star trek". The game was called Starfleet Academy, announced for a release at the end of 1995...if only it actually made that release date.

By the end of 1994 the stage was set for an all out fight between Microprose and Interplay with both of the companies saying that they will have ground breaking games out by the end of that year. S&S was still busy producing CD after CD of manuals and all in all, the early trek gamer was a happy person...then 1995 came along...and the gaming world along with the world of PC technology changed forever.

Part Two -

The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming
1995 & 1996 - A Time Of Change
The Interplay & Microprose Gamble

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Interplay, riding high on the sales of 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites

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Microprose, the new kid's on the block with promises of new ground breaking games.

By the time the mid 90's approached it became apparent that the age of the 1st generation console was thriving. With the NES, SNES and SEGA systems came a whole new gaming world of opportunity. In 1995 more than a dozen titles for Star Trek games was announced for the new generation gaming consoles, hand held devices like the 1st and 2nd generation Nintendo Game Boy already had "Ported" versions of Interplay's 25th Anniversary for them with the cut down scroll engine (and no colour) and sales were as usual climbing high.

1995 however also seen the advent of the first true 3d game engines, and nothing would be the same again. iD Software was the first to make heavy use of the new engines with games like Quake which was instant best sellers all across the world with never before seen sales figures.

The release of the new Microsoft Windows 1995 operating system made PC's a lot more easier to use than the old Windows 3.1 OS. New leaps in technology and the arrival of the 2nd generation 80486 processors with motherboard which could take more and more RAM made sure that the world of the PC was starting to overtake the world of the console for sheer gaming compatibility. By this point in time Activision (nope, they still ain't part of the franchise yet) was already producing and releasing the smash hit Mechwarrior series, Interplay also started to get in on the act outside of the trek gaming world by releasing the first version of Virtual Pool which was an instant smash hit.

Older games that once was the talking point of the gaming world like Judgement Rites and 25th Anniversary was soon forgotten about in the fickle world of the gaming industry, to make matters worse Interplay was showing the first signs of trouble in the Star Trek gaming franchise.

1995 promised to be a good year for Interplay, S&S and Microprose, but the first few months were met by disaster for Interplay. There "new generation" game, Starfleet Academy, got it's released date held back to 1996 due to programming problems with the over complex cinematic and overlay engine which they were designing from scratch for the game. By this point in time Interplay had poured vast sum's of money into the development of this game and time, and money was starting to run out. Whether due to the sheer complexity of the engine or not, a lot of people were disappointed that they had to wait until 1996...if only it did get released in 1996, things might have been easier for Interplay.

S&S Interactive were still riding high on the success of the TNG Interactive Manual. 1995 S&S was developing 2 new titles slated for release in 1996, Star Trek Borg, and Star Trek Klingon.

However most peoples thought's turned to Microprose.

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Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte release there first game in 1995

Spectrum Holobyte as they were known back then was already an established gaming developer having been making games since 1989 for the Amiga and Atari consoles. More famous as the developer of the Sid Meiyer Civilization series of games until Civ 2 they had a lot of experience in the deep immersive game play style. Where Interplay excelled in story telling, Spectrum Holobyte/Microprose excelled in the intricate details of plot lines and story telling. Released a year late, there first foray into the Star Trek gaming franchise was a massive success.
A Final Unity Info

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The first PC game release for Microprose, a massive success.

Spectrum spent a FORTUNE on this game, with voice casting of almost the entire cast of the TNG series.

For its time, the production values of AFU are top notch. The film clips are impressive, and a "Holodeck" feature in the game allows you to watch cut scenes again and again to your heart's content. The graphics are well drawn, and all the main characters in ST:TNG are rendered in almost perfect fidelity with their real life counterparts. The voice acting stands out as one of the best voice tracks ever added to computer games. Ironically, the only real problem is that there is sometimes so much details in the background shots that, on occasions, it is difficult to pick out the hotspots.

The game is somewhat hardware intensive, although most of the installation bugs that once heavily plagued the game now appear moot with the hardware currently available. Back in 1995, the game really did not run well without a high end 486 and 16 MB of RAM and that was part of the problem. Microprose had made the game so high end spec for it's time that a lot of people simply couldn't play it. It was said that A Final Unity forced people to upgrade or buy a new PC just to play the game. Games like Quake which was released a year later didn't even need the requirements of A Final Unity but Microprose hedged a gamble along with Interplay in the latter end of 1994 that the PC industry led by people like Intel and the new Windows operating system would start to make fair sized leaps forward in technology and software.

The gamble paid off for Microprose, A final Unity was a massive success in sales and reviews. Some critics thought the game was too detailed but the cut scenes and the rendering of the characters from the TV show was so ahead of it's time for the mid 90's that a lot of people took the bad and covered it up with the good. A Final Unity set Microprose up as a major runner in the Star Trek game franchise, and it started to get Interplay worried.

By the end of 1995 it was becoming obvious to a lot of gaming insiders that Interplay's own good fortune had put them in a bad state of affairs. At the end of 1993 to the end of 1994 Interplay signed contracts with other publishers to develop no less than 20 PC game titles to be released in 1995 and 1996, even today that kind of commitment is unheard of. Interplay started to outsource development of games to places like 14 degrees east and do a lot of the base programming of the games in house. The demand for Interplays talent was outstripping there resources and the company started to struggle with the workload. Combined with this was the rumours that Viacom was selling off one last chunk of the PC game franchise...rumours which became fact at the end of 1997.

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S&S next foray in the franchise, Star Trek: Klingon - 1996

As February of 1996 passed S&S, Interplay, Microprose were all hard at work in there dark rooms planning the downfall of each other. The first to release was S&S with one of there best known interactive CD ROM's...Star Trek: Klingon. ST: Klingon was a full 3 CD set which was unheard of in those days. The game wasn't so much of a game, it was more like an interactive TV Episode directed by Jonathan Frakes (riker in TNG) and starring quite a few of the TNG cast. By this point in time TNG was off the air having finished it's 7 season run, Deep Space 9 and Voyager was airing so the TNG fans found Star Trek: Klingon to be a welcome homage to the days of The Next Generation. Although Star Trek: Klingon did fair in sales and wasn't near as good as the sales figures of Interplays previous games the critics loved what S&S had done. S&S had managed to bring the world of TNG into the PC, something which they would repeat again at the end of the year.

As the fall of 1996 approached people started to look at Interplay, and seen silence.

In October of 1996 Interplay announced that Starfleet Academy was being held back for yet another year, making Starfleet Academy now a game in production for 3 successive years with 2 years of held back release dates. The worst part is Interplay didn't have anything else to release for the PC Trek franchise, all of Interplay's eggs was now in one basket with Starfleet Academy. Not so long after the announcement about Starfleet Academy, S&S released another gem...

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S&S last release for 1996, Star Trek: Borg

Once more S&S pulled out the stops with the motion picture editing of the time for the PC and released Star Trek: Borg, in it you "co star" with John De Lancie better known as "Q". Once more S&S got loads of credit and applause for an interactive move and everyone was happy. Everyone that is, except for Interplay.

Microprose and S&S had managed to release games for 2006. Interplay was now in deep, deep trouble, 1997 would be make or break time for them.

Part Three

The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming
1997 - Interplay's Gamble Pay's Out

1997 seen a lot of unrest as people wondered just what was happening to the PC game franchise of Star Trek. 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites was now a distant memory and Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte was dead silent about the new game they were producing all the way through 1996.

While the PC games for Star Trek was seemingly drying up the console games release in 96/97 hit the dozen mark by the time the next trek PC game was released. While Interplay and Microprose was staying quiet S&S was still busy with one of there final major interactive CD ROM's The Star Trek Encyclopaedia. It wasn't until the release of the next of the major Star Trek Movies, Star Trek: Generations that the silence of Microprose was broken.

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Generations, the first game out in 1997

By this time MMX technology was being rolled out and PC's had the ability to render much better and process information much faster. Generations itself was of course based on the actual film. The game itself was a mix of 2 different engines, FPS and standard 2d scrolling for the ship type scenes. By opting to incorporate a first-person viewpoint, the developers have attempted to bring the player closer to the action and at the same time introduce a strong exploration vein a la System Shock. Generations most certainly isn't a 3D shoot 'em up. Sure, you have to pull out your phaser in the game, but if you start getting too trigger-happy, you'll just end up in a bit of a mess as far as the campaign/storyline goes. Consequently, a lot of the game is spent exploring the different environments and getting your bearings. This would be okay if the engine could cope with detail. Sadly, it's just not up to it. When you consider that nearly half the screen is taken up with your control console/inventory, it doesn't make sense. It's like walking around a half-dressed movie set. On the plus side, there are lots of them, and they're pretty varied, but they're just not interesting enough and you never feel as though you're immersed in what's going on. It would help if you could have conversations with other characters, but ultimately it's all very limited. If they'd opted to license the Quake or Unreal engine, it would have been a different story.

This would have been fine if it had been as open and free as was intended. What actually happens is that you just nip from one system to another doing absolutely sod all until you either find him or run out of time and have to watch another star system get destroyed (which signals the end of your game).

Microprose had put a lot of effort into the game itself, promises of open ended game play made a lot of people look forward to the next offering of Microprose but when Generations was released it left a lot of people wondering just what the point was of buying the game. Microprose reputation was now starting to go downhill with the Star Trek gamers by the end of 1997, something which they tried to fix in 1998, but more about that later.

Three years in development, and a consequent 2 years of held back release dates and millions of dollars later...Interplay released there masterpiece in late 1997
Starfleet Academy Info

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Interplays Gamble pays off - Starfleet Academy makes a fortune

Interplay had hyped this game up for 3 years running, the run up to the release was a media circus in Interplay's main offices. The game was finally shipped at the end of 1997 and it sold bundles, but there was problems.

Basically, the game was 3 years old. It had been in development so much that they had to keep adding things to the engine to make it newly MMX compatible. The cut scenes and full appearances of Sulu, Chekov and Kirk was fantastic to watch but all the while Interplay was promising an open ended epic, what they got was a point and click dialogue system that looked rushed.

This could have been compensated for if Starfleet Academy had served up some sizzling space combat, but unfortunately the game fell a bit flat in this area as well. With no option to talk to crew members save at critical points during play (via a choice of dialogue selections, just like at the academy), about all that was left for you to do was make sure damage-control teams were sent to the right place and handle energy allocation. Though many of the missions were rather tricky, the experience (including the rather poor graphics) just didn't compare to the other space-combat sims Starfleet Academy was going up against, and numerous user reports of various bugs didn't help matters. In the end, Starfleet Academy wasn't a bad game; it just wasn't all it could have been. It did manage to reach the number three spot on the PC Data Hit List in September 1997, but it fell to number 16 the next month before dropping out of the Top 20 altogether.

Both Microprose and Interplay had done damage to the Star Trek gaming franchise by that point. Even though the 2 games released by them in 1997 were good quality 1 of them had been held back for 2 years and showed signs of still being unfinished and the other showed signs of being unfinished as well. As technology rolled on to the end of 1997 Microsoft announced the release of a new operating system, MMX was becoming part and parcel of the PC industry and the first real 3D graphics cards was starting to hit the market. It seemed at the time though that the Star Trek gaming franchise was still stuck in it's early era of 1993 - 1994.

It was a problem which would haunt Star Trek gaming until the release of the new age games starting in the year 2000. It was about this point where the theory of "all star trek games are bad" started to appear. Even though there was some great releases like Starfleet Academy in 1997 the game was basically a patched up game from 1995 at best and the year of 1997 was also the time when massive changes started to happen in the PC gaming industry as a whole. While the trek gaming fans mostly liked the games and actual PC gaming press had by this point in time started to turn there back on Microprose and especially Interplay. 1993 seen Interplay change the gaming scene of Star Trek and of the gaming world in general, less than 5 years later Interplay was now being criticised for it's missed opportunity's in the realm of one of the most lucrative game franchises of the time.

Microprose wasn't helping matters either, with constant rumours of Microprose being bought out or going bankrupt gaming magazines of the time started to make editorials on whether they would fold or be bought out by other interested parties.

Although Interplay's gamble paid off and got them some money back, it didn't really help matters as a lot of star trek gamers felt they got cheated. However, if Interplay was thinking they were having a hard time then, the next year was going to be much, much worse.

Part Four
tamorphosis

1998 seen Interplay with a head start, although Starfleet Academy was not the massive success it was supposed to be it still sold in good quantities. The biggest problem Interplay had was the amount of resources and effort put into Starfleet Academy. By 1998 signs of trouble was appearing in Interplay. In 1997 interplay made the announcement that in 1998 the would be releasing three new games, one would be a yet unnamed expansion pack for Starfleet Academy, and the other two games would be completely new.

While interplay was making all their announcements Microprose and S&S was busy developing their own new games. At this point in time Microprose was also showing the first signs of trouble, rumours had started that Microprose was starting to have serious money problems, Hasbro interactive at that point had already placed a bid for Microprose, Both companies we're now in the process of merging. While both interplay and Microprose were showing signs of problems an announcement was made by Viacom which would reshape the future of star trek gaming to the present day. At the beginning of 1998 Viacom made the announcement that the last chunk of the star trek PC game franchise would be given out.

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Activision joins in 1998.

By the beginning of 1998 Activision was a serious company to be reckoned with, already one of the major players Activision's resources and company as a whole was two times the size of interplay and Microprose combined. The same week the announcement was made of Activision joining, Activision made a statement that they would release their first PC Star Trek game title in 1999. The pressure on Interplay and Microprose was now greater than ever.

1997 seen Microprose make the announcement that they would release one of the first true FPS games for star trek, By this point in time games like quake, Wolfenstein and doom had already been making serious impact in the gaming world so that promise by Microprose for the first first person shooter had a lot of the gaming industry wondering what engine they would use.

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Klingon Honor Guard, the first FPS game for Star Trek

When Klingon Honor Guard was released it was met with mixed reviews...as for the engine, they decided to go for the relatively new and untested Unreal engine.

KHG is basically one massive FPS game with you, the Klingon seeking honor and revenge wandering around solving puzzles and killing people...the puzzle solving is a bit iffy, you don't see a Klingon solving puzzles, they just kill people. You start the game in the middle of a training exercise, and quickly move into the real plot: save Chancellor Gowron by uncovering a sinister plot to overthrow the empire and mercilessly slaughtering the conspirators. The story is above par for your standard first-person shooter, and the well-known and liked Star Trek universe certainly helps draw the player in. As a Klingon warrior you get to use a varied arsenal of weapons, from your trusty D'k Tahg (a small blade you use for disembowelling your enemies or throwing into their backs) to the more impressive Bat'leth (the sword of honor, a traditional Klingon weapon). The game also includes energy weapons, from the standard disrupter pistol up to the Sith Har blaster and Particle Dispersal Cannon--although a true Klingon warrior must see the fear in his enemies' eyes before leaving his knife in their throat!

At that time the Unreal engine was notoriously buggy, not the refined one it is today, and the bugs were apparent all the way through the games from the various blips on the screen to full blown crashes for no apparent reason. Klingon Honor Guard though still is a testament to Microprose, after the disaster they had with Generations they did try there best to get the gamers back to their side...and it sort of worked...however, little did people know that in less than twelve months' time Microprose would cease trading. It was after the release of Klingon honor guard that Microprose finally announced the full merger with Hasbro interactive, at the same time they also announced the development of a new star trek game for release in 1999. Little did anyone know that this would be Microprose last game.

At the same time everyone was thinking of Microprose new game for 1999 and while Activision was planning a new game for the same year S&S released their first game in 1998. This new game would be a complete diversion from the normal Star Trek games, for the first time Star Trek gamers would be able to designed build and flying their own customizable starship. Enter starship creator

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Starship creator, released in 1997

Starship creator was S&S idea to give the general Star Trek game populace a chance to build design and fly their own starship. However when the game was finally released in 1997 there were many problems, one of the major complaints about the game was the lack of different parts to make vessels, the other major complaint was the many bugs which caused the game to crash in mid end systems. Starship creator as a standalone game still sold many units and even though there was many problems with the game it's still received a lot of good reviews from the new PC game sites that were appearing on the Internet. The only problem was starship creator had a very short game life. So while S&S was releasing starship creator, and Microprose was busy planning for the 1999 game many eyes turned towards Interplay. Since the release of Starfleet Academy Interplay had remained silent throughout most of 1997. However, at the beginning of 1998 interplay announced an expansion pack for Starfleet Academy called Chekov's lost missions.

Even though Starfleet Academy was less than one year old, compared to new games like doom and quake it was already showing signs of age then there was the problem of faster computers of the year coupled with the new operating system of Windows 98 which starting to cause problems on some specific computers when people played Starfleet Academy. To keep the shelf life of Starfleet Academy going Chekov's lost missions was designed immediately after the release of Starfleet Academy and released midway through 1998.

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Interplay's thank you to the people who waited for Starfleet Academy and an attempt to keep the shelf life of the game.

The lost mission pack contained seven new missions plus two new net games however the biggest attraction for Starfleet Academy was the growing number of people who were playing it via TCP I. P. previous Star Trek games never had a very good multiplayer capacity however Starfleet Academy changed all that in an instant, the clan world of star trek gaming was now born. With the release of the expansion pack for Starfleet Academy, Interplay also released various patches to fix the game for newer computers, and as the interest for the expansion pack grew the sales of the original Starfleet Academy started to rise again.

Also at the beginning of 1998 interplay made the announcement of a whole brand new game based on the world of Vulcan. The game itself had been in planning since 1996 and was already 70% complete by the time the announcement was made in 1998. The Secret of Vulcan Fury was advertised on the lost missions pack as a fully rendered cut scene. The interest from that scene alone caused a massive amount of interest for the new secret of Vulcan Fury game due for release at the end of 1999. However the one thing that interplay never told anyone was the amount of money that went into the making of the game that was already 70% complete, by this point in 1998 interplay was almost bankrupt. To alleviate that, Interplay released possibly one of their worst games ever in the hopes that the money received from this new game would alleviate some of the pressure from the bank balance.

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Star trek: Pinball, a game interplay would rather forget.

Star Trek pinball was released at the very end of 1998 and was received with a lot of criticism from gaming magazines, star trek gamers, and basically everyone else. What gave interplay the idea that a PC pinball game with pictures of starship's stuck in the background would sell well is anyone's guess, and to make matters worse at the very end of 1998 Microprose, interplay, and S&S Found out that in 1999 the entire game franchise would be up for lease once again.

By the end of 1999 the technology of PC's was growing faster than ever and new game engine technologies was hitting the market and an ever increasing rate. Newer companies started to appear at this point who took the gaming world by storm by releasing games which far outsold all of the star trek games combined to date. Interplay and Microprose was now starting to lag behind in the gaming sector and the games they had released between 1996 and 1999 showed signs of age compared to the new game technologies being used by other companies. The PC technology and game engine technology had changed so fast within the space of 2 years that both companies had to do something extra to keep the interest in trek games going.

The metamorphosis of Star Trek gaming had begun.

Part Five

The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming
1999 - The New Age

[img][img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/atvilogo.jpg[/img][/img]
Activision's seals all contracts in 1999

At the end of 1998, Viacom announced that all of the Star Trek game franchise licenses would be up for tenure in 1999. At the beginning of February, 1999 an announcement was made that would seal the fate of Microprose Interplay and Simon and Schuster. By the beginning of January, 1999 Interplay and Microprose were already in serious financial trouble the only one of the three original publishers that was left in a good financial position was Simon and Schuster the main reason being is that Simon and Schuster was owned by Viacom.

The problems for Microprose however was a lot worse, having been taken over by Hasbro interactive, Hasbro proceeded to strip down Microprose resources. What was left of Microprose was only a shadow of there former self in 1995, at the same time Interplay was also in the process of merging with another company. Titan entertainment, based in France, took over interplay early 1999, as the merge progressed several staff of Interplay were released causing a shortage of staff. 1998 interplay announced they would be releasing two games in 1999, the first game was Secret of Vulcan fury and the second game would later be called Starfleet Command. In March, 1999 interplay quietly cancelled the rest of the development for secret of Vulcan fury. The amount of money invested in Secret of Vulcan Fury by interplay is still unknown however the game itself was already in development for three years and was reportedly 90% complete, we can only guess that the staff shortages at Interplay was so drastic that they just did not have the time nor the staff nor the money to complete the game.

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/iply-logo.gif[/img][img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/C_427753.jpg[/img][img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/microprose.gif[/img]
Interplay, S&S and Microprose lose the option to renew the contracts

1999 was also one of the high points of the Star Trek franchise, with both DS9 and Voyager winding up soon the episodes being shown were getting better and better. 1999 was also the year when technology for the PC started to make leaps and bounds, so much infact that everyone had problems keeping up with it. The appearance of graphics cards which was able to render antialiased pixels hit the market and the gaming world immediately changed. More and more people started to buy Star Trek games as the prices of new games in the market started to drop significantly in some countries, the wash of new players entering Star Trek gaming at the turn of the year by buying the older games released between 1996 and 1998 started to overstrain the already burgeoning community sites appearing at that time.

Other sites started to show up (the distant predecessor of this site opened in 1999) and along with the new wave of gamers came new ways of playing the games. Small "clans" started to appear to play the older games like Starfleet Academy more frequently. What was needed was a full out multiplay game for Star Trek, and Microprose hit the mark first. While interplay was having serious problems Microprose on the other hand released what would ultimately be their last and best known game...Master Of Orion meet's Star Trek...

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/microprose.gif[/img]
Birth of the federation, the swan song of Microprose

Birth of the Federation allows players to take the role of one the five major races in the game: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi, and Cardassian. Each of the races has their own ships, technologies, advantages, and playing styles. The roles fall pretty much in line with the Next Generation series. For instance, the Federation are explorers and the Klingons are honourable warriors.

The management of your empire is somewhat more streamlined than MOO, as you only need to manage the system not each of the planets in the system. Each system produces energy, food, industry, credits, intelligence, research, morale, population and possibly dilithium (which is used for starship construction). The solar system window is where you'll be doing most of your system management including building structures/ships and assigning the population of your system to the tasks of farming, industry, energy production, intelligence operations, and research. This is also where you will manage the distribution of energy among the structures that require power to be activated.

The flip side to diplomacy is espionage. Here, the total amount of intelligence points empire-wide is allocated to the shady side of running an empire. Points can be allocated to total internal security (defence) or divided up in any portion among the four races in either espionage or sabotage. Several sub-categories can be chosen from, such as general, military, and economy. The total number of points allocated to a particular task determines how often the player will receive updates on the other race's activities or even be given the opportunity to do a little wrench-throwing.

There are other aspects to the game such as setting up trade routes, which are only available among friendly races who are not members of your empire/federation. The amount of trade is determined automatically by the sizes of the two systems trading. Additional trade routes become available to a system once it reaches a certain size. Of course, to even trade in the first place requires the system be a minimum size. Trade is important because credits (cash) can be used to buy production early (very useful especially in the early game) and to win favour with other races. Don't let the warnings and criticisms fool you, the first week or so of playing Birth of the Federation is as addictive and compelling a game experience as anyone can have.

Birth of the Federation also had something in generous amounts that other games previously for Star Trek didn't have, a huge multiplay capacity.

Two months after the release of birth of the federation, and after serious complaints about the many bugs with the game Microprose released a patch, The patch managed to alleviate some of the problems with the turn 120 bug which have caused some serious problems with the game previously. However, In June of 1999 Hasbro Interactive filed a bankruptcy notice for Microprose, all support for all of Microprose original games ended.

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/microprose.gif[/img]
Microprose file's for bankruptcy 2 months after the release of Birth of the Federation

The bankruptcy of Microprose signalled the start of the end of the old age of Star Trek gaming , by this point in time Activision was now holding all the cards. However in July of 1999 Interplay finally managed to get back on track, the game they released its still hailed as one of the golden games of the old age of Star Trek gaming and is also considered a mini franchise within the main gaming franchise, spawning three sequels, two by Interplay, and one by Activision, the original game took Amarillo design bureaus board game Starfleet battles and turned it into one of the best known Interplay Star Trek games to date. Enter Starfleet Command.

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/fleetcommand.jpg[/img]
Starfleet command, one of the best known games by Interplay.

Starfleet Command put Trek back on track after the disaster of Starfleet Academy.

Starfleet Command gives players the chance to play as one of six races or governments inspired by the series - the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Lyrans, Gorn, and Hydrans - and take command of an entire fleet of ships spanning three different time periods. Using "prestige points," you can buy and outfit new ships, and the 3D ship models are highly impressive. Starfleet Command isn't perfect - more than one critic had a problem with the 2D "playing field" on which battles took place. Target identification could be cumbersome, and some of the AI was suspect - but it was the biggest Star Trek success for Interplay in two years. Fans gave it glowing praise, something they hadn't bestowed on Interplay in a long, long time.

To this day Starfleet Command is one of the longest running serials of trek games, with Starfleet Command 1, Starfleet Command 2 - Empire's At War, Starfleet Command 2 - Orion Pirates and the new Starfleet Command III.

Starfleet command put Interplay back on track and the stage was set for a massive battle between Interplay and Activision to win the gaming hearts of the Star Trek populace. Between October and December of 1999, Interplay, Activision, and Simon and Schuster all announced that they would be releasing games in the year of 2000. Since this would be the last year of Simon and Schuster's tenure of taking care of the deep space nine franchise they announced in the fall of 1999 that they would be making a game based on deep space nine due for release in the fall of 2000. However it was the announcements made by both Activision and Interplay that got a lot of web sites, gaming magazines and gamers interested in what they were doing. Both interplay and Activision announced that they would be releasing three games each in 2000. The war had begun.

However in 1998 when Activision was announced to be taking over the franchise, Activision announced that they would release a game in 1999.

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/evil.jpg[/img]
Hidden Evil, the first game released by Activision.

The game itself picks up right after where the film Star Trek: Insurrection left off...the aftermath of the whole conspiracy. In it you play a character called Sovak, an ensign who has always wanted to be on the Enterprise under Picards captaincy...

The pre-game interface is very easy to navigate and looks a just like a computer panel that you would find aboard any ship in the ST universe. This title is chock full of cut-scenes that are well done if a bit grainy. Some of them feature FMV from the Insurrection movie, and I found that to be slightly cheap. Moving Sovak around the levels is quite intuitive, especially if you are familiar with the control of other 2D/3D games like Resident Evil. For those of you who are not, let me explain. The characters themselves are all 3D, but the actual environments are pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. That's what makes the wonderful graphics in these types of games possible. As with all games of this nature, the camera is in a fixed position, and changes as you move from area to area. This can be confusing if not done right, and for the most part, Hidden Evil gets the job done, showing off their wonderful levels from multiple angles. Occasionally though, this can get annoying as you can get lost fairly easily if you don't pay attention to where you're going.

The inventory is also fairly easy to use, and features some items that you will immediately recognize such as the obligatory phaser, tri-corder, hypo-spray, and of course the communicator/insignia thingy which allows you to contact Picard and Data pretty much at will. Sometimes they will give you valuable clues to completing an objective. Along the way you will pick up other items such as the Romulan Disruptor, and a DNA sampler, but not too much else that is worth mentioning.

Hidden evil as Activison's first PC game for star trek was a good time for them, however, a lot of criticism started to surface. The biggest problem with hidden evil was the game was two short, the game itself was released in December of 1999 by January of 2000 the game was laying on many people shelves gathering dust.

Activision's first game in the Star Trek franchise is one they would rather forget.

By the end of 1999 the entire Star Trek gaming franchise had changed beyond all recognition, Microprose had went bankrupt, Interplay was taken over, Simon and Schuster were releasing one more game and giving up their license, and Activision would be crowned king. The year of 2000 would see interplay and Activision going head to head in one final gaming battle for domination.

Part Five

The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming
2000 - Part 1: The Fight

By the beginning of 2000 the star trek gaming franchise has changed beyond all recognition. The year 2000 seen Activision officially gain all the licenses and one of the original license holders, Microprose, go bankrupt. It also proved to be a year of two parts. The first half of the year 2000 seen the old license holders of Interplay and Simon and Schuster release the first two games of the new millennium. The second half of the year 2000 leading into 2001 scene Interplay and Simon and Schuster finally leave the Star Trek gaming scene altogether and Activision finally taking the place. However at the same time Activision and Interplay started a massive battle still remembered by a lot of Star Trek gamers. Interplay was leaving, but they wanted to leave a legacy behind. 2000 is a year that a lot of serious trek gamers remember as being the year that a lot of the now classic Star Trek games were released.

No sooner had January of 2000 past and as Interplay was still riding high on the success of Starfleet Command they released the sequel, Starfleet Command 2 - Empires At War.

[url]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/starflee2.jpg[/url]
Starfleet Command 2 - Empires At War, the second game in the SFC Series.

Interplay's Starfleet Command 2 was the second game in the SFC series, By this time Interplay as a company was starting suffer badly through several deals they had going one of them was with a company known as BioWare which would ultimately prove the downfall of Interplay.

Starfleet command 2 was now being developed out house of the Interplay by a company made up of former employees of Interplay and a few other companies. The new company was called Taldren and it basically took over most of the aspects that Interplay was supposed to be doing. SFC 2 was released in an unready state, the game itself was stable enough but one of the game's selling points, the Dynaverse 2, basically didn't work. It took several patches and fixes before the game was made playable online and Empires At War took it's place as another of Interplay's big hits in the community.

Between SFC and SFC 2 there wasn't really much difference between them. The engine was still basically the same but the UI and the AI and some parts of the old SFC engine was updated. New races and better missions plus a more stable product (after the patches) made SFC 2 a top seller for Interplay and got them more money in for one of there last project which was discussed between Interplay and Taldren and would ultimately lead to one of the last games being made by Interplay before there bankruptcy in 2002 due to the BioWare incident. Starfleet Command 2 was received well by the community however something was "missing" for the modders and kitbashers who liked to make there own ships, something that would be resolved in 2001.

However, even though Interplay was now nearing the end of there term for the franchise they still had a lot of fight left in them and they knew a good business opportunity when they seen one. Less than a month after the release of SFC 2 EAW they repackaged the old Starfleet Command 1 game, added some new bits and pieces and released it in April 2000 as "Starfleet Command Gold Edition" making it the second game for Interplay to release in 2000. It showed that even though Interplay knew they were starting to get into financial trouble and were losing the license to Activision in 2001 that they still cared about the community which they basically started all those years ago with the release of Star Trek 25th Anniversary in 1993.

While Activision and Interplay was busy getting ready for a battle people wondered what S&S was up to after there announcement in 1999 of them making and releasing a game for 2000...enter one of the best Deep Space 9 games made for the Star Trek franchise...The Fallen.

[url]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/ds9box.jpg[/url]
S&S's critically acclaimed game, DS9: The Fallen

The Fallen was an action FPS style game that took the trek gamer to a place they had NEVER been before...Deep Space 9...

Fans of the now defunct television series may recognize some of the plot's key elements: the Pah-wraiths, a race of all-powerful aliens exiled from the wormhole (or the Celestial Temple, as the Bajoran religious sect refers to it) by the Prophets, are on the verge of returning. The keys to unleashing and harnessing their power are three ancient red orbs. Playing as Sisko, Kira, or Worf, you must race to find the orbs against a host of opposing forces that would abuse their power to dominate the Alpha Quadrant and all of its inhabitants.

Of note is the fact that your three player choices do not merely give you the option to change the character skin. There are separate levels and unique mission objectives for each character. Of course, the events portrayed in each of these three character's levels are interrelated. For example, in the course of one of the Sisko missions, you contact Major Kira and coordinate a plan whereby she will sabotage security systems to allow you access to a certain area. When you get there, this has been accomplished for you. If you later go back and play the Kira missions (and I assume you will), however, you will receive the message from Sisko ordering you to disable the security systems for him and, playing as Kira, you must complete this task as your mission objective. There are similar connections between the Sisko/Worf missions and the Worf/Kira missions. These three separate "chapters," while not necessarily complete games in their own right, provide a fair degree of additional longevity to this single-player only game.

Visually, The Fallen is rather impressive. It sports an enhanced Unreal Tournament engine under the hood, which adeptly supplies delectable character skins (with beautifully sculpted facial features and expressions), expansive exterior environments and meticulously detailed interiors (including extensive maps of the DS9 station, the U.S.S. Defiant, a Bajoran monastery, a secret Cardassian military base, a hostile alien jungle, a Jem 'Hadar internment camp, and more), and some nicely textured effects with considerable amounts of eye candy.

Some of the enhancements to the Unreal Tournament engine include a custom-designed inverse kinematics and bones animation system that provides fluid character movements and ambulatory dexterity. Although The Fallen is presented Tomb Raider-style in third-person, it doesn't suffer from many of the problematic perspective and control issues common to this genre. The most significant distinction between The Fallen and Tomb Raider is an improved "over the shoulder" camera technique that avoids disorienting camera shifts in mid-manoeuvre. This sophisticated system also prevents the character's head from obstructing the view (a much needed feature, particularly since Sisko's substantial bare pate would block the entire screen at times without it). Whenever you back into a corner or against a wall, the camera zooms forward and your character becomes transparent (similar to a technique used in Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine or more recently, Rune), allowing you to maintain visibility at all times. This feature is especially helpful since, although The Fallen is not your average shooter, shooting still plays a significant role in the game play.

Even today, S&S's The Fallen has a massive following for a game which didn't have a multiplayer capability which is a testament to the thought and preparation which went into this epic game of the now new era of Star Trek gaming.

Even while S&S was basking in the glory of there latest full blown game, Interplay decided to put a halt to there party by releasing there third game in 2000, unfortunately the game had mixed reviews...

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/newworlds.jpg[/img]
New Worlds, the 3rd game in less than 6 months released by Interplay in 2000

New Worlds was going to be the first new style RTS genre game for Star Trek that dealt with the spreading out of a colony on a new planet. The cut scenes of the previews of the game were astounding, full 3D rendered cut scenes from inside the game was released to the Gaming world and the pre release reviews of the game were praising Interplay for yet another masterpiece.

Then it was released and things went from bad...to horribly worse...

New Worlds was up against some other stiff competition for the RTS genre, this, coupled with the clunky menu system and the over techness of the games system of playing got the game panned by ALL game reviewers...even GameSpy, who are pretty lenient...

The biggest gripe about the game was the workings of it, camera angles were counter productive, the menu system was hellish to get to grips with and the final aspect which had killed so many other trek games cropped up here...bugs. New Worlds was in desperate need of a patch from Interplay, but it was never produced, and New Worlds was chalked up as another one of the Trek games that COULD have been a belter, but wasn't planned or thought out the way it should have been.

Still, even though New World's wasn't the best of efforts by Interplay it did prove to Activision that RTS games could be done for Star Trek, and less than 1 month after the release of New World's, Activision fought Interplay back with a game which is still considered one of the best games made by Activision in the year 2000. The fight between Interplay and Activision was heating up, the end game of the fight was played out over the last 5 months of 2000.

Part Six
Game

The battle between Activision and Interplay would end with a stream of massive hits from Activision

Immediately after the release of Interplay's New Worlds in the same month Activision released a game which took the trek gaming world and the general gaming media by storm...

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/armada.jpg[/img]
Activision's Armada, still played in 2005 and still being modded. It was also the first game this site covered.

The latter half of 2000 seen Activision's meteoric rise to the top of the heap as they started to take control of the licenses they were to gain completely in 2001. Star Trek: Armada was a full blown new style RTS game based loosely on the massive hit "Starcraft" which took the community and everyone else by storm, it was fundamental in the forming of the early clan world and was also fundamental in the forming of the massive modding community that is now part and parcel of the Star Trek gaming world.

Most Star Trek fans generally recognize that the Borg storylines have been some of the best in the franchise's history. Activision seems to have picked up on this, bringing the biomechanical menace to the forefront once again, with Locutus in tow. This time, however, events are occurring shortly after the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with the end of the Dominion War fresh on everyone's mind. The Federation has sent Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew to aid the outlying outposts in re-establishing themselves, while Worf has been sent to the Klingon home world to aid the presiding ruler, Chancellor Martok, in peacefully rebuilding the Empire.

One day, when on a routine mission, the Enterprise becomes witness to a temporal rift, from which emerges a futuristic Federation starship and two Borg spheres. After doing away with the ominous pursuers, the starship reveals itself to be from the future, and that it has come to warn of an impending Borg invasion which, if unchecked, will spell the eventual end of the Federation. The Enterprise and others are quickly mobilized to deal with the threat, and Worf is asked to cull the Klingons' aid. Before he is able to obtain reinforcements, Worf encounters an old enemy, Toral, who then sets about stirring up civil war amongst his people in an attempt to wrest control of the Empire from the rightful rulers. When the Romulans' infamous Admiral Sela enters the picture, matters begin to look rather grim for the Klingons, and it appears as though they must decline the Federation's request. It is this scenario that you are faced with, a situation so grim that you must step into the shoes of the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and yes, even the Borg, in order to see it through to completion, in full RTS fashion.

Star Trek Armada 1 InfoWhat might not be instantly recognizable, however, is the array of special weapons possessed by each race. It is these weapons that can swing the momentum of a particular brawl, and can often make or break a battle if properly used. For example, the Federation's strategic balance is reflected in their tendency to attack their foes indirectly. Instead, most of their special attacks focus on hindering or crippling a starship's individual components, such as the Shield Disruptor or Engine Overload tools. As time travel comes to be a major factor in Star Trek: Armada, the Federation also have access to a variety of temporal effects, such as the Gemini Effect, which allows a starship to temporarily duplicate itself, as well as the awe-inspiring Temporal Research Facility, which briefly freezes enemies in time. Along the same lines, the Klingons have a secret arsenal specific to their personalities, like the Poleron Torpedo, which travels through an enemy's shields to damage the starship within, and the Shockwave, which destroys not only the source ship, but most any ships within its range. The Romulans, being the most subversive and sneakiest of the four races, can occasionally transport spies onto enemy ships and starbases, while their psychonic blasts can render enemy crewmembers temporarily insane, prompting them to slaughter one another for a short period of time. As you would expect, the Borg specialize in holding, capturing and assimilating. As a result, they are free to use tools such as the Holding Beam, which slows down enemy ships and allows for easier assimilation. Other special tools such as the Transwarp Drive, regeneration modules and Shield Remodulators are all pulled straight from television and film appearances, often rendering resistance as futile as you've so often seen. All in all, these tools are considered to be "top-secret" within their own ranks, and the technology cannot be stolen or copied by an enemy, rendering each weapon unique to its owners.

Star Trek Armada 1 InfoA strong and healthy fleet can only survive if its resources are properly managed, and as such you must keep a close eye on the basic elements of your forces. First and foremost, there is dilithium, the mineral that serves as the intergalactic currency. As this precious material comes from specific moons, you must send out mining freighters to scour their surfaces, which then return to your mining station. Dilithium is a precious and rare resource, though perhaps not nearly as important as your crew. Potentially made of thousands upon thousands of individuals, your crew is the driving force of your fleet, manning your ships and overseeing the proper functioning of your shipyards, turrets and sensor arrays. The number of crewmembers that you have access to depends on two factors: the amount of available commanding officers, and the slow but steady influx of helping hands into your starbase, which increases if said structure is built near a planet. It's important that you pay careful attention to your crew, as a derelict starship can easily be taken over by enemy forces. Conversely, your personnel can allow you to board and conquer an enemy vessel, provided you've destroyed their shields and most of their crew beforehand. To prevent this from being done to you in return, you can transport any number of people aboard ships that you own, fortifying the vessel's defences and providing you with a greater boarding party should the need arise. The ability to transport crew members between starship and structures can also improve overall productivity, as a poorly-manned shipyard will function at low capacity, while a strongly-fortified one will turn out ships at a very respectable rate. This type of resource is an interesting twist, and adds a unique flavour to the game.

Without a doubt, Star Trek: Armada is quite a lot of fun. Being able to lead a fleet of several dozen ships to clash with Borg forces is rather exhilarating, as is overseeing the Klingon takeover of a Romulan attack force. Controlling the Borg is equally entertaining, as you finally have an excuse to coldly utter "Resistance is futile" as you assimilate another unfortunate Federation vessel. There is also considerable variety between the missions, as you must perform search-and-rescue operations, as well as extermination and stealth-based attempts, sometimes within the same mission. That being said, there are a number of issues that can potentially interfere with the experience.

When Armada 1 was first released there was a LOT of bugs, some were more applicable to the online game and the online game was the one that suffered in the early days. Luckily enough though the 2 patches that were released sorted most of the problems out.

When Armada was released it outstripped the massive sales made by Interplay's Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and game stores were amazed at how quick the copies was leaving there shelves and stock. Interplay could only sit back and watch as more and

[Melon_Mapper]

Nice thread, I love the info and pictures on all the star trek games released, makes me wish I had some.

[The_Marine]

Wow, I was getting ready to nostalgia all over the place with seeing pictures of all of the games from the 90s and everything.

Massive disappointment.

Star Trek 25th Anniversary is easily the best Trek game ever created.

edit: Much better.

[Arid]

Can you thumb those please

[EcksDee]

You don't just make a game thread and say "So start talking!"

Add content, pictures, info. A megathread isn't something that belongs in fast threads.

[SFC3]

Updating, not done just yet.

[editline]22nd March 2011[/editline]

I need a part eleven for the history part, since the site i found did not have it.

[subenji]

Star Trek as a game franchise has certainly been a rocky road, but in my opinion, there have been more hits than misses overall. Some of these games are just so much more than a franchise tie-in.

Personal Faves:
Academy series
Armada series
Bridge Commander I guess (but I prefer Klingon Academy)
Starfleet Command 3 (I'm told 2 is much better, never got round to trying it)
Elite Force 1 but not 2

Not played 25th Anni yet either.

Shame that Star Trek Online was pretty poor, but then I'm not much of an MMO person anyway.

[DoomMarine23]

Elite Force 2 is kinda like a Mass Effect Junior. With the convo system and all.

[Thomas45]

You've missed out the game with the best Soundtrack!

[img]http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/a/a7/Star_Trek_New_Worlds_cover.jpg[/img]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzoBI5k7aM&feature=related[/media]

Elite Force 1, Bridge Commander and Klingon Academy are the best games made with the Trek License but Armada has given me years of fun as well.

I also remember watching my brother play "A Final Unity" when I was little, really loved the cinematics in that game and the mysterious story even though I couldn't do anything but watch.

Oh and you missed out my favorite 4x game.

[img]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/star-trek-birth-of-the-federation.jpg[/img]

[TheTalon]

Bridge Commander rocked face

[blazingfly]

Who played Armada 2 and loved being the borg and raping federation fleets with that gigantic super tactical cube?

[CMDBob]

Oh hells yes. Sooo many good memories with Trek games. Yeah, I love them all (even STO, it isn't the best trek game, but I like it anyway). Armada 2 and Klingon Academy are my all time favourates, just a shame those 2 are PITA to run on my PC (luckily, there's a patch for A2 and I have my WinXP netbook which plays it right.)

[Lachz0r]

it'd be awesome if they made another bridge commander game

[The_Marine]

[QUOTE=Lachz0r;28761920]it'd be awesome if they made another bridge commander game[/QUOTE]

Could've been Star Trek Legacy but they fucked that up royally.
:sigh:

[chunkymonkey]

[QUOTE=SFC3;28750647]We played the game in the easy setting first, just to see how long it would take myself to go through the entire single player campaign structure...it took around 15 hours...that was it...[/QUOTE]

This made me laugh. Nowadays you'll be lucky if a game takes more than an afternoon to complete.

[SFC3]

Personally, Star Trek Online is getting better with those new updates, Seasons.
And Armada 2 and Bridge Commander are both my favorite ST games ever.
People, Legacy is fine with mods.

[editline]23rd March 2011[/editline]

[QUOTE=Thom12255;28761290]You've missed out the game with the best Soundtrack!

[img_thumb]http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/a/a7/Star_Trek_New_Worlds_cover.jpg[/img_thumb]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzoBI5k7aM&feature=related[/media]

Elite Force 1, Bridge Commander and Klingon Academy are the best games made with the Trek License but Armada has given me years of fun as well.

I also remember watching my brother play "A Final Unity" when I was little, really loved the cinematics in that game and the mysterious story even though I couldn't do anything but watch.

Oh and you missed out my favorite 4x game.

[img_thumb]http://www.startrek-gamers.com/images/newsite/star-trek-birth-of-the-federation.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]

Actually, ST: NW was mentioned, just forgot to wrap tags around it.
Fixed.

[Arachnidus]

As one of the biggest Star Trek fans on FP, it warms my heart to see this thread.

And it depresses me when I play Star Trek Online.

[editline]23rd March 2011[/editline]

It's not bad or anything, it's just...so much wasted potential.

[Orkel]

Don't hotlink the images. Rehost them somewhere.

[SFC3]

cant do it right now

[OpetJa]

Nicely made game list..I'd really like new RTS game...similar to Armada