A Personal History of Star Trek Gaming

TREKCORE > GAMING > SPECIALS > A Personal History of Star Trek Gaming

Article: A Personal History of Star Trek Gaming
Author: Bob
Published: December 16, 2005

Even though I arrived late to gaming, Star Trek was introduced to my home PC with “Star Trek TNG Audioclips” (Volume 1 Encounter at Farpoint). With a brand new SoundBlaster sound card, these sound bites made my AST 486 sound like the bridge of the Enterprise. Still, I wasn’t playing any Trek games yet. First, it was Wolfenstein, Doom, and Duke Nukem. Then I got my hands on Star Trek TNG "A Final Unity". Wow! My first Star Trek game and the graphics looked so real! Maybe it was a little too graphics intense, because my 486 was starting to suffer fractal image movement. It was time to upgrade my computer.

With a new computer, came the replacement of Windows 3.1 with Windows 95... and internet popularity. Computer gaming took a back seat to my genealogy hobby for a few of years. My interest in Star Trek gaming was sparked again with the release of Star Trek Voyager Elite Force. I’ve always enjoyed First Person Shooters. Now, I get to fight the Borg! The first mission begins, but I’m told not to engage the Borg unless absolutely necessary. What?! I’m supposed to kill the Borg! Why aren’t you allowing me to shoot them? OK… they’ll adapt to my technology. So this is going to require a little strategy, unlike Doom. I see the green glow of a Distribution Node mounted on the wall. One shot from my phaser destroys it. The Borg nearby go motionless. Hey… this strategy stuff ain’t too bad. I made it through the Borg Cube to find out it was all a holodeck mission. The cinematic takes me to the bridge of Voyager. A ship opens fire on us, and Seven announces that we’re under attack. Here, I need to give credit to the game developers. They did a great job designing Jeri Ryan’s character! Hours went by like minutes; and shortly (so it seemed), I had finished the game. I have to do this again – maybe change modes from Easy to Medium this time.

I never evolved into a hardcore gamer; but Trek gaming was (and still is) a nice diversion from real life. Elite Force took a rest for a little while. The following year, Star Trek Armada II was released. Classified as a Real Time Strategy game, this was different than Elite Force. Instead of playing the game as a single character, now I was an Admiral commanding fleets of ships. Let’s look at the tutorial. What’s this? I need to collect resources and colonize planets? Well... I’ll try anything once. Federation Mission One begins. My objective is to destroy all Borg in the sector. Alright! This is what I’ve been waiting for! This isn’t a bad little fleet to start out with. Let’s start collecting resources. A Borg ship appears. It’s OK, my ships can take care of that. Hey! Why ain’t you guys attacking? It’s the Borg! Attack! Now I understand these ships will need some micro-managing. With a little bit of practice, it didn’t take long to learn how to be a good Admiral. After a few hours, I almost completed the Federation missions. This game couldn’t be finished in one sitting. After playing all three races, I played them again. Next, let’s try Instant Action. Well… this was OK, but I’d rather have a single player mission to strategize over.

In 2002, another strategy game appeared on the radar screen: Starfleet Command III. This time, I begin by commanding only one ship. After installing the game, I opened the tutorial. It starts out fine, but I can’t just select a destination and say “Go there.” I must navigate the ship to its destination. The problem is… I’m having a hard time controlling the ship in flight. Maybe if I use the keyboard, instead of the mouse, I can control it better. I move the ship forward as the tutorial instructs, but I’m supposed to avoid hitting the boundaries. Where are they at? OK, I’m coming up on one now. Turn the ship. Slow down! Turn! Why isn’t this thing responding?! Suddenly in my head, I hear the theme song for that old cartoon “George of the Jungle”, “Watch out for that tree!!” Did I ever finish the game? I can’t even get passed the tutorial!

The next year, the sequel to my first gaming passion is released: Star Trek Voyager Elite Force II. Prior to its release, the hype about this game is unreal. It was promised to be better, bigger, and longer. At a whopping price tag of $52, I still had to get it (actually, I hinted my daughter to buy it for my birthday). The graphics were gorgeous! I reprised my role as Lieutenant Munro from Elite Force I. Boarding and exploring the derelict USS Dallas was a great experience. I loved searching the halls, rooms, and Jefferies tubes. And shooting these odd-looking creatures called ‘Exomorphs’ brought back fond memories of Doom. And speaking of gorgeous graphics… I applaud the developers for the fine job they did on the Idryll character, Kleeya (which I hear there’s a nice mod out there for her). One of my missions was to find the location of a Master Control Facility. Its location needed to be persuaded from a Ferengi, on an old, mercenary-run starbase. We arrive at the starbase by shuttlecraft; and what do we find when we enter the bar? Exotic dancers! Do we shoot them? No. I believe one-on-one interrogation is in order here. I jump up on the dance stage, face one of them, and press [x]. She tells me she’s busy, and she can’t talk right now. Now during various conversations in the game, I was prompted to select different replies; and the resulting actions varied to the different responses. No dialog box popped up this time. Evidently, I’m not allowed to talk to the dancers. Well, it’s off to find the Ferengi then. The game ends with Munro and Telsia meeting in her quarters and discussing their relationship. Their conversation ends with a kiss. Whoa! He finally gets the girl! Later, I hear that the game contains an alternate ending. This time, Munro ends up with Kleeya. Everything depends on how I respond to certain questions. I need to play that game again. Now where’s that mod…

Bob (rta-man)
TrekCore.com Gaming