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Article: Fan-Developed Games and Future of Star Trek Gaming
Author: Bob
Published: December 29, 2005

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed Star Trek games made by Interplay, Simon and Schuster, MicroProse, and Activision. Fans especially enjoyed a wide variety of games from 2000-2003. This era was the ‘Roaring twenties’ of the franchise’s gaming history. Then in 2003, Star Trek gaming made it to the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). This annual event is proclaimed to be the largest in the world. Computers were set up for Elite Force II single player gameplay, and multi-player competitions took place on large high definition screens. This event largely contributed to the game’s popularity. Things were looking up. Then suddenly on July 1st of that year, the official gaming world came to an abrupt halt. According to the press release, “Activision … today announced that it has filed a breach of contract suit against Viacom.” The details of this could be discussed in a completely different article; but the bottom line was that it seemed the fans were at a loss for new games. The fact of the matter was that the fans never missed a beat.

Commercially-made Star Trek games have been in existence since the mid-1970s. Fans also began developing games about the same time. These have complimented official releases for decades. In fact just two months after Activision’s announcement, the next fan-based game was released, “Star Trek The Neutral Zone”. During that year, we saw the release of two more fan-based games: Star Trek: Shooter and Parmen. In 2005 alone, we saw no less than six fan-produced games. Even though the Activision-Viacom court battle ensued, the fans were determined to keep Star Trek gaming alive.

In addition to non-commercial games, fans began creating different versions of their commercial games. This is called game modifying, or ‘modding’. This process generally involves text-editing game files and designing new game graphics. These new files are put into an executable file to be installed over the game’s original files. Mods can be either small additions such as new ships or maps, or a complete conversion that make the original seem like a different game. Some of the more popular ones for the Star Trek Armada series include “Battlestations”, “Future Tense”, and “Borg Incursion”. For TOS fans, someone developed a nice mod for Elite Force titled, “The Argas Effect”; and “Return of the Empty Crown” was made for Elite Force II. One of the Bridge Commander mods allows the player to choose either an Intrepid or Defiant-class ship to begin the game with. Even a series of alternate universe mods was created for Starfleet Command III. Presently, hundreds of mods have been developed by gaming fans across the globe. We might be short on new, commercial Star Trek games; but we’ll never run dry of ideas from the fan base.

The outlook for non-commercial games is good; but what does the future hold for commercial Star Trek gaming? We could talk about rumors and theorize about this forever. However, Victor1st, the Director of Star Trek Gamers, summarized the clues given in his forum by Harry Lang (Executive Director, Interactive Product Development for Paramount Pictures) very well:

So chances are we won’t be seeing any new commercial Star Trek games in 2006, but I’m sure we’ll see more games from the fans. In 2003, 3 out of 5 games released were fan-developed. In 2004, 1 out of 5; and in 2005, 5 out of 6 were from the fans. On the average, 50% of all Star Trek games released since 2003 were developed by fans. I believe history will repeat itself. Sure… commercial games will be coming out again, and that will be a great day; but we’ll continue to see more games (and modifications of the old ones) from the fans.

Bob (rta-man)
TrekCore.com Gaming