Inspired by the ongoing Resurgence giveaway, I thought it might be fun to discuss some of our favourite Trek games. Underappreciated gems are particularly welcome!
I'll go first: I played the hell out of 1993's Star Trek: The Next Generation for Game Boy.
In retrospect, it was a pretty simple game, but it felt pretty robust to this eleven-year-old. You took the role of commander of the Enterprise (specifically not Picard, as he gave you the missions), and made use of the TNG crew to complete various assignments, from cargo runs to squaring up against getting annihilated by Romulan warbirds.
And who wouldn't fall in love with graphics like these?
Still have it. I asked for a game for my birthday that year. At the last minute I said I wanted ST instead. My mom took back the game she had and swapped it for this. I played it like crazy. Although it wasn't until last year that I realised how to beat the Borg.
I wouldn't call it underappreciated since it was well received in its time, but Star Trek: Judgment Rites was amazing.
I wish there would be more narrative focused Star Trek games like that. Either a Disco Elysium style non-combat focused RPG or a modern adventure game.
A Disco Elysium style Trek game would be killer. Make me make ethical decisions about other species, decide if I want to be a Starfleet or a Maquis, and make awkward conversation with my superior officer that gets me reassigned to Delta Shift cleaning the Holodecks, and seriously reconsider my life.
It is a 90s point and click adventure, having played this and the original 25th anniversary one recently I think it holds up well.
One thing that is nice about Judgement Rites is you can skip the ship battles if they aren’t your thing. They are fun but can but super frustrating.
Also check out A Final Unity which is newer with the TNG cast but I think still really looks great and the entire cast voiced the characters so it is almost like a mini season of the show.
It depends on how familiar you are with old point and click games. If you aren't used to them, it can be quite frustrating, but even then I think it would be enjoyable if you use a guide to unblock yourself when you get stuck.
At the very least, the music is great and the writing is full of great jokes and also some pretty compelling sci-fi scenarios that would have fit perfectly in the series. If point and click adventure games aren't your speed, find a walkthrough (theynarent hard to find online) and refer to it whenever you're stuck.
I really enjoyed Star Trek: Klingon, on PC back in the day. It was officer cultural sensitivity holodeck training for the officer exchange program. You had to make decisions appropriate to Klingon social customs. It was bundled with a Klingon language learning program with speech recognition tech. Very cool stuff for 1996 CD-ROM games.
I really enjoyed Birth of the Federation which was a 4X game with rudimentary fleet combat. It wasn’t a perfect game but it was fun and had that whole TNG computer feel going on with the UI graphics and sounds.
Yeah, I spent a ton of time with that. It had a terrible memory leak, though, which made it unplayable slow after an hour or so. I was really hoping that Star Trek: Infinite would fill that void, but it's basically just Stellaris.
I was pretty young when I was introduced to star trek, and it started out with only the movies. I loved C&C Red Alert, so my parents got Armada for my dad and I to play, and I think I put in a good 1,000 hours into it before my dad even tried it out.
I played that game so much I think by the time I got a new computer I was giving myself ridiculous challenges to beat the computer opponents like scout class offense ships only, or "once superweapon ships are unlocked only use those no matter the price" or "no expanding the base"
I mentioned this in the other thread, but my first Trek game was this one from 1971(!). I played it much later on DOS but can't believe it was from a time essentially before personal computers.
Also here's a somewhat obscure one, anyone remember Klingon Honor Guard?
I don't remember it being very good and yet somehow I have an urge to play it again...
Judgment Rites
Starfleet Academy: PC
--with lost missions expansion
Star Trek 25th anniversary (Gameboy and NES versions)
Star Trek Armada
Less popular games:
Star Trek Starship Creator
Star Trek deep space nine the fallen
A few Star Trek games on the c64, but I don't remember the names as my brothers would load those up. Lol
I already wrote it in the other thread: I loved DS9 Harbinger. I remember the feeling that I could roam around on the promenade freely and explore the station (not sure if the game really was able to deliver that). It had pretty decent graphics for it's time. I wonder if there are others who also loved this game,
Star Trek Bridge Commanfer for PC was amazing. Able to fight from the bridge but control it like 3rd person space combat. Endless and a great story. Able to warp between numerous systems at will. The Maximum Warp version was even better.
Like others here I really enjoyed the early Trek computer games. I played several versions on the TRS-80 Model I. They were mostly turn based but one had real time elements. I actually got in trouble in college for using too much computer time in a Fortran class. I was porting one of those TRS-80 games to the VAX for fun, which honestly tells you how seriously I took college. What a twat.
I also fondly remember this officially licensed tabletop game where you could do 1v1 starship battles. It dropped around the time Search for Spock came out IIRC. I remember maneuvering was important. That was a blast. Wish I still had it.
I also really liked the starship battles in STO, but sadly that was about all I liked in that game.
Speaking of demos, anyone remember the trailer for the game Secret of Vulcan Fury that was included in front of Interplay games, touting the voices of the original cast? So sad it was never released, considering it was deforest Kelley's last turn as McCoy. I wonder if the original audio tapes still exist and someone could turn it into a game...
But also found this "footage" when looking for the trailer
There was much hullabaloo over the game being written by DC Fontana, and of course the entire original cast having laid down recordings. That said, if I recall correctly, they never even had a working version before Interplay folded.
As I mention above, wonder where those VR tracks went and if they could be rescued and turned into a game, radio play, etc. But I wouldn't be surprised if they've been lost to time or, if they still exist in someone's garage , aren't too degraded
I spent way too much time on Trexels for a while… silly little mobile resource management game. It became more ridiculous when I figured out you could cheat by changing the clock on your phone.
I remember a Star Trek MMO that I think was web based, but it may have been a preference I downloaded.
Anyway, I remember really wanting to like it but I was partly too young and the game either had a lot of locked content or needed to be paid. I think I gave it a couple hours total in the front room and never played it again.
I really enjoyed Starfleet Academy for the SNES. It wasn't particularly difficult or long, but there was enough interaction with your "crew" outside of space combat that it felt pretty well-rounded, especially for a SNES game.
I was absolutely trash at it, but I loved it. And to be honest, I thought it was just a very hard game to begin with. There is only so much you can do to manage your shields, weapons, and position before the ship becomes overwhelmed.
I loved this one but always get stuck at a certain point. I think it was similar to one of the Pc games that controlled similarly and I never got passed a certain mission on that one either so I may just suck at those games.
I spent so much time with STO when it first came out. Sadly feature creep ruined it for me as time went by. I played a couple of hours recently though and enjoyed the nostalgia a lot!
I probably still have my pre-order t-shirt somewhere...