Cube Tries to Play Every Star Trek Game

[Cube]

I enjoyed doing the Sonic one so much that I wanted to do more!

These are the voyages of the starship Cube. My continuing mission: To explore strange new games. To seek out new fun and new gameplay. To boldly play where noone has played before.

This is my challenge of trying to play through all Star Trek games, both video games and board games. On top of all the official games, I will also be playing a few select home-made games, such as the original text-based Star Trek game from 1971 (no mods of other games will be counted, though).

 

Star Trek Game (1967)

• Original Release: 1967
• Developer: Julie Cooper
• Publisher: Ideal Toys
• Platform: Board Game

The first Star Trek boardgame, which I have recreated in Tabletop Simulator. If it wasn’t from the box design and the name on the board, you probably wouldn’t even guess that it’s Star Trek related, as the ships are just regular pawns and the design of the fuel ship art is a very strange design. There’s a Starfleet delta on the mission cards, but that’s about it.

The game is set in a solar system that consists of Earth and six planets names after Greek letters. Your mission is to visit three planets (a card will tell you which ones and the order) then return to Earth, first one to do so wins.

Each turn you will play a fuel card and move that amount of spaces either horizontally and vertically. You start off with cards numbered 1-10 but as you refuel you can pick our of what everyone has discarded, so you need to carefully plan your route. Your target is the “Orbit entrance point”, which you need to and on exactly to start landing – once you land on a planet, you can refuel by picking three cards.

After you’ve made a movement, you roll the dice and move one of the two fuel ships that many spaces. If you manage to get it to land next to you, you can draw a fuel card. This is rare, though, as players are constantly fighting to move it closer to them. If you run our of fuel, you move one space per turn, making it very slow progress.

It’s existence of the game is interesting, but it’s ultimately quite boring to play.

Star Trek (1971, Mike Mayfield)

• Original Release: 1971
• Developer: Mike Mayfield
• Publisher: Self-Published
• Platform: HP Basic
• Version Played: Direct C# Port by Michael Birken (No enhancements)

The first Star Trek video game, made for the Sigma 7 and then ported to the HP 2000C minicomputer. These were devices that had no screens, but were instead connected to a printer and printed the new game game as you played.

This game was ported to many different systems, under a lot of different names such as Apple Trek, Tari Trek and Dragon Trek. I have chosen a couple that I will go through with significant changes, as the vast majority run the same, just ported to different systems, with the latest major version being released in 2023.

In this game, you need to destroy a set amount of Klingons in a few days. You need to explore the area, as well as dock at stations to repair yourself. Here is one of my complete failure attempts:

ENTER SEED NUMBER 12
INITIALIZING...

YOU MUST DESTROY 19 KINGONS IN 30 STARDATES WITH 6 STARBASES

COMBAT AREA      CONDITION RED
   SHIELDS DANGEROUSLY LOW
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
            <*>         
   +++                   STARDATE  2900
                         CONDITION RED
                         QUADRANT  4,2 
                         SECTOR    5,1 
                *        ENERGY    3000
                         SHIELDS   0
                         PHOTON TORPEDOES 10
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
COMMAND 2
LONG RANGE SENSOR SCAN FOR QUADRANT 4,2 
-------------------
| 008 | 001 | 003 |
-------------------
| 007 | 101 | 008 |
-------------------
| 114 | 003 | 008 |
-------------------
COMMAND 0
COURSE (1-9) 8
WARP FACTOR (0-8) 5
118 UNIT HIT ON ENTERPRISE FROM SECTOR 2,2 
   (0 LEFT)

THE ENTERPRISE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. THE FEDERATION WILL BE CONQUERED
THERE ARE STILL 19 KLINGON BATTLE CRUISERS

YOU MUST DESTROY 13 KINGONS IN 30 STARDATES WITH 5 STARBASES

COMBAT AREA      CONDITION RED
   SHIELDS DANGEROUSLY LOW
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
                        
             *           STARDATE  3200
    *       +++          CONDITION RED
               <*>       QUADRANT  4,4 
 *                       SECTOR    6,4 
             *           ENERGY    3000
                         SHIELDS   0
             *     *     PHOTON TORPEDOES 10
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
COMMAND 2
LONG RANGE SENSOR SCAN FOR QUADRANT 4,4 
-------------------
| 006 | 001 | 007 |
-------------------
| 008 | 106 | 002 |
-------------------
| 002 | 016 | 007 |
-------------------
COMMAND 0
COURSE (1-9) 5
WARP FACTOR (0-8) 3
273 UNIT HIT ON ENTERPRISE FROM SECTOR 5,3 
   (0 LEFT)

THE ENTERPRISE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. THE FEDERATION WILL BE CONQUERED
THERE ARE STILL 13 KLINGON BATTLE CRUISERS

This game is very difficult, as you need to hunt for Klingons, navigate around and so lots of actual calculations to work out how to navigate as well as aim torpedoes. For such an old game, there is a surprising amount of detail in it, with enemies that attack you, systems that break, scanning and even a built-in calculator for torpedoes.

Your systems breaking are completely random, though, and something like your warp drive breaking can render a playthrough unwinnable as you won’t be able to find a starbase in time. Even without any damage, navigating around is very difficult as you need to set a direction and speed, and take into account both sector and quadrant locations.

Despite all this, there’s just something that’s a lot of fun about trying to do all this with such basic input, having to figure it all out yourself.  It’s a fascinating game and it’s definitely impressive for what it was originally made for.

Star Trek (1971, Bill Peterson)

• Original Release: 1971
• Developer: Bill Peterson
• Publisher: Self-Published
• Version Played: Version 32-9, modified by Don Daglow & James Underwood

A much lesser known Star Trek mainframe game, written in a form of BASIC used by the CDC 6000. Wikipedia credits Don Daglow with this. While he did revise it in 1972, the credits in the code say that it was originally made by Bill Peterson from Cal Tech.

This Star Trek game describes what it happening through dialogue with Spock, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov, with you entering commands to defeat enemies.

Each time you play, you get a slightly different story, all of them will lead to a battle against single enemy. You have to give commands (by typing numbers from a list of options) to position yourself, fire phasers/torpedoes and try to defeat the enemy.

By moving and using sensors, you’ll be given the position and bearings for both you and the enemy. It’s extremely difficult to use the coordinates to figure out where you are in relation to the enemy, as well as which direction you’re pointing and which weapons you can use.

If you sustain enough damage, Spock will mutiny and flee the area. I’ve seen this section of text a lot. The only time I won was by not fighting, but instead boarding the enemy ship.

There are a lot of ship names that are generated by the speed, I like that the seed number 47 gives you the Enterprise – a complete coincidence as the use of the number came about much later.

Star Trek (1972, For-Play)

• Original Release: 1972
• Developer: For-Play
• Publisher: For-Play
• Platform: Arcade
• Version Played: PC port of Computer Space

The first commercially released Star Trek game. Not only was this not officially licensed, but it’s also a clone of another arcade game called Computer Space. The only difference is that the controls are slightly reworked to use a joystick instead of buttons. As there’s no way for me to play the Star Trek version, I played a PC port of Computer Space as it’s the same game.

The game works exactly the same as the later and much more popular game Asteroids. Spin the ship around, use thrust to move and shoot. The aim is to destroy the two enemy ships more times than they destroy you. The game only lasts a couple of minutes.

Super Star Trek

• Original Release: 1973-1975
• Developer: Mary Cole, David Ahl, Bob Leedom
• Publisher: Self-Published
• Platform: Basic-Plus
• Version Played: Direct LUA port by Emanuele Bolognesi

Super Star Trek is the first major enhancement of the 1971 Star Trek game. This makes the game much easier to decipher, with some information given via dialogue from the crew, and generally making everything much easier to visualise and making actions easier to perform. Permission was even supposedly given by Paramount to use the name Star Trek.

The regions are given names, and the icons for the Enterprise and Klingons use letters to help distinguish them better. That said, the game is still difficult, losing access to some functions is still a major hazard – I even lost access to damage control in one playthrough.

Super Star Trek is a really nice version of the original Star Trek game.

[Glen-i]

14 minutes ago, Cube said:

If you sustain enough damage, Spock will mutiny and flee the area.

I'm no Star Trek nerd, but this made me laugh. Isn't this hilariously out of character?

[Dcubed]

I guess Mike Mayfield believed in the No Win Scenario then

[Happenstance]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I'm no Star Trek nerd, but this made me laugh. Isn't this hilariously out of character?

Nope. In fact Spock is put on trial for mutiny in the very first season of Star Trek.

[darksnowman]

Legit looking forward to Prodigy: Supernova getting its turn here as if it isn't outright terrible I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Nope. In fact Spock is put on trial for mutiny in the very first season of Star Trek.

That's right! The two-parter where they repackaged the pilot episode.

His motivation/reasoning was sound as ever. 

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Happenstance said:

Nope. In fact Spock is put on trial for mutiny in the very first season of Star Trek.

 

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

That's right! The two-parter where they repackaged the pilot episode.

His motivation/reasoning was sound as ever. 

Welp, I've figured out how to say I've only watched a handful of movies and Lower Decks without actually saying that.

Cheers.

[EEVILMURRAY]

On 3/14/2023 at 2:58 PM, Happenstance said:

Nope. In fact Spock is put on trial for mutiny in the very first season of Star Trek.

Why did he do that?

[Happenstance]

1 minute ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Why did he do that?

To take his paralyzed/disfigured former captain back to a forbidden planet so he could live out his life normally.

[EEVILMURRAY]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

To take his paralyzed/disfigured former captain back to a forbidden planet so he could live out his life normally.

Sentimental sod. Throw that pointy-eared-quack in the brig.

[Cube]

Star Trek Game (1974)

• Original Release: 1974
• Developer: Unknown
• Publisher: Hasbro
• Platform: Board Game

Luckily for me, this one had already been created on Tabletop Simulator, complete with working spinners.

Unfortunately, there is very little “game” here. You spin the spinner and move. Sometimes a space will make you do something, but most times now. Each player is on their own section of the board and the first to get around wins.

The game has two spinners: warp and impulse. For the path leading to/from the circle you need to use the warp one, for the circle you need to use the impulse one. Functionally, they’re no different (they both go form 1 to 8), but if you spin the wrong one, you miss a turn.

The design and artwork is nice, but that’s all the game has going for it.

Star Trek Game (1975)

• Original Release: 1974
• Developer: Bob Brechin
• Publisher: Palitoy Bradgate
• Platform: Board Game

Another roll and move Star Trek board game – this time from Palitoy Bradgate. In this, your quest is to capture two crystals from the surface of two planets and then blow up the Klingon ships.

While this game has standees of Kirk and Spock, you play as nameless crew – Kirk and Spock simply protect you from harm. The game starts off similar to Ludo where you have to roll a specific number to stat moving, then transport down to a planet: an ice planet with a strange monster called a Bluug, or a fiery planet with a giant spider: if either catch you, you’ll have to go back to the start of the planet.

Klingons are also chasing you, although they only take you back slightly. Other spaces will move you forwards, backwards or even send you back to the Enterprise to miss a turn and have to start again. Constantly restarting really feels like a drag. You can forfeit your turn to move Klingons instead if you want to slow down your opponents.

The board itself is really nice, with lovely design and a fun layout, but the gameplay is very poor.

Star Trek Phaser Battle

• Original Release: 1976
• Developer: Mego
• Publisher: Mego
• Platform: Electronic Handheld
• Not played: Too expensive to get second hand.

A basic game from Mego. This one keeps track of your score, and is very large and bulky. Stars will scroll past (the effect looks like the doctor Who opening) and sometimes enemies will appear. You need to line up your targeting and blast them.

Star Trek: Phaser Strike

• Original Release: 1979
• Developer: Milton Bradley
• Publisher: Milton Bradley
• Platform: Microvision

The Microvision was the first handheld console that came with interchangeable cartridges – the whole front of the unit peeled off and could be replaced with a new game. With it being so early, the display was limited, boasting a whole 16×16 pixels. Although there is something satisfying about these big chunky pixels.

In Star Trek: Phaser Strike, you destroy incoming ships by shooting from one of three different directions. Your shots are slow, so you have to time your shot based on where your enemy will be. It’s a very simple game, but for it’s format, it’s fun for a quick blast.

Star Trek Game (1979)

• Original Release: 1979
• Developer: Michael Gray
• Publisher: Milton Bradley
• Platform: Board Game

This board game definitely has some interesting ideas. It’s another one I had to recreate in Tabletop Simulator, although it doesn’t have the nice Enterprise shaped player pieces or the artwork on the cards (I found the text for the cards, but not the artwork). The board itself is lovely, looking like a display console showing a galaxy map. There’s some lovely artwork of the Enterprise, too, but that gets covered up by tiles.

The tiles feature warp paths in two colours. While in a sector, you can only swap between the two routes at your starbase or following the route to another sector. It creates a lot of thought when planning your route, especially later in the game as you need to land on explored systems exactly. The only downside is how movement is determined: rolling two dice and moving that amount.

Movement is the major part of the game, too. You get dealt four mission cards and need to complete three of them. The cards will have flavour text like “defeat Klingons” or “deliver serum” along with other instructions, but these don’t actually mean anything in terms of the game. You just need to discover these on the map and head to them.

As you move, you will reach unexplored stars. You can reach these without using your full movement. You draw a card to discover what is there. Three cards will send you back to your home base (something another player can do if they land directly on your space), but the rest are different kinds of stars, outposts or advanced civilisations. Once a system has explored, however, you can only land on it with an exact role – which makes it harder to complete a mission if you weren’t the one to discover it.

If you roll a double, you can move an opponent instead of you, however this just hurts both of you and isn’t very useful, even as a player has finished three of their missions and is heading back to their base.

Despite so much depending on the roll to move mechanic, this is a pretty decent board game. It would be interesting to build upon this with some different movement mechanics.

Star Trek Make-A-Game Book

• Original Release: 1979
• Developer: Bruce Nash, Greg Nash
• Publisher: Wanderer Books
• Platform: Board Game

A board game that you make yourself from a book. This is more about the construction, as you’re following a pre-set design instead of developing your own board game. Someone has already done the hard work developing this for Tabletop Simulator.

The game itself is a very basic roll and move. Spaces will earn you deflector shield components, others will make you lose them. Once you have all six, you can reach the bridge and need to get an exact roll – overshoot and you have to go all the way around the board again. It’s a pretty poor game.

One curious thing is that the board itself is missing part of it. There is supposed to be a corridor to the bridge that is completely missing – so you just have to imagine a couple of spaces there.

Star Trek Starfleet Game

• Original Release: 1979
• Developer: McDonald’s
• Publisher: McDonald’s
• Platform: Board Game

A tiny little roll and move game. This was part of the first ever themed McDonald’s Happy Meal, promoting the launch of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The game is obviously quite basic, but it’s short and sweet. There are multiple paths to choose from, so it’s slightly more involved than some games.

Star Trek 3.5

• Original Release: 1982
• Developer: Lance Micklus, David H Summons
• Publisher: Adventure International
• Platform: Atari 8-Bit

This is another version of the 1971 Star Trek game. This adds a lot more visualisation, a larger galaxy and more types of areas to encounter.

The Enterprise and Klingons now look like ships, and the game displays a list of actions each time so you don’t have to jot them down separately. The galaxy is now much bigger, with quadrants in three dimensions. Navigation has been altered a lot. You can choose between impulse (moving within a sector) and warp (moving to different sectors). Within a sector, the speed determines how many squares you move. For warping, you enter the coordinates of the system you want to go to and the speed (which determines how many stardates pass). You also get a really nice animation.

You also see torpedo paths animated out, making it clearer what is happening in battles. Another significant change is how damage works, as you can repair systems without navigating to a starbase, which is useful when sensors are completely down and you’re flying blind.

Overall, this is a really nice version of Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

• Original Release: 1982
• Developer: GCE
• Publisher: GCE
• Platform: Vectrex

Made for the very unique vector-based console called the Vectrex. This console is made up of white lines on a black background. In order to add colour and a HUD, you have to put plastic sheets on top of the screen.

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, you turn in a 360 degree angle, blasting enemy ships. Torpedoes will get fired towards you and you can either dodge by turning away so the torpedo is no longer on screen or by holding down the shield button to block them. Your shields have limited capabilities, so you’ll need to connect to a space station to recharge.

The game is simple but a lot of fun. It’s not the most “Star Trek” game, something the developers also thought as it was sold in some regions under the names “Space Ship” or “Harmageddon”