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!
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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 againstgetting annihilated by Romulan warbirds.And who wouldn’t fall in love with graphics like these?
Yes!
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 was, uh, extremely bad at the ship combat. Couldn’t take down much more than the Ferengi and Talarian ships.
I was only allowed 1 or 2 new games per year so I played non-stop. I took my Gameboy everywhere. My mother saw something on TV at the time saying that games improved hand-eye coordination so she encouraged me to play like crazy. That might have helped haha.
Damn Talarian’s took me down every time lol.
I just remembered I owned this thing, too.
What a year 1993 was.
Why am I jealous of this
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.
How do you think it would hold up for someone who didn’t play back in the day?
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 had that one! There was a Borg game in the same vein, but it wasn’t nearly as entertaining.
Some of my favorites were Star Trek Armada II and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force.
Elite Force 1+2 are still amazing today too!
gems
Elite Force is great and still holds up. Got one or both on GOG in a sale last year. The one with the full virtual Voyager is worth it for that alone.
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.
Who else played Star Trek: Armada?
So many hours, 1 and 2. Plus loads of mods.
Shoutout to the ST: Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. I didn’t play the originals but the mod is really impressive.
HELLS YEAH! That game was my JAM
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”
@charonn0 @ValueSubtracted oh yes! Played Armada 2 more, especially modded.
Oh man. As a little kid I burned a LOT of time on the old DOS trek.exe.
Also still fire up Armada from time to time. With all the new ship classes in Online, I’d love to see an Armada 3.
Is this a PC port of the 1971 Star Trek game?
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…
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.
Found its still available on gog. Totally worth the 7 bucks - https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_trek_bridge_commander
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.
Edit: fixed a word
How is it that no one has mentioned the Star Trek Starfleet Command series???
Starfleet Command Orion Pirates is a fantastic game and one of my favorites of all time!
I remember that!
Is it still playable anywhere?
I’ve spent may hours playing the following:
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,
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.
Would have been 2003-2008 I think
