The History Of Star Trek PC Gaming

The battle between Activision and Interplay would end with a stream of massive hits from Activision

Immediately after the release of Interplay's New Worlds in the same month Activision released a game which took the trek gaming world and the general gaming media by storm...

Activision's Armada, still played in 2005 and still being modded.  It was also the first game this site covered.

The latter half of 2000 seen Activision's meteoric rise to the top of the heap as they started to take control of the licenses they were to gain completely in 2001.  Star Trek: Armada was a full blown new style RTS game based loosely on the massive hit "Starcraft" which took the community and everyone else by storm, it was fundamental in the forming of the early clan world and was also fundamental in the forming of the massive modding community that is now part and parcel of the Star Trek gaming world.

Most Star Trek fans generally recognize that the Borg storylines have been some of the best in the franchise's history. Activision seems to have picked up on this, bringing the biomechanical menace to the forefront once again, with Locutus in tow. This time, however, events are occurring shortly after the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with the end of the Dominion War fresh on everyone's mind. The Federation has sent Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew to aid the outlying outposts in re-establishing themselves, while Worf has been sent to the Klingon home world to aid the presiding ruler, Chancellor Martok, in peacefully rebuilding the Empire.

One day, when on a routine mission, the Enterprise becomes witness to a temporal rift, from which emerges a futuristic Federation starship and two Borg spheres. After doing away with the ominous pursuers, the starship reveals itself to be from the future, and that it has come to warn of an impending Borg invasion which, if unchecked, will spell the eventual end of the Federation. The Enterprise and others are quickly mobilized to deal with the threat, and Worf is asked to cull the Klingons' aid. Before he is able to obtain reinforcements, Worf encounters an old enemy, Toral, who then sets about stirring up civil war amongst his people in an attempt to wrest control of the Empire from the rightful rulers. When the Romulans' infamous Admiral Sela enters the picture, matters begin to look rather grim for the Klingons, and it appears as though they must decline the Federation's request. It is this scenario that you are faced with, a situation so grim that you must step into the shoes of the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and yes, even the Borg, in order to see it through to completion, in full RTS fashion.

What might not be instantly recognizable, however, is the array of special weapons possessed by each race. It is these weapons that can swing the momentum of a particular brawl, and can often make or break a battle if properly used. For example, the Federation's strategic balance is reflected in their tendency to attack their foes indirectly. Instead, most of their special attacks focus on hindering or crippling a starship's individual components, such as the Shield Disruptor or Engine Overload tools. As time travel comes to be a major factor in Star Trek: Armada, the Federation also have access to a variety of temporal effects, such as the Gemini Effect, which allows a starship to temporarily duplicate itself, as well as the awe-inspiring Temporal Research Facility, which briefly freezes enemies in time. Along the same lines, the Klingons have a secret arsenal specific to their personalities, like the Poleron Torpedo, which travels through an enemy's shields to damage the starship within, and the Shockwave, which destroys not only the source ship, but most any ships within its range. The Romulans, being the most subversive and sneakiest of the four races, can occasionally transport spies onto enemy ships and starbases, while their psychonic blasts can render enemy crewmembers temporarily insane, prompting them to slaughter one another for a short period of time. As you would expect, the Borg specialize in holding, capturing and assimilating. As a result, they are free to use tools such as the Holding Beam, which slows down enemy ships and allows for easier assimilation. Other special tools such as the Transwarp Drive, regeneration modules and Shield Remodulators are all pulled straight from television and film appearances, often rendering resistance as futile as you've so often seen. All in all, these tools are considered to be "top-secret" within their own ranks, and the technology cannot be stolen or copied by an enemy, rendering each weapon unique to its owners.

A strong and healthy fleet can only survive if its resources are properly managed, and as such you must keep a close eye on the basic elements of your forces. First and foremost, there is dilithium, the mineral that serves as the intergalactic currency. As this precious material comes from specific moons, you must send out mining freighters to scour their surfaces, which then return to your mining station. Dilithium is a precious and rare resource, though perhaps not nearly as important as your crew. Potentially made of thousands upon thousands of individuals, your crew is the driving force of your fleet, manning your ships and overseeing the proper functioning of your shipyards, turrets and sensor arrays. The number of crewmembers that you have access to depends on two factors: the amount of available commanding officers, and the slow but steady influx of helping hands into your starbase, which increases if said structure is built near a planet. It's important that you pay careful attention to your crew, as a derelict starship can easily be taken over by enemy forces. Conversely, your personnel can allow you to board and conquer an enemy vessel, provided you've destroyed their shields and most of their crew beforehand. To prevent this from being done to you in return, you can transport any number of people aboard ships that you own, fortifying the vessel's defences and providing you with a greater boarding party should the need arise. The ability to transport crew members between starship and structures can also improve overall productivity, as a poorly-manned shipyard will function at low capacity, while a strongly-fortified one will turn out ships at a very respectable rate. This type of resource is an interesting twist, and adds a unique flavour to the game.

Without a doubt, Star Trek: Armada is quite a lot of fun. Being able to lead a fleet of several dozen ships to clash with Borg forces is rather exhilarating, as is overseeing the Klingon takeover of a Romulan attack force. Controlling the Borg is equally entertaining, as you finally have an excuse to coldly utter "Resistance is futile" as you assimilate another unfortunate Federation vessel. There is also considerable variety between the missions, as you must perform search-and-rescue operations, as well as extermination and stealth-based attempts, sometimes within the same mission. That being said, there are a number of issues that can potentially interfere with the experience.

When Armada 1 was first released there was a LOT of bugs, some were more applicable to the online game and the online game was the one that suffered in the early days. Luckily enough though the 2 patches that were released sorted most of the problems out.

When Armada was released it outstripped the massive sales made by Interplay's Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and game stores were amazed at how quick the copies was leaving there shelves and stock.  Interplay could only sit back and watch as more and more players dedicated to there old games started to drift away and play Armada and only Interplay could be able to stem the tide of players turning away from them. 

 

With the disappointment of Starfleet Academy still fresh on there mind Interplay released yet another classic into the gaming world of Star Trek 2 weeks after the release of Armada as a direct "screw you" to Activision, enter Klingon Academy.

Interplay's Klingon Academy took a lot of the storm out of Activision's Armada

While Activision's Armada was still riding high on the game charts Interplay decided to look to their past for their next game.  Based on the original star fleet academy game engine, Interplay's Klingon academy to the Starfleet academy game engine to a whole new level.  The game itself was yet another masterpiece from the now almost financially crippled Interplay.  While Activision's armada allowed clans and single players to control whole fleets interplay's Klingon academy took single and multi play to a whole new level. 

In the sixth Star Trek movie, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the crew of the USS Enterprise was assigned to escort a Klingon battle cruiser carrying a high-ranking Klingon chancellor named Gorkon into Federation space. Gorkon was to meet with United Federation of Planets representatives regarding a long-term peace agreement between the two governments. But as often happens in the Star Trek universe, this simple mission becomes compromised by rogue elements in the Klingon Empire who wish to continue the hostility between the Klingons and the Federation. After assassinating the peaceful Gorkon, this small faction races to kill the president of the Federation and thereby guarantee the potential for many more years of Klingon-Federation hostilities. In the end, as usual, the Enterprise (along with the USS Excelsior) teaches a violent lesson to the insurgents, who are led by a Shakespeare-quoting Klingon commander named General Chang, by destroying their cloak-capable warship and subsequently killing all on board. The reason this background data is important is that General Chang (played in the movie by actor Christopher Plummer) happened to be one of the Klingon Empire's leading ship combat-warfare experts and had been engaged in the service of the Empire in the role of its Elite Command Academy's commandant.

This is where Klingon Academy the game comes in. By taking the story timeline back to the period that occurred in the movies between Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Star VI: The Undiscovered Country, Interplay could draw on the large hostility between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The enigmatic General Chang would also be available as the lead instructor for the Klingon cadets. And that's exactly where the game Klingon Academy begins, with players being addressed by General Chang as their instructor with the intention of going to war with the Federation before the game is through.

The cut scenes of the film were short of spectacular for a trek game of the turn of the century. Trek fans were amazed at the fact that they were actually able to control a Klingon ship and pilot it around 3d space while blowing up other fed ships, something that's been mirrored in Bridge Commander recently.

Gamers in star trek started to realize that the time of the multiplayer game had arrived.  Within the space of six months the online play a base of star trek gaming quadrupled in size.  Old starcraft players joined with the new gamers and Armada players to make it one of the most busiest online games for Star Trek gaming ever.  However when interplay released Klingon academy, the multiplayer world realize that for the first time they could command one single starship and fight against each other.  At this point in time the battle between interplay and Activision had both companies level. 

Interplay and the game makers 14 degrees east pulled out all the stops for this game. With the money coming in from SFC II and interest peaking again in Interplays other non trek games they poured a vast amount of cash into Klingon Academy...and it ultimately paid off. Klingon Academy is still hailed as one of the best triumphs for the old Interplay trek license and is still being played online today.

The end of 2000 was now nearing and as the gamers had to get to grips with a lot of the new games being released in 2000, Activision had one last surprise.  First person shooting games for star trek was hardly ever touched, however, in late 2000 while Activision was still basking in the glory of Armada they released a game based on the quake engine which once more took the gaming world by storm.

 
Activision's elite force added a whole new dimension to Star Trek gaming. 

Looking back over the years, you'll come across plenty of titles that scored poorly despite being based on licensed 3D-engine technology. Luckily, Raven Software, developers of the famous/notorious Soldier of Fortune, has put id's engine to extremely good use with Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force. In STV: Elite Force, you play as ensign Alexander or Alexadria Munro, second in command of Lieutenant Commander Tuvok's Hazard Team, which was assembled as a sort of . . . elite force for sticky situations.

One of the unique features STV: Elite Force's single-player game is the presence of intelligent bots that serve as the additional members of your various away teams. Combined with Raven's advanced scripting code, these team members take on a life of their own and affect gameplay in an unprecedented way. On any of the missions, any of your team members could be injured or killed at any time. If any of them do, there's code in place that activates certain in-game cutscenes in which that crewperson is teleported out of the combat zone. Also, these members interact with you throughout the game, both in combat and during the exploratory R&R sections of the game which you spend onboard the Voyager. The overall effect is an impressive seamlessness from the first mission to the fortieth.

While the single-player game is designed to move you smoothly from one mission to the next, hopping from vessel to vessel until you reach your final destination, the play is balanced well enough to keep you challenged regardless of the level of difficulty at which you play. Unfortunately, the forty missions nevertheless seem to go by too quickly; diligent players will finish the single-player game in a day. Another minor-but-noticeable irritation is that, as with Soldier of Fortune, the end of the game seems somewhat slapped together and not on par with the first three quarters. The alien races you encounter later in the game seem more cartoonish than sci-fi based. That's the case especially during the final missions, where the quality of the illustration declines to the point of resembling Japanese anime more so than something that could have possibly come from an episode of any of the Star Trek shows or movies.

For the most part, though, STV: Elite Force offers you that "you're in the movie" effect not only because you feel like you're part of a real team, but also because all of the TV show's original cast members lent their voices to their counterparts in the game (with the exception of Jeri Ryan, who plays Seven of Nine in the show). The recreation of Voyager's layout complete with bridge and holodeck and a Borg cube add to the realism, as do the relatively lifelike, accurate representations of all the characters' faces. Add to all this the nine two-mode weapons (among them a very realistic phaser) and fourteen different enemy races and you've got yourself the most involving Star Trek game made for the PC yet.

At the end of the year 2000 Star Trek gamers had more than five brand new Star Trek games all in one year the sales and player numbers of the year 2001 for the five games released in 2000 hinted that Activision had won the battle.  However Interplay's loyal fan base still kept the old games of Interplay and the new ones released in 2000 going strong to this day.  The turn of the new millennium seen Microprose go bankrupt and Activision take its place as the custodian of the star trek gaming franchise. 

The release of star trek elite force was basically the final nail in the coffin of interplay.  By the end of 2000 it became obvious to everyone that interplay was now to all intent's and purposes in there final day's.  Activision had managed to do in less than one year what it took both interplay and Microprose three years to do, win the respect of the star trek gamers.  In less than a year Activision had managed to release to the Star Trek gamers two games that had the capacity for a massive online gaming experience, this in turn spawned over a dozen sites for Armada, all fan run, like Armada universe and the distant relative of this website, Armada clan directory all of which opened within the space of two months.  The elite force community also rose exponentially within the space of one month, the capacity of both games to be modded also brought a whole new community to the Star Trek game franchise.  People like Rick Knox (who now works for Sony on Star Wars Galaxies), Chris Jones and other well known modders of the current day all started by modding Armada, elite force, and Starfleet command 2. 

Many of the well known clans of today like Starfleet, red squadrons, united federation of planets and many others of their kind started to become serious forces in the world of star trek clans by the amount of members they managed to gain from both Armada and elite force.  The battle between interplay and Activision in the latter half of the year 2000 was the major catalyst for the meteoric rise of growth of star trek gaming in 2001 and 2002.  Where Microprose and interplay failed in the early era of star trek gaming, Activision managed to succeed.  Activision managed to bring more money into the franchise and more players into the Star Trek game franchise in the space of nine months than Microprose and interplay managed in three years.  

Many people thought that Activision could do no wrong after the massive successes of elite force and armada, Activision had a lot to live up to in the year 2001 and many people still think to this day that things started to turn sour for Activision once they controlled the entire franchise.  Activision's time had now arrived but Interplay had one last trick up its sleeve. 

2001 - Part one: Activison's Time