Star Trek (arcade game)

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
Star Trek cabinet
Developer(s)	Sega
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Sam Palahnuk
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date(s)	NA 1982
Genre(s)	Space combat simulation Multi-directional shooter First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player
Arcade system	Sega G80 Vector hardware
Display	Vector, 224 x 256 pixels (Horizontal), 256 colors

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade game based on the original Star Trek television program, and released by Sega in 1982. It is a vector game, with both a two-dimensional display and a three-dimensional first-person perspective. The player controls the Starship Enterprise, and must defend sectors from invading Klingon ships.

The game was presented in two styles of cabinets: an upright standup, and a sit-down/semi-enclosed deluxe cabinet with the player's chair modeled after the Star Trek Motion Picture's bridge chairs with controls integrated into the chair's arms.

Gameplay

The game makes use of painstakingly synthesized speech, since memory costs at the time made the use of sampled audio almost prohibitive.

Unlike most arcade games of the time, the player is presented with multiple views of the playfield. Throughout the game, survival depends on the player's ability to accumulate shields. These are rewarded by docking with starbases, which sometimes must be saved from destruction at the hands of the Klingons.

The control system for Star Trek employed the use of a weighted spinner for ship heading control, while a series of buttons allowed the player to activate the impulse engines, warp engines, phasers, and photon torpedoes. The warp button was deliberately placed farther away from the rest of the buttons, in order to force the player to reach for them in heated battle. The booth version of the game had convenient location of the warp button at the right hand thumb.

Ports

Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator was ported to most of the contemporary computers and consoles of the era; namely Commodore 64, TI-99/4A, the Atari 8-bit family and Atari 5200 in 1983, Tandy Color Computer in 1984 (as Space Wrek), the Atari 2600, Commodore VIC-20, ColecoVision and the Apple II. The VIC-20 version had a bug. Once you depleted your warp power, the ship was still capable of maneuvering, at "Impluse speed." Basically if you held down the warp button and you had no warp energy left, you could maneuver, firing weapons, etc, and take no damage from the enemy ships. Part of the warp effect would also allow you to pass through objects unharmed. So you could fly into/through the Klingons or the Starbase and take no damage. You were invulnerable.

External links

• Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator at MobyGames
• Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator at GameFAQs