Best Trek PC Game?

[General_Phoenix]

I agree with most here. My personal favorites are Bridge Commander and Klingon Academy. I enjoy 25th Anniversary, and Judgement Rites as well.

If you go with Klingon Academy..just know that it is a pain to get to run on newer computers. Bridge Commander can fetch a hefty price, even used I've seen it go for outrageous amounts of money.

 

[Harvey]

Elite Force is a great game. So is Starfleet Command. And Armada, for all its flaws, is a lot of fun to throw in every once and a while.

 

[Bill Morris]

I haven't posted on the Games forum before and haven't actually played the games mentioned here, but I have programmed several games in LCARS format, not for sale but part of a freeware package. They include two card games, a Trek crossword-puzzle server, something called Warbird Standoff (which is nothing more than an atrometrics representation of tic-tac-toe), chess, and a period-table puzzle. There are also two Pac-man games and Tetris bundled with it. This is not for Windows, however, but DOS, as part of a general-purpose LCARS system where the main screen is a full-screen alarm clock and calendar. Its LCARS graphical library includes various Trek-related stuff, including MSDs, with LCARS screens generated in response to lists of SFML (Starfleet Markup Language) commands. The rest is the usual assortment of utilities, animations, simulations, etc. all in LCARS style. My signature link has a link to a screenshot gallery.

Nothing to do with best games, but at least Trek-related, and not for Windows, although I will probably post a Windows standalone of the periodic-table puzzle at SourceForge within the next few weeks, and I will be programming more games.

 

[darthvincor]

blueshirt said:
It's Birth of the Federation for me as well.

And yes, I'd pay a lot for an updated version of the game that includes elements from all 5 series.

Same here. I still return to BOTF from time to time.
There's lots of mods available for this game too, and a patch (which was one of the last things Microprose did, I think).

Ahhh, I remember so many long nights of playing this game. Grabbing as many systems as you can early, dreading encountering other major races, focussing research on getting the best ships out as soon as possible.
It's great.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

General_Phoenix said:
I agree with most here. My personal favorites are Bridge Commander and Klingon Academy. I enjoy 25th Anniversary, and Judgement Rites as well.

If you go with Klingon Academy..just know that it is a pain to get to run on newer computers. Bridge Commander can fetch a hefty price, even used I've seen it go for outrageous amounts of money.

Actually, the only REAL problem I had running Klingon Academy... and it was a MAJOR problem 'til I figured it out... was that damned "windows key" thing.

Install Klingon Academy normally. Set it to run in Win98SE compatibility mode (not 100% necessary but generally a good idea). So far, so good. Install the patch... this is crucial, unless you really ENJOY having every enemy ship simply ram you.

I did all that and kept having these annoying problems. What I didn't realize was that it was caused my my accidentally bumping the left-hand "windows key." Every time I did that, the game would drop out (still running) and I'd be at desktop... and attempting to go back into the game would result in corrupted graphics, meaning I'd have to shut down the program entirely, and as often as not I'd reboot just to be sure.

Of course I've NEVER used them for anything... they're just "in the way" for me. So I decided to see if I could somehow remap them or block them or whatever.

Here's the best web-based explanation of what I eventually found out that I've identified. http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/disable_windows_key/

The files are safe, by the way. They're just text files, really... you can open them in notepad and see EXACTLY what they're doing. (When I discovered this fix, I had to do the registry fix manually, so having "clickable" solutions is a Godsend!). I downloaded all of them and put them in a folder called "Windows Key Switching" in the root of my C drive, so I can find them easily if I ever want to turn the silly things on again. But so far I haven't had any reason to want to.

I haven't had a single "crash" in Klingon Academy since I disabled these damned keys. Your mileage may vary, of course... but it certainly can't hurt in any case!

 

[RookieBatman]

Cary L. Brown said:
I did all that and kept having these annoying problems. What I didn't realize was that it was caused my my accidentally bumping the left-hand "windows key." Every time I did that, the game would drop out (still running) and I'd be at desktop... and attempting to go back into the game would result in corrupted graphics, meaning I'd have to shut down the program entirely, and as often as not I'd reboot just to be sure.

Interesting. I have KA installed in a Windows XP computer, without compatibility mode (it is generally a piece-of-crap computer, though), and I have occasionally bumped my windows key. The game minimizes while still running, and my ship takes a beating while I get it back up, but I've never had the graphics corruption that you have. I can imagine how terribly annoying that would be.
I think my brother reconfigured the controls so everything was one key to the left, and that solved the problem for him.

 

[daedalus5]

Akiraprise said:
To make Bridge Commander 10 times better then stock:
Download and install this 1st
Download and install this 2nd
Download and install this 3rd
Optional, but highly recommended downloads:
Download and install this 4th
Download and install this 5th
Download and install this too. Highly recommended.

That's a really helpful install list; I had no idea there was a patch for the KM Mod, or the excellent looking DS9 mod. (There goes another few hours spent in front of the PC, lol).

 

[captcalhoun]

EF 1, get Starbase 11 and Virtual Dreadnought by Laz Rojas for yummy TOS goodness...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

OptimusPete said:
Birth of the federation is just awesome. I still play it to this day

Do you still own an old computer then because my BOTF needs windows 98 and wont work on my XP.

 

[jigalypuff]

go to afc botf site for info on how to get botf to run on xp
http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/

 

[Trubinator]

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force is the best. Skip the sequel.