Super Star Trek

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Super Star Trek is a computer game from the 1970s. It was written in FORTRAN and assumed a teletype-style interface. The game was originally written by David Matuszek and Paul Reynolds, with modifications by Don Smith. According to the documentation, it was inspired by and rather loosely based on an earlier game programmed in BASIC by Jim Korp and Grady Hicks at The University of Texas at Austin, which in turn was derived from a still earlier version written at Penn State University.

The game takes place in the original 1960s Star Trek universe. The game is turn-based, with commands entered at the COMMAND> prompt. Here is a "screenshot" from mid-game:

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
      1  * . . . . R . . . .  Stardate      2516.3
      2  . . . E . . . . . .  Condition     RED  
      3  . . . . . * . B . .  Position      5 - 1, 2 - 4
      4  . . . S . . . . . .  Life Support  DAMAGED, Reserves=2.30
      5  . . . . . . . K . .  Warp Factor   5.0
      6  . K .   . . . . * .  Energy        2176.24
      7  . . . . . P . . . .  Torpedoes     3
      8  . . . . * . . . . .  Shields       UP, 42% 1050.0 units
      9  . * . . * . . . C .  Klingons Left 12
     10  . . . . . . . . . .  Time Left     3.72
     COMMAND>

The "E" is the player's ship. The other spaces are occupied by stars, planets, bases and enemies. Using commands such as MOVE and PHASERS, the goal is to eliminate the enemies (Klingons and Romulans) within a fixed amount of time (number of turns).

The game was hugely popular and widely played, and is credited with inspiring many computer games that followed. Ports of the game are available for today's computers.

[edit] See also

Star Trek (text game)

[edit] External links

Tom Almy's Super Star Trek page. Versions for Linux, DOS, Windows and Mac OS X. C source code available.
Super Star Trek 2K.
"Quadrant", a game inspired partly by Super Star Trek (the version from Basic Computer Games[1])