Star Trek: The Rebel Universe

Last updated
Star Trek: The Rebel Universe
Star Trek The Rebel Universe Cover.jpg
Publisher(s) Firebird Software, Simon & Schuster Interactive
Designer(s) Mike Singleton
Platform(s) Atari ST, DOS, Commodore 64
Release1987
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Star Trek: The Rebel Universe is an action-adventure computer game published by Firebird Software in Europe and Simon & Schuster Interactive in America. It was originally released for the Atari ST in 1987, and was followed the next year with versions for the Commodore 64 and DOS.

Contents

The game places the user in control of the bridge crew of the Enterprise while they explore an area of space attempting to understand why all previous Federation ships that entered the region have mutinied. They have five years to complete their mission, after which the entire area will be sealed off with the Enterprise trapped inside.

Each member of the bridge crew is in control of certain aspects of ship operations, allowing the player to control the mission through their stations. The user can also orbit above planets and beam down selected members in order to find devices or clues that can solve the mystery of the "Quarantine Zone".

Story

Starfleet is currently puzzled by a mysterious region of space. Virtually every Federation starship that enters it defects to the Klingon Empire. Designating this region of space the Quarantine Zone, Starfleet sees no other option but to seal it off with a "Klein Sphere," a massive force field. Before the Klein Sphere is activated, Starfleet sends in the U.S.S. Enterprise to investigate.

The Enterprise soon discovers the source of the defections. The Klingons have discovered a rare isotope of dilithium crystals called "Dilithium Delta 6," which has unusual psionic properties. The Klingons have been giving out Dilithium Delta 6 to starship captains as a peace offering. Once the Dilithium Delta 6 is installed in a starship, the crew becomes susceptible to mind control. Coupled with a network of "psi-beam emitters" to ensure the effects of the Dilithium Delta 6 remain permanent, the Federation starships are compelled to obey their new Klingon masters.

The Enterprise crew devises several plans to free their fellow Federation starships and stop the Klingons:

Another method is to blackmail the Klingon admiral, but this strategy runs the risk of backfiring.

If the Enterprise can't undo the Klingon plot within five years, the Klein Sphere will become permanent and the Quarantine Zone will be isolated from the rest of the galaxy forever.

Gameplay

When the game starts the player is placed in the game's "Multivision" display that shows an oblique view of the Enterprise bridge taking up the majority of upper left portion of the screen. Running down the right side and across the bottom of this display are individual portraits of each of the bridge crew. By clicking on a person in either display, the main display is replaced by a view of the controls that crewmember operated.

For instance, clicking on Sulu replaced the main display with a new view showing Sulu and the controls he operated. From there the user could click into a 3D star map where they could select a destination star system. Backing out from that display, they could move to the warp engine controls to set their speed and start the journey. While the player operated Sulu's station, the image of Sulu on the bottom of the screen was replaced by a smaller image of the bridge, clicking there returned the user back to the main bridge display.

On the Atari version, as the user clicked through the crewmember displays their icons in the control bar would update with any useful information. For instance, if Spock was asked to scan a planet, when the user entered Sulu's screen and Spock's returned to the icon view, information about the planet would be rendered into the smaller display.

The game normally opened with the user selecting a star system to warp to. Each of the star systems was affiliated with the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or was neutral. Depending on their capabilities, friendly systems will re-fuel, repair and re-arm the Enterprise. When the Enterprise entered an enemy system there was a chance it would be defended by one or more Klingon or Romulan warships, which you could fight by moving to Chekov's station. Renegade Federation ships would also occasionally crop up as enemies. Combat took place in a 3D wireframe view, allowing the user to click on vulnerable locations on the enemy ship for maximum effect.

Star systems had between three and six planets. Once they had navigated to a system, the Enterprise could visit the individual planets using their impulse drive. Some of these were life supporting, which played a key role in the game. Once in orbit above such a planet, the player could use Kirk's screen to move to the transporter room. Here the player can select an away team, equip them with items picked up on previous missions, and beam them to the surface.

On the surface the view changed to show a 3D wireframe display of a room, either empty, containing an item that could be picked up, or with and obstacle barring further progress. The graphics were not interactive, and this portion of the game was essentially a text adventure. Each member of the crew would offer a different solution to bypassing any obstacle, and the player had to decide which solution to use. Choosing the wrong one could injure the crew or prevent further movement (hence one reason for multiple solutions, if a key element was no longer attainable). If they successfully bypassed an obstacle they would move onto the next room in series. When they reached the end of the "hallway" they often found nothing. In other cases the last room would contain a treasure of sorts, or a piece of equipment that was needed to bypass one of the obstacles on another planet. Others contained data banks that helped explain the mission and offered potential solutions to the game.

Other aspects of game play included worm holes, space-borne dangers and life forms that could prevent conflict within a star system.

The game universe was relatively large, with 4,000 planets in total, so exploration could be extremely time-consuming, and the coordinate system could require something of a learning curve. And despite being on a five-year mission, the game clock would wind quickly during warp travel, drastically reducing the actual amount of time available to solve the game. Later versions of the game helped the user by providing a list of planets and the items they contained.

Reception

Compute! criticized the game's "unexpected tediousness of play". It stated that a more serious flaw was the absence of the Enterprise crew's interaction with aliens, an important part of the TV show. [1] Computer Gaming World found the graphics and audio impressive on the Atari ST but mediocre on the IBM PC. It concluded that the game was "an excellent adventure game for the ST [with] enough action and puzzles to satisfy most adventure gamers". [2]

Related Research Articles

Starship <i>Enterprise</i> Series of fictional spacecraft

Enterprise or USS Enterprise is the name of several fictional spacecraft, some of which are the main craft and setting for various television series and films in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The most notable were Captain James T. Kirk's USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the original 1960s television series, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard's USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Starfleet Fictional space flight organization

Starfleet is a fictional organization in the Star Trek media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets as the principal means for conducting deep space exploration, research, defense, peacekeeping, and diplomacy. While most of Starfleet's members are human and it has been headquartered on Earth, hundreds of other species are also represented. Most of the franchise's protagonists are Starfleet commissioned officers.

The Star Trek fictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles to melee. The Star Trek franchise consists primarily of several multi-season television shows and a dozen movies, as well as various video games and inspired merchandise. Many aspects of the fictional universe impact modern popular culture, especially the lingo and the idea of a spacecraft launching space torpedoes and firing lasers, and have had a wide influence in the late 20th to early 21st century. Star Trek is popular enough that its science fiction concepts have even been studied by real scientists, and NASA described its science in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier stories, and stuff the writers make up week-by-week to give each new episode novelty." For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek "phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers, and compared them to real-life microwave based weapons that have a stunning effect.

Gorn Fictional humanoid reptilian species in the science fiction franchise Star Trek.

The Gorn are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid reptilian species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They first appeared in a 1967 episode of the original series, "Arena", in which Captain Kirk fights an unnamed Gorn on a rocky planet. The fight scene has become one of the best-remembered scenes of the original series, in part due to the slow and lumbering movement of the Gorn, which some viewers have considered unintentionally comical.

USS <i>Enterprise</i> (NCC-1701-A) Fictional starship in Star Trek

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A is a fictional starship in three Star Trek films. It made its debut in the final scene of the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

<i>Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual</i>

The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual is a fiction reference book by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt, about the workings of Starfleet, a military, exploratory, and diplomatic organization featured in the television series Star Trek.

This article discusses the fictional timeline of the Star Trek franchise. The franchise is primarily set in the future, ranging from the mid-22nd century to the late 24th century, with the third season of Star Trek: Discovery jumping forward to the 32nd century. However the franchise has also outlined a fictional future history of Earth prior to this, and, primarily through time travel plots, explored both past and further-future settings.

"Elaan of Troyius" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written and directed by John Meredyth Lucas, it was first broadcast on December 20, 1968.

<i>Star Trek: The Role Playing Game</i> Tabletop science fiction role-playing game

Star Trek: The Role Playing Game is a role-playing game set in the fictional Star Trek universe published by FASA Corporation from 1982 to 1989.

"The Terratin Incident" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek. It first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup on November 17, 1973, and was written by American screenwriter Paul Schneider who had previously written the Original Series episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Squire of Gothos". It came from a one-paragraph story idea by Gene Roddenberry based on Gulliver's Travels.

<i>Star Trek: Legacy</i> Video game based on the Star Trek series

Star Trek: Legacy is a 2006 real-time tactics space combat video game for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Bethesda Softworks in association with CBS Paramount Television and CBS Consumer Products. Originally slated for release in the fall of 2006 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, the Windows version was not released in North America until December 6, 2006, and the Xbox 360 version until December 15. In Europe, both the PC version and the Xbox 360 version were released on December 22, 2006.

<i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> (1994 video game) 1994 video game

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a 1994 adventure game developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte. The game features strategy and puzzle-solving elements. The game was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis and the Sega Game Gear. It takes place in the Star Trek universe, spanning Federation space and the Romulan Neutral Zone, and centers on the appearance of the IFD, an artifact machine of unknown origin that, as its name suggests, allows its user to reshape matter and energy. It culminates in the IFD Trials, three tests undertaken by representatives of any races that are present when the Trials are held, and failure would mean the destruction of the Federation and the enslavement of countless worlds by the Federation's enemies.

<i>The Ashes of Eden</i>

The Ashes of Eden is a Star Trek novel co-written by William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens as part of the "Shatnerverse" series of novels. This is Shatner's first Trek collaboration.

<i>Star Trek: Klingon Academy</i> 2000 video game

Star Trek: Klingon Academy is a space flight simulator video game developed by 14 Degrees East, an internal development house of publisher Interplay Entertainment. The game follows a young Klingon warrior named Torlek as he attends the Elite Command Academy, a war college created by General Chang to prepare warriors for a future conflict with the United Federation of Planets. Christopher Plummer and David Warner reprised their respective roles as Chang and Gorkon for the production of Klingon Academy.

In the Star Trek fictional universe, dilithium is an invented material which serves as a controlling agent in the matter-antimatter reactors. In the original series, dilithium crystals were rare and could not be replicated, making the search for them a recurring plot element. According to a periodic table shown during a Next Generation episode, it has the atomic number 87, which in reality belongs to francium, and the chemical symbol Dt.

"The Time Trap" is the twelfth episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek. It first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup on November 24, 1973, and was written by American actress and screenwriter Joyce Perry.

<i>Star Trek: 25th Anniversary</i> (Game Boy video game) 1992 video game

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is a 1992 Game Boy video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Ultra, based upon the Star Trek universe. The game chronicles a mission of James T. Kirk and his crew of the USS Enterprise. Despite having the same name, the Game Boy version is not a port of the NES game or computer versions, and is in fact a completely different game. It was succeeded by Star Trek: The Next Generation for Game Boy, developed and published by Absolute Entertainment the following year.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Star Trek:

Star Trek vs. Transformers is a five-issue comic book limited series published by IDW Publishing. It is a crossover between the Star Trek and Transformers franchises, using the characters and art styles from the 1973 cartoon Star Trek: The Animated Series and the 1984 cartoon Transformers The first issue was released in September 2018. The comic was issued as a five part mini-series and has met with favorable reviews for mixing the two science fiction universes. In particular, they praised artist Philip Murphy artistic style with character's which were compared to cel animation.

References

  1. ↑ Randall, Neil (May 1988). "Star Trek: The Rebel Universe". Compute!. p. 61. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Battles, Hosea Jr. (October 1988). "Star Trek: The Rebel Universe". Computer Gaming World. p. 28. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.