Voyager was a graphic adventure computer game developed by Looking Glass Technologies from 1995 until its cancellation in 1997. It was published by Viacom New Media. Based on the Star Trek: Voyager license, the game followed Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager in their attempts to rescue members of their team from the Kazon. Voyager was the first game in a multi-title agreement between Viacom and Looking Glass, and Viacom took a minority equity investment in the company as part of the deal. However, Viacom decided to leave the video game industry in 1997, and Voyager was cancelled in spring of that year. In response to Voyager's cancellation, team members Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey and Rob Fermier left Looking Glass to found Irrational Games.
Voyager was an adventure game based on the Star Trek: Voyager license. The player guided Kathryn Janeway and other characters aboard the USS Voyager through three "episodes". The game began as the USS Voyager resupplied at an agricultural planet, only to have certain members of its crew kidnapped by the Kazon. As Janeway and the surviving team tracked the Kazon, they encountered such things as other alien races and "an abandoned planet occupied only by a single computer system". Unlike in other Star Trek video games of the time, the player manipulated the crew at a high and general level. The player selected the crew's course of action from a list of options during "decision point" scenes, after which the crew would carry out their orders automatically. Certain decisions continued the plot, while others led to dead ends or to a game over. Producer Alan Dickens said, "We want to make it a lot like you're watching the TV and yelling at the characters. You're giving them, as a team, guidance and direction on where they should go and how they should address the various problems that come before them."[1]
Between decision points, the player used and combined items, solved puzzles and engaged in combat. The game's item system involved scanning objects with tricorders and storing them in a "virtual inventory". This was an attempt to avoid hammerspace and the protagonists "stealing everything they find", two issues that Dickens said were common in the adventure game genre. "Tech sim" puzzles in the style of The Incredible Machine—a video game series in which players create Rube Goldberg machines—were a main feature in Voyager: the player would receive collections of mechanical parts, which would have to be combined into complex mechanisms. Combat took place on the ground and in space, and like other scenes was controlled at a general level. The player could order the crew to provide suppressive fire, to maneuver or to beam out, for example, and would then watch the scene play out.[1]
Development and aftermath
Looking Glass Technologies scanned the heads of Star Trek: Voyager's cast to create more accurate 3D models for the game.
Voyager began development in 1995,[2] and it was announced in August of that year as the first game in a multi-title deal between Viacom New Media and Looking Glass Technologies.[3] According to Next Generation, the announcement was "greeted with joy" by gamers and fans of Star Trek.[4] Viacom was interested in Looking Glass's engine technology, and took a minority equity investment in the company.[5]Voyager was conceptualized by Dickens and by Viacom producer Rachel Leventhal.[1] It was initially planned for release in 1996,[3] but a later report gave it an expected release date of early 1997. The team at Looking Glass visited and researched the set of Star Trek: Voyager in order to reproduce it accurately, and they created 3D laser scans of the cast's heads.[1] Voice over from the cast was also recorded.[6] The game's characters and pre-rendered backgrounds were created with 3D Studio and Alias, and the characters were animated with the skeletal animation system that had been developed for Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri.[1] Designer Jonathan Chey worked on the game's physics and artificial intelligence code, which he later said were "really weird" features for an adventure game and evidence of unfocused development.[7] During the game's showing at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June, a writer for Computer Games Strategy Plus called it "one of the most highly anticipated projects currently floating around the game world."[8]
Voyager was cancelled in the spring of 1997, after 18 months in production.[2][9] According to Looking Glass's Paul Neurath, the cancellation was due to Viacom's wider decision to abandon the video game industry. He believed that the Viacom deal and Voyager were ultimately a "giant distraction" and a "boondoggle" that hurt the company.[10] These events started a financial downward spiral at Looking Glass, which, compounded by a string of troubled and commercially unsuccessful projects such as Terra Nova and British Open Championship Golf, culminated in the company's closure in May 2000.[7][11] Three members of the Voyager team—Chey, writer Ken Levine and designer Rob Fermier—became close friends during the game's development.[12][13] The game's cancellation inspired them to start the spin-off developer Irrational Games in April 1997,[2][9] which went on to develop System Shock 2 in collaboration with Looking Glass.[14] Levine later recalled that, while writing Voyager's opening cutscene, he learned that technological limitations made it difficult for characters to express emotion; and this experience influenced his future writing for games such as BioShock Infinite.[13]
Kathryn Janeway is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. She was the main character of the television series Star Trek: Voyager, which aired between 1995 and 2001. She served as the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager while it was lost in the Delta Quadrant on the other side of the galaxy. After returning home to the Alpha Quadrant, she is promoted to vice admiral and briefly appears in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. She is seen again commanding the USS Dauntless in Star Trek: Prodigy, searching for the missing USS Protostar which was being commanded by Captain Chakotay, her former first officer on Voyager, at the time of its disappearance.
Chakotay is a fictional character who appears in each of the seven seasons of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. Portrayed by Robert Beltran, he was First Officer aboard the Starfleet starship USS Voyager, and later promoted to Captain in command of the USS Protostar in Star Trek: Prodigy. The character was suggested at an early stage of the development of the series. He is the first Native American main character in the Star Trek franchise. This was a deliberate move by the producers of the series, who sought to provide an inspiration as with Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series for African Americans. To develop the character, the producers sought the assistance of Jamake Highwater who falsely claimed to be Native American. Despite first being named as a Sioux, and later a Hopi, Chakotay was given no tribal affiliation at the start of the series, something that was later resolved in the episode "Tattoo".
Lieutenant Thomas Eugene "Tom" Paris is a fictional character in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager and is portrayed by Robert Duncan McNeill. Paris is the chief helmsman, as well as a temporary auxiliary medic, of the USS Voyager, a Starfleet ship that was stranded in the Delta Quadrant by an alien entity known as the Caretaker.
Star Trek: Voyager is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor. It originally aired from January 16, 1995 to May 23, 2001 on UPN, with 172 episodes over seven seasons. It is the fifth series in the Star Trek franchise. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager as it attempts to return home to the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy.
USS Voyager(NCC-74656) is the fictional Intrepid-class starship which is the primary setting of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It is commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway. Voyager was designed by Star Trek: Voyager production designer Richard D. James and illustrator Rick Sternbach. Most of the ship's on-screen appearances are computer-generated imagery (CGI), although models were also sometimes used. The ship's motto, as engraved on its dedication plaque, is a quote from the poem "Locksley Hall" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "For I dipt in to the future, far as human eye could see; Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be."
The Kazon are a fictional alien race in the Star Trek franchise. Developed by Star Trek: Voyager series' co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor, the Kazon serve as the primary antagonists during the show's first two seasons. They are represented as a nomadic species divided into eighteen separate sects, and characterized by their reliance on violence. A patriarchal society, the Kazon have a low opinion of women, and place pride in men becoming warriors and proving themselves in battle. The Kazon storylines frequently revolve around the attempts of Jal Culluh and his Kazon sect to steal technology from the USS Voyager, with the assistance of former Voyager ensign Seska. During the second season, the Voyager crew uncover more about the alien species' history and culture through a temporary truce. In their final major appearance, the Kazon successfully commandeer Voyager, but are eventually forced to surrender and retreat. The alien species have minor cameo appearances and references in the show's subsequent seasons, and have also been included in Star Trek Online and novels set in the Star Trek universe.
Looking Glass Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Productions in 1990, and merged with Lerner's Lerner Research in 1992 to become LookingGlass Technologies. Between 1997 and 1999, the company was part of AverStar, where it was renamed Looking Glass Studios. Following financial issues at Looking Glass, the studio shut down in May 2000. Notable productions by Looking Glass include the Ultima Underworld, System Shock and Thief series.
"Caretaker" is the series premiere of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It was first broadcast as a double-length episode on January 16, 1995, as the first telecast of the fledgling UPN network. It was later split into two parts for syndication, but released in its original one-episode format on DVD and streaming services. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant far from the rest of the Federation.
System Shock 2 is a 1999 action role-playing survival horror video game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Originally intended to be a standalone title, its story was changed during production into a sequel to the 1994 game System Shock. The alterations were made when Electronic Arts—who owned the System Shock franchise rights—signed on as publisher.
The Vidiians are a fictional alien race in the Star Trek franchise. Developed by Star Trek: Voyager series' co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor, they serve as recurring antagonists during the show's first two seasons. They are represented as a nomadic species suffering from a pandemic known as the Phage, which destroys their tissue. A society with highly developed medical technology, the Vidiians harvest organs from corpses and living beings to stall the progression of the Phage, and experiment on other alien species in an attempt to develop a cure. Vidiian storylines frequently revolve around the aliens' attempts to take its Voyager crew members' organs, though a Vidiian scientist named Danara Pel serves as a love interest for The Doctor. The alien species have made minor appearances in the show's subsequent seasons, and have been included in novels set in the Star Trek universe.
Irrational Games was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired the studio in 2006. The studio was known for its games System Shock 2, Freedom Force, SWAT 4, and most notably, two of the games in the BioShock series. In 2014, following the release of BioShock Infinite, Levine opted to significantly restructure the studio from around 90 to 15 employees and focus more on narrative games. In February 2017, the studio announced that it had been rebranded as Ghost Story Games and considered a fresh start from the original Irrational name, though still operating at the same business subsidiary under Take-Two.
Kenneth M. Levine is an American game developer. He is the creative director and co-founder of Ghost Story Games. He led the creation of the BioShock series, and is also known for his work on Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2. Levine was named one of the "Storytellers of the Decade" by Game Informer and was the 1UP Network's 2007 person of the year. He received the inaugural Golden Joystick "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his work.
"Investigations" is the 36th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager which aired on the UPN network. It is the 20th episode of the second season.
"State of Flux" is the eleventh episode of Star Trek: Voyager, which was a science fiction television show that ran from 1995-2001. Recurring Voyager characters Seska and Lt. Carey star, along with the show's main cast, in an episode that sees the return of the Kazon aliens previously introduced in "Caretaker".
"Basics" comprises the 42nd and 43rd episodes of the American science fiction television Star Trek: Voyager, the cliffhanger between the second season and the third season.
"Shattered" is the 157th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, aired on the UPN network. It is the 10th episode of the seventh season.
"Maneuvers" is the 27th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and the 11th episode in the second season. In this science fiction television show, the spacecraft USS Voyager encounters the Kazon and former crew member that defected, Seska. The episode features many scenes with Chakotay, Seska, and various guest stars in the role of the Kazon. It also features several special effect sequences with various spacecraft.
Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force is a first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. The game was originally released on September 15, 2000 for Windows and Mac OS. A port for Mac OS developed by Westlake Interactive and published by Aspyr Media was released on November 20, 2002. Elite Force was ported to the PlayStation 2 by Pipe Dream Interactive and published by Majesco Entertainment on December 11, 2001.
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