Star Trek (1971, Mike Mayfield)

• Original Release: 1971
• Developer: Mike Mayfield
• Publisher: Self-Published
• Platform: HP Basic
• Version Played: Direct C# Port by Michael Birken (No enhancements)

The first Star Trek video game, made for the Sigma 7 and then ported to the HP 2000C minicomputer. These were devices that had no screens, but were instead connected to a printer and printed the new game game as you played.

This game was ported to many different systems, under a lot of different names such as Apple Trek, Tari Trek and Dragon Trek. I have chosen a couple that I will go through with significant changes, as the vast majority run the same, just ported to different systems, with the latest major version being released in 2023.

In this game, you need to destroy a set amount of Klingons in a few days. You need to explore the area, as well as dock at stations to repair yourself. Here is one of my complete failure attempts:

ENTER SEED NUMBER 12
INITIALIZING...

YOU MUST DESTROY 19 KINGONS IN 30 STARDATES WITH 6 STARBASES

COMBAT AREA      CONDITION RED
   SHIELDS DANGEROUSLY LOW
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
            <*>         
   +++                   STARDATE  2900
                         CONDITION RED
                         QUADRANT  4,2 
                         SECTOR    5,1 
                *        ENERGY    3000
                         SHIELDS   0
                         PHOTON TORPEDOES 10
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
COMMAND 2
LONG RANGE SENSOR SCAN FOR QUADRANT 4,2 
-------------------
| 008 | 001 | 003 |
-------------------
| 007 | 101 | 008 |
-------------------
| 114 | 003 | 008 |
-------------------
COMMAND 0
COURSE (1-9) 8
WARP FACTOR (0-8) 5
118 UNIT HIT ON ENTERPRISE FROM SECTOR 2,2 
   (0 LEFT)

THE ENTERPRISE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. THE FEDERATION WILL BE CONQUERED
THERE ARE STILL 19 KLINGON BATTLE CRUISERS

YOU MUST DESTROY 13 KINGONS IN 30 STARDATES WITH 5 STARBASES

COMBAT AREA      CONDITION RED
   SHIELDS DANGEROUSLY LOW
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
                        
             *           STARDATE  3200
    *       +++          CONDITION RED
               <*>       QUADRANT  4,4 
 *                       SECTOR    6,4 
             *           ENERGY    3000
                         SHIELDS   0
             *     *     PHOTON TORPEDOES 10
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
COMMAND 2
LONG RANGE SENSOR SCAN FOR QUADRANT 4,4 
-------------------
| 006 | 001 | 007 |
-------------------
| 008 | 106 | 002 |
-------------------
| 002 | 016 | 007 |
-------------------
COMMAND 0
COURSE (1-9) 5
WARP FACTOR (0-8) 3
273 UNIT HIT ON ENTERPRISE FROM SECTOR 5,3 
   (0 LEFT)

THE ENTERPRISE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. THE FEDERATION WILL BE CONQUERED
THERE ARE STILL 13 KLINGON BATTLE CRUISERS

This game is very difficult, as you need to hunt for Klingons, navigate around and so lots of actual calculations to work out how to navigate as well as aim torpedoes. For such an old game, there is a surprising amount of detail in it, with enemies that attack you, systems that break, scanning and even a built-in calculator for torpedoes.

Your systems breaking are completely random, though, and something like your warp drive breaking can render a playthrough unwinnable as you won’t be able to find a starbase in time. Even without any damage, navigating around is very difficult as you need to set a direction and speed, and take into account both sector and quadrant locations.

Despite all this, there’s just something that’s a lot of fun about trying to do all this with such basic input, having to figure it all out yourself. It’s a fascinating game and it’s definitely impressive for what it was originally made for.

—

After originally writing this, I was contacted by Darren McDowell, who played the game on one a mainframe computer at the Lindquist Computer Center in Iowa back in 1975. This was played without a screen and every output was printed onto a computer. Darren still has a printout of one of his games, which he was kind of it to share with me. It’s fascinating to see this in its original format.

The first few pages are notes, and the rest are from the game. You had to read the output alongside a bunch of other numbers. The list of games are the start show that the system had multiple versions of the game. Darren ended up learning the system so well that he ended up helping both students and staff boot up and play the game. It’s a wonderful bit of gaming history.

Where to get

• Original & Ported Code

How to Run

For this, I used a C# compiler.

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1971 basic simulation space combat star trek 71 TOS