Star Trek

Star Trek proved one of the more popular games on Mainframes in the early seventies. Originally written on a Sigma 7 it was a year later ported to HP BASIC and then copied and adapted into many different iterations. Initially played using a teletype printer, later versions would use a screen.

It's the player's objective to destroy 17 Klingon ships within a limited time. The playing field is divided into 8x8 quadrants, each again divided by 8x8 sectors. A sector is shown to the player as a 2D map with the Enterprise's location, stars, starbases, and Klingon ships. Using the long-range scanner the player can find out if surrounding quadrants have starbases or Klingon ships. The player must navigate the clusters to find Klingon ships and use shields and photon torpedoes to destroy them. Torpedoes and phasers must be fired in a direction and a distance. The strength of phasers depends on the distance between the Enterprise and the target. A calculator can be used to determine the direction and distance between two sectors. Stars block a torpedo's path. The player's ship can take damage. Individual parts have their own hit points (warp engines, short-range sensors, etc.). This damage can be repaired at starbases.