The Classic Super Star Trek Game (opens in new tab)

(almy.us)

57 pointsingler11y ago18 comments

18 comments

ForHackernews11y ago

> In December 2013 I added three new commands -- CLOAK to cloak the Enterprise...

A true Star Trek fan would know this violates the Treaty of Algeron: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Algeron

legohead11y ago

it mentions it in the game :)

under "help cloak"

> The Treaty of Algeron with the Romulans in Stardate 2311 prohibits the use of cloaking devices. If a Romulan ship observes you cloaking or uncloaking after this point in time you will be in violation, which will hurt your final score.

JoeAltmaier11y ago

Upon seeing this game, Tom Nelson and a friend wrote Begin, a tactical Star Trek simulation. It's been in C for over a decade, and still has a following. You can find it on Abandonia and other places. Even has a Wikipedia page. Though as far as I know it ISNT based on the Star Trek Battles paper game as suggested there. I'll ask Tom tomorrow.

jarcane11y ago

The Begin series is fantastic!

There's actually a third game now, for Windows, you can find it here: http://www.starfleetproject.com/

aceperry11y ago

Wow, this is one of the first computer games that I played. It was running on an HP minicomputer connected to a teletype device with a paper printout.

dnm11y ago

Same for me, but our Teletype Model 33 had to use a 300 baud acoustic coupler to connect to the HP.

DavidPlumpton11y ago

I learned programming by reading the source code of this game in the fantastic book by David Ahl. I still remember an array called K which contained the X,Y coordinates and shield strength of each Klingon warship.

hudibras11y ago

Oh, wow, that takes me back. I haven't thought about that book in over 25 years...

http://www.amazon.com/BASIC-Computer-Games-Microcomputer-Dav...

ourmandave11y ago

I remember playing Star Trek on HP teletypes connected to the Peoria mainframe in the high school math lab. Jeez we burned through a lot of paper.

A friend modded a version to automatically fire photon torpedoes when you entered a sector with Klingons. It calc'd the trajectory so it never missed.

Of course the downside was the blow back if you shot one right next to you. Or if there was a star in the way. Or there were >3 Klingons that would hammer you while the computer is cycling through the auto firing sequence.

mecodedumb11y ago

Illinois?

jes11y ago

I remember playing this game as well, many, many years ago.

If memory serves, I was playing it on thermal printer that eventually became the TI "Silent 700" series.

I believe the program was written in what was called "Super Fortran" at the time.

It was a great deal of fun.

[1] http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/ti-tymshare-100/...

kernelcurry11y ago

Watch! if you don't want to play it !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XWl9x13PU

madengr11y ago

Great game. I played it recently in CPM on my Altair clone.

gcb011y ago

ok, i just tried it again. Still have no clue how to move or fire. That version is too simplistic (just fire a torpedo at X Y and you destroy the klingon) and the bsdgame original is completely arcane. this is what the man page says about movement and targeting:

""" The course is determined by the Space Inertial Navigation System [SINS]. As described in Star Fleet Technical Order TO:02:06:12, the SINS is calibrated, after which it becomes the base for navigation. If damaged, navigation becomes inaccurate. When it is fixed, Spock recalibrates it, however, it cannot be calibrated extremely accurately until you dock at starbase. """

looking at the source it validates course as 0 to 360.. so looks like angle. yet 0 goes up. 90 goes up...

gcb011y ago

meh. this game was painful to be played after the 80s.

here is the usual session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XWl9x13PU

every time i started that game because people around me said it was fun, it reminded me of the "typical novice's session with ed" after a while.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EdIsTheStandardTextEditor

     Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:


  golem> ed

  ?
  help
  ?
  ?
  ?
  quit
  ?
  exit
  ?
  bye
  ?
  hello? 
  ?
  eat flaming death
  ?
  ^C
  ?
  ^C
  ?
  ^D
  ?

If you still want to play it, you distro probably have a package called bsdgames on the main package repo.

irascible11y ago

Emscripten .js port Plz.

0xxon11y ago

Here you go - http://z-machine.appspot.com/game/ztrek/play/

(It is actually not emscripten -- it uses a z-machine emulator I adapted to js a long time ago to run the z-machine version of star trek. But - should be good enough :) )

irascible11y ago

Thank you!! :D

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

18 comments

ForHackernews11y ago

> In December 2013 I added three new commands -- CLOAK to cloak the Enterprise...

A true Star Trek fan would know this violates the Treaty of Algeron: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Algeron

legohead11y ago

it mentions it in the game :)

under "help cloak"

JoeAltmaier11y ago

jarcane11y ago

The Begin series is fantastic!

There's actually a third game now, for Windows, you can find it here: http://www.starfleetproject.com/

aceperry11y ago

Wow, this is one of the first computer games that I played. It was running on an HP minicomputer connected to a teletype device with a paper printout.

dnm11y ago

Same for me, but our Teletype Model 33 had to use a 300 baud acoustic coupler to connect to the HP.

DavidPlumpton11y ago

hudibras11y ago

Oh, wow, that takes me back. I haven't thought about that book in over 25 years...

http://www.amazon.com/BASIC-Computer-Games-Microcomputer-Dav...

ourmandave11y ago

I remember playing Star Trek on HP teletypes connected to the Peoria mainframe in the high school math lab. Jeez we burned through a lot of paper.

A friend modded a version to automatically fire photon torpedoes when you entered a sector with Klingons. It calc'd the trajectory so it never missed.

mecodedumb11y ago

Illinois?

jes11y ago

I remember playing this game as well, many, many years ago.

If memory serves, I was playing it on thermal printer that eventually became the TI "Silent 700" series.

I believe the program was written in what was called "Super Fortran" at the time.

It was a great deal of fun.

[1] http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/ti-tymshare-100/...

kernelcurry11y ago

Watch! if you don't want to play it !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XWl9x13PU

madengr11y ago

Great game. I played it recently in CPM on my Altair clone.

gcb011y ago

looking at the source it validates course as 0 to 360.. so looks like angle. yet 0 goes up. 90 goes up...

gcb011y ago

meh. this game was painful to be played after the 80s.

here is the usual session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XWl9x13PU

every time i started that game because people around me said it was fun, it reminded me of the "typical novice's session with ed" after a while.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EdIsTheStandardTextEditor

     Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:


  golem> ed

  ?
  help
  ?
  ?
  ?
  quit
  ?
  exit
  ?
  bye
  ?
  hello? 
  ?
  eat flaming death
  ?
  ^C
  ?
  ^C
  ?
  ^D
  ?

If you still want to play it, you distro probably have a package called bsdgames on the main package repo.

irascible11y ago

Emscripten .js port Plz.

0xxon11y ago

Here you go - http://z-machine.appspot.com/game/ztrek/play/

(It is actually not emscripten -- it uses a z-machine emulator I adapted to js a long time ago to run the z-machine version of star trek. But - should be good enough :) )

irascible11y ago

Thank you!! :D

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse