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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a Star Trek PC simulation game developed and published by Interplay in 1997. The game simulates the life of a typical Starfleet cadet, with the pla…
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a Star Trek PC simulation game developed and published by Interplay in 1997. The game simulates the life of a typical Starfleet cadet, with the player learning the basics of flying a starship and engaging in roleplaying with a crew of cadets, with the eventual goal of becoming captain of their own ship.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a Star Trek PC simulation game developed and published by Interplay in 1997. The game simulates the life of a typical Starfleet cadet, with the player learning the basics of flying a starship and engaging in roleplaying with a crew of cadets, with the eventual goal of becoming captain of their own ship. The game included full motion video featuring William Shatner, Walter Koenig, and George Takei reprising their roles from the original television series and movies, and a multiplayer simulation mode allowing for up to 32 players.
A tie-in novelization by Diane Carey was released by Pocket Books in June 1997. The game received an expansion pack in 1998 titled Chekov's Lost Missions and a sequel was released in 2000 called Star Trek: Klingon Academy. Abridged versions of the base game were also released with the subtitles Cadet Briefing and Strategic Command.
Apart from live-action cutscenes with branching dialogue that decides the course of the cutscene (allowing for the player to even risk summary dishonorable discharge in some circumstances), Starfleet Academy is a 3D space flight simulator, allowing players to command Federation starships of various classes in the single-player campaign, including the iconic Constitution-class - the ship class which includes the USS Enterprise - as well as its successor, the USS Excelsior. Ships are controlled through keyboard shortcut commands, though a joystick may also be configured. The mouse is usually used to interact with the ship's sections when off-action, which include the science station, communications, engineering, and even a database library with most persisting elements of the Star Trek universe.
The objectives of most Starfleet Academy missions are to warp to a target system, destroy or capture enemy starships or installations by disabling them or protect allied targets, and return to a home base. Elements of diplomacy through communications are often featured in these missions. As one plays through the game, progressively stronger enemy forces do appear that require the player to use extensive maneuverability and have total familiarization of the ship's resources, especially damage control and power allocations. While some missions do have allied vessels, the player cannot control them directly, nor enemy vessels can be boarded and taken over, unlike the sequel Star Trek: Klingon Academy.
All starships have shields and a variety of combat systems, including weapons, tractor beams and ECM. Shields are divided into six faces, one for each fore, aft, port, starboard, dorsal and ventral side of the ship, and must be battered down before significant damage can be inflicted to the ship's hull or subsystems.
In addition to simple combat situations, some missions include more complex scenarios such as a re-creation of the near-disastrous starship confrontation with Khan Noonien Singh as well as the Kobayashi Maru scenario, both depicted in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as well as a recreation of the episode "Balance of Terror", from the original series. Other scenarios have an overarching plot around them, such as a star system whose sun faces an imminent supernova due to the continuous draining by a space faring creature, a governor of the Klingon Empire acting illegally against the Federation with the aid of pirates and Romulans, and a once peaceful alien species turned hostile by a psychic that formed a cult of personality.
Starfleet Academy is set in the Star Trek universe, up to two years prior to the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Captain James T. Kirk of the Enterprise arrives with Captain Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov to Earth to attend the United Federation of Planets' Starfleet Academy's latest starting Command College class, on which Sulu is to evaluate for the next two years before he takes command of the Excelsior, as Kirk and Chekov help out in some particular simulator assignments.
Attending these classes is the human protagonist, Cadet David Forrester, to which he is assigned his crew - Vulcan Science Officer Sturek (whom is also Forrester's friend from earlier computer classes), Andorian Communications Officer Vanda M'Gila (who is the daughter of a renowned Andorian Ambassador mentioned in Star Trek: Klingon Academy), Engineer Robin Brady (an introvert, but technically proficient), Helmsman Jana Akton (an overworking Trill from a mining colony in the Levantine Expanse) and Tactical Officer Geoffrey Corin (a happy-go-lucky son of a wealthy Alpha Centauri family) - which Forrester must monitor their performance and frequently settle their recurring conflicts to ensure they can perform well in the simulated missions.
Other characters also include Aex Rotherot, the headmaster of Starfleet Academy, as well as Faith Gage, a fellow Academy student and a potential love interest for Robin, and Frank Malan, a rival Command College Cadet with an increasing hostile opinion towards non-human species, especially Klingons and Romulans.
Forrester and his crew start their Academy term and first missions, working well as a team "in spite of their occasional bickering", as noted by Kirk in one point. Forrester, at some expense, does manage to remedy some of the immediate issues affecting the team performance, including having Corin take his study responsibilities more seriously as well as getting Brady to be more socially active.
News suddenly reach the academy that the Federation-Andorian colony of Bicea, a once contested world by the Federation and the Klingons in the Neutral Zone, was attacked and destroyed by an unknown force with no survivors, M'Gila's mother counted amongst the casualties. With initial investigations suggesting Klingon disruptors were utilized in the attack, as well as an unauthorized counter-attack provoked by a Federation vessel gone rogue, tensions increase between the Feder
Source: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1997 video game) (CC BY-SA)
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The game has a multiplayer starship combat mode that allows up to 32 players to play together.
