Super Star Trek 1978 meets 25th Anniversary
Super Star Trek meets 25th Anniversary - now mobile compatible!
This free fan game is a remake/conversion of the 1978 strategy game Super Star Trek reimagined with the UI of one of my favorite games ever: Star Trek 25th Anniversary.
Super Star Trek was written by Bob Leedom and David Ahl and published in the book BASIC COMPUTER GAMES in 1978. I added graphics and sound to this game some time ago when I ported it to PICO-8. This required some mechanics and user interface changes, but the spirit of the game was left intact.
Being a massive fan of the 1992 Interplay adventure Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, at some point, I had an idea: why not merge the graphics of the Interplay adventure with the mechanics of the strategy game? The result is Super Star Trek but played on the Enterprise's bridge. In short, you will be playing the strategy game on the main screen of the Enterprise, but you will issue commands by interacting with Sulu, Chekov, Spock, Scott, and Uhura. Additionally, I added original voices from the TV series to make things even more nostalgic.
How I made this game? Read the full story of Super Star Trek 25th here
Controls:
- You can now play in different ways: using mouse+keyboard, keyboard only (useful if you want to map keys to a controller), or mouse only (which means you can play the browser version on your tablet/smartphone).
- If you use Steam Deck, remember to download the separated graphics assets!
Languages:
- Subtitles are available in English, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Italian, and Czech.
How to play?
To see the list of available commands, press F1.
Your goal is to find and destroy the Klingon invasion fleet before the time expires, generally around 30 days.
- You start in a random sector. There are 64 of them divided into an 8x8 grid. Not all of them have enemies.
- If your sector has Klingons, attack them. Otherwise, you can use the long-range sensors to see if there are Klingons in the surrounding sectors.
- During the scan, you will see a three digits number for each sector. The first digit is the number of Klingon ships, the second the number of starbases, and the third the number of stars. E.g., "205" means there are two enemy ships;
- To move to another sector, ask Sulu to activate the Warp engines. On the map, select the sector you want to jump to. Sectors with enemies are red.
- Before you attack, it's better to raise shields. Click on the shields with the mouse and select the amount of energy to move to the shields.
- You can attack with Phasers or Photon torpedoes. Torpedoes always destroy the enemy and don't consume energy, but you must select the direction. Phasers never miss and hit all the enemies on the screen; note that the energy will be split if you attack multiple enemies.
- After you have attacked, the remaining Klingons will attack you; if you are hit, the Enterprise can be damaged. A damaged system can stop working, so be careful.
- You must find a starbase to replenish your energy or repair damaged systems. Once you have found a sector with a base, ask Uhura to contact the starbase to start the docking procedures.
- Impulse engines are needed to move the Enterprise close to a starbase or to move the ship to a more favorable position (e.g., to use torpedoes).
If you find the game too easy or difficult, press the Esc key to open the options, change the difficulty level, then restart.
Good luck!
Note: I mention the year 1978 because there are many versions of Super Star Trek. This game is faithful to the 1978 version and based on the BASIC code published in the BASIC COMPUTER GAMES book.
If you liked this project, have a look also at my ebook about the History of Computer Games
Download
Development log
- SST25 Version 1.13b released (bug fix)Apr 14, 2024
- Super Star Trek 25th version 1.13 releasedMar 25, 2023
- Super Star Trek 25th version 1.11 releasedMar 18, 2023
- Super Star Trek 25th version 1.06 releasedMar 04, 2023
- Super Star Trek 25th version 1.05 releasedFeb 24, 2023
- Super Star Trek 25th version 1.03 releasedJan 28, 2023
- First Playable version released!Jan 21, 2023
Comments
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Thanks a lot for posting this. It is amazing to see people playing my game on all sort of devices. I spent a lot of time making it playable with mouse, keyboard, touch, and so on, so I'm happy to see that it was worth it :) I don't know if there is an optimal control scheme; in the end, it's not an action game. I would probably use the B button (A button on a XBOX controller) for Enter/activate, A for TAB, the d-pad for cursors, and either X or Y for Esc. With cursors/enter/tab/esc, you can do everything. You can hide the mouse cursor if you map the H key with a button. You can also map additional keyboard shortcuts if you want (e.g. L for long-range sensor scan can be very useful). Have fun and let me know what you think about the difficulty level!
Great game! And, I was finally able to beat it! Probably the single best improvement is the ability to see where my torpedoes are going.
Thanks a lot! I'm also proud of the navigation change; selecting the sector is much easier. In the original game, I used to be blocked by stars, which was annoying (besides not making any sense) LOL
Hey, this is GOAT! I first found a PICO-8 version before coming to this one. Good/interesting visuals, the explosions, what else? an update involving multiple craft?!
I'm glad you liked it. I have this idea about adding a story behind the Klingon invasion, adding some adventure elements to the strategy game. But I just need to find the time and inspiration :)
hey, thanks for a great update here. Can you please confirm steps to install on my steam deck? I tried adding the windows setup.exe as non steam game on steam deck desktop mode but no joy…
Hi there! I'm afraid I don't have a Steam Deck, but I can copy and paste what they told me on Reddit here.
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To Install on Steam Deck:
Go to Desktop mode, download the windows .zip, extract it to a folder of your choosing, add the .exe to Steam as None Steam Game, select the current Proton (7.06) or Proton-GE as the compatibility layer, and that is it already. Game starts fine!
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Let me know if you can do it. If you use Discord, there is a server I created some time ago: https://discord.gg/MtzRd732MQ
There have not been many discussions lately, but the members might be able to help you if you post a message.
maybe I just can’t find them, but is there a list of keyboard shortcuts?
I know I can use F1 to bring up labels, but both the readme and in game doesn’t seem to show which is which.
Would like to bind it for steam deck
Hi Astra, sorry for the delay. This is the list of keyboard shortcuts:
I think it's all :)
This is lovely!. Obviously there's a looong history of clones of the original Super Star Trek. The first I ever played was EGATrek. And I recently learned of a rather feature rich one from the 90s called Visual Trek which was never completed (According to Ancient Dos Games on YouTube). That one in particular has managing Tribbles as a mechanic. It might be interesting to explore these older clones to find mechanic that could be integrated here too.
Thanks a lot! Yes, there are a lot of remakes out there. I know EGATrek, but I have never heard about Visual Trek. I'll have a look for sure. I have a half idea about making a list of the most popular remakes and making a table with all the features they added. I'll let you know if I'm able to do it :)
Here's a like to where I found out about Visual Star Trek
I've got a current personal project of trying to play every Star Trek game (although for versions of the Mike Mayfield game, I stuck to significantly different versions that used the name "Star Trek", there are lots of almost identical versions).
Visual Star Trek is my favourite version about it. It really is strange how there's no information about it, where it came from or who made it. It's a complete mystery - yet the actual code from both (very different) 1971 BASIC Star Trek games (the other one is by Bill Peterson) is preserved.
I found Visual Star Trek via a floppy disc on the side of the road in the trash when I was a kid. If I had realised it was so shrouded in mystery back then I would have done a better job holding onto it. Might have had more info in the label. lol. It was one of my fav versions as well. Although I didn't realise it was just one in a long line of clones. It taught me to fear tribbles though
Thank you for the update! :-)
This is wonderful. Incredible combination of the text game and graphics. I'm a huge fan of the terminal based game; so much so that I have converted+enhanced the original 80 column printer terminal source code to work on 40 column 8 bit micros (C64, PET and even the Vic20 using a 40 column software utility).
You've done a fantastic job. :-)
Thanks a lot! I appreciate that, especially from someone who knows the original code well. Where do I find your conversions? Are they written in BASIC?
Thank you. C64 version is here
https://electrongreg.itch.io/super-star-trek-c64
I've temporarily taken down the CBM PET version whilst I work on that to bring it inline with C64 version. I will also post my Vic20 version as soon as I can automate the integration of the software 40 column mode, currently a bit cumbersome to run.
...and yes, written in BASIC.
I never could get the hang of this game no matter how many times I played back in the day. Thanks to you, I've finally beaten it, decades later! I never thought it would happen. Thank you so much for this amazing remake.
Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it. I hope this doesn't mean this version is too easy ;)
Great to see that my game is still alive! I jumped in and started playing, and only after I'd bumped off a bunch of Klingons in several sectors did I decide to scroll down and read the instructions (which I apparently did not need). Thanks so much for this! My late nights back in 1978 were worth it!
-- Bob Leedom, Super Star Trek guy
OMG, Mr. Leedom! This is a great honor for me. I'm so happy you found my conversion and liked it. Have you also read my article about the porting of your BASIC version? http://emabolo.com/article/i-rewrote-the-1978-text-only-super-star-trek-game
You can also find an interview with David Ahl in my blog. If you wish to contact me, my email is emabolo at gmail. Thanks a lot (for the game and your comment)!!!
Hey, very cool idea! I love the old pixel game and also the original text-based code. That's why I also made a similar game: Star Trek 1.0
Played your game and (of course I know the background) it is really cool. Nice implementation of voices and titles.
I'm just thinking about to make a new version with more 4X elements and a long term mission.
Greetings
Nice! Yours looks like a very faithful port. I'm going to try it tonight!
Glad to hear :)
In my version, I just didn't use any animations at all. It's more of a dry style. But it was important to me to implement the code first.
That's what I'm working on right now... The layout is still under development.
STAR FLEET I meets SUPER STAR TREK - itch.io
Great job! I will try it tonight!
What a wonderful way to experience this classic strategy game with an updated graphical interface that manages to preserve the mechanics and atmosphere of the original. I absolutely love it. Well done!
Thank you Itizso!
Awesome... I put together a linux version of your remake:
https://file.io/zy8Qu0WC5lC8
It uses ags RC release from GitHub and the data form the mac 1.03 ags build
I only could tested on Ubuntu 20.04 though
This is amazing! I will publish it on itch asap. Thanks a lot!!
Nooo... thank you for this lovely remake ;)
Just ping me if you encounter any issue or need help ^__^
I will! Also, I will probably ask you to update it when I release v1.06 on Win/Mac :)
Of course, please do <3
Oh, I just realized that you can drop the exe file into /data folder and that's it :D
I like to use the .ags files though
I can send you the data folder so you can include it in the Linux version. I will publish a new version with some fixes around the end of the week. If you want, join the discord server, it's easier to communicate :)
Cool... Discord server? I am a boomer! XD
Discord server link seems to be invalid. :(
Yes, sorry about that. I didn't know these links can expire. This is a valid link: https://discord.gg/2dRncccJ5A
Once I saw this trick for Linux, I tried the same thing with Android, and... it worked!
I used the AGS-3.6.0.43-release.apk from the ags RC release you mentioned above. It just needs to be pointed to the data directory from the Mac release, which should be renamed to something suitable and put in your sdcard directory, like: /sdcard/ags/startrek/<data files>
Since keyboard input is required, it's rather fiddly, but I found two other apps that can help. GamePad provides a d-pad and buttons which can be configured to keyboard keys. The default d-pad assignment worked for me for the arrows, but I changed the buttons to include enter and escape, and also "0" and "2". It has 4 buttons by default but can also provide 6, so there are a couple of extra buttons that could be assigned to digits or whatever. I always set my shields to 2000, so having those two digits was enough for me to play. ;) Having escape also allows for bringing up the in-game settings menu. And the ags app has a built in selection of "special" keyboard keys and combos including the function keys, so F1 is available there if needed.
Keyboard Switcher is a useful extra to allow for easy switching to the gamepad keyboard and back.
With all that in place it's quite playable on Android! The only slight annoyances are:
- visible pointer (don't need it with touchscreen and it just gets in the way -- could that be an option to turn off in the game settings menu?)
- tapping for warp feels weird, but maybe I'm just used to playing the pico-8 version; I kinda want to be able to move a selection with arrows and then lock it in with enter
- having the option to get rid of the numeric entry for phasers and shields would be nice; the sliders on the pico-8 version are great and could work just as well here. ;)
Wow, this is amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have an Android phone, so I can't try it, but I think this can be useful for many players. Keys to move in the Galaxy map view, plus sliders for shields and phasers, are on the top of my list now. The next release will have them. Hopefully, at that point, you don't need the additional apps.
The option to remove the pointer is easy; I can do that.
Thanks a lot for this detailed report. I hope you can join the discord server.
Will there be a sound effect added in the future for photon torpedoes? Also, didn't the original game have a message like "Star at x,y absorbed torpedo" instead of "Torpedo missed"? Great port of the game regardless, thank you for the work!
Thanks!! Actually I don't know why I didn't add the photon torpedoes sound. I must do it asap.
The original game says: "torpedo missed" when it reaches the sector border without hitting a klingon, and "star at x,y absorbed torpedo" when you hit a star. I need to double check the code to see if it's correctly implemented in this version. Thanks for spotting this.
In case you haven't seen the update, I added the torpedoes sound and the different feedbacks in the latest version :)
I think I found a minor bug... Uhura doesn't know the Starbase number when docking. I just docked at Starbase 4 and she responded about Starbase X. Maybe she just needs to take a break. ;)
It did get me thinking though... I'm not sure how it might work, and I'm also not sure if it would be a benefit or just a distraction, but it might be kinda interesting if occasionally some "story" stuff was happening on the bridge that needed to be dealt with, in addition to the actual Klingon hunting going on. This is making me want to go back and play the original 25th Anniversary game. I know I completed it back in the day, but I don't remember much about it except it being a sort of choose your own adventure through the missions they gave out, and some space battles and discussions on viewscreens. Heck, it might be kinda cool if the Klingons hailed the Enterprise on the viewscreen sometimes, to taunt or whatever.
Also, I really hope the copyright police don't come for you. This is such a great idea and an interesting and fun mashup, that I hope it can continue to stick around.
Damn, you are right about Uhura; I forgot to add the correct number :)
Regarding the story elements, if you have read one of my old blog posts, it was exactly what I wanted to do once I finished porting the text-only version. Ultimately, I decided to work on the GUI, first with the PICO8 version, then with this AGS edition, but it's still the next logical step. I'm not interested in adding cloaking devices, death rays, etc.
25th anniversary and Judgement Rites are on GOG, and I strongly suggest you play them. I prefer the point-and-click part more than the flight-sim part. But in any case, they are wonderful games.
I just lost a game because it said I hadn't killed all the Klingons. There weren't any left on the galactic map (all 0s in the first digit) and I scanned all the sectors. Is this a bug, or are there cloaked Klingons? I seem to remember some version of ST having that back in the day.
Argh, no, there are no hidden Klingons. You must have found a bug I never encountered in the thousands of games I played. Do you remember something unusual that you did or happened? Which difficulty level?
I just encountered this now. Status check says 3 remaining, but map shows none. Difficulty 2. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that I noticed.
I have a save game demonstrating it, if there is a way to extract it from the browser storage/cache I can send to you?
This is really strange. Just for curiosity, did you start from a saved game? I wonder if it's a problem of the save states. Unfortunately it's not possible to export the saved games from the web local storage, so I'll have to review the code to check how this could be possible (or at least add some double checks)
It was a new game, only saved when I encountered the problem. It was either the 3rd or 4th game I played in a row (having died in each one till this one)
Ok, this is a good starting point, maybe the bug is when you restart a game. Thanks!
I spent several hours debugging, but I could not find the problem. Have you tried the Windows (or Mac) version? Maybe it's a bug in the web engine. If you want, join the discord server so we can communicate faster: https://discord.gg/2dRncccJ5A Thanks!
This is amazing! I wasn't aware of your pico-8 version until I stumbled onto it from here, and it's excellent as well! (I'm assuming there is no library computer in it, even though it can become damaged, since there's no need to look up coordinates?)
Here's a thought/request though... Have you considered making this version playable via mouse only, similar to how the pico-8 version works? If the need to use the keyboard could be removed, this could be played on mobile devices (like tablets) too, in browser.
In any case, great work on this!
Yes, considering the "success" that this little game is having, I'm definitely thinking about a mobile version with a GUI similar to the PICO8 one to raise shields and so on. I just need to find the time :) Thanks for playing it!
Hi, I love this game. I'm a Brazilian translator. Do you think we could translate this game to Portuguese somehow? I have never worked with games, but I could learn to. Actually I'm trying to learn Godot to develop my own games right now.
Translating the game is not complex. I can send you a TXT file with all the text and you can send it back when it's ready. No programming required
I just created my account here. So I don't know if there's a DM chat. How could you send me these and talk more about this project?
I created a small discord server dedicated to this game. You can join it here: https://discord.gg/2dRncccJ5A
You can write on the chat and send me private messages
Hey, this is bloody brilliant!
Have you published your code anywhere which I could learn from? I would like to learn coding by attempting to port this to my own platform. Ping me if you have time for me, please.
Several people asked, so I'll try to publish it soon. Anyway, if you are interested in the pure core mechanics (text-only) of the game, you can have a look at this:
https://github.com/emabolo/superstartrek
while for the PICO-8 version, you can get the code here:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=42388
Love it! If you are interested in doing texture scaling the same way as the original game did, I decoded how that algorithm worked last year! It looks like you mostly use captures from 25th Anniversary, but I can also point you to how to extract the original sprites!
OMG! This is awesome! Yes, I used the captures, I tried to search on the internet, but I didn't find anything. With the original graphics, it would be much better. I'll have a look asap. Thank you!
http://st25sprites.neocities.org has all the details for the graphics I extracted (including things like depth maps for the bridge if you wanted someone to be able to walk around!). There are a few things I know that I'm too lazy to upload at this time (color palette data perhaps most interesting to you) but I can if you'd find it helpful. Each subsection contains a zip file of the extracted data, so you can download every sprite used etc.
Fantastic! I can implement each character separately so they move accordingly when speaking, not randomly. Not sure when I will find the time, but thanks a lot!
My friend this is a treat for anyone who loves Star Trek. Thank You so much! ♥
Thanks a lot Javier!
Absolutely incredible achievement, kudos don’t do this game justice. Thank you!!!
Can you share more details on how you implemented all this? Perhaps even in a blog post so others can learn from you?
And perhaps publish your code (though probably not assets) so others can learn from that, too? As you may know, modern re-implementations of others games often publish their code, like 1oom (Master of Orion) or OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe).
Thanks a lot! Sure, I'll try to write a blog post. In the meantime, you can read the first blog posts I wrote; this is how everything started:
http://emabolo.com/article/i-rewrote-the-1978-text-only-super-star-trek-game
http://emabolo.com/article/star-trek-1978-the-tos-version
The second one is probably more interesting; it contains some tech details about my improvements to the original code.
You will find the src code of the text-only versions on my GitHub page. I will publish there also the code of this game as soon as I make it "presentable" :)
Amazing, thanks so much! Looking forward to learning more through write-ups and code. :)
This is absolutely astounding. Well done!
Too kind! Many thanks!
This remix elevates 1978 Trek exactly right. Bravo
Thanks KayBea!
What an absolutely wonderful mashup, thank you so much for this.
Thanks a lot! I'm happy you enjoyed it. Let me know if you find it too easy or too difficult
This is my new favorite thing in the world.
Wow, you are too kind! I'm glad you liked it! Let me know if you have any suggestions.
This was neat! I have fond memories of playing 25th Anniversary as a kid.
Thanks! I hope you liked playing it!
Also, I just had a crash when I window buttoned out of a game in progress, then clicked on the game in the task bar. Not sure if that is a normal thing or not based on the software.
If you just minimized the window and restored it, it's an engine bug. I used the beta version of AGS; maybe this is the reason. Do you have any other detail about the crash?
I can reprodice it any time I am in full screen mode, then hit the windows button and go to another program, then click to go back to the game on the task bar. I have the .dmp file that was produced when it crashed. Would you like me to send it? If so, where to?
Ah, yes, you are right! Full screen, then ALT+TAB, switch to another program, and then try to restore the window. I will send the crash report to the AGS community. Thanks!
To solve the bug, run winsetup.exe and select "Driver=OpenGL". With OpenGL, you can switch windows without problems. In the next release, I will set OpenGL as default.
Awesome, thanks!
I have a suggestion for an addition if you don't mind. It would be cool if there were "cutscenes" on the main screen in the bridge when you fire a phaser or torp at a Klingon that were different if you miss (for the torp), hit, or hit and destroy.
Nice idea, but technically speaking could be a bit difficult. I need to investigate.
This is a wonderful game! I just started getting into the old Trek games again yesterday and have been loving your Pico-8 version of it, so this was really awesome timing! Congrats on a great game and many thanks!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. It was a lot of fun for me to develop it, and I actually find it fun to play. The difficulty is more balanced here compared to the PICO-8 version. Some mechanics are the same, but I changed some others (damages for example). it's much better now. Try difficulty 4 for the real challenge.
Absolutely wonderful mash-up... or is it?
Looking back, I'm a bit surprised that no one (aside from you, Emabolo) ever came up with a version of SST quite like... this. Love it!!!
"or is it?"
It totally is. :)
LOL, yes, it is. I hope to find the time to add some more elements, McCoy, for example, I miss him.
There are a lot of SST versions out there, but all of them add more elements to the mechanics, not to the atmosphere; my goal was different. I'm happy you like it. Thanks for playing!
RE: "atmosphere"... totally. That's what I love about this version of SST!!! You've made an abstract game immersive:-) Agreed, missing McCoy. Still, if other elements come to mind, by all means, add them.
My point (if any) is that while I've had other versions of SST buried in various folders... somewhere... on my laptop, your version has a shortcut smack-dab on my laptop screen. The save feature is wonderful too. You've made a version that is atmospheric, playable (more so), and... returnable to with ease.
Thanks:-)
Thanks again! Stay tuned for McCoy :)