Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition

Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition
N/A
Metacritic
61
Steam
49.955
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$9.99
Release date
22 November 2016
Steam reviews score
Total
61 (177 votes)

Dozens of missions & more than 50 ship designs put you in the captain’s chair for an amazing real-time space combat experience commanding ships from the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Hydran Kingdom, the Gorn Confederation or the Lyran Star Empire!

Show detailed description

Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8)
  • Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM
  • Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended),
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: 1GB Memory suggested

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
364820
Platforms
Windows PC
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Fiery_Wild_Minstrel
Fiery_Wild_Minstrel

YES TRY IT OUT ITS ENTERTAINING

Zrk1895
Zrk1895

game freezes up cant play it on new laptop made for gaming or on older standard laptop

Trenton Knight
Trenton Knight

Using Windows 11. I was having problems with the game crashing after just a few minutes of play. Read through the reviews, found this comment, and I followed the instructions here *EXACTLY*. After doing everything, the game will not run at all. It went from 5 minutes and crashing to not even launching. When I double click the desktop icon, I get a very brief "game is launching", which disappears and then nothing. If I try to launch from steam, I get a similar launch window, but then nothing. Oh well. Not the first time I paid for something and it didn't work. I even tried re-downloading the files, and the game still won't launch, so following that walk-thru messed it up so badly that it will never run again.

chuckf1nley420
chuckf1nley420

game crashes and is unplayable dont waste your money

Hyoslvr2022
Hyoslvr2022

Once I found out how to fix the crash to desk top which was really simple: From the community boards... I enjoyed playing. It will take some time to get comfortable with this game again. I had it years ago, then the PC died to a fire and recently I found the game again for practically nothing so hear I am again doing the tutorials.

SzépmezőSzárnya
SzépmezőSzárnya

Klasszikus!

Viszont fontos elolvasni a manual-t, persze anélkül is lehet boldogulni.

Amit egy manual sem ír: a kis "pöckök" az aktuális célpont körül amikor az ki van jelölve (föderációs hajón fel-le mozog két oldalt például, klingonnál más) az jelzi, hogy pontosabb találatot tudsz bevinni ha középen van és kisebb az esélyed ha fent vagy lent van. Persze az elektronikus hadviselés ezt is befolyásolja, de ezt máshol nem nagyon írják le...

Graeber
Graeber

This game is a great classic! This game was my first Trek game on the PC and it was amazing when it came out. It is working just fine on Windows 8.1 for me!

No its not the newest space game out there, yes it is a bit repetitive at times. If you can just give it a little time, you can figure out the game and should be able to play the campaigns and really enjoy the game.

Mailman9
Mailman9

Despite my best efforts, could not make it run on Windows 10. However, this game was a brilliantly balanced strategy tactics game that defined my childhood. I must recommend it, to anyone with the means to play it.

Tye Dye Guy
Tye Dye Guy

*This DOES work with Windows 10, you only need to change one thing, see the other reviews*

This was one of the first non-arcade video games that I ever played, and absolutely fell in love with. The ship-to-ship combat simulator is extremely detailed, to a very surprising degree, especially for the time. There's skirmish modes, multiplayer (which I do not know if it still works or runs through Steam now, but it says that the options are available), and a campaign.

Skirimish modes are fully customizable, from how many points you can allocate to your ship crew or extras, such as mines and fighers, to exactly what ships you, your enemies, or allies recieve. There are a few different interesting setups that should keep one entertained for a while.

The campaign is where you start out as a lowly frigate and make your way up to the higest type of ship, gain a fleet, and go on special missions if you so choose. While working your way up from one frigate and advancing in rank and fleet number is fun, there is no clear progression if you choose not to go into the special missions, and you doom yourself to an undynamic campaign. Yet, if you choose the special missions, you had best go alone, because the A.I. in your fellt is the worst thing ever. If you do go alone though, you can face some nigh unwinnable odds. The main frustration is the clunky friendly A.I. vessels, but most will think that the added story and missions are well worth it, if they don't get too frustrated.

Obviously, the graphics of a 2001 game no longer hold up, but the sounds of the game are surprisingly still pretty good.

Overall, this is a classic game which is well-worth buying for the $6.00 they ask for. If, however, they add in Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War or Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Orion Pirates, jump to those instead, because they dramatically improve on the wonderful foundation that this game provides, and add significantly more content.

HAWKEYE-DEC07
HAWKEYE-DEC07

Great game if it didn't crash on me.

Any one know why it crashes?

DontDie
DontDie

game crashes constantly. It is very unstable. Any combat results in a crash. I notified steam and nothing. The game itself is great if it would work.

Andrew Gardner
Andrew Gardner

Played many hours in this game back in the early 2000's. Still the best Star Trek combat game I have ever played. Works fine with my Windows 10 operating system

Mustangs6551
Mustangs6551

I love this old game and I'm thrilled to see it on Steam. I really hope they release the sequal, especially the standalone expansion Orion Pirates. If you're a fan of the original crew movies, you'll love this game. It's the old Starfleet Battles game brought to life.

thearss1
thearss1

First off keep in mind this game is almost 19 years old and the first of it's titles. So it's very unrefined and buggy. But I still love and it and want more Star Trek games on steam. Please add SFC2, SFC3, Armada, and Armada 2.

BTW it does work on win10 after chaning a few settings. Plus it says there are compatiblity issues right at the top for win10 so I don't know why so many are downvoting after it tells you this.

jstone-Diamond
jstone-Diamond

Crashes after about a minute of play.

darthrevan07
darthrevan07

I had this game and Starfleet Command 2: Orion Pirates growing up. Saw this on steam and had to pick it up for Nostalgia reasons. But after installing it and attempting to play it I must DEMAND that they fix the game to where it won't crash. Three different times I tried to start a new Campaign up, and all three times the first mission I did upon going to Red Alert the game crashed. I'm happy to see the game, disappointed to see it not properly brought over to steam.

Raven4096
Raven4096

Prefer the gog version of this game as fewer glitches on windows 10 runs better when will the second one come out working on steam starfleet command 2 or new worlds? how it can work on windows 10 for gog and not on steam sad so sad cause with windows 11 it's even worse then windows 10 crashing in game for no reason

kros45
kros45

horrible. freezes and crashes in single player, and wont even load multiplayer. i want a refund.

trvlr508
trvlr508

Between my times living inKansa,sw Florida and here in Arizona...I've logged a lot of time playing this game...it goes a long way trying to capture the game mechanics of the original game which it is based upon, Star Fleet Battles,they come reasonbably close with a few difference only a truist SFB player would notice.this game can ca be easy as a walk in the park or a true boat ride to Sto'vo'kohr without any adjustment to the difficulty level. The game serves the pvp'er vry well and there is also a thorough single player campaign, although it really only is an unending string of soprties versus mostly Orion Pirates in ships of commensurate size.
Don't get me wrong, you will on occasion go against ships of the other factions but you could very well be 2 sectors into an opponent's space (to speak of) and accept a mission from your superiors (all virtual of course and all text as well) and find yourself facing only Orion Pirates.
Now, dont sit dwn and expect to play with Star Trek: the Next Generation level ships which could fire five photon torpedoes both fore and aft, wheras in this game the total would usually be max of four. At any rate, this game reflects a tech levbelm equal to that of the original series while the ship models (although rendered quite nicely) are of the Str Trek Movie series era.
Irregardless, if you are a true Star Trek fan, you're sure to enjoy this game...if i could give it more than just the single thumb rationg, I would!!!

Rarl
Rarl

Out of all the Starfleet Command games steam could have gotten and put up for sale they had to choose the one that constantly gargles cyanide and has more bugs than the United States political system has scandals.

AriesRCN
AriesRCN

I am playing this great game on Windows 10. There is a guide available that tells you what to do and so far after 8 hours of gameplay, it only crashed on me once.

Phlogiston
Phlogiston

The slow pace may not appeal to everyone, but this is one of the few space combat games that captures the tension of the final battle in ST II: The Wrath of Khan. Kirk summed it up well when, miraculously escaping after left nearly dead in space after Khan's surprise attack on the Enterprise, he tells Saavik "You have to learn why things work on a starship."

Like many others, I played this game when it first came out over 15 years ago. It runs well on Win10 with the changes to the sfc.ini file like others have mentioned. I also was able to get the SFC 1 HD Patch to work so that I could exceed the 1280x1024 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio (my install now runs well at 1920x1080).

This is one of those games that rewards patience. It doesn't take long to learn the basics, but mastering the finer points of starship combat will take MUCH longer. It all comes down to energy management. And managing your shields. And also assigning weapon groups. watching your turn rate. And sometimes commanding boarding parties. And deploying mines....if being a starship captain was easy, everyone would do it!

There are plenty of tutorials on the web to help understand how all of the different systems operate together to help you succeed. I'm enjoying the (frustrating) climb back up the steep learning curve. But you can quickly throw together 1v1 skirmishes with you in a heavy cruiser or dreadnought against a poor, horribly outmatched adversary to give you some time to navigate the waters.

=(H)= s.sai_zero
=(H)= s.sai_zero

fix the crashes and I will change my mind!

My8th1dr
My8th1dr

So thrilled they put this classic gem on Steam. Now, awaiting the sequels and expansions with great anticipation.

Time to break out my old mods and "pretty up" the ships again.

Runs really well on Win 7 Pro 64-bit.

wizdoz2000
wizdoz2000

Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition is not compatable with WIN 10. Please fix!!!

S. Kane, Esq.
S. Kane, Esq.

Glitchy terrible crap. I'm going to try and get a refund. Don't make my mistake.

hydranmenace
hydranmenace

I'm coming from a background with the board game Star Fleet Battles. Some jiggering was needed to translate this into an entertaining computer game, but I think they did a really good job. Im playing this on Sabayon Linux 4.14.0 with the new steamplay proton tool. I had to manually edit an .ini file to get the driver to render with hardware instead of software, and set the resolution to something reasonable, but that isn't the fault of the game. I'd recommend it if you ever wanted to command a star trek based ship. There's no Spock, Kirk, or Scotty- They didn't have the license for that. All the ship designs are true to the show though, having been licened via Amarillo Design Bureau, who obtained the ship design licensing from Franz Joseph and the Star Trek Technical Manual.

Ser Slack
Ser Slack

Great game. Bought it originally when it was new but haven't been able to get my disc version to work in years. I seen people were getting it to work on steam so I gave it a shot. I can report no issues with 8.1. Everything has been working flawless and I'm enjoying the campaigns again after some minor tweaks.

Rekkert
Rekkert

A classic. Works perfectly on modern hardware with Ubuntu Linux and SteamPlay

jefflpearsonii
jefflpearsonii

Works flawlessly on Xubuntu 18.04 AND the HDWidescreen patch from Hot n Spicy works as well. This is a very well done port to computer of the board game StarFleet Battles. If your looking for the Starfleet Battles board game on your computer, you will not be dissapointed. I bought this game new 20ish+ years ago and still play it, although i will say the best of the series is SFC2OP. Big thumbs up from me and happy to see this great old game on STEAM. If you are looking for something more arcade like it may not be for you.....and I am still looking for better ship models similar to Firesouls OP+ mod for SFC2OP. I might even be able to import those models into SFC1....we shall see :-D

swt10
swt10

Started playing this game in the early 2000s and is still an all time favorite. Extremely deep combat system and tactical decisions. Once major drawback is that you still have to patch the game to get it to even open (the old CD version was the same in that regard). PDF of the nearly 80 page manual is included. Features 6 races and around 15 semi-unique campaigns. I love this game!

Seb
Seb

This is a blast from the past! I really enjoyed it years and years ago, and am enjoying it now. in HD, nice graphics and ....

I AM PLAYING ON WINDOWS 10 with NO Problems (I followed the Win 10 guide)

Its a real gameplay over Graphics winner. The graphics are poor (20 yrs old) but with the mods they are much, much better. But forget that because the the game play is superb. Its challenging and fun.

Great Tutorials and the manual is great too!

.... found in \Steam\steamapps\common\Star Trek Starfleet Command Gold Edition\Manuals

there's an HD mod too

https://hotandspicyforums.com/sfc-1-hd-patch-t24716.html#p249851

Back in 1999 it even sold more than the previous years Interplay Blockbuster Baldur's Gate.

With a couple of mods installed this looks pretty good, plays smoothly at 1920X1080 and even with the SFC launcher downloaded from Hot and Spicy will play MUltiplayer.

Really what are you waiting for ....

war114ren
war114ren

i tried playing the game twice and it stopped with the first academy training.

Rockwell B1
Rockwell B1

I still have my disc for this game. Used to play it ALL the time on windows 98 and XP. Found an HD mod and got this running in widescreen on Windows 10 Pro x64. First mission gave me goosebumps. Such good memories. I'm going to spend many hours with this one all over again. Nothing has come close to replicating the detail of this game. STO is close, but that's about it.

ericw33
ericw33

Works great on Windows 10 based computers once a minor mod is made (covered in other reviews). As it's an older game it doesn't require much in the way of system resources. One system I use it on is a 10" Acer Swtich 10E (BT-ATOM, 2GB RAM, touch, 32GB eMMC) - works great even when using touch-input in tablet mode. Works fine on my other PCs which have much more in the way of CPU-power, graphics and RAM. It should run fine on any newer systems sold today.

Many new games use a great deal of resources - on long jet flights it can drain the battery quickly - but not in this case. Lots of options but light enough on graphics to conserve precious battery juice. Great if you're into legacy ST games and using a laptop with iGPU.

I mostly play the skirmish mode (instant combat) - black hole mania for example (lol, I enjoy disabling the enemy ship and using the tractor-beam to tow it very, very close to a black hole). Usually it's short enough for a 'quick game' when I'm on the road.

It's important to note that the "Late" era provides the most ships and features. Explore all the options of types of shuttles (wild weasels, missiles..), transporter bombs and mines, overloading weapons, ECM/EECM, keyboard shortcuts, power to shields, raise/lowering specific shields, using tractors to catch missiles until your phasers recharge and so much more. It can really make the difference in a close game - there are so many options if you take the time to dig into the game.

Bullock
Bullock

Like a lot i had this game when I was younger and loved it. I am reading a lot of people having issues getting it to start up. What I have found out is that it does work on win 10 see other peoples guides below, and do not use the quick start icon. Start t up from the main file and you should have no problem.

lexgeo
lexgeo

good old game. i wish that they would make a starfleet battles game just like the tabletop one that i played many years ago. i still have it, all the counters, map and, books. cant find anyone these days with the time to learn or, play it. anyway, this one comes close to that.

Anonymous
Anonymous

According to steam I played this 44 minutes. In reality, it never launched. Puzzling isn't it?

shedrick.duffey
shedrick.duffey

whatever they did is causing my game to crash and I lost all saved games!!!!!!

Counta253
Counta253

This game was a joy to play, but I don't play it now as it hasn't been updated for Windows 10. Until the day for that comes, don't buy it unless you're using older hardware.

luger
luger

For an older game it's pretty great.

Anonymous
Anonymous

this game does not work it seems to run in the background so steam can refuse you a refund but you wont get to actully play the game so do not waste your money as i did its a rip off i will not be buying steam games anymore

Ryan
Ryan

Classic. This game brings me back. Works just fine on windows 10 for me.

andresantamaria89
andresantamaria89

Great naval combat game, lots of fun. The only thing I'd change is that I'd like there to be better procedurally generated content allowing for more free-flow game play.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Just loved the old game one of the first you could play over a lan in the Star Trek world.

Anonymous
Anonymous

the game crashes very quickly every time, do not buy this.

fstrai0053
fstrai0053

I am running windows 10 game at first would not lunch so tried every fix listed finely got game to lunch but now it stops after maybe 10 to 12 min. of game play
Sorry can not recommend this game wast of time

Jeff Salisbury
Jeff Salisbury

Star Trek space combat - enough said. Hopefully they'll eventually get either SFC II: Empires At War or Orion Pirates on Steam. The latter is by far the best of the SFC's that came out.

briancothern
briancothern

Game Crashes in like 5 min after startup.

jck946
jck946

Played this game when it came out. Still very entertaining. It WILL play on Windows 10. All that I did was go into game files find the one labeled "sfc". Once in there, with Notepad find the line [Mouse]. directly underneath is "async=1"........just change the value to 0 and save.

Robin0746
Robin0746

cant play mission i chose so is to hard to get where i i want to

FalconBravo
FalconBravo

This game is old enough to drink. Let that sink in. I was using Windows compatibility mode back in the day to make this run on XP.

Starfleet Command puts you in command of a variety of different starship classes from six species, tasked with missions that revolve around blowing up the bad guys. Start in police ships and frigates, get promoted and earn destroyers, then cruisers, then dreadnoughts. This sounds repetitive, but there was enough flexibility in the campaign (that comes with all the charm of text-based RPGs) and an incredibly configurable skirmish mode for putting yourself into absurd one-off scenarios to give me new ideas and make me try new tactics after all this time. The galaxy is at war, but a shifting set of goals and allies force you to maneuver your ship (and fleet) to new locations to either keep yourself safe, pursue the enemy, retake territory, or choose a, shall we say, alternate career path. George Takei does the voice for the tutorial missions, which is a wonderful experience when learning how to pilot yourself and guide your crew to victory.

Make no mistake, SFC shows its age. There is some finagling you have to do to get it to run on Windows 10... and even then, the resolution drops to levels where you might want smaller monitors. Shift-tabbing out of the game window will cause graphical corruptions. The music does get repetitive after a while. But I still come back even though all those problems, partly because of the content and partly for the nostalgia factor.

If you're a fan of the TOS movie era, or if you want to celebrate the old style of game controls, sounds, and interfaces, get this. Fortune favors the bold, commander.

bbrailsford
bbrailsford

The game crashes far too often for no reason.

PGC_Magni
PGC_Magni

Awesome as the original (cause it is) . but it works.

biltart_clorn
biltart_clorn

Yes, this game has bugs. Squirmish mode is very prone to locking up. Campaign mode works well though. for ten bucks you can get a window into the 1990-2000 time frame. The most annoying bug is if you are tractoring a target and it gets destroyed, your tractor does not like to work afterwards. You also will have to go into the game files and change mouse aliasing.

UcdBDi
UcdBDi

was a great game back in the day , but the game has not aged well as it crashes on newer computers, my advice is do not buy it

BartlettPaul
BartlettPaul

Keeps crashing after a few seconds on Windows 10

donut3076
donut3076

Likes to crash not even a minute into playing ANY senerio. I can spend a forever setting one up, but when it comes time to start playing...

luk.vloemans
luk.vloemans

On Window, the game crashes at startup. There is a hack for this, changing a parameter in a config file.

tropocowboy
tropocowboy

Edit: I just tried this under Windows 10 following the guide on here again, and now it works fine!

I had such a hard time getting this to run on Windows 10. I tried all the suggestions, but nothing worked. Here's the kicker- runs perfectly on my machine on Pop OS Linux. Wierd, but awesome. I can play this again! I used to play Starfleet Battles pencil and paper game, and this game is the closest computer games have come. Now we just need SFCII.

Blackdog
Blackdog

Still play a round of this game over 20 years latter. Just a Great Game.

imperialtacticalcommand
imperialtactic…

THE best Ship to ship ST game ever made. Period.

paulvalenciaii
paulvalenciaii

Resource (Power) Management allows for increased depth in tactics.

Nukemtildeglow
Nukemtildeglow

I'm not sure what I paid to remember the good old days, but this is completely unstable, crashes constantly and when it "works" the combat AI is hit or miss. Unfortunately I didn't get around to trying the game in time for a refund.

moartdeeb
moartdeeb

Excellent tactical space warfare! The Original was great online in multiplayer. Highly recommend groups if you have them !

Bobby BB
Bobby BB

Does this game actually work for anyone?????

ettusparky
ettusparky

Not as great as it was 20 years ago, but if Steam got any of the sequel versions I'd still buy them in a $20 bundle

jonnykemp1
jonnykemp1

Was great

but...

It's stopped working now. (windows 7)

sharkguto
sharkguto

awesome! best star trek game ever

Sephty
Sephty

Old school is a dish best served cold, with a glass of chilled sancerre.

Tank_Historian
Tank_Historian

just as good as it was 20 years ago

Henkatenka
Henkatenka

Loved this game in childhood so I figured why not? But the game just keeps crashing every 10 minutes no matter how much or how little I alter it. This is very disappointing.

rb1863
rb1863

Played this 20 years ago and loved it.
I wish they allowed multiplayer like Terraforming Mars.

korel2
korel2

need to make some efforts to fix a bug on the game...it keeps dying before the match even begins every time i play it

G
G

A classic, among the best Star Trek titles ever made

ultimatesuperman20
ultimatesuperman20

I can't recommend this game for the simple reason that it doesn't run. I was constantly crashing and bugging out. Steam really needs to raise it's standards when it comes to ports like this. There's no reason to spend money on a game that you can barely play. I have like 5 hours in this game and more than half that was probably spent in either a frozen screen or frozen menu.

radon777
radon777

If I could give this game a negative rating I would. I remember when this game came out it seemed really cool it could have been a great game but they never bothered to debug it at all. I don't think there was ever a single update. The game was unstable and buggy then but I can't get it to run at all in steam. Extremely disappointing. The creators should be shot for putting out crap like this.

kubala123m
kubala123m

The game doesnt work, it crashes constantly

stevengustafson4752
stevengustafson4752

I sort of forgot to stop. good game.

jbartoli
jbartoli

One of my favorite Star Trek games.

mrrhyme0069
mrrhyme0069

everytime i try tp use this classic game it crashes

DEREKGRC
DEREKGRC

i'm 55 and still like some of the very old games

bR3AkfA$t
bR3AkfA$t

This is such a great game. I started with the pencil and paper Star Fleet Battles, and this is such a great implementation of that game.

If you're having trouble running this in Win 10, then go to the Guides tab and there is a very useful set of instructions to get this to run in Win 10.

Mater125
Mater125

this game wont play for more than a few minutes before the game closes out. Dont waste your time or money

14G_Lucky
14G_Lucky

OK for all you StarFleet Command People. among getting the game to run is easy as long as you follow Steam's instructions it works great. but the issue was playing Online Multiplayer, I have found 1 of the solutions and it may not work for everyone but im sure it will (hoping) anyways. There is a program that you need to have it is call Radmin VPN it is an easy download install simple to run, after install all you have to do is create or join a Network. you can play Starfleet Command Gold, StarFleet Command EAW, StarFleet Command Orion Pirates, also can play the old DOS Game back in the day Called RedLine,But All have to have this program and join or create the VPN Network via Radmin VPN, i have tested this 100 times over trying to make it not find the game and as long as you type the VPN IP in correctly it never has failed yet. I even tried to make it fail to no avail. So this is a must to play these games Via Internet cause so many people have alot of issues playing online with these games in paticular, so i install and uninstalled many VPN's till i found this one that worked well. here is the URL https://www.radmin-vpn.com/ hope this help everyone. Happy Flying and Hope to see the Starfleet Community Grow again

Also this is Stand Alone Launch from your SFC exe File or shortcut on desktop whichever, will not launch in Steam.

PS: Im running Windows 11 and Windows 10 on multiple Computers and all the games run great on all systems. running all games mentioned above under the compatibility mode winXP service Pack3 except for DOS game RedLine is under the Win98 mode

jamcarmody
jamcarmody

I love this game; and I think you folks will too. It really is a marvelous game.

JMGraberJr
JMGraberJr

I am happy to have a game like this on Steam. I used to play when I was a young. It's a ton of fun, but I really hope Steam gets Star Trek: Orion Pirates on soon!

Bullet Backstop
Bullet Backstop

After spending more time than I should trouble shooting and looking for fixes, the modern iteration is still broken. Good luck getting it to work.

Nice notice about it being only compatible with up to Windows 8, but I'm pretty sure that notice wasn't there when I purchased the game years ago.

It's a shame because this was a great game in it's day and for many years afterward.

demiurgent
demiurgent

I discovered that this old favorite was available on Steam "just for Windows XP through 8" just today for ten freakin' bucks. This plus the community guide written by Just Apex for running it on Windows 10 worked perfectly on Windows 11 and within minutes I was listening to George Takei to "Read the Fine Manual, as they used say in the twentieth century!" Which tells you at least how long this game has been around and how old I am.

For new players? This game is going to look the twenty-six or so years it is, refreshed or not. And... this game isn't really based on Star Trek. It's based on the 'Starfleet Universe' of Star Fleet Battles which is an entirely different set of rights. And, like the tabletop board game it's based on, Starfleet Command has both lengthy strategic elements and a rigorous learning curve. For everyone who's played Star Trek Online (and I'm a huge fan of that, to note) and complained that it felt like you didn't have a crew or did enough during combat -- this would be your huckleberry. In running practice I managed to balance my ECM and ECCM while overloading one photon and setting the other to proximity while arming a wild weasel to draw off the enemy fire, and then promptly blew up because I forgot to go to red alert so my shields were down. In the next go around, the enemies went down, but bear in mind they do not go down easily. Freighters in the tutorial take several hits with photons when your phasers are disabled, and photons take a while to recharge.

And that's fine, because this isn't meant to be a twitch style game in any way. This is naval combat. space style. Your ship takes time to get up to speed, to charge phaser capacitors or photons or drones (read missiles). You need to use probes (or rework them to be weapons) to help find your enemies, and deep scans to track cloaked ships. And all this is happening during the great war between the Federation and their Gorn allies against the Klingons, until the other factions get involved and you've got Gorn, Kzinti Lyrans, the I.S.C., Romulans and more, each trying to push into your space.

Or, you know, play as one of those other factions and take those Federations Dogs down!

No chance as yet to test multiplayer. I have no idea if Dynaverse still works or not.

If the Windows 7 blah warning scares you off? Well, like I said -- Just Apex's tutorial on the community page had me running it in Windows 11 almost immediately. That said, I doubt you'll get a refund if you don't manage to get that running... but at ten bucks? I was willing to gamble.

I said in a comment elsewhere that as much as I love STO, Starfleet Command is where you go when you're ready to take the training wheels off. It's *not* for everyone. You have to have patience, and you need to keep track of a *lot* more than in most games, and a simple mistake anywhere means you're going to die horribly in the cold depths of space, because this is war, Lt. Commander -- there's no room for mistakes. That said, it is easily adapted to (the controls honestly feel a lot more like 'sailing' than almost any other ST game, honestly), and the ebb and flow is a lot of fun.

Don't get this game if you can't cope with 800x600 SVGA graphics from the 90s, if you don't like games that merge strategy and tactics into the experience, if you don't have the patience to wait for your torpedoes to reload (this takes upwards of a minute on lower power ships) or your ship to come to a full stop after you order one, or if getting blown up is a problem, because you will in fact be blown up along the way. This is based on a wargame and it's a fantastic adaptation but that's not exactly 'Wing Commander' much less a modern space shooter.

If you do like all that stuff -- then the combination becomes intensely immersive. You get into the rhythm of every ship's system and when you do explode, you sometimes have no idea why (fortunately, by default your mission films are recorded for your review so you can check out what happened during the general inquiry). Your enemies are dangerous and the stakes feel real.

This is war, and... one other thing:

Yeah, Sulu (wonderfully) narrates the tutorials... but the rest of the place is based on the Starfleet Universe. Kirk? Spock? Picard? Never heard of them. The Enterprise? I think April had her. You know, before it was destroyed. Must have been five years back. Why bring it up?

If you need some background, check 'Star Fleet Battles' on Wikipedia and they'll give it to you, but anything you know from the shows (especially anything after Wrath of Khan) or movies is suspect at best.

And remember: Read the Fine Manual, Lt. Commander.

EDIT: Most of the time, if you launch from the application directly (which you have to do to launch the game under Windows 11) Steam can't track the gameplay (at least it isn't tracking mine.) No big deal, but it means my numbers are skewed.

Letande
Letande

“Conquest is easy. Control is not.”
~Captain James T. Kirk

Back in 1998, Simon & Schuster Interactive released Star Trek: Starship Creator (developed by Imergy). It was rather niche and peculiar product, but still, quite a lot of Trekkies ended up enjoying it. Heck, even though most of the people who never cared about Trek didn't even hear about that title, it actually sold enough copies to spawn the official add-on pack and even a sequel. Which... was more like another add-on pack, but that's not the point. The point is - Starship Creator introduced us to a new kind of Star Trek entertainment.

Well, Star Trek games were always known to be different. Since the very first games (which were unauthorized), those actually tried to achieve more than mainstream stuff. I mean, what if I'll tell you that we had open world Star Trek games back in 70s? Pretty awesome, right? And things didn't even end there. MicroMosaics and Trans Fiction turned our usual interactive fiction into pretty deep ST simulation, where we were able to give the direct commands to our crew and even investigate crime, MicroProse brought a new depth and even space battles to System Shock formula in their Star Trek: Generations while, like I said, Imergy followed that path too.

What did they do? Well, first of all, they've allowed us to construct our own ships. Obviously. What was really cool, though, is that we were able to hire crew by selecting from popular ST characters and then make them participate in various missions. The more missions you completed – the more credits you had. And the more credits you had... Well, OK, it was a grindfest. Pretty weird one too, since the actual process was akin to what we had in those Football Simulator games. In other words, you didn't really control your guys. Their performance was all about you and your management. Sure, it wasn't for everybody, but it was a thing and there was sure something special about it. Heck, we were even able to write our own missions! How cool is that?!

Anyway, why am I telling you all that? Well, the thing is, the guys at 14° East (Fallout Tactics) with the help from Quicksilver Software (Castles and a bit later – Master of Orion 3) pretty much took our good ol' Starship Creator and... turned it into something more mainstream. In a good way. Sure, you can say that we won't be able to build our ships from scratch here. Which was, like, the core feature in Imergy's game. And you'll be correct. All we'll be able to do in Starfleet Command is purchase ourselves the new ships by selecting certain vessels from pre-decided classes (you may argue that it doesn't really fit the official ST lore, but since we'll use so-called “prestige points” this time, it kinda... Does?) and build ourselves a tiny little fleet made of three vessels.

And yet, it's close to impossible not to notice just how similar this game to Starship Creator. Right after you'll get yourself at least one ship (the game covers three different technology eras), you'll need to hire yourself a crew. And even though you won't be able to use famous characters like Mr. Spock and Captain Sisko (what we have here is our usual Theme Hospital-like stuff), it still counts as a proper management and your entire performance will depend on your crew's experience. Losing the ship in this game? It isn't just about losing an “expensive” vessel. It's also about losing the crew with all its experience. Which means the impact will feel very real.

Now, we're getting to the most interesting part – the actual missions. Because yes, unlike Starship Creator, we'll actually be able to participate in those. What's even more interesting is that those operations are based on real tabletop game. Which is fun, since so-called Star Fleet Battles (made by Task Force Games, creators of Starfire) was never an officially authorized product. It was one of those “we have Avengers at home” things, in which some third party guys tried to make some money from popular franchises without paying for actual licenses. In other words, yes, it was Sense of Right Alliance (google it if you don't know what it is – you'll be surprised). Except those Task Force Games products weren't really that bad. Heck, they were pretty good actually. Thanks to that, Star Fleet Battles became very popular and even got a couple of expansions. And like I said, that's exactly what we have here – an adaptation of unauthorized Star Trek tabletop wargame.

And even though it sounds crazy as heck (there are many crazy things in this world, huh?), it's actually... good. Very good. Heck, it's so good that this game actually outsold Baldur's Gate at some point and almost won Computer Games' “RTS of the year” award. Sure, it lost, but (let me quote Mr. Worf here) – there's no dishonor in losing to a game like Age of Empires II. Talking 'bout Klingons, by the way. Not only we've got quite a lot of different factions to choose from (we've got Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Gorns, Lyrans and Hydrans, while Orions are presented as non-playable faction), they all come with some very interesting nods to The Original Series. For example, Federation will need to fight against Mirror Universe, while Klingons will face their ultimate enemy. No spoilers, but those guys breed fast as f!

Back to Star Fleet Battles, though. The entire grid-based concept here was taken directly from there. In other words, Starfleet Command did to Star Fleet Battles exactly what Baldur's Gate did to The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This game's approach is stylish, effective (bet you've read this in Seven's voice, huh?) and overall brilliant (intuitive UI included). Not without its own share of the rough parts, though. All the inaccuracies to the official lore (most of which came directly from Star Fleet Battles) aside, some elements in this game just don't work as good as they were supposed to. For example, friendly AI here can be an ass. Especially during the parts, in which you'll need to capture the enemy vessels (the goals during the missions have everything you may ever want from ST – exploring, scanning, using the tractor beam, hailing the other vessels and beaming your people directly to them, etc). Imagine it – you've just disabled your enemy's shields and started to board their vessel. Your guys almost overpowered their crew, their ship is almost yours, then boom! One of your friends fired photon torpedo and destroyed the ship you tried to capture. Even though a minute ago you gave it direct order not to destroy, but to disable the bloody thing. Like I said, this game can be pretty rough now and then.

Which may be a serious problem for those who aren't really interested in Star Trek and just want a solid tactical game. Especially since, unlike games like Klingon Honor Guard and MicroProse's Star Trek: Generations, this one doesn't have spectacular presentation, state-of-the-art visuals, or the expensive cutscenes with the professional actors. But still, this game is amazing and even though the first game in this series is not the one that's often considered to be the best, I still have a very special place in my heart for it and had a blast re-playing it. Especially since, despite what publisher claims, the game works pretty fine on Windows 10 / 11. May require a compatibility mode an a basic .ini file editing, but still, what we have here is a fine release. The one that comes with all the official patches and downloadable missions too.