Consortium (PC)

Developer:

Interdimensional Games

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Release Date:

2014

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Systems:

Windows

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This week on Super Adventures I'm celebrating Star Trek's 50th anniversary by playing games with some connection to the series. Today I'm sharing screenshots from the first few hours of CONSORTIUM, a game that likes to SHOUT its name all over its Steam page. What does this have to do with 'Star Trek'? Well... I've read a few people say it's a bit like 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', except on a plane. And that's pretty much the only link.

Consortium's one of those Kickstarter success stories, though they didn't quite bring in millions. Or even hundreds of thousands. But what they got was apparently enough to finish an ambitious first person, guns and chats, RPG type of game, which is cool because that's one of my favourite genres.

This is a heavily story based game so I'm inevitably going to be spoiling a lot of things you might not want spoiled here. Though its description claims that "the story unfolds based largely on your actions," so if that's true I'm only spoiling one possible outcome! I won't give away the answer to the game's big mystery though, assuming I even manage to solve it.

(You can make screenshots moderately more visible by clicking on them.)

Robotrek (SNES)

Developer:

Quintet/ANCIENT

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Release Date:

1994

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Systems:

Super Nintendo

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Today on Super Adventures I'm still celebrating Star Trek's 50th anniversary by playing games with some tiny tiny link to the franchise. In this case it's just one word and I think you know which.

Well, half a word to be precise. There's just enough of a gap in the middle of that logo for doubt but I assure you that it's called Robotrek, and it's another JRPG! So this is going to take me a little longer to write about than Ice Trek a few days back, but I'm willing to make this sacrifice for you. In fact the game was requested a while back, but I never write down the dates so I don't know when. I've narrowed it down to some time between last week and 2011 though.

Of course the only way to fairly judge an RPG is to play it all the way through, learn how combat evolves and see if the story progresses through to a satisfying ending. So it's lucky for me I don't fairly judge games, because I've got other things to do this week! But I'll give it until the end of the first proper boss at least, to get a good idea about how it plays and show it off.

Stardew Valley (PC)

Developer:

ConcernedApe

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Release Date:

2016

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Systems:

Windows, Mac, Linux

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This week on Super Adventures, my Star Trek 50th Anniversary Celebration drags on to day four with a game that's only one word away from being called Star Trek Valley. This was actually a surprise gift from a friend who was aware I was planning a 'Star Trek' week so there may be other secret connections to the venerable sci-fi franchise... but I doubt it.

I've never played Stardew Valley before, or read a review, or watched a Let's Play, but I do know a couple of things about it: first, it's very similar to the Harvest Moon games, which bored the crap out of me last time I tried one, and second, it's the first 2016 game on my site! I'm visiting the present day for the first time in a long while, though you wouldn't know it from its SNES-era pixelwork.

But unlike your typical SNES game this was put together by just one guy: a bloke called ConcernedApe (aka. Eric Barone) who did the programming, writing, art, music... basically everything. So hopefully the things he's good at make up for the things he's not. Unless he's good at everything, in which case I already hate him.

(Click the images to view them at their original resolution! They won't look much different though to be honest.)

Ice Trek (Intellivision)

Developer:

Imagic

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Release Date:

1983

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Systems:

Intellivision

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This week on Super Adventures, my Star Trek 50th Anniversary Week continues with Ice Trek!

Chances of this having anything to do with 'Star Trek' aside from the name seem kind of slim, but it gave me an excuse to get an Intellivision game on my site at last. Now I get to make a new category for it on my 'Console Games' page!

The low detail nature of the game means that I can (and will) go crazy with the GIFs this time, but some of them might get a bit flickery. Game developers loved flickering back in the 80s. Just giving you a heads up.

Stargate (SNES/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Probe/Tantalus

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Release Date:

1995

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Systems:

SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis

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This week on Super Adventures I'm still celebrating Star Trek's 50th anniversary by playing games that have some vague connection to the series. This one's got 'Star' in the title, it's set on another planet, and it's based on a long running movie/TV franchise, so it's ticking lots of boxes. In fact the 'Stargate' TV spin-offs were often the closest you can get to proper 'Star Trek' without getting sued by both CBS and Paramount.

But Stargate the game is an adaptation of the original 1994 movie that kicked the franchise off, released a year after the film for Super Nintendo and Genesis/Mega Drive consoles. That's the SNES title screen you're looking at up there, with its narrow resolution and extra colours, but I'll be getting around to the the Sega version as well eventually.

'Stargate' isn't a particularly great film, but it cheats by having an iconic theme by Bond composer David Arnold powerful enough to make scenes of extras walking across a desert outside of Yuma, Arizona feel like the most epic sci-fi adventure since 'Return of the Jedi'... which used the place for Tatooine now that I think about it. Anyway, if there's one thing that absolutely works about that movie it's the music, so of course the game drops it entirely, replacing it with a title theme that sounds like it's been borrowed from an Amiga game. It's not all that bad though really, here have a YouTube link if you're curious.

There'll be movie SPOILERS below this point, so stop reading here unless you've seen it or don't care.

Redshirt (PC)

Developer:

The Tiniest Shark

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Release Date:

2013

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Systems:

Win, Mac, Linux

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This week on Super Adventures I'm celebrating the 50th anniversary of 'Star Trek' by playing a new Trek game each and every day! Or at least that was the plan, until I remembered that a: most of my readers don't want to see seven Star Trek games in a row, and b: I don't have seven Star Trek games I haven't played already. Also most Star Trek games are crap anyway!

So instead I'm playing seven games with a some kind of tenuous connection to the venerable sci-fi franchise, mostly just games with 'Star' or 'Trek' in the title to be honest, starting with recent indie game Redshirt by miniature microstudio The Tiniest Shark (aka. Dr Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris).

I know next to nothing about this game, but one thing I do know is that it's a sci-fi themed satire simulating Facebook... in space! So I'm not exactly the target audience, as I quit the site about the same time it started asking me what schools I went to. I ain't got no time for nosey websites. These days the closest I come to social networking is occasionally remembering to put site updates on Twitter (follow @RayHardgrit on Twitter for site updates!!)

I've seen a few of them 'Star Trek's though, so that's got to help.

(Click the screenshots to expand them to exciting new dimensions).

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES)

Developer:

Capcom

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Release Date:

1991 (90 in Japan and NA)

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Systems:

NES

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Super Nintendo by playing a NES game!

Nah, not really. The SNES didn't come out where I live until 1992 so I've got nothing to celebrate yet. A NES game showing up on Super Adventures is kind of an event in itself though, because for whatever reason I haven't played one since way back in April. Of last year.

In the West this came out a few months after Super Mario Bros. 3 and a few months before the Super Nintendo, so I expect the developers likely knew what they were doing by this point (especially as it's made by Capcom!) But it's one of those games that's managed to slip by me entirely, so I've no idea what it's like or even what people think of it.

In fact I'm fairly sure I've never seen an episode of the Chip 'n Dale cartoon either, though if you showed me a picture of the characters I'd recognise it instantly. I'll even be able tell you which of them's Chip and which is Dale in a minute as the game starts off by asking me who I want to play as.