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Make It So: The 10 Best Star Trek Games in the Quadrant

By on at • @mggjim

8. Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation (1999)

An absolutely epic 4X turn-based strategy game, Birth of the Federation gave players control of one of the Alpha Quadrant’s major races and tasked them with managing a vast empire, including diplomacy, exploration, resource management, and combat. Featuring turn-based 3D combat sequences and huge 2D star maps, this was the Master of Orion II-like game that Star Trek fans had been waiting for.

The game was far from perfect, unfortunately, with questionable AI and a nagging bug that caused the game engine to become increasingly slower the longer a game lasted. The lack of The Original Series ships during the early phases of the game (due to the fact that developer MicroProse only held the license to The Next Generation) was also disappointing. But, at its core, Birth of the Federation was an absolute blast to play, with a cool LCARS interface, authentic music, and mechanics that finally gave Star Trek fans craving a deep and fulfilling strategy game something to get excited about.

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  • Edward

    I rather enjoyed Dominion Wars, kind of a starship squad tactical set in the DS9 Period.

  • cybercruiser

    Star Fleet Command Empires at War, is still, by far, the BEST of the treck games, the speed and strategy make it awesome!

  • James Cannon

    I think this is wrong. Armada should have been #1 despite the fact of it being a Star Craft clone. STO should have been a number 2. Bridge Commander as number 3. But that is just my opinion as a gamer who loves Star Trek.

  • Militant Buddhist

    I really can’t complain about this list too much. Though STO should be around the middle of the pack.. Spot on on #1 and #2. Those are still installed on my rig.

  • JazzyJerome

    I still play Armada.

    • Rita Gonzalez

      trying to play on windows 8 platform

    • Steve

      For Armada fans, there’s the excellent Star Trek Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion which I would highly recommend.

      • JazzyJerome

        I am going to have to check that out.

  • riley

    Star trek legacy

    • Duke_of_Zork

      What about it?

  • Rita Gonzalez

    star trek dominon wars and star trek borg…..really you missed these….

    • Oscar Tong

      I’ve always had a soft spot for the interactive movie games, especially Borg, even though I’ve never actually played them. I’ll have to get my own copies someday and try them for myself.

  • Oscar Tong

    Didn’t know there were fans left who valued 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites, and A Final Unity. I’m glad they made the list!

    • Steve

      I do think they should have given Generations a mention on the AFU page, as it’s the spiritual successor.

  • adjef

    Star Trek: Excalibur http://www.stexcalibur.com/

  • http://www.josephnmooreart.com Joseph Moore

    Star Trek: Conquest is mysteriously left off this list. I play that game pretty much every free evening I can get (usually as the Romulans or Dominion).

    As far as the list, good job! I played Armada until the disk was transparent when I was in college! Great game!

  • lordcalvert

    BotF was a bug-ridden festering piece of crap and should not be on any list of great games. We’ll patiently wait for a Federation and Empire port.

  • QuantumFlux359

    Birth of the Federation should be #1. Its one of the very few games, of ANY genre, that I play over…and over…and over..Yes it was buggy, but it’s a fantastically fun game, imo..

  • moogah

    Wow…what a poor choice listing of games! First off, Starfleet Command and Star Trek Online should be much higher considering their playability and expansion capability, at least they required some level of thought to play. I often saw many frustrated with Starfleet Command since it was based on the table top version of Star Fleet Battles, which required a brain and some attention to detail, most of which seems to be lacking today, since I run into mostly cantaloupes with ADD playing online.

  • Hussain

    “Star Trek Invasion” on the PSX was arguably one of the best star trek games that didn’t make the list,
    the game play was amazing, and the graphics pushed the PS one to its limits.
    yes it was buggy, but then again it was created in front of a live studio audience and in record time,
    the story was well adapted from the Invasion novels,
    I’m sad it didn’t make this list.
    and i agree,
    armada or Elite force should have been #1

  • Zachary O Cables

    Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was one of my favorites.

  • Chad Norton

    I miss bridge commander. Does steam have it? Lol

  • LockDown5625

    Hmm. No love for the SNES games based on TNG or DS9?

  • mattack

    Should be made clear this is only PC games? Or else, of course the vector arcade game should be #1!

  • LordReserei

    Bridge Commander, Armada II and STO will always be my favourites: with the latter being somewhat of a current obsession.

  • Narazbad

    I was hoping to see New Worlds on this list :(

  • Eric Sweeten

    The only game on this list I’ve played is Star Trek 25th Anniversary, which I am glad is on this list. I was hoping to see it, and thought I wouldn’t see it, then it popped up as #1, which is pretty cool. It was a very cool game, with cool graphics, for its time and still I think. I remember the space battles with the Klingons.

  • Jason Harris

    Really enjoyed star fleet academy

  • Jeff Molloy

    I always thought DS9: Harbinger was a really spiffy game and should have been in the 10

  • WAS

    No star trek legacy? Bizarre.

  • Trezore

    In 1982-83 when I was in 8th grade, there was a Star Trek game… Played off a 5 1/4 floppy… would have been nice to see that game again lol

  • Charles James Scudamore

    Please don’t forget ST Legacy with the Ultimate Universe mod! Absolutely outstanding!

  • James Garren

    I have a copy of Deep Space Nine Harbinger that I enjoy playing. It’s a very interesting strategy game. I used to have the 25th anniversary judgement rights but someone took that one from me when I wasn’t home, & I never got the opportunity to install it and play it.

  • Andy Blevins

    Most of these games I wish they would remaster for 64 bit so I can play them again.

  • http://twitter.com/GeekAaron Aaron

    How could this list omit Star Trek: The Game Show? 😉

    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Game_Show

  • Jasterisk

    Armada was by far my favorite. Great storyline.

  • Mark Ward

    Ok Ok I am quite shocked that Star Trek Legacy want on the list I thoroughly enjoyed it from Archer to Picard the story was good the ship upgrades were good :) played it more than once from start to finish 5*

  • http://batmannews.com YX Ra Kage

    Didn’t anyone like WinTrek?

  • obi ron

    Im going real old school here. You missed the best. The sit down star trek the motion picture arcade game. When you sit in that chair and hear “welcome aboard captain” at that time you felt you were on the enterprise. I wasted tons of quarters on that game. I wish i had one now.

  • techraan

    You’ve all done too much LDS in the 60s! Star Trek Online is by far the best Star Trek game ever made. It’s a true Trek victory in gaming. STO just had it’s 5 year anniversary. It’s the most immersive and expansive Star Trek experience to be had until someone builds a holodeck.

  • TSD

    Activision’s Star Trek: Away Team. How about Starship Creator. Which allowed you to build customizable ships and add them to games like Bridge Commander

  • voiceofreason

    To me the best wasn’t even a game that carried the name in it’s title and it goes WAY back in the wayback machine. We’re talking 1980’s here. A game called the WARP Factor, everything about it screamed star trek from ship designs, to shields, to phasers and photon torpedos. My college buddies lost a lot of time playing that game!.

  • David Hogue

    What about Star Trek: Legacy on the Xbox 360. It was pretty good.

  • Kenneth Emerson

    Forgot Bridge Commander 2 http://stbc2.net | http://facebook.com/STBC2

  • VGer

    The list leaves out Star Trek: Legacy therefore I cannot
    take it seriously as Legacy is one of the best Star Trek games ever created.

    Star Trek: Legacy got 8.0 out of 10 when it was reviewed
    2006 in the Official XBOX magazine (also in a retrospective review done last
    year by the Official XBOX Magazine they called the game “almost
    great)” .

    Here is why Legacy in my opinion is the best Star Trek game ever:

    * All 5 Trek Captains reprise their roles by lending their voice talent to the game
    * The game covers all 5 Trek TV series and all 3 Trek eras
    * D.C. Fontana wrote the story (this is huge as she is a well respected Trek
    writer with credits dating back to TOS. Most games don’t have professional
    writers and stories are often paper thin if not abysmal)
    * It Features all of the well know ships in the Trek universe (Federation,
    Klingon, Romulan and Borg)
    *Lets the play be able to play as any of the 4 factions in deathmatches
    (Federation, Klingon, Romulan or Borg)
    * Also the developer (Mad Doc Software) at the request of fans of the game
    released the developer tools to allow the mods to game (that means: new ships
    or tweaks to the existing ships and new missions). This is huge as this is
    almost unheard of for this to be done and gives the game a lot of extra value
    beyond just the stock version on the game that is on the XBOX 360.

    I am not going to be dishonest about it and will admit Legacy that ad a few
    issues but nothing them were game breaking. The issues the game faced (a few
    bugs and unimplemented developer stated features) were a result of the
    publisher (Bethesda Softworks) forcing the developer (Mad Doc Software) to push
    the game to market before it was polished & completed. This sadly is all
    too common the video game industry and often is due the publisher wanting to
    meet a certain target date or deciding not to invest further funding in the
    development of the game. What often happens in these instances are for the game
    in question to be cancelled or the developer to threaten to cut funding. In the
    case of Star Trek: Legacy the it was the latter and the developer decided to
    take a game what was essentially in the beta stage of development and release
    it rather than have the entire game canned. I personally am glad they made the
    decision to publish that game regardless of it not being the completely
    finished game that the developer had envisioned because the game truly is still
    a remarkable game that is fun and holds up well despite a few flaws.

  • John Min Lee

    There was a Star Trek game in 1976 that also evolved into a game called, “Cube Wars”. It was a grid (you chose the size) usually 10×10 which meant Quadrants and then in each Quadrant you’d have another 10×10 area which could have a Starbase or Klingons to battle. Most of the ships functions were done with just the numbered keypad (which was just like in the TV show) and fun to play. Shooting torpedos at various angles or phasers. Where did this game(s) go? They were simple but lots of fun to play…and fast action even to today’s standards.

  • David Rodolff

    Klingon Academy for sure. Loved the anti-matter beam on the Dreadnought.

  • John A. Gray

    I’d be inclined to move BotF to #1, put Legacy at #2, Klingon Academy at #3, Judgement Rites at #4 and Elite Force at #5…with the rest in about the same order, though I didn’t like any of them enough to think Star Trek games deserve the full top 10…some are pretty bad. 😛

  • Robert Palfrey

    The image used for Klingon Academy isn’t actually the box art picture, it’s a reproduction of the box art picture that I made for my mod, Klingon Academy II (for Star Trek Armada II)

    • https://tekrevue.com/ TekRevue

      Thanks for catching that. I changed the image to the actual box art and added a note about the mod to the description.

  • Richard McGornski

    http://mtrek.com

    This is an old article, but as a list of the best (historical) Star Trek games, it’s incomplete without MTrek, probably the first online multiplayer Star Trek game ever. So addictive, it’s still being played today.