Star Trek: The Rebel Universe - Information

For some time, Starfleet Command had designated a region of space within the Sagittarius Arm of the galaxy as out of bounds to all United Federation of Planets vessels. Any Federation ship that entered this 'Quarantine Zone' had defected and joined the Klingon Empire. The Enterprise was therefore sent in to investigate and solve the mystery.

With no known means of stemming this rising tide of mutiny within the Federation, Starfleet Command was forced to isolate the zone completely by enclosing it within a Klein Sphere, an interstellar barrier through which no material object could pass. The Klein Sphere was erected as soon as the Enterprise entered the Quarantine Zone.

Star Trek: The Rebel Universe was an arcade adventure game, set in the original TV series time period with Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Dr McCoy, Mr Sulu, Ensign Chekov, Scotty and Lieutenant Uhura. The game utilised digitised samples from the TV series (Now in standard orbit, Got him! etc.) and likenesses of all seven of the main TV characters.

The Klein sphere was a handy plot device for limiting the number of potential star systems that the Enterprise could travel to. The multivision system allowed the player to select each character from the Enterprise bridge. Each of the character's screens had specific functions. For example, Mr Sulu's screen would give the player the chance to choose a star system and travel to it. It would then allow them to select planets to visit within that star system. Mr Spock could then tell the player the type of planet, e.g. 'Life Supporting'. Captain Kirk could choose a landing party who would 'beam down' to the surface using the transporter and enter the adventure element of the game. Scotty would keep an eye on the warp and impulse engines, and Dr McCoy would monitor the health of the crew. Chekov manned the weapons (phasers and photon torpedoes) in case of attack, and Uhura monitored all communications.

Once down on a planet, various obstacles would have to be overcome. Doors, Janitor Robots and various other bits of equipment would block the way. Each member of the landing team would have a different course of action to get around the obstacle. Choose the wrong option and the character or the entire team could get injured. Getting past the obstacle might simply lead to another, a dead end or a special object, e.g. a Lepton gun, which will be used to get past another obstacle on another planet elsewhere within the Klein Sphere.

There were dozens of different planet types that could benefit or be hazardous to the Enterprise and her crew. Potential attacks from the Klingons and the Romulans usually cropped up when you least wanted them. Each star system was either allied to the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans or were Independant. Travelling to a Klingon or Romulan system was bound to attract attention, so another useful object to get was a Hot Shot Device, to improve the accuracy of the weapons.

Apart from struggling to stay alive, gathering clues and acquiring special objects, the crew of the Enterprise also had to fight against the clock to solve the mystery of the Rebel Universe. Ultimately, the Klein Sphere would become permanent, trapping the Enterprise inside forever and causing the game to end.

Star Trek: The Rebel Universe was released for the Atari ST in 1987, with the C64 and IBM PC versions (CGA and EGA included) published the following year.