A chronology of early Star Trek computer games
Decwar.com has released an archive of 34 early Star Trek computer games written in BASIC, many of which are playable in a web browser. The collection traces the evolution of these fan-made titles from the early 1970s, starting with Mike Mayfield's original text-based strategy game. While some early versions are lost or incomplete, the archive preserves significant historical artifacts of retrocomputing and the game's design lineage.
- ▪Decwar.com published an archive containing 34 versions of Star Trek in BASIC, with 26 marked as playable in the browser.
- ▪The earliest surviving version of the game dates back to 1971, although David H. Ahl recalled playing a similar game as early as 1967.
- ▪Mike Mayfield created the original text strategy game in high school, but it was lost when the computer it was written for was retired.
- ▪The oldest playable version on the site is Mayfield's rewrite from 1972, while the oldest screen-based version is Appletrek for the Apple II from 1978.
- ▪Five versions are held as read-only listings due to missing code or documentation, and three are known but lost.
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| Original publisher | Boing Boing |
| Canonical URL | https://boingboing.net/2026/09/24/a-chronology-of-early-star-trek-computer-games.html |
| Publication time | Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:18:21 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-25T00:55:26.758Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-25T00:55:26.758Z |
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| Cluster | EqSuKVULHl84 · 1 stories |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
A chronology of early Star Trek computer games Rob Beschizza 5:18 pm Thu Sep 24, 2026 In the early days of computer game development, Star Trek was a popular topic for young programmers with access to mainframes. Players could hunt Klingon ships across the galaxy's numbered sectors while conserving their dilithium crystams and photon torpedoes. The programs were copied, edited and expanded by those who played them—or just made over from scratch. Decwar.com has published an archive of these early fan-games, many of them made playable in the browser. 34 versions of Star Trek in BASIC, oldest first. The 26 marked Playable run in your browser; 5 more are held as read-only listings that cannot run, because code or documentation is missing; 3 are known but lost. Though David H.
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