Starship Bridge Simulator

[JayVe]

Here is a freaking brilliant idea: A LAN party where each player assumes the role of a starship bridge officer. The software runs on your laptop, and offers you the ability to control your station. One player is the captain, whose computer runs the main view screen.

Probably one of the geekiest games that can be run, like a cross between a LAN strategy sim and a live action Star Trek role playing game.

http://artemis.eochu.com/media.html

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[Voodoo]

Looks like a definite thing to do for PAX Boston. :) A group of friends and I are going to try this out in a few weeks at our next LAN.

[Karak]

Thought the idea was cool but man it looks all of 10 years ago with it's tech. The idea stands as incredible. But they need someone to actually...make the game look more like a game or at least a bit less like a Apple 2 game:0

[JayVe]

Thought the idea was cool but man it looks all of 10 years ago with it's tech. The idea stands as incredible. But they need someone to actually...make the game look more like a game or at least a bit less like a Apple 2 game:0

Agreed. Brilliant idea, needs nice execution.

If you watch the video the whole way through, you can feel the tension in the room as the situation goes bad. Even in its primitive state, the game seems to do a fair job of forcing you to work together as a real bridge team.

This bridge crew needs to send that captain out the airlock.

Personally, I'd love to see a story-driven approach to something like this. Imagine Bioware at the helm of a game like this where you can interact with strange alien races and talk, rather than simply blowing up other starships.

[burger]

It's all fun until the poor guy who got the role of "starship janitor" decides to mutiny.

[rein]

Awesome space couch.

[burger]

Definitely a cool idea...

(runs off and starts coding my own version)

[KidCactus]

"Oh, it's a minefield there?"

I'm glad I'm not on that starship. :D Cool idea, though.

[burger]

"Oh, it's a minefield there?"

I'm glad I'm not on that starship. :D Cool idea, though.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Safe to say this starship won't be completing it's 5 year mission

[BabyJesus]

Man, umm, how, umm, many, umm, times, umm, is, umm, that, umm, captain, umm, going, umm, to ,umm, say umm?

Captains need to be concise and quick decisions makers, this guy was floundering around. Of course that sexy thing asking and arguing about shield and hull regening kinda does not help. :)

[burger]

Man, umm, how, umm, many, umm, times, umm, is, umm, that, umm, captain, umm, going, umm, to ,umm, say umm?

Captains need to be concise and quick decisions makers, this guy was floundering around. Of course that sexy thing asking and arguing about shield and hull regening kinda does not help. :)

That was my take as well...Captain Kirk never asked the crew politely if they should go threw or around a minefield...he pretty much told Chehov to plot a course straight through it and told Sulu "ahead full impulse power!!".

[Ink Asylum]

Thought the idea was cool but man it looks all of 10 years ago with it's tech. The idea stands as incredible. But they need someone to actually...make the game look more like a game or at least a bit less like a Apple 2 game:0

Pretty much my thought. I'll bring this up at my next LAN party, see if anyone's interested.

Although they do get bonus points for making the captain wear that hat.

[J Arcane]

Bridge Crew actually did this years ago, and was cheaper to boot, but it's more or less disappeared off the map.

This has a WAAY better interface though. Even the Windows version of BC was all 3 letter text commands like the old Star Trek terminal games from the 70s.

I'd be interested in trying this out, but I can't see blowing $60 on it.

[wsuhoey]

Could be fun! Would definitely try this out at PAX.

[Karak]

Agreed. Brilliant idea, needs nice execution.

If you watch the video the whole way through, you can feel the tension in the room as the situation goes bad. Even in its primitive state, the game seems to do a fair job of forcing you to work together as a real bridge team.

This bridge crew needs to send that captain out the airlock.

Personally, I'd love to see a story-driven approach to something like this. Imagine Bioware at the helm of a game like this where you can interact with strange alien races and talk, rather than simply blowing up other starships.

Yep. I mean hell, hire the guy who did Everchron even for gods sakes. Even he could through some lens flare, some shine, a couple ship designs and you have yourself something working.

I can see that if they did that in 2-3 years teams of people all in one ship doing battle with other ships. That would be insane.
"Fire Pulse cannons"

The captain would have the ability to see maneuvering screens and a 3d radar view. Pilot could see through camera views and could move the ships to put stronger armor where it was needed broadside and use movement skills, weapons could see the areas they cover, engineer would have special skills to swap out energy levels and so forth.
Amazing idea. I hope they keep working on it.

[J Arcane]

This is, literally, one guy, who did it in his spare time as a fan project.

While I think the price is too high, the level of production is well within expectations for such a one man show.

[Zanzibar]

See, THIS is what I thought Star Trek Online should have done. Each player is an officer on a virtual bridge, with small minigames used to route power, cycle shields and fire weapons etc.

[Vandabo]

This is an awesome concept, and I hope it gets refined much more. They need try and make a more professional video to show it off though. Find a nice room with an actual screen and some uniform furniture, get some decent AV equipment and make a movie out of it. Get a decent captain while you're at it.

[Panthera]

See, THIS is what I thought Star Trek Online should have done. Each player is an officer on a virtual bridge, with small minigames used to route power, cycle shields and fire weapons etc.

They should have ripped off Puzzle Pirates.

[Vigil80]

See, THIS is what I thought Star Trek Online should have done. Each player is an officer on a virtual bridge, with small minigames used to route power, cycle shields and fire weapons etc.
If I remember correctly, that's actually what Star Trek Online was while it was with its original developer. Then Cryptic bought it...

[Ink Asylum]

They should have ripped off Puzzle Pirates.

I was just thinking that. The Puzzle Pirates concept with more refined and technical "games" to control the various systems on the ship would be amazing. I don't want to play Bejewled to fire the phasers, but something that's disguised a bit more would be interesting.

[J Arcane]

If I remember correctly, that's actually what Star Trek Online was while it was with its original developer. Then Cryptic bought it...
You are correct sir.

The design docs for the Perpetual STO were indeed quite like this, but prettier and more advanced.

But it turned out the management was a bunch of frauds who tried to turn it into WoW, the company went broke, Cryptic bought up the rights, threw out all the work, and made one of the biggest pieces of shit in MMO history.

[Hotcod]

From the looks of it there just not enough for each station to do to be all that interesting. For a game like this to work it needs to be one that couldn't be controlled more effectively by a single person. In fact it should be something you had no chance of doing on your own. Which is hard to pull off really since some of it would need a level of Ai interaction that is hard to pull off (coms officers need something to do) but maybe adding some pvp could work well that way.

[CappinCanuck]

If I remember correctly, that's actually what Star Trek Online was while it was with its original developer. Then Cryptic bought it...

Yeah. That was the concept that had me most excited about STO. I lost most of my interest when that was removed.

This is pure awesome though. I don't think it'll really take off at all though. Not without internet play. But it's an indie dev. If he wants to make the game exactly what he wants regardless of sales figures, that's their prerogative.

[Narradisall]

"Ok guys, we're engaging the enemy battleship now. Some of us may die, but know this, that we will win this war and..... fuck, why am I the only one in the red shirt!"

[menage]

Crosses the nerd/geek factor line way too much for me:D

[Cactaur]

Next step is every person has iphone/ android version linked via bluetooth for LARPing.

[RandoM51]

If they were real geeks they would realize that starships don't have bridges.

[MagGnome]

This is pretty cool. It'd be fun to try it out sometime, but I don't really do much LAN gaming.

[Vandabo]

Based on what most of the screens looked like, you could probably play many of the roles with a calculator watch.

It would be awesome to make the game run on cheap tablet devices, and then build a whole console around them. You could actually build a whole star trek-like bridge where everyone was tapping at consoles and looking at a main screen.

[Vigil80]

And develop some smartphone tricorder addon, too!

Oh... oh man...

[Ravenlock]

Though you'd need the right group of people to do it, I think the idea is completely badass.

I didn't have any idea that STO was at one point going to be like this. That makes me sad. :(

[J Arcane]

Based on what most of the screens looked like, you could probably play many of the roles with a calculator watch.

It would be awesome to make the game run on cheap tablet devices, and then build a whole console around them. You could actually build a whole star trek-like bridge where everyone was tapping at consoles and looking at a main screen.
This. Get it running on Android 1.6, so you can load it up on a bunch of those cheap Hong Kong tablet things. You could kit a whole bridge for the price of one PC.

I didn't have any idea that STO was at one point going to be like this. That makes me sad.

I don't know that I've ever been more horrified and depressed by a gaming announcement than when I found out the original design for STO had been scrapped.

That game would've been fucking GLORIOUS.

[Purple Santa]

Thought the idea was cool but man it looks all of 10 years ago with it's tech. The idea stands as incredible. But they need someone to actually...make the game look more like a game or at least a bit less like a Apple 2 game:0

And here I was all ready to sign up for duty under your command :(

[Narradisall]

Having read enough about Karaks work place, I imagine a ship under his command would be hilarious.

Imagine it crewed by his workmates....

[JayVe]

There is a game at Epcot Center in Orlando after the Mission Space ride.

4 Players form a spaceship crew on a race from Mars to Earth against another team of 4 players. Each team is escorted to the front of the room where they stand on the bridge of the ship. In front of them is a huge monitor and a set of big, shiny bridge buttons. All 4 players share the screen, on which is displayed a technical schematic of their ship.

Behind the bridge crew is a pedestal, upon which is a big, red BOOST button.

Bridge crew are tasked with repairing and maintaining systems on the ship. Each crew member is assigned a color; red, green, blue or yellow. They play a game on the large, shared screen and need to work around other players, so communication becomes key.

In order to complete the repair game sequences, players need resources. Resources are uploaded by mission control.

Mission control consists of a bank of computer game consoles, a dozen or so workstations where the audience plays puzzle games to help your team! If your engineer is running low on red engineering solution resources, one of you needs to yell into the crowd, "We need red solutions, Mission Control!" People in the audience will then start playing the red minigame, thereby uploading red 'engineering solutions' to your spacecraft.

After a while of solving problems, shouting instructions to each other, and calling back to mission control, you'll get the green light to activate boosters. Everyone shouts, "BOOST!" and one of you whips around to mash the giant red button. For a moment, your ship gets a huge rush of speed, although it isn't long before the technical display starts lighting up like a Christmas tree with issues that need solving.

Now, the whole time all this game-show minigame madness is going on, there is another team on the other side of the room doing the exact same thing as they race your team. Above all this, are huge projector displays showing the spacecraft hurtling through space as they attempt to the the first to reach home.

[Squidbot]

ARISE, AND SERVE YOUR MASTER, THREAD!

Want a free copy of this bridge simulator?

1) get the demo version.
2) get together with 2 friends (3 or more people in the same room) and play.
3) make a video of your crew playing. use your flipcam or cellphone or something.
4) also, take a still picture of your crew, to send to me later.
5) put the video on YouTube, for all the world to see. Be sure to put a link to artemis.eochu.com on the video notes.
6) Email me with the YouTube video link and attach the picture, so I know it's you.
7) if you don't get your full version in a few days, re-send the email.

Check out our video playlist. If you want your video to be featured near the top, bring your best game, dress up, adopt accents, dress up your bridge, do something (non-dangerous) to stand out.

http://artemis.eochu.com/free-game-offer.html

Do it. I REALLY want to see a video of CoGs playing this!

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[J Arcane]

I have the uniform but not enough serious Trek nerd friends IRL.

[Wilkz07]

cool idea but c'mon... why aren't they in costume. I'd believe it to be a starship bridge simulator if everyone was in uniform. At least the captain is wearing his hat.. though a true captain of a starship would sit in the chair and give orders.

also why is no one drinking mountain dew code red?

[JayVe]

Heh. I have a TOS shirt around here someplace. :D

I think the Mrs. even has one of those skimpy blue dresses and a pair of ears.

We should do this!

[Squidbot]

I think the Mrs. even has one of those skimpy blue dresses and a pair of ears.

We should do this!

Yes she should.

Um, I mean...that is..uh.....bugger.

If I were on your side of the pond I would don my Spock shirt and be your science officer!

[Ink Asylum]

I'd forgotten about this game. I'm going to see if I can get my LAN party to try it next time.

[Narradisall]

When they got hit and all threw themselves to the side I lost it.

[Voodoo]

When they got hit and all threw themselves to the side I lost it.
I laugh because they keep leaning and falling the wrong way in relation to the camera tilts. :D

[Stmfuller]

If my job was like this, id have so much fun going to work! Nerdgasm