''TREK73'' is a computer game based on the original '' Star Trek'' television series. It was created in 1973 by William K. Char, Perry Lee, and Dan Gee for the Hewlett-Packard 2000 minicomputer in

HP Time-Shared BASIC HP Time-Shared BASIC (HP TSB) is a BASIC programming language interpreter for Hewlett-Packard's HP 2000 line of minicomputer-based time-sharing computer systems. TSB is historically notable as the platform that released the first public ver ...

. The game was played via

teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

. Trek73 is so big that it needs the CHAIN feature of HP2000 BASIC. Unlike many other Trek-themed games of the era, ''Trek73'' is not derived from the well known ''Star Trek'' by Mike Mayfield. ''Trek73'' simulates multi-ship starship combat in a smaller play area and does not include the more strategic elements of the original, like starbases and the galactic map layout. Like most BASIC programs from the 1970s, there are dozens of minor variations on the original. Dave Korns adapted the code to support smart terminals, using the cursor control characters on the Hazeltine 2000 to produce an in-place updating display. In the mid-1980s, Dave Pare and Chris Williams translated the original BASIC version into C and Jeff Okamoto, Peter Yee, and others corrected and enhanced the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

. These versions are widely available for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

and

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

operating systems.

Gameplay

The game simulates battles between spaceships of the ''Star Trek'' franchise. Through text commands, a player may order the ship to perform certain tasks in battle against an opposing vessel.

History

In January 1973, William K. Char began programming a space battle game in BASIC on a time-shared Hewlett-Packard 2000C system at Wilson High School in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The first version of what was then called $SPACE was introduced in May 1973. In June 1973, Char, Perry, Lee, and Gee started programming ''TREK73''; it was completed October 8, 1973. Roderick Perkins adapted ''TREK73'' for the DECISION computer at the

Lawrence Hall of Science The Lawrence Hall of Science is a public science center in Berkeley, California that offers hands-on science exhibits, designs curriculum, aids professional development, and offers after school science resources to students of all ages. The Hall ...

in 1974. The game was played by

Homebrew Computer Club The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in Menlo Park, California, which met from March 1975 to December 1986. The club had an influential role in the development of the microcomputer revolution and the rise of that asp ...

member Steve Dompier, who purchased a Teletype machine for his home so that he could play the game for hours without interruption.

Other versions

Dave Pare and Chris Williams at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

independently translated ''TREK73'' into the C programming language in 1984. In April 1985, Jeff Okamoto and Peter Yee combined the Pare and Williams versions into one. The command set was expanded to 31. This version had enhancements based on the boardgame

Star Fleet Battles ''Star Fleet Battles'' (SFB) is a Military tactics, tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the ''Star Trek'' setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole, it has had four major editions. The current ...

. The player was also capable of designing his own ship. David Soussan then ported the Okamoto/Yee version to

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

, having played it in high school. (download at the bottom of the page) While at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, Tom Nelson and Mike Higgins played and made modifications to ''TREK73'' on one of the University HP2000 system. In 1984 they created '' Begin, A Tactical Starship Simulation'' for MS-DOS. Begin was not a port of ''TREK73''. It was written in C and was very much inspired by ''TREK73''. In 1993 Higgins released ''Begin 2'', a VGA version for MS-DOS, and in 2009 Nelson released ''Begin 3'' for Windows. In 1985 while at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, Howard Chu wrote a version of TREK73 in

Turbo Pascal Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Pascal (programming language), Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS. It was originally develo ...

for MS-DOS. This may have been the first version to use a screen-oriented interface and function-key command input. A version of ''TREK73'' was included on Disk 10 of

Fred Fish Fred Fish (November 4, 1952 – April 20, 2007) was a computer programmer notable for work on the GNU Debugger and his series of freeware Fish disks for the Amiga. The Fish Disks (term coined by Perry Kivolowitz at a Jersey Amiga User Gr ...

's ''Fish Disks'' for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

computers.
/ref> Around 1990, Chu wrote a version in C/curses for the

. Unlike his

version, this game is fully implemented. It uses the numeric keys instead of function keys.

References

External links

*, extracted from HP tape image *, retyped by Pete Turnbull
TREK73 Free BSD Version
hosted by Matt Dillon of DragonFly BSD
TREK73
by Kermit Murray contains many resources {{Star Trek video games Video games based on Star Trek: The Original Series Unofficial works based on Star Trek Starship simulators based on Star Trek 1973 video games Space combat simulators Mainframe games DOS games Freeware games Video games with textual graphics Public-domain software with source code Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games

Gameplay

History

Other versions

See also

References

External links