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Star Trek: First Contact (1988) and Star Trek TNG: The Transinium Challenge (1989)

Extrocomp

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Does anyone know why these two games are so rare? I think I might've seen Transinium Challenge on eBay once many years ago, but I know I've never seen the First Contact game on eBay or anywhere else. Anyone here own these games? Do they have good stories? Why do you think they're so much rarer than older games like Strategic Operations Simulator (1983), Kobayashi Alternative (1985), Promethean Prophecy (1986) and Rebel Universe (1987)?
 
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I don't really know why, I have not played these games.

Here is a review of Transinium. It's a very text-heavy, point and click affair.

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My best speculation is that these games were only released on DOS, and unless there was a composite CGA mode , they are butt ugly.
I'm not even seeing decent EGA graphics for these games! although again, I don't have them and don't know.

But there were far better computer game platforms at the time: Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions of these games would have been gorgeous.

Even a Commodore 64 version would have been better than DOS CGA.

Since these games were all text and (mostly static, but some animated) graphics, putting them on a lower resolution, low color platform was a bad match.
 
Man, I was so confused with Rebel Universe. I remember it being one of the first games I had bought with my own money, which was a pretty big deal at the time. Something like $70 was a big chunk of change for a young kid. I still enjoyed playing it, but I wasn't even sure what I was doing with it and never managed to do very much with it or make any progress.
 
^^^Then you played Rebel Universe, play for 10 mins, enjoy the game and sound effects, beam down to the planet, get killed by something exploding, restart the game. lol

"Got him". lol
 
^^^Then you played Rebel Universe, play for 10 mins, enjoy the game and sound effects, beam down to the planet, get killed by something exploding, restart the game. lol

"Got him". lol

Yep, pretty much. And I would always be confounded by those devices blocking the way. I wonder if anyone ever got to the end.
 
I’ve never heard of these either, so thank you for the YouTube links! I’d play that on my iPad quite happily, sat outside on a nice sunny day. Don’t think I’d bother on a PC though!
 
Transinium Challenge is currently on eBay if anyone is interested. There are 6 hours left until the auction ends.

EDIT: Sold for $303.
 
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