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In late 1998, Activision contacted Totally Games about the possibility of creating a new and truly authentic interactive Star Trek™ experience. Totally Games had already created four best-selling and well-loved space combat titles in the other great space fantasy license, Star Wars®. The team here was interested in trying something new and different so with excitement we began our work. We spent six months researching, designing and testing out our ideas to see if we could design a product that would fuse the best of Trek and modern computer technology to create an involving and compelling game experience while doing the universe justice.
Our goal was to create an exciting game that would be accessible and understandable to anyone who has ever seen Star Trek™. Who when watching Kirk or Picard did not want to see how it felt to be in the Captain’s chair and save the day? Our challenge to the game industry and ourselves was to reinvent the venerable genre of space combat games while at the same time creating a game that leveraged the best known science fiction universe.
Since the start, Star Trek™: Bridge Commander™ has been a labor of love for our entire team here at Totally Games. We are happy to have been able to help deliver this game into your hands and now hope you will enjoy playing it, sharing it with friends and extending it as far as possible. The entire team hopes to meet many of you online in battle or on the forums to discuss the game and how to extend it.
May the wind be at our backs,
Sincerely,
Lawrence Holland, Creative Director
David Litwin, Project Lead
And the Bridge Commander Development Team of Totally Games
The Dauntless had been ordered to the Remmler array at Arkaria base to undergo badly needed maintenance. After the many fleet actions the ship had participated in during the Dominion War, it was in dire need of a refit.
Captain Wright was a veteran of three major conflicts -- the war with the Cardassians, the fight against the Borg and the Dominion War. His service record was impressive, which is why he earned command of the Dauntless, the ship nicknamed within the ranks of Starfleet as “The Seeing Eye.” Wright had experience, which showed in his graying hair and the chiseled lines in his face.
A tall man, he
had a commanding presence. His confidence
was tempered only by his humility, as evidenced by the way he always gave
praise to his crew before himself. He
was considered a just commander to serve under. In all that he was and in his every action, he had earned the
respect of every crew he commanded.
Wright sat in his ready room preparing some last minute reports on a PADD in front of him. The chime of his communicator distracted his attention from his report. Almost reluctantly, he tapped the combadge on his tunic.
“Wright here.”
“Captain, has the baryon sweep passed through engineering?”
“Yes, Number One. It’s already passed through the bulk of the ship and is now aft of engineering on the nacelles.”
“Then I’ll have our very anxious Chief Brex beam up to start a rundown on ship’s systems and unlock the engineering stations.”
“Good thinking, Commander. We’ll have to get underway very soon as it is. We’ve received our marching orders.”
“Something interesting I hope.”
“Probably routine; a simple re-supply run to the Vesuvi system. Until their science observation post is complete, we are to investigate their star’s odd behavior. Readings are inconclusive from the science teams on Vesuvi 3, and Federation scientists are interested.”
“The Vesuvi system? That’s in the Maelstrom.”
“Should make for a fun time for Miguel at the very least.”
“I’ll let him know so he can get psyched up, sir.”
Wright chuckled. “You do that, Number One. I’ll need you back up here as soon as possible as well.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Wright out.” The Captain went back to writing up his report.
After six months’ service aboard this vessel, the Commander has proven to be a most promising First Officer. I have no doubt more seasoning will see him on his way to his own starship command.
The gray duranium hull of the saucer section became visible as the Dauntless crossed out of the planet’s shadow and into the light of the Vesuvi star.
“We have arrived in the Vesuvi system, Captain,” Ensign Kiska reported with exuberance. It was unusual to find this attitude in most Bajorans, but her youth belied resentment of her people’s struggle with the Cardassians. She was green, but very bright and extremely eager.
Captain Wright hit the intercom switch in his ready room in response. “Understood. We’ll be out in a moment, Ensign.”
“Aye, sir,” she replied.
“Has the Icarus been prepared for launch, Number One?”
“Yes, sir. If I may ask, is it necessary to take a shuttlecraft down to the settlement?”
“I have a surprise from my daughter for my son-in-law. I trust you won’t say anything to the crew if you happen to see it as I pack.”
“Of course not, sir.”
Wright pulled a blue bottle from his duty chest and held it up for a moment before packing it into his travel case.
“Ah, I see, sir. Can’t transport down with that.”
“Not unless I want the ship’s log to note that I carried Romulan Ale to a Federation colony that’s not supposed to have any intoxicants at all. There are certain privileges afforded in deep space vessels, and this is one of them.” The Captain put the last of the items into his travel case.
“I understand, sir. I shall omit any reference to it in my official log.” The Commander smiled, knowing the Captain would get the joke.
“I have something for you when I get back -- your review. I just finished it. We’ll talk more when I get back.”
“Aye, sir. Have a good time. I’ll make sure everything runs smoothly until you get back.”
The Captain started out of the ready room as the Commander followed him.
“If
the Admiral calls for any reason, tell her I’ll return within the next two
hours.”
“Will do, sir.”
“And take care of our ship, Number One. I want her back in one piece.”
“I’ll try to keep her together while you’re gone, sir.”
Wright stepped into the
turbolift, travel case in hand. He
looked at his First Officer with a nod of approval. “Commander, you have the Conn.
Shuttle Bay Two.” The doors to
the turbolift snapped shut, and its hum could be heard as it sped away from the
bridge.
To install the game, double click the StarTrekBridgeCommanderDemo.exe, and follow the onscreen instructions. To launch the demo, double click the Star Trek Bridge Commander Demo icon from your desktop, or select it from the Windows Start Menu under Programs.
If you want to take the Conn right away, there are a few things you will need to know first. Most importantly there are two major gameplay modes, “Bridge Mode” and “Tactical Mode”. In Bridge Mode you will be able to give orders to your crew, while in Tactical Mode you will be in direct control of your ship. Press the Space Bar to switch between the Bridge and Tactical modes.
The following are the basic commands and keys you will need to know if you wish to jump right into the game:
MOUSE CONTROLS:
On the Bridge:
To select a crewmember, move the mouse left or right to look towards the crewmember you wish to select and left-click with your mouse. A menu will appear with the options available for that crewmember. Some crewmembers will have other submenus that can also be selected. To deselect a crewmember, click on an area off the menu. Click on another crewmember to bring up their menu instead.
In Tactical:
To select menu options in this mode, simply use the mouse to left-click on a menu. To fire your phasers, left-click an area other than the menus when an enemy is targeted. To fire your torpedoes, right-click an area other than the menus.
KEYBOARD CONTROLS - General
Select Bridge Crew Member F1 – F5
Move up/down on the menus Up/Down arrow keys
Back Out Of/Open a submenu Left/Right arrow keys
Switch between Tactical and Bridge modes Space Bar
Cycle through targets T
Toggle Map Mode M
KEYBOARD CONTROLS - Tactical Mode
Move the ship up/down W/S keys
Move the ship left/right A/D keys
Roll the ship left/right Q/E
Cycle through targets T
Toggle Chase and Tracking Cameras C
Fire your Phasers F or left-click
Fire your Torpedoes X or right-click
Select Speed 0-9
Set Impulse Reverse R
Please note that all of these keys are for the default settings in the game.
When you begin the game, you will be introduced to a menu called LCARS, the Library Computer Access and Retrieval System. From the LCARS menu, you can select the type of game you would like to play, load a saved game, configure the various options in the game, view credits or quit the game.
To navigate the menu, you can use your mouse or the arrow keys. To select a menu option, left-click with the mouse or hit the ENTER key on your keyboard. Use the TAB key to move between the different parts of the interface, and use the arrow keys to cycle through various settings or to navigate between parent and child menus.
You can access the LCARS menu at any time by pressing the ESCAPE (ESC) key.
Select this button to set up a new single player campaign of Star Trek™: Bridge Commander™. Enter your name and select a difficulty setting, then click Start to begin.
This button takes you to the bridge of your ship, where you can initiate a simulated battle with starships in the ship’s computer library. This mode allows you to command any ship in the computer and select friendly and enemy ships of your choosing. Use this mode to hone your combat skills, simulate great battles from Starfleet history, and learn more about any ship’s strengths and weaknesses. Please see below for more information on Quick Battle.
Multiplayer is not available in this demo of Star Trek™: Bridge Commander™. To experience the thrill of pitting your piloting skills against other captains please purchase the full version of Bridge Commander.
Select this button when you wish to load or delete a previously saved game.
Select this button to configure the various settings in the game. Here you can set your general options, sound options, graphics options and configure your controls.
Select this option to end your current game, or to exit the program to the desktop.
This mode brings you to the bridge of your ship, where you can choose from the following special options on Saffi’s menu (available only in Quick Battle):
· End Combat Simulation – click on this button to end the combat simulation.
To set up a Quick Battle, select Saffi and choose the Quick Battle Setup option from her menu. This will bring up a special screen where you can configure your Quick Battle settings. The Quick Battle Setup screen includes the following options:
To select your allies or enemies during the simulated exercise, click on the Ships button. To add an ally or enemy, select a ship from the list on the left hand side of the screen and then choose Add as Friendly Ship or Add as Enemy Ship. The ship type will then appear in the right hand column, in the appropriate group (enemy or ally). If you make a mistake, you can select the ship from the right hand column and choose to delete the ship or change its allegiance. Also, prior to adding the ship as an enemy or ally, you can change the AI level by clicking on either Low, Medium or High. Changing the AI level will affect how well each ship performs in combat.
When you click on the “Player and Region” button, you will be able to select the ship you will control in the simulation and the region of space where the battle will take place. To select your ship, you must first choose the race (e.g. Klingon, Romulan, etc.) and then click on the specific ship (e.g. Bird of Prey, Warbird, etc.).
When you are done with your choices, click the Start button. The simulation will end if you are destroyed. If you wish to end the simulation early, you can select Saffi and choose the End Combat Simulation option from her menu.