Star Trek (BASIC)
1971 · Strategy · BASIC / SDS Sigma 7
Overview
Star Trek is a text-based strategy video game based on the Star Trek television series (1966–69) and originally released in 1971. In the game, the player commands the USS Enterprise on a mission to hunt down and destroy an invading fleet of Klingon warships. The player travels through the 64 quadrants of the galaxy to attack enemy ships with phasers and photon torpedoes in turn-based battles and refuel at starbases.
Deep Dive
Star Trek is a text-based strategy video game based on the Star Trek television series (1966–69) and originally released in 1971. In the game, the player commands the USS Enterprise on a mission to hunt down and destroy an invading fleet of Klingon warships. The player travels through the 64 quadrants of the galaxy to attack enemy ships with phasers and photon torpedoes in turn-based battles and refuel at starbases. The goal is to eliminate all enemies within a random time limit.
Developer Story
The Star Trek text game was written in 1971 by Mike Mayfield, a 16-year-old high school student, on a Sigma 7 mainframe at UC Irvine. He was inspired by the TV show and wanted to create a space strategy game. The code was later ported to BASIC by Bob Leedom and distributed through the HP Time-Shared BASIC system, reaching thousands of terminals across North America. It became one of the most widely played computer games of the early 1970s.
Did You Know?
- Mayfield wrote the game in FOCAL and then in HP BASIC during a summer when he had access to university computing time.
- The game's galaxy was an 8×8 grid of sectors containing Klingons, starbases, and stars — a spatial structure that influenced countless later space strategy games.
- David Ahl published the BASIC version in Creative Computing magazine in 1974, reaching hundreds of thousands of readers.
- Because the source code was freely shared, dozens of variants appeared — some adding shields, crew management, and torpedo targeting.
- The game is considered a direct ancestor of the 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) strategy genre.
