As stated in the previous column, another great thing about these older games in the price. Many of these older games can be found in discount bins and on eBay for literally a couple of dollars, compared to the $50 price tag of today's new games.

To boldly go
One of the best games of the Star Trek franchise was Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Built on the Quake III engine, Voyager: Elite Force, in Figure A, was an FPS (First Person Shooter) set on the starship Voyager.

FIGURE A

Voyager: Elite Force, a first person shooter in the Star Trek universe. Click picture for a larger image.

Elite Force wasn't the first shooter set in the Star Trek universe, Klingon Honor Guard came before it, but Honor Guard wasn't considered that great of a game.

The premise of Elite Force is that due to being stranded alone in the Delta Quadrant, Lt. Tuvok, the chief of security aboard the USS Voyager forms the Hazard Team, an elite security team designed specifically for handling the more dangerous situations and away missions that normal crewmembers shouldn't be exposed to. You, the player, are ensign Alex Munro, with the choice of playing as a male or female (Alexander or Alexandria, Alex for short), assigned to the newly formed Hazard Team. The choice of a male or female player makes for some interesting plot development later in the game.

I must confess, at the time Elite Force came out, I had never seen a single episode of Voyager. At that time, we didn't have a UPN affiliate in my area, so we had to watch the episodes in syndication, which was at o'dark thirty on Sunday nights. I missed the first episode, and the entire first couple of seasons actually, so I really didn't see much point in watching the show, as I had no idea what was going on.

But through the game, I found the premise and characters so interesting that I started watching the syndicated episodes and even subscribed to Dish Network's Superstation package so I could watch the new episodes in prime time. By the end of the fifth season I was completely caught up. And I'm glad I did, as Voyager rapidly became my favorite of all the Star Trek shows.