Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat video game inspired by the original Star Trek television series and movies. It was created by Sega and released in 1983. The game uses special computer images to show both a two-dimensional view and a three-dimensional first-person perspective. It also includes computer-generated voices. Players control the Starship Enterprise and must protect different areas from enemy Klingon ships.

The game was made in two types of machines: one with an upright cabinet and another with a larger, enclosed cabinet that has a seat. The seat in the larger cabinet is designed to look like the chairs from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture movie, and the controls are built into the arms of the chair.

The game was later made available for use on several home computers and game consoles, including the Commodore 64, TI-99/4A, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 5200, Atari 2600, VIC-20, ColecoVision, and Apple II.

Gameplay

The player sees different views of the game area. To survive, the player must use and manage shield energy, photon torpedoes, and warp energy well. These resources are refueled by docking with starbases, which may need to be saved from being destroyed by the Klingons.

The controls include a weighted spinner to direct the ship and buttons to turn on the impulse engines, warp engines, phasers, and photon torpedoes. The button for the phasers is labeled "fire."

Reception

In August 1983, Electronic Games reported that Star Trek was expected to be a big hit in arcades. The magazine noted that players who could find a spot near the machine might not want to leave.

In January 1984, ANALOG Computing compared the Atari 8-bit version of Star Trek to Star Raiders, a classic game. The magazine said some fans might argue that the original version was better, and agreed with this view. It also stated that the arcade version of Star Trek was more impressive than the Atari 8-bit edition. The magazine added that this version of Star Trek likely would not appeal to serious Atari computer gamers.

Between 1982 and 1983, about 500 arcade machines were given away as part of a promotion for Halfsies cereal.

In 2016, Den of Geek listed Strategic Operations Simulator as one of the top four Star Trek games.