"Balance of Terror" Atari ST game pitch (1987)

[Big_Mo]

Back in 1986 I was reviewing the European editions of Art Director and Film Director, and the representative of Novotrade International (which made the programs) was interested in my ideas about game designs. It turned out he was trying to sell a title to Simon & Schuster's interactive division, which then held the videogame rights to Star Trek.

 

Eager to impress, and being a childhood Trek fan.. I wrote a 16 page game proposal called "Balance of Terror", that brought the Romulans back in the movie-era. Then, to help sell the idea, I decided to mock up what the game might look like. This is where I went a little crazy. Armed with Art Director, Film Director, CAD 3D (1.0) and some other tools, I animated 4:20 seconds of simulated gameplay and also animated titles to go with it.

 

Left image is actual resolution of 320x200 (x16 colors). Right is 50% resolution.

The running Romulan was from a repel-boarders sequence.

 

I modeled starships, rendered out "sprites", retouched then in Art Director, and then animated them in a cel animation style via Film Director.

 

This game was rejected by Simon & Schuster, with the comment that they wanted a game that "didn't require hand-eye coordination". Whatever.

 

Anywho, I recently converted all the old animation files to something I could edit in Final Cut Pro (preserving the original pixels), and I posted it to YouTube. This is pretty accurate to what it looked like when finished in 1987, but actually looks better than the videotape. The only concession I made to modernity making this 2010 reconstruction was to do a really full sound mix of the type I couldn't do in 1986/7.

 

I wrote about it in my STep-1 column for ST-Log magazine in 1988. Click for the article.

 

[+Allan]

WOW! That was Fantastic! That would have been a great game. Thanks for saving this.

 

Allan

[AB Positive]

Damn... I want to play it too!

This looks like it could've been amazing. Shame S&S decided to be jerks about it. Now we just need some severe 68K and Star Trek junkie to volunteer for service to flesh it out

[frogstar_robot]

I wrote about it in my STep-1 column for ST-Log magazine in 1988. Click for the article.

 

 

I remember the article and I also had and remember the game they made instead (Star Trek Rebel Universe). They should have made your proposal instead; what they went with basically sucked. Some years later I did enjoy Star Trek 25th Anniversary on a PC and though that had more sierra-style adventure puzzle elements, the segments where you piloted the ship and combated enemies was much more like your idea.

 

I would have loved to play that game.

Edited March 5, 2010 by frogstar_robot

[Fletch]

Very cool stuff! I'm glad your proposal has lasted the span of time.

[Big_Mo]

Well, thank you. It was weird to get into the software again 23 years later!

[atarian63]

Wow! Looks really great! we would have sold lots of that one!

[KLund1]

This look FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Read what was post on youtube, the original programmer put this up. If they still have the code for this, they should put this out in the public domain (if it is finished) Or if not they could finish it, or let others finish it.

I do not think there is and ST or Trek fan that would not want to play this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Big_Mo]

This look FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Read what was post on youtube, the original programmer put this up. If they still have the code for this, they should put this out in the public domain (if it is finished) Or if not they could finish it, or let others finish it.

I do not think there is and ST or Trek fan that would not want to play this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's no code. This was an animated mockup made using Art Director, Film Director, and CAD-3D. But I'm glad you liked it.