This is one of the good ones.
I thought I would start with that considering that Star Trek has had a long history of middling to bad games. If I say "Star Wars", you might think of a few titles that display a high degree of quality and capture the thrill of the source material. In comparison, the Star Trek universe might seem a bit more plodding with its focus on character drama and moral dilemmas. These are concepts that have a hard time translating into mass market game ideas. But there were many attempts. Do a cursory search on a video game database site and you'll come across FMV titles, bridge simulators, and strategy games. There were some that were just action games dressed in Starfleet uniform, trading in diplomacy for phasers. Then, there's the rest.
There's a whole fleet of titles of varying quality, but a handful managed to pull away and stand out. For me, one of these games was Star Trek 25th Anniversary for the PC. It captured the intrigue of the original series by constructing the context of an adventure game around it. Additionally, it threw in some star ship battles in case players wanted something to blow up.
Reflecting back on this game, I appreciate the way the game tries to emulate the sense of learning and discovery that the characters experience in the show. Each mission can be resolved through a process of observation, investigation, and diplomacy. Puzzles may be worked through using the knowledge you currently possess, and listening to Mr. Spock's analysis of the situation. McCoy also chimes in to comment on the disposition of characters you meet. His empathy serves as a foil to Spock's logic, much like in the TV series. And in another homage to the source material, every Red Shirt Kirk beams down with can die a needless death.
None of this was apparent to me when I first played this game on my cousin's computer in the early 90's. One of the early puzzles in the first mission stumped our adolescent minds, so we ended up playing the star ship combat portion exclusively. We also didn't understand that the star map that came with the game served as its copy protection, where each star system was labelled in accordance to the mission it was associated with. Warping to the wrong system would often put the Enterprise in battle against a superior enemy fleet, which was what we always did when we played the game. My cousin would take turns with me to control the ship and try to blow up Klingon cruisers or Romulan Birds of Prey. Sometimes, we would both play by having one of us shoot and the other controlling the ship's speed and pulling up damage control. The experience of commanding a star ship left a strong impression on me, and I would revisit it in some of Interplay's later games.
The complete experience of Star Trek 25th Anniversary would not be mine until a few years later through my school. If you were attending an elementary school during the 90's, you may have encountered a book buying program from Scholastic, purveyors of fiction for children and (*ahem*) "young adults". Every year, Scholastic would come around to my school's library and set up a fair to sell new books. I still have a few paperbacks in storage that I got through these. But in addition to the fairs, Scholastic also distributed catalogues that students could submit mail orders for through their teachers. During my 7th grade year, Scholastic made the unwise decision to include computer games as part of the catalogue. Keepin mind that these were not educational games like Oregon Trail, but CD-ROM time wasters like Star Wars Rebel Assault. Somehow, I managed to convince my mom to fork over a $25.00 check to order Star Trek 25th Anniversary when it was advertised. Four to six weeks later, I owned a copy of the Enhanced CD-ROM edition of the game with William Shatner and gang doing the voiceovers. I remember the reaction of my teacher at the time, who was shocked that one of her students was spending $25 on a book order.
"Here's your game", she said as she dropped it on my desk, half sneering. As I held my shiny, shrink wrapped box, I was the most popular kid in the class for about 10 minutes. Over a decade later and after a number of forgettable games, 25th Anniversary is still the standard I judge all other Trek games against.