Video game:Star Trek: legacy

Few series, if any, have made as large a pop culture impact as "Star Trek." When it first aired in 1966, the television show failed to make a large impression, and NBC cancelled it after only three seasons. However, over the years it has amassed a cult following, several spin-off shows, a movie series, and a library of novels and comics. Beginning with a board game in 1967, developers released many forms of interactive entertainment involving the beloved "Star Trek" characters.

Mike Mayfield developed the first "Star Trek" video game in 1971. Entitled simply "Star Trek," this text-based computer game spread to most home computers by the end of the 1970s, and became the first of its kind to sell more than one million copies. It showed that games based on the series could be successful, and paved the way for the release of many more video games in the Star Trek franchise.

In 2006, Bethesda Softworks released "Star Trek: Legacy" for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360. This action-adventure game encompasses plot and characters from "Star Trek: Enterprise," the original "Star Trek" series, and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Gamers control a series of starships and must defeat Commander T?Uerell over the course of three different "Enterprise" eras. The actors who portrayed the five captains on television, including Scott Bakula, William Shatner, and Patrick Stewart, all returned to provide their voice talents for this game.

"Legacy" received mixed reviews depending on which consol critics and players used. Gamers using a computer found the graphics underdeveloped and the gamplay frustrating, while Xbox 360 users complemented the game?s controls and storyline. Steve Butts of IGN wrote, "Legacy? hits the right spots...faithfully bringing the various series of Star Trek? to the Xbox 360 in a very convincing, consistent manner."

More than four decades after the original "Star Trek" series aired, the franchise remains popular. J.J. Abrams and Paramount released a rebooted movie version of the series in 2009, followed by its sequel in 2013. Over fifty different video games featuring the beloved "Star Trek" characters exist, allowing fans to go "where no one has gone before."