Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Earth-Romulan War era stuff

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Posted by mrneutron (Member # 524) on :

Hey all.

Some years ago I worked on the DS9 game done by Playmates for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. While I was working on that I was asked to come up with another Trek game pitch to run by Paramount. The idea I hit on was to do a game set during the Earth-Romulan War. The game pitch was called "Bird of Prey". It was a neat game, with a suyrprisiongly Trek like attitude towards warfare (you got a better ranking for ending the war as quickly as possible with minimal causualities on both sides), but Paramount's licensing dept. didn't want to go there, so I shelved it.

I was digging through some files the other day and found some of the concept art I'd done for the game. Linked below at two pieces:

This is a UESPA communicator concept. It's got guts similar to the "Cage" communicators and a grill, but it opens differently.
http://flareupload.hypermart.net/files/BOP_UESPA_Communicator.gif

Next up is the Romulan "Shrike" strike fighter, designed to be launched from larger vessels a la aircraft carriers,
http://flareupload.hypermart.net/files/BOP_RomShrike.gif

The latter has a funny history. I had seen the Greg Jein built hypothetical Romulan vessel seen in the Chronology book, and set about designing a smaller ship that would appear related. I ran my sketches by Ent-D and Warbird designer Andy Probert (he's a buddy) and his first comment was "that would make a better fighter than a starship". He was right. I scaled it down and voila, coolness was born.

I've got a lot more stuff from this design in my file folders.

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: mrneutron ]

Posted by pIn'a' Sov (Member # 293) on :

Oh man, that is a sweet design of the Shrike. If you have more of your starships, I for one would love to see them!

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Um, is neato appropriate?

Out of curiosity, are you still in the game industry?

Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :

Cool stuff. I like the communicator!

Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :

Very interesting! Please show us more!! I've done a bit of Romulan War stuff myself, so I'd like to see what you came up with for the big ships.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

The communicator reminds me of the phones they used in the Matrix

but I like it...

Posted by mrneutron (Member # 524) on :

Thanks for the feedback. I'll see what else I can dig up. I think I have some b&w mockup screens for the game somewhere, as well as some sketches for uniforms, etc.

As to the communicators being Matrix-like, they pre-date said Matrix by at least 5 years.

I seem to have lost a few of the data files, inlcuding one which compared various UESPA and Romulan vessels. I may have a printout somewhere, but I'll have to look around.

And, yes, I AM still in the game industry. The last published video game I worked on was Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future, which shipped for the Sega Dreamcast last year. And, if you find yourself playing Tetris on a Motorola or Siemen's cell phone later this year, I worked on those as well. hee hee

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Oh, I realize that your design predates Matrix...I was just noting the similarities. I like both of them

Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :

However those 'Matrix phones" are actually real phones. You can probably get a similar phone back then but moe boxier than what you saw.

I'd like to see more of fighters.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Unfortunately you can only get those Matrix style phones in Europe, I believe. Too bad...they kick but.

Posted by Gaseous Anomaly (Member # 114) on :

*L*

Those Nokia fossils!? Are you serious? I only knew one person that ever had one - large, awquard and not as cool when you haven't shades, a black leather trenchcoat, 2 MPKs, 2 Micro Uzis, 2 Czech Model 28s, about 6 handguns and big boots.

IMNSHO.

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

My kid brother is specializing in a different field of weird obsessions than I am - he knows more about Nokia phones than is healthy for a sane person. He always gets a kick out of these movie phones (which surprisingly often tend to be Nokias or Ericssons - don't Siemens or Motorola believe in product placement?) because in a typical case, they are pure unadulterated fakes.

What requirements does a movie mobile phone have to meet? It has to be very bulky so that the viewers can see it in the character's hand. It has to have one of those antique 10-cm pull-out antennas so that the viewers can still see the phone when it's pressed against the ear of the character. And it has to have a preferably spring-loaded fliptop to look futuristic. No Nokia phone for the last three-four years has had these features. (While some have fliptops, they aren't spring-loaded because such things only misfire in your pocket...)

Similar requirements would drive communicator development for Star Trek, BTW. Subcutaneous implants would be more logical than big clumsy electric razor lookalikes, but people tapping their ears to dial would look too silly.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Eclipse (Member # 472) on :

Remember Imzadi? 'Commodore' Data's communicator was subcutaneous. Apparently it could even pick up on thoughts, and so could be used silently if desired. He said something about them being stadard issue, though don't ask me how it was adapted for an android. Confirmation, anyone?