Flashtrek is a series of Star Trek-themed flash games made by Vex Xiang. Each game is set in its own alternate reality, based heavily on events in the Star Trek universe. The series includes:
- Flashtrek
- Flashtrek: Romulan Wars
- Flashtrek: Assault
- Flashtrek: Broken Mirror
In addition to the Star Trek themed games, Vex Xiang also made FlashWars, a Star Wars themed modification of Flashtrek: Romulan Wars set during the Galactic Civil War.
FlashTrek[]
FlashTrek Gameplay
The original Flashtrek takes place in an alternate reality, in which the Federation is badly losing the Dominion War: the Dominion's invasion fleet rapidly seized control of nearly the entire Alpha Quadrant, forcing the Federation to collapse the Bajoran Wormhole. Unfortunately, by then Starfleet had been reduced to a single remaining base on Bajor. The mission of the player is to drive the Dominion out of the Alpha Quadrant entirely by recapturing the occupied star systems.
Gameplay begins at space station Deep Space 9 in the Bajoran system. The player is given a Danube-class runabout, which serves as their Avatar. To progress, the player must earn a superior ship that can take the fight to the Dominion.
Rather than using in-game money or resources to acquire ships, Flashtrek has a system in which the player gains Prestige points, which represent how much the Federation trusts you with their remaining resources. Prestige is earned by running cargo between planets, destroying Dominion ships, or by conquering star systems for the Federation, and is lost by repairing battle damage to your ship. With enough prestige, you can transfer to command better ships. The playable ships are the Runabout, Valiant-class, Defiant-class, Nova-class, Steamrunner-class, Intrepid-class, Akira-class, Prometheus-class, and Sovereign-class. There is an additional ship, the Galaxy-X-class, which is immediately acquired at the end of the game for a final push against the last remaining Dominion system.
All ships have limited torpedo ammunition, energy, hull points, and shield points. Shields and energy will recharge slowly over time, but your hull cannot be repaired and your torpedo supplies cannot be restocked anywhere except at a starbase. Conquering a star system automatically puts a starbase in that system so that you won't have to travel all the way back to Bajor to make repairs.
According to Vex Xiang, the original .fla file used for the creation of FlashTrek was lost; therefore, unless there is a backup of the file somewhere, neither Vex nor any fan developers will be able to modify the game.
FlashTrek: Romulan Wars[]
Original Version[]
FlashTrek: Romulan Wars Gameplay
Unlike the previous game, Romulan wars is structured around conflicts between the Federation and its enemies throughout galactic history. Although the name of the game suggests that the game is entirely about the Earth-Romulan War, each level takes place in a different time period, so the player will also fight Klingons and the Borg. The game begins in the ENT era, with the following level taking place during the early TOS era, and so on, progressing into the late VOY era at the final level.
As in Flashtrek, the player has direct control of one starship. Unlike Flashtrek, the overall gameplay centers around two starbases: one owned by the Federation (the player) and the other by their enemies. To complete a level, the player must upgrade the Federation's starbase. In order to do that, the enemy starbase must be destroyed, and all enemy ships must be defeated, and all technological upgrades unique to that era must be researched - all while protecting their own base from destruction. To do this, they must gather the resources to research and build new, more effective technologies to turn the tide of battle.
There are two resources to collect: dilithium and duranium, both of which are found inside asteroids. These resources are used to both construct new starships and develop new technologies. Once constructed, other starships can be assigned to various duties including gathering these resources, patrolling an area, and defending their starbase from attack.
Though entirely playable, the Romulan Wars game engine is unstable, resulting in unpredictable behavior.
Modified and Fan-Created Versions[]
- FlashWars - A Star Wars game created by Vex Xiang, built on a stabilized version of the Romulan Wars engine and a similar gameplay loop.
- FlashTrek: Dominion Wars - A game based on the Dominion War, created by thecommandoboss, built on the Romulan Wars engine
FlashTrek: Assault[]
FlashTrek: Assault Gameplay
Original Version[]
According to Vex Xiang, he created FlashTrek: Assault over a single weekend. It stands out from other FlashTrek games because it is a simple defense game rather than a spacecraft RPG. Instead of controlling a single starship, the player commands a space station accompanied by an entire fleet of computer-controlled starships that essentially act as static weapon emplacements.
Enemies come in huge waves, with one wave per level. For each enemy destroyed, points are earned in an arcade fashion. The player can either try to destroy all enemies manually by using the starbase's main phaser weapon, or use points to buy ships to do the same job automatically. At the end of each level, the play has the ability to use points to buy upgrades and abilities to compensate for the growing strength of the enemy.
Modified and Fan-Created Versions[]
- FlashTrek: Assault 2 - A version created by thecommandoboss with new features including "realistic" explosions, new ships and abilities, and modified weapons.
FlashTrek: Broken Mirror[]
Main Menu of FlashTrek: Broken Mirror
Flashtrek: Broken Mirror is an Open world, Role-Playing game set in Star Trek's Mirror Universe, as seen in the Star Trek episodes "Mirror Mirror", "Crossover", and "In a Mirror, Darkly". Far more expansive than all its predecessors combined, Broken Mirror has the player take on the persona of a newly-promoted starship captain in one of Star Trek's major galactic factions: the Terran Empire, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, the Vulcan High Command, the Ferengi Alliance, or even an un-allied captain of an independent starship. The Borg and the Dominion are also available as playable factions through "cheat codes". At the start, the player is given a fragile, lightly-armed shuttle with a small cargo hold, unique to the faction they chose.
The starting ships are the Danube runabout (Independent), Saber-class (Human), B'rel-class (Klingon), Ferengi shuttle, Hideki-class (Cardassian), Vulcan warpship (Vulcan), Romulan scout ship (Romulan). Easter egg starters are: Borg cube (Borg), Galor-class (Cardassian), Jem'Hadar fighter (Dominion).
Game World[]
Due to the new open world gameplay, there is no defined objective for the player to accomplish. However, there are very many ways for the player to interact with the world. Although the player can travel and fight freely from the very start, the starting ship's fuel efficiency will be very low, and the player will not stand much of a chance in a fight against any vessel until they have obtained better equipment. As a result, the player's early game role will likely be that of a merchant, trading collect latinum, which can be used to pay for fuel, better ships and weapons. Once established, the player can decide to be anything from an independent planetary governor to an Empire's fleet admiral.
As in Flashtrek, the starship is the Avatar of the player, however, its capabilities have been greatly expanded compared to previous games. The player's ship can carry up to 10 tools or weapons simultaneously, of which 3 may be accessed with the Z key, the X key, and the Spacebar (all other tools must be accessed through the in-game menu). Depending on the size of its cargo hold, the ship can carry multiple trade goods, duranium (used as construction material), and latinum. The upkeep cost has also been expanded: in addition to the cost of any repairs, the ship requires antimatter fuel to travel from system to system.
An RPG-inspired "skill point" system is used to keep track of the overall experience of the captain and crew: gaining more skill points will result in more consistent success with various actions, ranging from getting better trade prices to capturing enemy ships. Sufficient skill points are required before the player can perform certain extreme actions (for example, away team skill points are required to colonize planets). To build skill points, the player must either continue attempting to perform a certain action (such as repeatedly sending away teams to uninhabited planets), or spend latinum on training classes.
Finally, the game redefines "prestige" as a reputation system. The player has both a galactic reputation, and a reputation with each faction in the game. A good enough reputation with a faction will allow the player to purchase otherwise prohibited equipment, and to take planets in that faction's name. A low enough reputation will provoke a faction to attack the player and any assets they have. The player may switch faction allegiances at any time.
Planetary Systems[]
Broken Mirror Gameplay
Planets are the center of everything in Flashtrek: Broken Mirror, and each faction wants more of them. In a departure from the original Flashtrek, changes have been made for simplicity in navigation: there is only one planet in each star system, and the star systems are named for the planet inside them. (An example is the "Earth System.") It is here that the player can pay for fuel, repairs, new ships, tools, and weaponry. Space stations tend to be clustered around the planet, but can actually be found anywhere in the system. Stations will often sell things unavailable at the planet itself, sometimes even things the planet's government would disapprove of.
Inhabited planets can be captured through military might by destroying the local space stations and military, at which point the civilian population will begin to evacuate the world. Uninhabited planets provide no services, but can be colonized by the player or by any computer-controlled faction, though the latter is a rare occurrence. At any planet, you can use duranium to build space stations in orbit, or ships to command. Ships produced at planets controlled by the player are completely free, but require a certain existing amount of deuranium for construction. Once constructed, the ship does not actually decrease the deuranium stock.
Fleets[]
The player can buy and maintain their own allied ships that will assist them in either war or peace. Allied ships will follow any one of eight basic commands linked to the number keys, and can be found in the game's menu. They can be ordered to follow the player in battle, explore the galaxy, roam the galaxy trading for latinum. They can be left in a star system to perform a given action forever until told otherwise. All allied ships cost a set amount of latinum to maintain themselves. If the player cannot pay for the maintenance, allied ships will either deteriorate or their captains will defect to another empire.
Broken Mirror 2[]
FlashTrek: Broken Mirror 2
Flashtrek: Broken Mirror 2 is the sequel to Broken Mirror. The game was originally developed by Vex Xiang, but his version was never finished. The work was continued by Silvershadows, who has improved the game considerably.
The story of Broken Mirror 2 takes place immediately after the events of Broken Mirror. It involves an invasion by the Dominion. Using the constant conflict in the Alpha Quadrant as a distraction, the Dominion launched a massive surprise attack on the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, and the Terran Empire. Having already been weakened by the Klingons, the Terran Empire was affected most severely by the brutal Dominion assault, and lost all of its territory, including Earth. Humans became slaves to the Dominion, and a few surviving refugees fled to a small planet called Terra Nova, where they discover the mothballed fleet of their once-powerful empire...
Gameplay is basically the same as Broken Mirror, but several features have been added. Most notably, these additions include:
- more ships, planets, and weapons
- new story
- a realistic swinging effect when maneuvering
- escape pods (replaces reincarnation)
- "starship insurance" - costs 1% of all earnings, but the player is saved from losing money if their ship is destroyed
- a game editor
- new "Vorta" race
- modified graphics
- many more minor changes
Modified and Fan-Created Versions[]
- When Universes Collide - Multi-Universe crossover modification by Jerome Star, never completed
- Flashtrek: Delta Expanse - Voyager/Delta Quadrant version by Silvershadows, not entirely finished but available on Kongregate nonetheless.
- FlashGate - Stargate adaption of Broken Mirror
- Broken Mirror 3, 4, and 5 - None of these came anywhere near completion (see below)
Star Trek Broken Mirror[]
Star Trek Broken Mirror
Flashtrek: Broken Mirror 3 was originally intended to be a Flashtrek game with a campaign mode. The game was never completed.
More recently, a new game began production in place of Broken Mirror 3, with a story taking place in the same Mirror Universe as the Flash-based Broken Mirror games. It was titled Star Trek Broken Mirror, and will be a free-to-play 3D online game built with the Unity engine. It is hoped that, when completed, the game will be a 3D universe with the heart of Flashtrek: Broken Mirror.
The primary developers of Star Trek Broken Mirror are Chris Cameron (Project Director) and Joao Borrego (Lead Developer). They have published occasional Development Log videos to keep the public informed of their progress. It is being developed rather casually by volunteers from around the world. It was slated for a tentative release date of September 8th, 2015, but was never finished.
External links[]
Vex Xiang's Official Site
- The official website of Flashtrek's developer
Official Games
- FlashTrek
- FlashTrek: Romulan Wars
- FlashWars
- FlashTrek: Assault
- FlashTrek: Broken Mirror
- FlashTrek: Broken Mirror 2
Incomplete Broken Mirror Games
- FlashTrek: Broken Mirror 3
- FlashTrek: Broken Mirror 4
Fan-Created
- FlashTrek: Dominion Wars
- FlashTrek: Assault 2
- FlashTrek: Delta Expanse
- FlashGate
- Borg Invasion - a few other half-completed versions are on this same site
Star Trek Broken Mirror (Unity Game)
- Broken Mirror 3 Development Logs and Gameplay Clips
- Flashtrek Broken Mirror 3 official forums ("Infinity Corner")