Modern gaming would not be what it is today without the contributions of Jerry Lawson and Mike Pondsmith, whose innovations revolutionized both computer and tabletop gaming.
Geeking Out with Jeffrey Harlan
Modern gaming would not be what it is today without the contributions of Jerry Lawson and Mike Pondsmith, whose innovations revolutionized both computer and tabletop gaming.
In the COVID-19 world we all have had to make changes to our routines. People have begun working at home, businesses have switched to curbside pick-up, restaurants have switched to a pick-up or delivery model, and in-person meetings have been replaced with virtual meetings. One of my weekly rituals was going down to my local game store to play in-person pen and paper roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. I would meet weekly with a group of friends and huck the dice around while imagining my players in a fantasy world of fighters, wizards, rogues, dwarves, and elves.
A decade after the final supplement was released for FASA Corporation’s Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, Paramount awarded the license to produce a new Star Trek roleplaying game to Last Unicorn Games. Released in late 1998, the first installment of the new game was the Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game Core Book, followed over the next two years by the Star Trek Roleplaying Game Core Book and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game Core Book, as well as a number of supplements for each.
FASA Corporation was founded in 1980 by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III, who were friends and fellow gamers from the United States Merchant…
In May 2009, the eleventh Star Trek feature film boldly went where no Trek had gone before: rebooting and reimagining the franchise, under the aegis of producer/director J.J. Abrams. The film paid homage to the previous Star Trek continuity via a time-travel plot that resulted in massive changes to history, and a new timeline, now only loosely connected to the original, was born.
Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 1984. I’m six (“and a half!”) years old, and this is the year I would discover some seriously cool stuff: Transformers and G.I. Joe. While G.I. Joe had debuted two years earlier, and my older brother, Kevin, doubtless had some of the toys, I didn’t really notice that stuff until after I’d turned six. At this point, I was beginning to become one of the “big kids,” and my tastes in toys reflected that. The fact that, a year later in 1985, both toy lines would have TV shows – which were, really, little better than half-hour-long daily commercials for said toys – certainly aided in my discovery. That year also saw the release of a new cartoon in the U.S.: Robotech, and by 1986, I’d also discovered Voltron, another Japanese import. Add these to my existing love of the Star Wars toys, and I’m shocked my mother was able to refrain from causing physical harm to myself or my brother whenever we happened to pass a toy aisle when we’d go shopping.
This post has been moved to my new blog, Geek Unified Theory http://geekunifiedtheory.com/my-first-video-game-system/
I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I decided to take on a mission in Star Trek Online… seems I bit off more than I could chew…
Open Beta is over, and now Star Trek Online is in “Head Start” for all of us who pre-ordered the game, giving us the opportunity…