Build Your Own Federation Ship & Other Trek Fun
Intel and Cryptic Studios have offered up a grand time-waster for Trekkies and Trekkers and other geeks who just love playing with nacelles. Visit the Star Trek Architect Online site where you can build your very own starship. It’s limited in the number of options, but in reality, I think that’s part of what makes this a great time-waster. If you had enough to do that you got lost in the details, it would no longer be a time-waster, and it would move into the realm of leave-me-alone-I’m-saving-the-galaxy game time. You can build a cruiser, a science vessel or an escort ship. Within each type, you can then pick one of three class body models to act as your base. Then you can begin modifying it using bits and pieces of the other ships in the type you’ve selected. I elected to skip over the Constitution class as a base; it just seemed a little too predictable. However, I did want a star cruiser of my very own, so I began with the Vesper class as my base, then scavenged from the Excalibur class to build my ship. Once it’s done, you can name your ship and the captain of your shiny new vessel. You may even share your captain’s log on Twitter and Facebook, if you so desire.
In addition to giving you the chance to play Scotty for a few minutes, working as a Federation Engineer, they also offer up a mini game in which you must tag and match pieces of ships to the ghostly schematics outline fast enough to beat the clock. Knowing how we geeks love our freebies, too, they’ve also set up a sweepstakes with some sweet loot; the grand prize is an exact replica of Captain Kirk‘s Captain’s Chair. Three second place winners will each get an Intel Core i7-920 processor; and ten third place winners will receive a copy of the Star Trek Online game and one month of game time. How cool would it be to come home every day, hit the food replicator for a nice fresh bowl of gagh, grab your decanter of Romulan Ale and plop down in your very own captain’s chair to watch Chuck reruns, or play some World of Warcraft or Star Trek Online?
This new promotion fuels rumors that Cryptic may be taking Star Trek Online down the free-to-play route, akin to Turbine‘s Dungeons and Dragon’s Online. For more details, check out Big Download’s detailed article about STO.
If you’re starting to feel a bit nostalgic, you can find full length episodes of some of the classic Star Trek show on CBS’s website. They’re also sharing all of the Enterprise episodes, for a limited time.
In the spirit of DiY Star Trek goodies….For a bit of fun in the kitchen (if your replicator happens to be on the fritz right now, and you are forced to make food the old fashioned way…)
Acetaria – Romulan Legume Salad
Iotian Risotto – Iotian rice with cheese
Ha Rageel – Vulcan Carrot Loaf
Tufeen Hashani – Vulcan Wedding Cake
And the big find, for hardcore Starfleet Wannabes….here’s the golden ticket. The recipes for the drinks served at Quark’s Bar at Star Trek: The Experience, courtesy of bartenders who served under Quark. And Captain Picard, to give you the official how-to for the perfect Captain’s Cocktail.
At this point, there’s just one thing left to say, when we’ve given you this bounty of boons, to kick your trekking fun up to the next level…Make it so.
