Secret of Vulcan Fury : The Star Trek Game That Never Was


Remember folks, this is from a game in 1997. Surprisingly life-like.

Not that long ago, Ken Allen, composer behind classic Sierra game titles Space Quest I (VGA), Space Quest IV, Oil's Well and Jones in the Fast Lane, posted a video onto his YouTube channel that apparently shows demo footage of a game he was working on in 1997 in preparation for E3 in Atlanta. What? You mean Ken Allen produced games as well as composed music for them, I hear you say? Yes it was news to me too and he didn't just produce any point 'n' click adventure (not too surprising about the genre choice considering his time at Sierra) but Star Trek: Judgment Rites the CD-ROM version, one of my favourite point 'n' click adventures based on a T.V. show - actually probably the only one :).

This is when he was working at Interplay of course and in 1997, his team was working on a new Star Trek adventure game but this time using advanced 3D graphics. While the walking animations leave a lot to be desired (to be fair, it's only an early demo) the lip-synching and facial animations are amazing, especially when you consider this was done more than a decade ago! It's a pity the project never went ahead; I for one would love to play another Star Trek point 'n' click adventure game :).

EDIT (05/07/2014): Ken Allen has clarified that he worked on the CD-ROM version of the game as a producer, instead of being the designer of Star Trek: Judgment Rites as I previously reported. The core game was produced by Rusty Buchert. Thanks for the info Ken!


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