Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg is an interactive fiction video game set in the Star Trek universe. It was written by Hilary Bader, directed by James L. Conway, and featured an original score by Dennis McCarthy. It was released in 1996 by Simon and Schuster for Mac OS and Windows 95.

Plot and gameplay
In the midst of a new Borg incursion ten years after the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet cadet Qaylan Furlong is given an opportunity by Q (John de Lancie) to go back in time and prevent his father's death in that historic battle.

Q sends Qaylan to the U.S.S. Righteous, his father's Excelsior class starship, just before the Battle of Wolf 359. Originally, the ship's security officer Coris Sprint was killed by a Borg intruder over four hours before the battle. Q gives Qaylan control of Sprint's body at this point, allowing him to change history. Since Sprint is Bijani (a heretofore unseen alien race), he has the ability to go into a "Bijani Pain Trance" which allows him to complete jobs even when feeling immense pain. This later becomes an important plot point in allowing the character to complete the game.

Meanwhile, Q takes over the role of Dr. Thaddeus Quint, whose personality is similar to Q's.

At several points throughout the game, the player (Qaylan) is given multiple choices about what actions should be taken in various situations. The results vary based on whatever actions are chosen. If the player chooses poorly, Q will reset time and allow him to try again. If the player makes too many mistakes, however, Q becomes bored and the game ends.

Cast of characters
Cadet Qaylan Furlong / Lieutenant Coris Sprint: The game's player-character. Because the story is seen through this character's point of view, he never appears on camera. It is implied that he is male, approximately 19 years old, and bears a physical resemblance to his father. Q gives Qaylan control of Bijani security officer Coris Sprint (briefly portrayed by Tarik Ergin), which allows him to interact with the crew of the U.S.S. Righteous.

Q / Doctor Thaddeus Quint (John de Lancie): A seemingly-omnipotent being who has taken an interest in the welfare of Cadet Qaylan Furlong. Q gives the cadet a special hand phaser and tricorder to aid him on his mission. Occasionally he will also mock the player if he's not succeeding. For the purposes of the story, he takes the body and role of the ship's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Thaddeus Quint (also played by Murray Rubinstein), but Qaylan continues to see Q in his true form.

Lieutenant Ralph Furlong (Jeff Allin): Conn officer and father of Qaylan. He has an easy-going personality.

Captain Nikolai Andropov (Barry Lynch): Commanding officer of the U.S.S. Righteous. He's stern and gruff, but maintains a very professional and by-the-book attitude.

Ensign Anastasia Targus (Marnie McPhail): Operations officer. She has an outgoing personality and deep-seated emotional issues stemming from her time as a Cardassian prisoner of war. She has a cybernetic implant on her forehead for medical reasons.

Commander Bennington Biraka (John Cothran Jr.): Executive officer and counsellor. He is well-liked by the crew, and offers both encouragement and pearls of wisdom during difficult situations.

Production
The U.S.S. Righteous sets are mostly redressed versions of the sets of the U.S.S. Voyager originally aired on the Star Trek: Voyager TV series, with the exception of the bridge, which was a redressed version of the bridge of the U.S.S. Excelsior as seen in the Voyager episode "Flashback".

The visual effects for this game were originally produced for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pilot episode "Emissary", which also depicted the Battle of Wolf 359.

With the exception of Murray Rubinstein and some minor players, the entire cast has appeared in one or more Star Trek TV series. For example, Jeff Allin also guest-starred as a single parent in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Imaginary Friend"; John Cothran, Jr. has played two different Klingon characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; and Marnie McPhail played one of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E crew members in Star Trek: First Contact (in which, ironically, her character is assimilated by the Borg).

Additionally, the Battle of Sector 001 seen in Star Trek: First Contact took place in 2373; Qaylan Furlong is from the year 2377, ten years after Wolf 359. That same year, a Borg Sphere pursued the U.S.S. Voyager to Earth through a transwarp conduit, and was subsequently destroyed by Starfleet.

PC version technical notes
Unlike its predecessor, Star Trek: Klingon, the PC version of Star Trek: Borg was intended exclusively for use with Windows 95 (the most common Microsoft operating system of its day). To enforce this, the OS and graphical settings of the user's computer are checked whenever the game is run. This causes difficulty for players with modern hardware, as the program automatically assumes that only systems running Windows 95 with 16-bit color are capable of supporting the game. A patch was later released which allows the game to be installed and run with Windows 98, but the color settings must be reduced to 16-bit before the game will launch.