Have You Played... EGATrek?
Lawyers on the starboard bow!
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Star Trek? Never heard of it. EGATrek is a totally original game based on a totally original universe, and absolutely, definitely not a conversion of the Star Trek game built for mainframes back in the 1970s. It's not the only one, but if you've played it on PC, this is almost certainly the version that burned its way into your CRT and/or heart.
It's a pretty simple game, really. As Captain of the USS Lexington, you've got a region of space to protect from the evil Klingons Mongols. It's about warping from sector to sector, blowing them up, trying to take out as many not-Klingons as possible, until pretty much inevitably taking too much damage and boldly going where everybody ultimately goes. Honestly, even by the standards of the time, it was quite simplistic - those standards including such games as Star Control 2 and Starflight. But, this had one thing in its favour that they didn't. It was free! And for a freebie, it wasn't a bad way to spend a little time, playing starship captain and imagining future games where bits like seeking out strange new worlds, new life and new civilisations, and generally anything other than starship combat would take the focus. But then, fast-forward to now, and that's basically the only thing players of Star Trek Online want to do...
At least we had Star Trek: 25th Anniversary to fill in the gap.