Mike Raspuzzi's Website
TOPS-20 VTTREK Game Page
Back in the early 1980s, I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in the TOPS-20 monitor group. I joined the TOPS-20 group out of college knowing that DEC had committed to one final release of the operating system (TOPS-20 7.0) and then 5 more years of support. If you search the Internet, you will find many of the TOPS-20 sources that relate to the final release. You will find software that I developed for the TOPS-20 monitor for release 7.0 as well.
While I was in the TOPS-20 group, I had the opportunity to play around with a game called VTTREK. I was introduced to VTTREK in college. It was one of the first distributed, 3-D, multi-player computer games that we were exposed to. One person started the game and then each player would join the game and chose their own ship to control.
The game consisted of 4 Klingon Cruisers and 4 Federation Starships. Each side had 4 starbases and the universe had 16 planets out there in "space". The object of the game was to try and destroy the enemy fleet. While patrolling the universe, you could also capture planets as you came across them. It was virtually impossible to take on an enemy ship one on one and be victorious unless the target ship was severely wounded. Winning the game took team work.
Once I obtained the VTTREK sources at DEC, I set about making some modifications to the game. First, the sources lacked comments and structure. I did my best to add comments based on what I learned about the internal workings of the game. I also structured the code for readability. Next, I felt it was time to add some "modern" graphics to the game. Someone had added the ability to play VTTREK on DEC's old REGIS (aka GIGI) terminals. I completed the debug and coding to support for REGIS terminals. Phaser shots had color and photon torpedoes could be seen flying away from your ship's screen.
The last known up to date VTTREK sources and manual are available to download from this website (see sidebar). I have seen other source code samples of VTTREK around the net but none have the graphics updates and the updated comments that I had done. Feel free to download the sources and manual provided here. You are free to reuse and post them elsewhere. I only ask that the edit history and other parts of the files remain as is.
For the last 10 years or so, I have been working on a Windows version of VTTREK. I have viewed many 3D models that were graciously made available on the Internet and incorporated some of them into my game.
"Trek3" is still not complete. I need to develop a particle system for the weapons (photon torpedoes and phasers). However, I have made a copy of the game available (see sidebar) that you wer welcome to try out. The images needed to run the game have been digitally signed.
The guide contains information on running the game and controls for your ship. I will add more features to the game as time permits (weapons, computer AI for non-human controlled ships, planet rebellion, etc.).
The download is a ZIP. All that needs to be done is to unzip the game files and read the enclosed guide to get started. You can explore the 3D world of the game and capture planets. Combat is not available as the weapon systems have not yet been developed.
Some screen captures from the game can be seen here. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
VTTrek Files
Here is the VTTREK source file 4.0.0 edit 204:
VTTREK manual and help:
Trek3 Files
Here is a ZIP file of the game (V1.0.1.0):
Trek3 Guide and Release Notes:
