Deck & Conn

Commodore Chaw stares at you from across her beat up navy-issue metal desk, taking a long drag from her cigarette and ashing it into the antique tray to her left.

She leans back in her chair and stares you in the eyes.

“Lieutenant, there’s no other way to say this - with the death of your Captain, there’s nobody else qualified to command your boat. I wish this was under better circumstances, but you did an admirable job getting her back home - you saved 34 lives, and that’s no small feat… so we’re giving you command.

“I’ve been authorised to issue you a battlefield commission to Lieutenant Commander, and you’re going to take her out on the next war patrol the moment the repairs from that last attack are fixed. FTL drives will be up tomorrow, and you should be able to requisition the missing torpedoes and reactor fuel you’ll require.

“League gunboats and corvettes are still out there in the quadrant, threatening colonies all over the place. We can’t have valuable war hardware sitting around until we can get a commander transported in to take the job. I wish I could give you time to grieve the Captain but… war is what it is.

“Get out there, Lieutenant Commander - and do your squadron proud.”

---

Deck & Conn is a military sci-fi space ship command game - a spiritual re-imagining of 1971’s classic Star Trek mainframe game (and its successors such as Super Star Trek and EGA Trek).

It’s a “missing 1990s Microprose game” - intended to give the vibe of a late ‘80s or early ‘90s Microprose military sim, but borrowing the core combat mechanics of one of the oldest and most perseverant strategic space games ever created.

The meta-game has been updated, of course - adding a system designed to feel like you’re taking our submarines on war patrols, but in an “outer-space” that’s fifteen minutes into the future of 1986.

The game is in active development now, just about to hit alpha.

You can read the live development log over on my web site here.