I liked Bridge Commander quite a bit, but absolutely LOVED the Starfleet Command games. One of the reasons I enjoy STO as much as I do is because it feels like a good middle ground between them.

Ah, STBC. The good old days.

Or if you're interested in some day playing the game rather than just reading a dev blog that's been running since 2004:

http://bridge-commander-2.com
https://www.facebook.com/stbc2

This game has been in development a fraction of the time Excalibur has, and already has a sorta playable alpha build available (link in the Feb 2 post on the facebook page). Excalibur has out-of-engine physics demos and model views and UI mock-ups.

Absolutely, i agree.

Ah, the good old days of the SFCommand days.

Thanks for the links, yes that game has been in development forever and its like when do you anticipating getting done?

To me the best Star Trek game of all is "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" it came out on like 20 floppy discs and is pretty old, but it captured what I always enjoyed about Star Trek. Most games are about action, attacking others and the like and there is some of that in the 25th Anniversary game but there is also a lot of scanning stuff and exploring and figuring out mysteries which I think most Trek games either do poorly or completely ignore. I would love to see a modern version of that game, which I think STO approaches some what but there is far more "destroy" missions than I recall from that old game.

If you're interested in using mods being made RIGHT NOW for STBC, check out the forums at
BC-Central. Yes, this is a plug and yes I am registered over there.
We even have an STO thread.

Loved STBC it had full 3D space combat. I miss the days when I'd be the only Akira in a pvp match and everyone went Sovereign or HC when they got nooby and didn't like losing . A lot of people underestimated the Akira and the accusations of cheating when I whooped their Sovereign were common, honestly who'd expect someone to fly straight and allow torpedos to hit you...tsk tsk.

Oh and those hybrid ships were especially nasty with their super agile torpedoes and heavy forward firing assault...yup definitely good old days and ships like the CG sovereign were lush to look at.

Elite Force & Elite Force II were both very good. There was even multiplayer, but no idea if that still works.

I must admit I never played Bridge Commander though. If one can still find a copy, does it run on Win7 or do you need something like Dosbox?

The last time I had it running was on Win XP. I was using a lot of the mods to reappreciate the game though from Bridge Commander Files. There are so many great mods for Bridge Commander, it's not even funny. It's ironic that a community of dedicated gamers with a love for Star Trek can do more with a dated game than Crytpic can do with STO.