Deep Space Nine: The Hunt (PC/Mac)

1994 Paramount Interactive / Tachyon

Platforms: PC and Apple Mac

A tragic loss for fans of Star Trek, with this intriguing point and click adventure game called Deep Space Nine: The Hunt. The game was due out back in 1994 from Paramount Interactive / Tachyon for PC and Mac, but simply disappeared after what seemed to be significant progress made.

The game around the player taking on the role of one of the major races from the DS9 series, such as a Bajoran, Klingon, Human, or Ferengi. The game offers the player the chance to role play as their chosen race, immersing themselves in the DS9 universe.

Adverts for the game suggest that you would be hunting down a thief with a stolen device of enormous untold power. The Cardassians want to retrieve it, the Ferengis want to steal it. The storyline was reportedly original and was not replicating any specific episode of the television series. Instead, it would present entirely new scenarios that fit within the established lore, characters, and settings of Deep Space Nine.

Overall, the game was to be designed to allow players to approach situations in ways that align with the chosen race’s cultural traits and thinking. This would encourage deeper engagement and role-playing, as players must think and act like their selected race to gain benefits in the game. The locations, characters, and dynamics of the DS9 universe would have been familiar to fans of the series.

We have extracted a great overview of the game from Interactive Entertainment CD from 1994 in MP3 and text form, which you can check out below. Over time, we’ll add some key details from this into the page.

Regarding those involved in the development – Douglas Herring added his own page on the game with some artwork and screenshots. Back in 2007, he revealed the following:

“There is a long story here, and I will eventually get to it all. This was my first game done in 640×480 and the first game I worked on extensively that did not ship.
I was having a lot of fun with this game and it was cancelled just after the Viacom buy-out of Paramount, with 95% of the art done. I have all the pieces, and I always threaten to build a walk through in Director, but I doubt I will ever get around to it… more to come here…”

In his resume, he also added:

“Work included total art design, animation and background key frames and layout for this Adventure game based on the TV series. Art was 95% done and I had already moved on when Paramount put the project on hold.”

So we know that the game was seemingly quite advanced (at least with the artwork), and what happened. It isn’t clear why it was decided to cancel the game, though hopefully Douglas will some day shed some light on what the reasons may have been.

With Douglas having all of the artwork, there is hope that something of the development could be preserved and showcased.

With thanks to Karl Kuras for highlighting and Archive.org for scans, Douglas Herring for images from his website, and Interactive Entertainment CD.