Make It So
by Susan, HSM team writer
“For five-hundred years, every ship that has borne the name of the Enterprise has become a legend. This one is no different.”
So you thought you were happy on PlayStation Home with your Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms and tricorders and such — but the one thing you thought was missing, which would tie it all together, would be a personal space from a section of the starship Enterprise. A personal space so distinct that every time you spawned into it you instantly knew where you were.
If a company is wanting to release a new personal space based upon the Star Trek TNG series, it should be the most recognizable setting there is. And that is exactly what the people over at Flashman Studios have done. Last time we gave this group any coverage was in late August, when they released onto the PlayStation Home community their first set of commodities for us: the Star Trek PlayStation Home collection. It was a huge success, if personal observation is any guide; I saw Starfleet uniforms everywhere, and certainly took pride in wearing my own. Flashman’s CEO, Brad Young, was overheard saying their follow up would be a personal space with those “ever famous” sliding-door sound effects included. He was also heard saying that we should be on the lookout for future development of the classic Star Trek series as well.
Stardate 91528.66. December 4, 2013. Normality is restored. This is the day which the Home sci-fi community had been waiting eons for. The day that all the dreams of going on far-away missions way beyond the Neutral Zone became a reality. It’s the day that Flashman Studios delivered on its promise and made it so by releasing the Enterprise-D Bridge and adjoining Captain’s Ready Room estate to the community.
The space and items are currently available under the New and Featured tab on your XMB screen. You can grab the bundle of furniture items for $3.99, which gets you all ten items. I like the framed artwork ($.99) of the Enterprise-D, although I find the screensaver on the Captain’s Laptop ($.49) a little over the top for me. And as I stare into the fish tank ($.99), looking at what seems like fish frozen in a temporal rift, I’m thinking maybe this should have been an active item.
The main bridge itself is priced at $4.99 and includes the Captain’s Ready Room (has one slot for a wall hanging) which you can get to by going through a constantly opening and closing door that doesn’t come with the sound I was expecting. The only sound I could hear were the warp engines pulsating from the distant decks below. Fortunately, Flashman has already responded by stating they’re working on the door bug. Now, if they could just add some detail to the texture mapping, it’d really be something…
Still, looking around, I am still in awe that this is finally here. The main screen displays the space outside as the planets and stars whiz by — something the window inside the Ready Room was definitely absent of. The operations and communications consoles, tactical console and science stations with the LCARS verbiage and display locations are so accurate that it’s a joy to behold. Different Galaxy-class starships had different bridge designs, and were seen in four different configurations; this version of the bridge looks been to be an earlier (and more iconic) model, as opposed to the redesigned bridge last seen in Star Trek Generations.
“Take us..out there..”
Most layouts of the main bridge that I have seen include three turbolifts, but in this PlayStation Home design there are five. In the aft part of the bridge there is a turbolift, designated “Emergency,” where instead should be a door leading to the observation lounge (that should have been included, I think), and to the left of that is another lift were a door to the head would be. Also in the designs I saw the Ready Room was the first door on the left with the turbo lift on its right. In other words, the Home design appears to be somewhat reversed, or at the very least divergent, from what’s canonically established. For the hardcore Trekkies out there, these things are important, after all.
Sitting in the Captain’s chair and staring at the main viewscreen, I started to wonder about the what if possibilities of this place. What if those turbolifts some day transport us to another estate, which would be another part of the ship? If SCEA can build an interlocked Mansion, and Lockwood can build an entire Dream universe, why not apply the same formula to the Star Trek IP? Heck, just imagine Ten-Forward as a public space…
There is one potentially glaring error which Trekkies will likely not approve of: the wrong dedication plaque is used in the estate. There’s a pretty big difference between the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D and the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, and one can only hope that this mistake will be corrected in a future QA resubmission.
So is Enterprise-E coming out next?
Obviously, if you’re not a Trek fan, such a specialized estate probably won’t appeal to you. But if you are a Trek fan, there aren’t too many settings more iconic than the TNG bridge, and thus even with its flaws it’ll likely destined to perform well commercially.
- It's Star Trek- Helloooo!
- The details in the design.
- Price is inexpensive for what it offers.
- Did I say it was Star Trek?
- 10-Forward possibilities.
- Lack of viewer screen visual options.
- To many turbo lifts that take you nowhere.
- The incessant opening and closing of the ready Room Door.
- No owner rewards.
December 9th, 2013 by Susan | 7 comments
Susan is a team writer for HomeStation Magazine, co-founder of the award winning media group-AvatardProductions, a PlayStation MVP and a Home Guide. PSNID SCEA/xx96791DEATHxx-SCEE/oXx_EnIgMa_xXo. An avid PlayStation Home user, she is most often found setting land speed records at the Sodium 2 velocity racetracks, sitting at the Pier Park or playing with the R/C vehicles at Acorn Meadows Park.
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Great article Susan, you make some great points, and I too think that one of the most minor points, is actually huge to the fans out there, the dedication plaque. I too am really glad to see the new space, and I agree that 10 forward is a great idea, but to further that, I would love a private estate like crew quarters, a place for me to deco as I want. It is lacking in some places, but mostly they got it right. Great read Susan.
Thank you FEMAELSTROM, What is laying on the cutting room floor in the editors office is how I would love to see more sections of the ship come out as personal spaces. Engineering, sick bay with the medical hologram, shuttle bay, stellar cartography etc..and I would like to see 10-forward as a VIP public space. The original article even went into detail on how the Enterprise-D came about and it’s demise, but that got cut to- editor must not be a trekkie..
I also thought that the main view screen needed more choices in viewing options and that the red light at the bottom of view screen was missing its back and forth motion. All in all I think its a cool space and I even dropped a LOOT radio in the Ready Room!!
Funny, after I did my pictures, and I am about to really geek out here, I made it my office, as opposed to J.L. Picard’ s and decorated it the way I wanted,I even put the LOOT radio in the alcove with the food replicator.Good idea huh?
:^/ I’ll comment that the ready room actually has two picture hanging locations instead of one, as you mentioned.
I’ve chosen Granzella’s futuristic looking frame to use here. They look great.
You are indeed correct. At the time of this article I was only able to place 1 frame on the wall. I went back to look and as you pointed out you can place two! Thank you for the information
Come back and re-examine the place, it has been fixed. The dedication plate is right, there is a spawn point on the bridge, and the door works.
I see!! https://plus.google.com/u/0/