Star Trek fan David Penn recently shared with me a VHS tape crammed with vintage Trek videos. One of the gems is a commercial for a 1989 phone game based on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I consider it a gem because I had never heard of the game.  

Here is the commercial:

And just to be clear: if you’re picturing gamers pulling out smartphones for this, nope. It would have been old-timey landline phones almost exclusively.

There is no information on this game online and certainly no recording of the audio. Until I posted the video above, even the commercial did not exist on YouTube. Which means fandom has forgotten about this little Trek past time.

Players were presented with “six interactive Star Trek adventures” and, being a phone game, the interaction was of the “Press three to raise shields” variety. At $2.50 per call, the phone bill could deliver a nasty surprise at the end of the month.

Luckily, Penn played the game and shared some memories.

A narrator (not a recognizable actor) would quickly introduce a scenario. As the story progressed, you were given a choice and made your decision by pressing a button on the phone. If you scored high enough, you would be mailed a prize. I got a USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A ensign patch, which was about the size of a US half-dollar. Obviously, I wasn’t good enough at the game to be command material.

I can’t remember if there was more than one dilemma per game. I’m afraid I don’t remember anything really specific about the scenarios, other than one I played involved an encounter in space and the option of firing phasers or photon torpedoes. I do remember being delighted that they used actual TOS sound effects in the story and game play. 

I don’t think I could have played it more than eight times total. I wouldn’t have had more than $20 to throw away at the time. 

@joebailey64 on Twitter X told me he was also a winner: “I was sent a small delta pin that was about a centimetre in height.”

I am glad I could post the commercial and a little information on the game, but I really wish I could have located more details. I like to think that someone out there has audio recordings or scripts of the scenarios.

And remember kids: check with your parents before calling.

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I also published a post about the seasons one, two, and three bloopers that were on Penn’s tape. More videos are coming. 

Postscript

MeTV.com posted an article about other 1-900 game lines (and some that peddled gossip and teen heartthrob dreams). It seems Hulk Hogan was plying a similar game back in the ’80s. From the article:

Hulk Hogan gave his Hulkamaniacs a little interactivity with his hotline. The WWF superstar had a game built into his 1-900 number that allowed you to “wrestle” opponents like the Mountie by pressing buttons on your phone to perform moves.