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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesStar Trek Online brought three ships from older Star Trek games into its Heritage Starship Bundle in 2024: the Typhon and Valkyrie fighters from Invasion, the Premonition from Armada, and the Achilles from Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars. The aim was not to redesign them from scratch, but to restore their clarity, preserve what made them recognizable, and add detail suited to STO.
Why STO turned to classic game ships in 2024
Art director Thomas Marrone told io9 that the STO team had a production opening between screen-franchise releases. The team preferred to watch new episodes before adapting material from them, and there was no immediate show content it needed to bring into the game. Marrone proposed using that window to revisit ships from older Star Trek games. (io9’s interview with Marrone and James Swallow)
The resulting Heritage Starship Bundle included three new Federation starships inspired by classic games, along with classic equipment and other bundle items, according to STO’s official announcement.
What the team wanted to preserve
Marrone described the work as bringing older designs back into focus: “The analogy I use is sort of wiping the grease off the lens to bring it into focus.” The central test was whether each ship still read as the same vessel. “The shapes, the silhouettes are all exactly the same, and if there are details there, we honor them and incorporate them.”
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That meant carrying forward visible details and the original design intent, while adding surface definition that older game hardware could not display. The degree of interpretation varied according to how much visual information the original game had provided.
How the three ship adaptations differed
| Ship | Original game | What changed in STO |
|---|---|---|
| Typhon and Valkyrie fighters | Star Trek: Invasion | The Typhon was treated as a high-detail rendering of the established design; the Valkyrie fighters accompanied it in the bundle. Marrone credited Tobias Richter with modeling the Typhon. |
| Premonition | Star Trek: Armada | Its original model had low polygon detail and low-resolution textures, leaving more room for interpretation. The team added visual flourishes and function while aiming to keep it recognizable to Armada players and consistent with STO’s lore. Eric Henry handled the design. |
| Achilles | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars | The goal was a more detailed version that retained the earlier appearance. Marrone credited Tobias Richter with modeling it. |
The comparison is about the amount of latitude available, not a ranking of the finished ships. The Premonition’s source model left more to invent; the Typhon and Achilles had firmer visual reference points to preserve. Marrone characterized the latter two as high-detail versions of existing designs.
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Why the Premonition allowed more interpretation
Armada was a real-time strategy game, and its Premonition model had to work within the technical limits of its era. With less polygonal and texture detail to carry forward, STO’s artists could develop more of the ship’s visual language. Their constraint was still recognition: the result needed to evoke the vessel Armada players remembered while making sense alongside STO’s ships and lore.
That differs from simply adding detail to a clearly documented silhouette. For the Typhon and Achilles, the stated goal was to sharpen what was already visible. For the Premonition, the team had to make more design decisions without losing its identity.
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James Swallow’s connection to the Typhon
James Swallow, the writer of Star Trek: Invasion, helped develop the Typhon and its crew. He recalled that the game was his first video-game project and the first Star Trek game for a Sony console. “We broke a lot of new ground with that project, and I have a lot of love for it.”
Swallow said seeing the Typhon sharpened and brought back to life was exciting. He also described himself as an occasional STO player who enjoys exploring the game world in his ship; that is his personal response, not evidence of broader player reception.
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When the Heritage bundle launched
The bundle launched on PC on July 25, 2024, and was scheduled to arrive on PlayStation and Xbox on August 22, 2024, according to the io9 interview and official announcement. Those are historical launch dates; they do not establish whether the bundle is currently on sale.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A broader precedent for adapting Trek designs
STO had previously adapted material from outside its screen stories. In an official guest blog about the Vesta line, the team described bringing a ship originally designed by Mark Rademaker for the Destiny novel trilogy into the game, researching both the ship and the novels to represent its lore. The Heritage ships had a different origin—three video games—but the Vesta example shows that translating an established design into STO was not new to the team.
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