“Hard about!  Keep firing at that cruiser!”, Mike shouted.  The room was electric, everyone focused on the goal of the moment; keeping four alien vessels from destroying starbase 3.

We were playing Artemis, the Spaceship Bridge Simulator, and instead of each operating a spaceship, we were working together on one bridge.

Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the "main screen", while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge officer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control.  No one player can play this game; you’d be a captain with no crew, furiously running from station to station.  Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room ("bridge") , and while almost all of them have individual work stations, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn't have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do.

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In our extended play session, we
- destroyed a couple dozen enemies of different types
- docked with space stations to replenish our energy and torpedoes
- skirted black holes
- got chased by a space monster (we ran away screaming most unprofessionally)
- were maddened by an elite enemy that kept disappearing from our sensors
- were surprised by an enemy fleet that hid in a nebula
- accidentally ran right into a space minefield (and died)
- had more fun than should be allowed

While only for Windows PCs, Artemis doesn’t seem to have very high system requirements.  The website lists DirectX 9 and Shader Model 2.0, which any 4 year old computer should have.  The developer takes a travelling set of Acer netbooks to cons, which he says run the game fine.  Don’t know what shader model you have?  No worries.  Just download the free demo from the Artemis website.  If the demo doesn’t work for you, you know not to pay for it.

The developer doesn’t sound like Mac or Linux support is coming anytime soon, but a quick check of the website forums reveals that people are having good luck running Artemis using WineSkin and Wine 1.3.

How did this game come to be?  “Long ago,” said Thom Robertson, the developer, “when my buddies and I all had Commodore64s (like, 25 years ago), I had an idea. I could link our computers together and play a game like the Star Trek bridge. One machine would run the simulation and the main screen. Each other machine would be a bridge station, like Helm, Science, or Weapons. That idea has lain dormant in my brain for a very long time, but recently my muse told me *Make it. Now.* So I finally did.”

Thom Robertson has been an indie developer since he was 13, and from the day he got an IBM BASIC manual from his dad, all he ever wanted to do was create cool computer games. He’s created and sold almost a dozen shareware computer games, published articles in old game magazines, and created a small but popular MMORPG, Blade Mistress.

But he’s also a veteran of the computer games industry, with over 15 years experience, mostly as a programmer.  He’s worked on Sims PS2, All Star Baseball, Harpoon II, Barbie Fashion Designer, Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan's Fury, Guardians: Agents of Justice, and Vampire: the Masquerade. He’s worked for Microprose, Interplay, Acclaim, Digital Domain, Three-Sixty Pacific, Edge of Reality, and Adrenalin Entertainment.

With a pedigree like that, it’s no wonder Artemis looks good and works great.  It’s also surprisingly easy to use and forgiving of newb players, which is exactly what we were 24 hours ago.  Now we’re a crew, ready to go where no one has gone before;  Difficulty level 4.

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