Star Trek: Secret Of Vulcan Fury (PC, 1998)

Trekkers, Trekkies and even the most casual of Star Trek followers have suffered through a string of poor movies and TV shows recently that have left the franchise in worse shape than the Enterprise in "Star Trek III." One particularly bitter sting is the apparent demise of Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury, a most promising PC game that had legions of fans salivating. The game was developed by Interplay, which had begun working on the title in the late 1990s after a string of successful PC games based on the original Stark Trek series. Like previous Interplay titles such as Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, Vulcan Fury was to feature the voices of some of the original actors, such as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. In fact, the game was penned by longtime Star Trek writer Dorothy "D.C." Fontana.

Fontana's story focused on the Star Trek mythology of the Vulcans and Romulans. Thousands of years ago, a group of Vulcans that refused to accept logic and suppress their emotions fled to the planet Romulus to create what would later become the Romulan Star Empire. The Romulans and Vulcans would eventually engage in a sort of civil war for 100 years, though the details of the conflict and its results have never been explicitly stated in any Star Trek film or TV series.

Canceling The Secret of Vulcan Fury was highly illogical

The game reportedly picks up during the timeline of the original Star Trek series; the Romulans are negotiating a peace process with the Vulcans but at the same time are attempting to steal a secret and ultra-powerful Vulcan weapon called "Fury" from the 100-year war. The premise had legions of "history"-loving Star Trek fans salivating. In addition to what sounded like a great story, the game itself was to be divided in episodic content, with each episode allowing players to assume the role of one of the original characters (the game was to feature anywhere from four to eight episodes, according to conflicting reports).

But just when it looked like the game was going to hit warp speed, Vulcan Fury was zapped deep into its development. Despite hyping the title and presenting fabulous-looking trailers and screenshots, Interplay pulled the plug on Vulcan Fury in 1999. Trekkers created a ring of Websites devoted to saving the game, but to no avail. What happened? Despite going public on the NASDAQ in 1998, Interplay soon ran into financial troubles that would later get the company de-listed from the stock exchange and put it on the verge of bankruptcy. Many fans are still holding out hope and waiting for the day when Vulcan Fury is finally brought back to life like Spock.