Bar Trek had simple beginnings. Back at RPI on the mainframe computer system that was running MTS was an online conferencing known as *FORUM. It was your usual type of online CMC.
There was a discussion group on *FORUM that was sponsored by the RPI student chapter of the ACM. This forum was called Open Forum where pretty anything could go. In to this forum moved a new attempt at a story that had come from a forum discussion called Stories. This discussion was called Star Trek III.V. The first stories were very rambling, subject to frequent, whimsical changes and did not really make a story. They were more of just a play ground for a mild form of role playing.
That discussion wound down when the summer break at RPI began. However, on October 14th, 1984, it happened again: Star Trek IV: The Search for Insanity was created. By 3:19am, October 15th a good bit of the crew had signed up for the discussion and they were off again.
This time the story had more direction, in addition this is where the USS Vengeance, registry ME-262 was re-discovered and Lt. Cmdr. Buck Dharma took command of his lost, and now found, ship. This would become important in the future stories as this ship would become the focal point for the original characters and the adventures they would travel on.
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