The Star Trek DAC Decompile Thread

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So... Star Trek DAC. Not exactly the Bridge Commander Sequel I was hoping for when I bought it at Walmart back in 2010, but it's still a hell of a fun game for what it is. That said, the developers don't exist anymore and I like my games modded to hell and back, so over the past several months I've been rummaging through the game's internals to try and figure out what makes it tick. Admittedly I haven't made much progress, but I figured I'd put what little I have found out onto one of the last remaining community hubs for this game in the hopes that maybe somebody can take this further than I've been able to.

-During the DAC logo intro where it tells you to press start, pressing the tilde key (~ or `) brings up a single white text box that runs across the whole screen. It seems to be a very rudimentary implementation of a dev console, or perhaps the leftovers of one that wasn't fully gutted before release. I have yet to find any commands that produce any recognizable result. The usual suspects (god, godmode, noclip, ifeelfree, testmode, devmode, "SappyIsNotHappy"", etc) have turned up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. All text sent through this box appears in a text file called "EditorCmdHistory" which implies that this box can be used to alter aspects of the game prior to /something/ initializing with the "Warp In" main menu animation. Further testing required.

-DAC runs on what appears to be a custom, in-house engine created by Naked Sky Entertainment called Nimbus (name of a type of cloud formation). Nimbus, in turn, seems to be based on something called "Crossword". Another possibility is that, due to DAC's top-down nature, "Crossword" could have been a codename for the game in-development. Further possibilities exist that they pulled an LJN and just slapped some Star Trek assets onto a top-down arcade shooter called Crossword.

-DAC's objects are baked/cooked into a proprietary format (.no files) with individual folders for each platform, likely reflecting the names of the retail/release branches. Since I'm on PC and don't do much console gaming, I only have "CookedForPC". If I find a way to get the demo files off my original Xbox 360 hard drive, we can have a crack at the Xbox version.

-".no" likely stands for "NetworkObject" or "Nimbus Object", as there are multiple references to NetworkObjects in the exe as well as a ".no" file called NimbusObjects.

-There is a section in the game's Config.ini called NathanHack with a single configuration option: "SappyISNOTHAPPY = 1". Enabling/disabling it seems to have no noticeable effect on the game.

-There is a .no file called "LOLMenu" whose function is as of yet unknown. Could possibly be linked to the editor. Running "LOLMENU" through the "console" doesn't do anything. Converting it to a .dll file yields no fruit either. Further testing parameters must be devised.

-There is a ".no" file called "FlashMenus" and another called "FlashHUD", suggesting that the interface for this game uses Adobe Flash in some form. That'll be a fun one to contend with, come December 2020.

Needless to say, I'd absolutely love to get my hands on some documentation, or better yet, some actual development tools used by NSE. Star Trek games have a pretty mixed rep and abandonment of titles like this doesn't really help matters. Since the level transitions go into a full 3D view behind the ship, I think it's reasonable to assume that it's at least worth gutting this game to extract the models, textures, and soundtrack. Maybe a first-person/behind-the-ship but all the time mod could be devised. Surely I can't be the only one who wants to poke and prod at this game! Feel free to contribute any information you find below :)