The Star Trek: Timelines Mobile Game Has The Greatest Easter Egg Ever

The developers of Star Trek: Timelines have decided to plug in a rather fantastic easter egg that pays homage to one of the silliest episodes in the sci-fi series' storied history. The next time you boot up the popular mobile title, be on the lookout for a working copy of "The Game."

If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that video games can be very, very dangerous. That's a fact that was portrayed in the documentary series Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the introduction of a video game so addictive that it nearly brainwashed the entire crew. Known simply as The Game, this deadly simulation tasked players with mentally chucking a disc into a swirling vortex. Devious, I know. Here's a look at the destruction a simple video game nearly brought to the entire crew.

So now that you know the history of The Game, you likely understand why it is so important that it has been replicated in the mobile title, Star Trek: Timelines. We consider this a brilliant sort of "say no to drugs" campaign on the part of the developers, simulating The Game while not actually replicating it. It serves as a reminder of the dangers posed by The Game, showing players just how life-threatening this hobby can actually be.

The folks over at Kotaku were the first to stumble upon this wild homage. The Game first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation's fifth season. In the episode, a seemingly harmless video game was brought back from the planet Risa, resulting in everyone who played it going a bit loopy. It turns out that The Game was being used by one of the series' baddies to screw with the minds of their enemies, making folks easier targets by basically turning them into drones who want nothing more than to make everyone else play The Game, too.

Obviously things went fine for the crew or we wouldn't all be here today. That's how history and cold, hard facts work.

In remembrance of mankind's near ruination, the developers of Star Trek: Timelines plugged an item into their own game called a "Ktarian Headset." The description of the headset simply reads, "Just let go. Relax." If you choose to do exactly that, you'll enter an augmented reality game that is, well, The Game. You'll get to fling discs at blue cones but, this time around, it won't turn anyone into braindead zombies.

No matter what standard weeknight television show you're talking about, you can almost guarantee that they will eventually take a crack at video games and the threat they pose to we simple-minded humans. While it's fun revisiting this 1990's Star Trek take on the dangers of virtual entertainment, we're a bit bummed when we realize that even modern shows seem to be very confused when it comes to games and game culture. Ah well. At least it's worth a laugh.

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