Simon & Schuster Interactive has announced plans to build its second game based on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine license. Called Dominion Wars, the upcoming game will be a real-time strategy game with an emphasis on tactical space combat. Players assume control of up to six ships from the four DS9 races - Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, and Jem 'Hadar - as they captain those ships through combat. And of course, there will be both single- and multiplayer battles.

　　Los Angeles, Calif.-based Gizmo Games will develop the title. While this will be the first game Gizmo has developed on its own, the team has helped develop games for Activision - such as Mech Warrior, Dark Reign, and Heavy Gear.

　　For those who are not familiar with Star Trek: Deep Space, the Dominion Wars game takes its back story directly from the TV series, as the Federation and Klingon allies fight to take control of the Alpha Quadrant from the Cardassians and the Dominion Alliance.

　　We spoke to Gizmo's founder and president, Gary Wagner, to find out what other details we could find out about the game. Wagner has always been a big Star Trek fan and has watched through all the generations of the popular series. As a gamer, he has observed that no one game has really combined a solid gameplay experience with the Star Trek universe. And while this may seem like a monumental task for any developer, Wagner thinks that Dominion Wars will "finally reach that mark" as the game with the gameplay hard-core fans demand while "staying true to the Star Trek universe."

　　Originally, the two-and-a-half-year-old company was shopping around an RTS title it had been working on. Simon & Schuster asked if Gizmo would be willing to do an RTS based on the Star Trek license. The answer was a resounding yes. Wagner found that he could see a potential game hidden in the stellar battles in the Deep Space Nine series, and with Gizmo's focus on building RTS games, Dominion Wars was born.

　　Currently, the developer's team of 12 is hard at work at building detailed craft, game logic, AI, and designing missions using Mass Media's Quantum engine. Wagner promises more information, as well as screenshots that show off the upcoming title, soon. For now, gamers will have to wait until the fall of 2000 to play Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars.