About

The Trench Run Revision 2020

When I created The Trench Run, EA had just signed a deal with Disney to develop and produce Star Wars games. Six years later, only three games have made it to release, with another project cancelled entirely, and who knows how many more were in the planning stage that never saw the light of day. While I’m not ready to say the Disney and EA deal was a mistake, I will admit it has not turned out the way I thought it was going to. I thought there would be a new Star Wars game just about every year. Maybe not at the same fast-paced schedule as Lucasarts was releasing Star Wars games during the 2000s, but certainly more than an average of one every two years (which in retrospective, is about the bare minimum it should be for game development).

The Trench Run was supposed to be a hub for all the news, reviews, and everything else in between for Star Wars games. I had planned to do features like the evolution of a planet, taking a look at different incarnations of a Star Wars planet in different games and how it was shaped with each specific game in mind. I had planned to do retrospectives, like taking video tours of the ghost cities of Star Wars Galaxies, cities that were once busy with doctors giving buffs and bounty hunters picking up missions. These were supposed to be the in between things while articles about new upcoming Star Wars games took center stage. But when news about future Star Wars games was sparse, I spent more time working on these ancillary projects, and anyone who writes will tell you projects always take a lot more time than you expect. Long story short, news released every few months rather than every week, or at best every month, that I was hoping.

So where does that leave The Trench Run? Well, simply put, it will no longer be strictly a Star Wars games site. I learned long ago you should never keep your writing in a single certain box. That is to say, never write solely on one topic and one topic alone. I thought I was doing that by writing about all Star Wars games rather than just the only big one at the time, Star Wars: The Old Republic, but this many years later, I can see I was still keeping myself boxed in. So The Trench Run will now serve as my blog, giving me the chance to not only write about Star Wars games, but other games, as well movies, television, and the occasional book. What this means is a lot more casual posts and less formal structured news or review type writings.

If you’re still interested in only Star Wars related things, I’ve put a Star Wars tag in the menu for only posts related to Star Wars. I will leave the original about page below for posterity as I wrote it in 2014.

What is The Trench Run?

Near the end of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the Rebel Alliance mounts an assault on the Empire and its Death Star in what is known as the Battle of Yavin. During the battle, Luke Skywalker and a squadron of X-Wings flew in formation down a narrow path on the surface of the Death Star in an effort to fire a pair of proton torpedoes into its exhaust port, causing a chain reaction that would destroy the Death Star. The attack run became known as the trench run, or Death Star trench run.

The Trench Run is a site about Star Wars games, both past and future. When EA signed its deal with Disney to publish games within the Star Wars universe for the next 10 years, it became clear that not only would Star Wars video games continue beyond the legacy of LucasArts, but that news and information on these new games was going to come soon. I started searching the web for a site that dealt specifically with Star Wars video games, but I was surprised to find next to nothing. The few I did find either provided Star Wars news in general, or only provided updates on specific games. The only one close to what I was looking for was JediKnight.net, which stopped updating in 2008. Seeing the void and the opportunity, I created The Trench Run, a site that provides analysis and critique of past Star Wars games, while providing news and updates on future games.

Why is it called The Trench Run?

I named the site The Trench Run because, next to the Battle of Hoth and the speederbike chase in Return of the Jedi, the trench run is one of the most iconic and cinematic sequences in the original Star Wars trilogy. To me, it encapsulates the idea of taking a familiar scene and continually finding ways to reinvent it with the player in the middle of the action. It appears in the original Star Wars arcade game, Star Wars for the NES, Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Rebel Assault, all three Rogue Squadron games, X-Wing, and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade. The behind the scenes section on Wookieepedia for the trench run even specifically mentions its different incarnations in video games. Not only did it seem appropriate considering its many appearances in games, but it also works metaphorically when looking back at older games for both their high and low points.

How is The Trench Run organized?

The Star Wars universe encompasses more than just the movies, spanning from more than 35,000 years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) to almost 140 years after it (ABY). Because it is so expansive, I divided the site into different sections based on eras in the Star Wars timeline.

• The Old Republic era covers from 35,000 BBY to 1,000 BBY, which includes the Knights of the Old Republic games and the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.
• The Rise of the Empire era covers from 1,000 BBY to 0 BBY. This includes most of the prequel trilogy games like Republic Commando, Episode 1 Racer, and the Force Unleashed games.
• The Rebellion era covers 0 BBY to 4 ABY. This is when all of the original trilogy games take place, including X-Wing, TIE Fighter, the Super Star Wars games, and Shadow of the Empire.
• The New Republic era covers from 4 ABY to about 36 ABY. This is all of the post-Return of the Jedi games, which currently is only the Jedi Knight series.
• The last era is what I’m calling the Sequel Trilogy era until it has a proper name. These games take place during Episodes VII through IX. Episode VII just entered production and takes place around 30 years after Return of the Jedi, putting it at around 34 BBY. Under that presumption, the Sequel Trilogy era would cover from around 34 ABY to about 140 ABY until otherwise clarified. At the time of writing, there are no games officially announced to take place in this era.

These sections can change based on official announcements and classifications of when games take place during the Star Wars timeline. Within these sections are subcategories for more granulated discussion. News will include new announcements, trailers, release dates, patch notes, and other timely updates. Reviews will only be for new, home console and PC game releases. Videos are just that, videos, whether it’s a 15-minute gameplay clip or an hour exploration through an environment. Retrospectives will take a look at past games, their mechanics, and their legacy. Features will contain everything else, whether that’s an opinion article, interview, or a deep dive into a specific game or element of a game.

Who am I?

My name is Cameron Wright. For nearly my entire life, I’ve loved Star Wars. The first Star Wars movies I saw were The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi back in 1993 on an old VHS recording from a television broadcast, commercials and all. I watched them over and over and it wasn’t until year or so later I actually saw A New Hope. In 2005, I began writing about games with a bi-weekly column focusing on the Bounty Hunter class in Star Wars Galaxies. That same year I was able to attend E3 for the first time, solidifying my desire to write about games as a career. In 2010, I joined The NO (Nerd Online) News writing news and game reviews, becoming a senior editor before the site shut down. Later that year, I began writing for Darth Hater as an editorial contributor to cover Star Wars: The Old Republic. I helped with lore articles, weekly developer updates, interviews, and conventions. In 2011, I started freelancing as a way to write about other games and grow my writing ability beyond just MMORPGs. In 2012, I was promoted to Senior Editor at Darth Hater before leaving at the end of the year to pursue my freelancing career. Since then, I’ve written for PC Gamer, Complex, IGN, and Gameranx.

If you’re interested in writing an article for The Trench Run, please send an outline of your idea to site@thetrenchrun.com.