Electronic Games stated in August 1983 that "Star Trek is sure to be a top-grosser in the arcades this year.

"[5] ANALOG Computing wrote in January 1984 that the Atari 8-bit version "sounds a lot like Star Raiders (a classic worth aspiring to).

Purists will shake their heads and say 'The first is always the best,' and in this case I must agree with them", adding that the arcade version was superior.

The magazine concluded that "This incarnation of Star Trek probably won't impress a hard-core Atari computer gamer".

[7] In 2016, Den of Geek ranked Strategic Operations Simulator as one of the top four Star Trek games.