Dispatches from the Middle Circle

And the manga is not as widely known as the films and the SAC anime is, so it's quite expected for the difference to be jarring.

Ever since 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan established an unwinnable test of character for potential starship captains, fans have been curious about the "real" Kobayashi Maru... if there ever was one. Fan publications and beta canon have provided plenty of contradictory answers over the years...

Rodger Sorenson's 1983 Kobayashi Maru - Neutronic Fuel Carrier blueprint pack version would go on to be the basis of canon versions of the Kobayashi Maru, from 2009 onwards. The pack would be sent to the Star Trek (2009) design team at ILM along with the cover of Julie Ecklar's novel seen further below to establish a "look" for the ship, which would be depicted on-screen for the first time when we see Kirk's third and final attempt.

David Nilsen's Book of S.S. Kobayashi Maru Plans blueprint pack was also published in 1983. His version of the S.S. Kobayashi Maru and her backstory was transplanted uptime to 2155 and featured in the 2008 ENT novel Kobayashi Maru by Andy Mangals and Michael A. Martin. It's a repurposed Klingon ship, and in the novel the Kobayashi Maru incident (which involved Klingon ships under Romulan control), was the final straw which led to the Earth/Romulan war. Also in the novel, Kojiro Vance was gay as hell and dressed like a pirate.

FASA's Lotus Flower-class carrier (from their Star Trek III Sourcebook Update, 1984) actually appeared VERY briefly on-screen in early TNG, as Data read through computer files crazy fast. In FASA lore, the Kobayashi Maru existed only as part of the infamous simulation, there was no "real" ship.

In 1989 Julia Ecklar's novel The Kobayashi Maru would be released, telling the story of Kirk, Scotty and Sulu's attempts at the Kobayashi Maru scenario. On the cover is a Tritium-class ship from the Goldstein's 1980 Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (a class infamous for it's "insurmountable design flaws")

This is the U.S.S. Kobayashi Maru ECS-1022 as she appeared in Star Trek (2009), the first time we actually see the ship itself in canon.

The registry starting with ECS prefix is a reference to Star Trek: Enterprise, where cargo vessels had names proceeding with E.C.S., for "Earth Cargo Service"

Here's how she appears in Star Trek Online, based on early concept art for the 2009 movie version without the central hull