Star Wars is a conversion of Atari Games' first-person shoot 'em up based around the original Star Wars film.

You take on the role of Luke Skywalker, aiming to destroy the Death Star - which, as any fan knows, involves attacking the 'weak spot' near the exhaust. To even get to this you have to pass swarms of TIE Fighters. Complete the game and it loops back around at ever-increasing difficulty. The game uses vector graphics, which allow lots of action at high speed on comparatively slow systems.

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Alternate Titles

"Star Wars: The Arcade Game" -- Title used for most console versions

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform
	Star Wars The Arcade Game	Atari 2600
	Star Wars	Commodore 64
	Star Wars
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User Reviews

A painstaking experience	Amiga	Lukasz Gorski (13)
Fun little arcade game.	DOS	Jeremy Johnson (638)
The Force arrives on the PC	DOS	Roedie (5234)
Pure mindless fun.. even tho it doesn't feel like StarWars at all	DOS	Lukasz Gorski (13)

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The Press Says

Happy Computer	Atari ST	Jan, 1988	76 out of 100	76
Your Commodore	Commodore 64	1990	76 out of 100	76
Power Play	DOS	Nov, 1989	72 out of 100	72
Power Play	Atari ST	Dec, 1987	7 out of 10	70
Tilt	Macintosh	Apr, 1990	14 out of 20	70
Commodore User	Commodore 64	1987	5 out of 10	50
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Atari ST	Feb, 1988	475 out of 1000	48
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Commodore 64	Feb, 1988	475 out of 1000	48
Electric Playground	Atari 2600	Mar 12, 1997	3 out of 10	30
The Video Game Critic	Atari 5200	May 13, 2005	F	0

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Trivia

Arcade version

The original coin-op Star Wars game was built using Ed Rotberg's incomplete spaceflight fortress assault game entitled Warp Speed. Add the joystick from his Military Battlezone and some licensed properties, and voila -- Star Wars!

Commodore 64 versions

There were two licensed conversions of Star Wars: The Arcade Game for the Commodore 64. The first was a cartridge by Parker Brothers. This version used simple sprites for the TIE fighters and clusters of dots to represent the fireballs. Several years later, Domark put out a much more faithful conversion which used vector graphics for all the game elements. Unfortunately while it was quite accurate, it suffered from poor frame rates which often made it difficult to play.

Packaging

My hazy memory recalls: The front of the box contained an embedded LED that blinked slowly, like once every 3 seconds. I believe the LED was part of R2D2's head poking out of the top of the X-Wing.

References to the game

In the 1984 Christmas horror film Gremlins some of the Gremlin's can be seen briefly playing the original Arcade cabinet version of Star Wars.

Rogue Squadron III

In the Gamecube title Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III - Rebel Strike, the full version of Star Wars: The Arcade Game was an unlockable bonus feature.

Boss-keys

Resourceful programmer tricks #2: The function keys serve as multiple different functional boss-keys, information about the programmer, and other neat little functions -- way above and beyond a typical boss-key. Poke around the keyboard while the game is running and see what you find!

Information also contributed by Guy Chapman, Pseudo_Intellectual, Rekrul and vedder

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This entry was contributed by Lain Crowley (5405), Sciere