Star Ship

The Good
The first-person shooter games are, considering the age of this game, entertaining. The trippy computer bleep background music lends atmosphere.

The Bad
The gameplay is poor. The graphics are poor. The portions of this game that aren't a first-person shooter aren't really a game - more like a 2600 functionality demo.

The Bottom Line
Star Ship packages three basic games, each reflecting the program's spaceship theme. In the first, the player is looking through his ship's front window as it hurdles through space. Using the ship's laser beam, the player gains points by shooting crudely rendered enemy crafts. The player loses points by failing to avoid crashing into asteroids or enemy ships. Different settings of this game permit faster action or more enemy targets on the screen at one time. A more significant variation allows a second player to take control of the ship being fired upon.

The second game, if it can be described as a game, retains the first-person perspective, but removes the shooting aspect. In "Warp Drive" you simply attempt to avoid hitting asteroids as you slowly accelerate. Due to the slow movement of your ship, it will quickly become impossible to avoid a centrally generated asteroid. Every few seconds in which no asteroid appears in the center of the screen, however, you collect a point.

The third game, also not much of a game, is in the more common third-person perspective. "Lunar Lander" requires you to move your space craft to the portion of the screen where a "moon" is located and press the button. "Watch Out" for the "asteroids" which move slowly and in a strict narrow band. The two-player version adds some playability by allowing the second player to control the movement of the moon.

As my description of the game may indicate, of the three games included in the package only one is moderately enjoyable. The first-person shooter is mildly fun for a short period, but quite limited for today's audience. The game, as advertised, places you in the front seat of a star ship and lets you blast through alien hordes while avoiding the ubiquitous asteroids. Unfortunately, the game's shortcomings outweigh its strengths and, indeed, its potential. The graphics, despite being rendered in a unique (for the time perspective) are poor and, in my opinion, poorly thought out. (How does the space monster propel himself through space and why is he the same size as a Klingon spaceship?) Furthermore, the game proceeds at a geriatric pace and the star ship controls react as if your star ship were mired in a tar pit. To say the least, the shooting fun quickly ends. On the other hand, I found the music to be atmospheric, even a little creepy. (I actually think it sounds a bit like an inspiration for the Metroid music.)

The other portions of the game are worse - feeling more like programing demonstrations than games. In "Warp Drive" you simply move your joystick based on the location at which an asteroid appears. However, due to the sluggish controls, you will inevitably crash in short measure because, once your ship speeds up, you can't move quickly enough to avoid a centrally appearing asteroid. Frustrating and not really a game. "Lunar lander," simply indicates a spot on the screen to which you must move your object before depressing the fire button. Slow-paced, easy and, also, not a game.

I'm not the sort of person who believes that breaking new ground outweighs a game essential suckiness. True, this game went where no other had gone before, but it did so poorly. Though I doubt that you'll spend much time with this game, the first portion of the game may be worth checking out if you're in the mood for some slow-paced action and a retro, even historical, experience. Do not, however, count on enjoying yourself much.

The Good
Star Ship is fun, pure and simple. One thing I really got kick out of, is how Star Ship, like many of Atari's early titles, features three different programs on one cartridge: Star Ship, Warp Drive, and Lunar Lander. These games aren't quite as simple as they first appear, either. There are certain strategies and tricks that come with achieving a high score. These games are fundamentally about high scores; if you don't care about trying to get high scores, you will probably get bored. Also, Star Ship is a great two-player game, one player controlling the star ship as in a one-player game, and the other player controls the Space Module, which can use stealth to become invisible (but not invincible). The computer automatically reverses the players' roles after 2 min, 16 sec. Different variations can give the noticeably slower Space Module an advantage, with asteroids, starfighters, UFOs, and space robots to make life harder for the player commanding the star ship (the Space Module is unharmed by these things...a good strategy is to fly in front of one of these obstacles and lure the star ship into it). All the games on the Star Ship cartridge can be most enjoyed on the hardest variations and difficulty settings, otherwise they're much too easy - although for the Star Ship game, I set the difficulty switch on the computer to B, the lasers instantly zap the target. Otherwise, set it to A. For one-player games, I recommend games 4,11, and 14. For two-player games, variations 7, 9, and 17 are best. Also, the sound effects are funky, and the graphics, while blocky and rudimentary by today's standards, are cool and give that retro vibe and seem to suit the game perfectly (let's face it, Star Ship wouldn't be Star Ship if it had good graphics). But hey, if you're reading this, you probably play, or are interested in playing Atari, so you shouldn't care about graphics anyway!

The Bad
The two-player games are sometimes too easy for the player doing the chasing and shooting/landing. Also, the casual player will probably be less than impressed with this title, as this cartridge needs to really be explored before its true gameplay value can be discovered.

It woulda been kinda cool if the enemy starfighters and UFOs and robots shot back at you too, but I guess in 1977 they were more worried about coming up with something different from Pong.

This game undeservedly terrible press too...don't pay attention to it until you've really explored the game, especially the two-player games, and you still decide you don't like it.

The Bottom Line
There is a lot of fun to be had playing Star Ship, Warp Drive, and Lunar Lander. The Star Ship program should be ranked with Combat and Air-Sea Battle as one of Atari's great early 2-player games (although its one-player games are fun too). There is nothing overly flashy about this game, just gameplay. This is probably the thing about this game that makes it stick to you; it's fun to play.

For readers' edification, I got my copy of Star Ship around the same time I got my Playstation 2 and Game Cube (about 2 years now), and I invariably get sick of PS2 and Gamecube games after about a month of owning them, and I rarely play them ever again. But, I play still play Star Ship regularly since I bought it. Despite its age (it's really not even that old, only 27 years), this game, like most Atari games, is truly timeless.

For an added spin on the gameplay experience, play Star Ship in the dark with Pink Floyd's "On The Run" (from Dark Side of The Moon) or "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (from Saucerful of Secrets) playing in the background. It's something of an experience!