Stellar 7

Moby ID: 938
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Description official description

In Stellar 7, a remake of the 1983 game, you drive the Raven, the most advanced Terran fighting vehicle. You are up against Gir Draxon and his evil Arcturan army. You will go from star system to star system, fighting his forces. When the enemies have been destroyed, a mothership flies overhead and beams down the Guardian of the star system, a giant enemy ship. When you reach the Arcturus star system, you will fight Gir Draxon!

The game is played from a first person view looking out from the cockpit of the Raven. It is in true polygonal 3D. Aside from a graphical and aural overhaul and the addition of cutscenes, the remake's gameplay and level design is virtually identical to the original, right down to the placement of each and every enemy. The major differences are the added "power modules" (e.g. supercannon, superjump) and a major boss creature at the end of every level.

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Credits (DOS version)

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Producer
Designer
Lead Programmer
Art Director
Conceptual Artist
3D Artist
Shell Programmer
Additional Effects
Artist
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Musical Composers
Panel Art Painter
Image Department Director
Sound Effects and Music Editor
Q.A. Engineer
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Design Contributors and Playtesters
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 14 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 27 ratings with 4 reviews)

The remake was not bad, but the power-ups made it too easy

The Good
Plenty of action, lots of enemies that requires different tactics, each boss is different, updated from B&W wireframe to glorious VGA colors...

The Bad
Virtually IDENTICAL to the classic version, except the boss, power-up, and VGA color/shading. Power-ups too powerful and ruin the balance of the game

The Bottom Line
Stellar 7 was a remake of a Battlezone (the Atari arcade game) clone back in the Apple II days. You drive the Raven, the most powerful combat tank Earth has produced, but you are alone against Gir Draxon's army. Along the way you'll face hovercrafts, several types of tanks, flyers, seeking drones, stationary cannons, obstacles, and more. Each system under Draxon's control (level) also is protected by a "guardian" (end boss). You must defeat each one to continue. Your tank is protected by shields (limited recharge available!) and a cloaking device (heavy energy use!). By destroying certain enemies you can find power-ups which will add capability to your tank, like supercannon, superjump, superthruster, etc.

The game is basically in-cockpit shoot-them-all. Your tank doesn't manuever THAT well, but it can turn/forward/backward. The gameworld is actually not that big but it "wraps" around so it feels infinite. This version is much prettier than the original B&W version, though the gameplay is virtually identical.

The game is too easy with the available powerups, as defeating the boss are very simple with them (except those that move around a lot).

All in all, Stellar 7 is a good game that illustrated the power of VGA graphics, but stay away from the powerups, as they tend to ruin the game.

DOS · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2001

Good futuristic tank game with 3D graphics

The Good

  • There's plenty of action in this game. You battle against a nice variety of enemies; there are flying enemies and land-based enemies, there are tanks equipped with a cloaking device, tanks armed with an electric force field that drains your energy when you touch them, spider-tanks that drop cobwebs in which you can get stuck etc. Moreover each of the seven levels/planets ends with a boss battle.
  • At first I thought the game was somewhat difficult (the first few days I played the game I didn't get very far, only up to level 3 or something). But this is one of those games where you need to learn "the trick" (what it takes to advance) to beat a level. For example, which power-up to use against which boss. Find out what to do when, I liked that.
  • Stellar 7 has good production values. The game (engine) runs smooth, it's graphics mode is VGA and there's Adlib/Soundblaster support. The graphics of Stellar 7 are convincing, they're a combination of 2D art (the storyboards starring Gir Daxon are wonderful) and 3D models (my favorite is the manta, just look how it flaps its wings). The audio is not bad, but also not very interesting.


**The Bad**
  • The usefulness of some of the power-ups is questionable. The EEL-shield, the landmines and the supercannon are very helpful for beating certain bosses and the Cat's Eye (lets you see cloaked enemies) is fun too, but I don't think I ever had to use the booster- or jump power-ups. And when you use the Inviso Cloak your entire field of vision turns red, which makes it hard to see incoming laser fire.
  • Sometimes it took me quite a while to shoot down some of these flying enemies. They're a lot faster than your tank and since you can't move the barrel of your cannon up & down they're often out of reach. This is a minor complaint, however.


**The Bottom Line**
A good action game with shoot 'em all gameplay - Battlezone style. Completely linear, without any customization or branching, but well executed.

DOS · by Roedie (5239) · 2003

The first PC game I ever played...and it was great!

The Good
Back when I first played this game I was a fan of games in which you had to work your way through different levels to win the game and this game was one of those games. It had seven levels each named after a star that actually exists in our own galaxy (except Sol). I also liked the variety of enemies that you had to fight against. From what I can remember there were both ground units and air units with names like the sandsledge, the seeker, the hovercraft, the assault tank and the peculiar "warplinks" (what a name) that would transport you to the next level when you hit them. There was also a briefing which gave details about each of the enemies which contained an image of the enemy along with a voice over reading out the details.

The Bad
The music in the game was incredibly repetitive. Listen to the music on the first level and you will see what I mean.

The Bottom Line
All in all Stellar 7 was an outstanding action game. There were numerous enemies each with their own strength and abilities (the hovercraft could only operate on planets with an atmosphere) and a briefing which contained information about each of the enemies.

DOS · by James Walter (271) · 2002

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Stellar 7 was later released on CD. This version was the same as the disk version, however it featured digitized voices on all of the cut scenes instead of the opening scene only. The background music during the game could be played from any of the supported sound cards (which was the same as the disk version) or from CD audio. The video modes supported were the same in both versions, however the disk version supported MCGA in 256 colors and the CD version supported MCGA in 4 colors. (The 4 color MCGA looked the same as the CGA version except a custom palette was used.)

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  • MobyGames ID: 938
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Peter Hall.

Macintosh added by Martin Smith. Amiga added by Servo.

Additional contributors: Servo.

Game added February 29, 2000. Last modified March 10, 2024.