Star Wars

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Description

Star Wars is a first-person shooter based around the final scenes of the original Star Wars film. It first appeared for arcade coin-operated machines and was subsequently converted to other gaming platforms.

You take on the role of Luke Skywalker, aiming to destroy the Death Star. In the first phase you have to pass swarms of TIE Fighters, including dogfighting the one piloted by Darth Vader himself. In the second phase the station's surface is protected by laser towers, third involves attacking its weakest spot - the unprotected exhaust port - with proton torpedos. Your X-Wing starts with six shields, but more can be awarded for good performance. 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.

Screenshots

Alternate Titles

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

Part of the Following Groups

• Games referenced in movies
• Games with boss key
• Genre: Rail shooter
• Inspiration: Movies
• Star Wars canon
• Star Wars licensees

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 (5227)
Pure mindless fun.. even tho it doesn't feel like StarWars at all	DOS	Lukasz Gorski (13)

The Press Says

Electric Playground	Amiga	Feb 28, 1997	9 out of 10	90
The Video Game Critic	Atari 2600	May 05, 2005	B	75
Power Play	DOS	Nov, 1989	72 out of 100	72
Zzap!	Commodore 64	Jan, 1988	70 out of 100	70
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Atari 5200	Dec 10, 2003	7 out of 10	70
Computer and Video Games (CVG)	Commodore 64	1990	56 out of 100	56
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Commodore 64	Feb, 1988	475 out of 1000	48
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Amstrad CPC	Feb, 1988	440 out of 1000	44
Electric Playground	Atari 2600	Mar 12, 1997	3 out of 10	30
Electric Playground	ColecoVision	Mar 12, 1997	2 out of 10	20

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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!

Awards

• Retro Gamer
  • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #87 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

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

Related Web Sites

• Star Wars - The arcade machine -- Information about the original arcade machine, from the killer list of videogames homepage.
• The History of Star Wars Video Games -- The people at Gamespot have written a great article about the history of Star Wars games on the PC and on the Consoles, goining back as far as the days of the Atari 2600.
• Video review of Star Wars games (WARNING: Language) -- The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews various Stars Wars-based games, including Star Wars: The Arcade Game on Atari 2600.