Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure

Last updated

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure, also known as Revenge of the Jedi: Game I, is a cancelled 1983 shoot 'em up video game based on the 1983 Star Wars film Return of the Jedi . The game was developed by Atari Games and was to be published by Parker Brothers on the Atari 2600. Although it was completed, the game was never released for sale, as the marketing department of Parker Brothers considered the controls too difficult to master. A prototype cartridge surfaced in 1997. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Release

Only one physical copy of Ewok Adventure is currently known to exist. Because the game's controls were more complex than had been the norm on console games at the time, Parker Brothers persuaded designer Larry Gelberg to change the controls to a more common 8-direction lay-out. However, Gelberg was convinced of the abilities of the game's potential players, prompting Parker Brothers to shut the project down. [4] Larry Gelberg gave the only known prototype of the game to his colleague's son in 1997, who later sold the game for $1,680. [3]

Gameplay

In Ewok Adventure, the player takes the role of an Ewok in the hang glider corps with the mission to destroy a shield generator of the Imperial army. The player can control a hang glider with the joystick and has to evade enemies, which include animations of speeder bikes, AT-ST walkers, Imperial stormtrooper-like figures and Ewoks. Other obstacles along the edges of the game include shrubbery, small boulders and small rivers.

Depending on the game mode, the player can either make the hang glider climb and descend by pulling back and forth the joystick, or he can reverse the vertical directions. Hitting the ground results in a game over, but when flying high, one can fly over enemies. The height of the glider is displayed by the location of the shadow of the ship. Furthermore, the player can pick up rocks to drop on enemies when flying over them. [5]

Related Research Articles

Atari 2600 Home video game console

The Atari 2600, branded as the Atari Video Computer System until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.

Atari 5200 Home video game console

The Atari 5200 SuperSystem or simply Atari 5200 is a home video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari, Inc. as a higher-end complement for the popular Atari Video Computer System. The VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 at the time of the 5200's launch. Created to compete with Intellivision, the 5200 wound up a direct competitor of ColecoVision shortly after its release. While the Coleco system shipped with the first home version of Nintendo's Donkey Kong, the 5200 included the 1978 arcade game Super Breakout which had already appeared on the Atari 8-bit family and Atari VCS in 1979 and 1981 respectively.

<i>Adventure</i> (1980 video game) Landmark Atari video game from 1980

Adventure is a video game developed by Warren Robinett for the Atari Video Computer System and released in 1980 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a square avatar whose quest is to explore an open-ended environment to find a magical chalice and return it to the golden castle. The game world is populated by roaming enemies: three dragons that can eat the avatar and a bat that randomly steals and hides items around the game world. Adventure introduced new elements to console games, including a play area spanning multiple screens and enemies that continue to move when offscreen.

<i>Robotron: 2084</i> 1982 video game

Robotron: 2084 is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional world where robots have turned against humans in a cybernetic revolt. The aim is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans, and earn as many points as possible.

<i>Star Wars</i> (1983 video game) 1983 video game

Star Wars is a first-person rail shooter video game designed by Mike Hally and released in arcades in 1983 by Atari, Inc. It uses 3D color vector graphics to simulate the assault on the Death Star from the 1977 film Star Wars. Developed during the Golden Age of Arcade Games, Star Wars has been included on lists of the greatest video games of all time.

TV Boy

The TV Boy and its successors TV Boy II and Super TV Boy are 1990s handheld TV games sold by many different companies, including Systema, Akor, and NICS, based upon an unlicensed clone of Atari 2600 hardware. They were widely available across Europe. In the UK they were most visibly available through Argos. They were released around 1992, and an improved version of the TV Boy 2, the Super TV Boy, was also made by Akor in 1995.

<i>Star Wars</i> video games Video games based on the Star Wars franchise

Over one hundred video games based on the Star Wars franchise have been released, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on films while others rely heavily on the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

<i>Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game. It was released by Atari Games in 1985 as a conversion kit for the original game. As in Star Wars, the player takes the role of Luke Skywalker in a set of battle sequences in a first-person perspective. The game features the Battle of Hoth and the subsequent escape of the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. The game is the third Star Wars arcade title from Atari; the raster game Return of the Jedi came out the previous year.

<i>Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back</i> (1992 video game) 1992 video game

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. It is the sequel the original Star Wars for the NES. This is the second of three video games released under the Empire Strikes Back title that were developed directly for home video game systems. It was preceded by a version for the Atari 2600 and succeeded by Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Super NES.

<i>Star Ship</i> 1977 Atari VCS video game port of Ataris Starship 1 arcade game

Star Ship is a first-person space combat simulator video game programmed by Bob Whitehead and published by Atari, Inc. for its Video Computer System. The game was one of the nine launch titles offered when the Atari VCS was released on September 11, 1977. Based on the Atari arcade game Starship 1, it was the first space-related game developed for the Atari VCS. The re-branded Sears TeleGames version is titled Outer Space.

The Lord of the Rings: Journey to Rivendell was a video game scheduled to be released in the winter of 1983. Parker Brothers was set to publish it, and advertised it in their 1982 and 1983 catalogues as a game that would be released on the Atari 2600 and Atari Home Computer. The game was originally advertised under the name Lord of the Rings, and in one case as The Lord of the Rings I. It was described as an adventure of getting Frodo from the Shire to the door at Moria, a description which was later changed in the 1983 Parker Brothers Video Games catalogue to have Rivendell as the adventures end point instead. The same catalogue was first time the game was ever referred to as The Lord of the Rings: Journey to Rivendell, and was the last advertisement the game ever received. The game was never released, and it was believed that little or no work was done on the game's coding. Almost twenty years after The Lord of the Rings: Journey to Rivendell was first announced, in the weeks leading up to the much anticipated release of the first live-action movie, a former Parker Brothers employee gave a prototype of the game to the operator of the AtariAge website. Surprisingly, the game was quite complex and seemed to be complete.

<i>Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back</i> (1982 video game) 1982 video game

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a scrolling shooter video game written by Rex Bradford for the Atari 2600 and published by Parker Brothers in 1982. It was the first licensed Star Wars video game. An Intellivision version was released in 1983.

Atari 2600 hardware Hardware of the Atari 2600 video game console

The Atari 2600 hardware was based on the MOS Technology 6507 chip, offering a maximum resolution of 160 x 192 pixels (NTSC), 128 colors, 128 bytes of RAM with 4 kB on cartridges. The design experienced many makeovers and revisions during its 14-year production history, from the original "heavy sixer" to the Atari 2600 Jr. at the end. The system also has many controllers and third-party peripherals.

<i>Star Wars: Return of the Jedi</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is a 1984 arcade game by Atari, Inc. and the follow-up to 1983's Star Wars arcade game. The game uses raster graphics, rather than vector graphics which were used for the first and third Atari arcade games based on the Star Wars franchise. Home ports were released by Domark for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Amiga in 1988. The game is included as an unlockable extra on Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike for GameCube.

<i>Superman</i> (Atari 2600) Innovative 1979 action adventure Atari video game

Superman is an action adventure game for the Atari Video Computer System designed by John Dunn and published by Atari, Inc. in 1979. It was one of the first single-player games for the system and one of the earliest licensed video games, released to be a tie-in with the 1978 film of the same name. Superman was built using the prototype code for Warren Robinett's Adventure, and ended up being published before Adventure was finished. Retro Gamer credits it among action-adventure games as the "first to utilize multiple screens as playing area".

<i>Star Wars: Jedi Arena</i> 1983 lightsaber battle video game

Star Wars: Jedi Arena is lightsaber battle video game written by Rex Bradford for the Atari 2600 and published by Parker Brothers in 1983. It is the first Star Wars video game to feature lightsabers. The goal of the game, based on one scene in the original Star Wars film, is to take out the opponent with the Seeker ball while defending oneself from incoming laser blasts using one's lightsaber.

<i>Warbirds</i> (video game) 1991 video game

Warbirds is a 1991 first-person combat flight simulation video game developed and published by Atari Corporation in North America and Europe exclusively for the Atari Lynx. Taking place in the 1910s during World War I, players assume the role of a rookie aircraft pilot from the Army Air Force who joined the titular squadron taking control of a prebuilt biplane in order to win the war against the enemies. Its gameplay mainly consists of dogfights against either AI-controlled opponents or other human players using the Lynx's ComLynx system, with a main four-button configuration.

<i>Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle</i> 1983 video game

Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle is a shoot 'em up video game published by Parker Brothers in 1983 for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 8-bit family. In 1985, it was published by Sinclair Research as part of a software pack bundled with ZX Spectrum+. It was one of the earliest Star Wars-related video games, following Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 1982 and alongside Atari's 1983 Star Wars arcade game. It was the first video game based on Return of the Jedi.

References

  1. ↑ "Star Wars: Ewok Adventure". Atari Protos.
  2. ↑ Skelton, Dan. "Ewok Adventure Prototype Found!". AtariAge.
  3. 1 2 Lammle, Rob (2011-01-03). "8 very rare (and very expensive) video games". CNN.
  4. ↑ Frank, Guido (May 2008). "30 Jahre Sternenkrieg - Die Timeline der Star Wars Videospiele". Video Spelgeschichten. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
  5. ↑ Atari Games. "Instruction manual". Atarimania.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.