This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2024) |
Star Wars | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
Publisher(s) | ArcadePorts Parker Brothers Domark Broderbund |
Designer(s) | Mike Hally |
Programmer(s) | Greg Rivera Norm Avellar |
Composer(s) | Earl Vickers |
Platform(s) | Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS, Macintosh |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Rail shooter |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Star Wars is a first-person rail shooter designed by Mike Hally [5] and released as an arcade video game in 1983 by Atari, Inc. [6] It uses 3D color vector graphics to simulate the assault on the Death Star from the 1977 film Star Wars . There are three connected gameplay sequences: combat against TIE fighters in space, flying across the surface of the Death Star, and the final trench run. The sequence repeats with added complications and the Death Star regenerating for each. The player's X-Wing fighter has a shield which only protects against damage a certain number of times, then the next hit ends the game. Speech synthesis emulates actors from the film. [7] [8]
Developed during the golden age of arcade games, Star Wars has been included on lists of the greatest video games of all time. Home ports were published by Parker Brothers, Domark, and Broderbund. It was followed by a lesser-known arcade sequel, sold as a conversion kit for the original, in 1985: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back .
Assuming the role of Luke Skywalker ("Red Five"), the player pilots an X-wing fighter from a first-person perspective. The controls consist of a yoke control with four buttons — two trigger style and two in position to be pressed by the thumbs — each of which fired a laser positioned on the four leading edges of the X-Wings.
The player does not have to destroy every TIE Fighter and gun turret in order to advance through the game; instead, the player must survive for a set length of time, either avoiding or destroying enemies and the shots they fire. The player begins with six shields, one of which is lost for every collision with an enemy or projectile. If the player loses all shields and is hit again, the game ends.
Each wave of the game consists of three attack phases, culminating in the destruction of the Death Star.
In the first phase, the "Imperial March" or another part of John Williams' Star Wars score is briefly played electronically and the player engages in a dogfight with Darth Vader and enemy TIE fighters in outer space near the Death Star. After the TIE fighter waves, when flying towards the Death Star, the yellow grid lines on the Death Star spell out either "May the force be with you" on odd-numbered waves or names of some of the developers on even numbered waves.
In the second phase, the player must fly across the surface of the Death Star to reach its equatorial trench. This section is omitted during the first wave of the game. During the second wave the player is attacked by artillery bunkers, while in the third and subsequent waves laser turrets on towers rise to confront the player. The player is awarded a bonus for destroying every turret.
In the third phase, the player must navigate the trench until finally firing a proton torpedo for a direct hit on the exhaust port target. If the player is successful, the Death Star explodes and the player is awarded a bonus shield, to a maximum of six (can be set internally for a maximum of eight). Should the player fail to hit the exhaust port, a shield is lost and the player must attempt the trench again. If the player manages to destroy the Death Star without firing at anything but the exhaust port, a bonus is awarded for "using the Force."
The game then resets to the first phase. Each successive wave greatly increases the difficulty; TIE fighters shoot more often, artillery bunkers and laser towers appear in the second phase, and obstacles appear in the trench during the third. Unlike the movie, where the units shoot beams similar to lasers, the enemy units in this game shoot projectiles resembling fireballs, which give the player a chance of destroying the shots. [6]
Development on the game started in 1981 under the title Warp Speed and was initially headed up by Ed Rotberg (who also worked on the vector-based Battlezone ). [9] Rotberg left Atari in October 1981, after which Atari signed a licensing agreement with Lucasfilm and finished the game. [9] Focus group testing was conducted on January 24, 1983, by groups of 15-19 year old men, 20-35 year old men, and 17-30 year old women. [10]
Star Wars was converted first by Parker Brothers (with development by Imagic) in 1983 and 1984 to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, ColecoVision, and Commodore 64. The ColecoVision version was programmed by Wendell Brown. [11]
The same game was converted again, in 1987 and 1988, for the Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron and BBC Micro; the game was also converted again for the Atari 8-bits and the Commodore 64. All conversions were developed by UK-based Vektor Grafix (the Atari 8-bit version by Zeppelin Games being an exception) and were published in Europe by Domark. That same year Broderbund acquired the rights to develop Star Wars games from Lucasfilm. Broderbund published the Macintosh, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS versions of the arcade game in North America in 1988, in addition to republishing the Atari ST and Amiga versions in 1989.
The Amiga and Atari ST allow mouse control and include digitized sound effects. The Macintosh version contains sampled speech from the films, but has no in-game music other than a monophonic theme during the "attract" mode.
Star Wars also appears in the GameCube game Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike as a bonus minigame that can be unlocked after completing a certain level or entering a cheat code. In the United States and some European countries, anyone who pre-ordered the game received a special copy of the game in which Star Wars is immediately unlocked on startup.
The game was Atari's top-selling 1983 arcade release, with Atari producing 12,695 arcade cabinets. [12] In the United States, it topped the Play Meter arcade chart for street locations in October 1983. [13] In Japan, Game Machine listed Star Wars on their November 1, 1983 issue as being the most successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month. [14]
COMPUTE! praised the Atari ST version of Star Wars, calling it "amazing, smoothly animated". [15] The MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 versions by Broderbund were reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #145 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. [16] Macworld praised the Macintosh version's gameplay, stating that it has "fast-paced action" and is "extremely challenging in higher levels". The magazine also praised the sound effects and 3D graphics, stating that the latter "enhance the game's action and excitement". Macworld criticized the master disk-based copy protection, and the game only having three playable scenarios with "limited" replay value. [17]
In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 61st on their "Top 100 Video Games." [18] In 1996, Next Generation listed the arcade version as number 58 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time". Citing "Awesome vector graphics, multiple triggers, a deluxe cabinet with powerful speakers in the back, [and] digitized voices", they ventured that it was "Probably the best licensed game ever." [19] In 1999, Next Generation listed Star Wars as number 24 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "Besides giving you the opportunity to reenact what many of us consider to be the greatest cinematic experience of our youth, Star Wars delivered fast-shooting gameplay with all the subtleties, and the combination of tight control and vector graphics make it equally fun today." [20] In 2001 it was voted one of the top 100 arcade games of all time by the members of Killer List of Videogames. [21]
Star Wars arcade machines can be converted into The Empire Strikes Back via a conversion kit. [6]
As mentioned above, a complete emulation of Star Wars, along with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is included as bonus content for Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike .
In October 2019, Tastemakers LLC's Arcade1up division released a 3/4 scale recreation of the original Atari arcade cabinet featuring emulated versions of the coin-op Star Wars arcade, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi games.
In 1984 Robert Mruczek scored 300 million points in 49 hours of gameplay (the world record for an individual) and in 2005, Brandon Erickson set a world endurance record of 54 hours on a single credit (with a score of 283 million). [22] In June 1985 Flavio Tozzi, Dave Roberts and Mike Ohren played as a team in turns for five days, two hours and 26 minutes on a single credit to attain the world record score of 1,000,000,012 points. It was verified in the September 1985 edition of the Computer and Video Games . Their efforts raised money for a local charity. [23] The score counter of this game "turns over" at 100 million points.
It was decided to put the machines on a harder setting for the annual Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard/Guinness Book Masters Tournament: initial shields and no bonus shields. In the 1986 Tournament, David Palmer scored 31,660,614 points in about 7 hours, a score which was published in the Guinness Book of World Records and remains the world record to this day. [24]
Lode Runner is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to Space Panic from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a level and get to the end while being chased by a number of enemies. It is one of the first games to include a level editor.
Choplifter is a military themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to Atari 8-bit computers the same year and also to the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, MSX, and Thomson computers.
Moon Patrol is a 1982 arcade video game developed and released by Irem. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America. The player controls a Moon buggy which can jump over and shoot obstacles on a horizontally scrolling landscape as well as shoot aerial attackers. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, Moon Patrol is often credited with the introduction of full parallax scrolling in side-scrolling games. Cabinet art for the Williams version was done by Larry Day. Most of the home ports were from Atari, Inc., sometimes under the Atarisoft label.
1982 was the peak year for the golden age of arcade video games as well as the second generation of video game consoles. Many games were released that would spawn franchises, or at least sequels, including Dig Dug, Pole Position, Mr. Do!, Zaxxon, Q*bert, Time Pilot and Pitfall! The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, for the third year in a row, while the year's best-selling home system was the Atari 2600. Additional video game consoles added to a crowded market, notably the ColecoVision and Atari 5200. Troubles at Atari late in the year triggered the video game crash of 1983.
Spelunker is a 1983 platform video game developed by Timothy G. Martin of MicroGraphic Image. It is set in a cave, with the player starting at the cave's entrance at the top, and the objective is to get to the treasure at the bottom.
Xenon 2: Megablast is a 1989 shoot 'em up video game developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works for the Amiga and Atari ST. It was later converted to the Master System, PC-98, X68000, Mega Drive, Commodore CDTV, Game Boy, Acorn Archimedes and Atari Jaguar platforms. The game is a sequel to Xenon and takes place a millennium after the previous title. The goal of the game is to destroy a series of bombs planted throughout history by the Xenites, the vengeful antagonists of the first game.
Pit-Fighter is a fighting game developed by Atari Games and released as an arcade video game in 1990. It was Atari's first fighting game. The Japanese release was published by Konami. Home versions were published by Tengen.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the vector graphics Star Wars arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. It was made available by Atari Games in 1985 as a conversion kit for the original game. As in Star Wars, the player takes on the role of Luke Skywalker in a set of battle sequences from a first-person perspective. The game features the Battle of Hoth and the subsequent escape of the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. It is the third Star Wars arcade title from Atari; the raster game Return of the Jedi came out the previous year.
Wings of Fury is a scrolling shooter, with some combat flight simulator elements, originally written for the Apple II by Steve Waldo and released in 1987 by Broderbund. The player assumes the role of a pilot of an American F6F Hellcat plane aboard the USS Wasp in the Pacific during World War II. It was also released in 1989 for the X68000 and in 1990 for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Amiga, and MS-DOS compatible operating systems. A Game Boy Color version was published in 1999.
Drol is a video game published by Broderbund in 1983. It was written for the Apple II by Benny Aik Beng Ngo, then ported to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers. Versions were released for the SG-1000 in 1985 and Amiga in 1991.
Badlands is a 1989 arcade video game published by Atari Games. It was ported by Domark under the Tengen label to the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. The game is a re-themed version of Atari's previous racing games Super Sprint and Championship Sprint with the addition of vehicular combat. Badlands is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war and races around abandoned wastelands with many hazards. Three gun-equipped cars race around a track to win prizes.
Synapse Software Corporation was an American software developer and publisher founded in 1981 by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. Synapse published application software and developer tools and was primarily known for video games. It initially focused on the Atari 8-bit computers, then later developed for the Commodore 64 and other systems. Synapse was purchased by Broderbund in late 1984 and the Synapse label retired in 1985.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade video game based on the original Star Trek television program and movie series, and released by Sega in 1983. Star Trek uses color vector graphics for both a 2D display and a 3D first-person perspective. The player controls the Starship Enterprise and must defend sectors from invading Klingon ships. The game includes synthesized speech
In video games, first-person is any graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character, or from the inside of a device or vehicle controlled by the player character. It is one of two perspectives used in the vast majority of video games, with the other being third-person, the graphical perspective from outside of any character ; some games such as interactive fiction do not belong to either format.
Shanghai is a computerized version of mahjong solitaire published by Activision in 1986 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, classic Mac OS, Apple IIGS, and Master System. Shanghai was originally programmed by Brodie Lockard. It was released as an arcade video game by Sunsoft in 1988.
Tiger Road is a hack and slash platform game originally released in 1987 as a coin-operated arcade video game.
Serpentine is a maze video game written by David Snider for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. Serpentine's gameplay and visuals are similar to the Konami arcade game, Jungler, released the previous year. It was ported to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers. A VIC-20 version was licensed to Creative Software.
Bandits is a 1982 fixed shooter written by Tony and Benny Ngo for the Apple II and published by Sirius Software. The game is a clone of Taito's 1980 Stratovox arcade video game where the goal is to prevent aliens from stealing objects. Bandits was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, and VIC-20.
Judge Dredd is a 1991 platform shoot 'em up video game based on the character of the same name. It was developed by Random Access and published by Virgin Mastertronic. It was released in Europe in 1991, for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. Critics found the gameplay repetitive.