Star Wars Arcade Game - Star Wars - http://maxpages.com/dons/Star_Wars_Arcade

Star Wars (Arcade)
Released: 1983
Systems: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Colecovision

The Basics
The first of five Star Wars-related arcade games, Star Wars used color-vector graphics like those used in games such as Tempest and Black Widow. Before the introduction of polygon-based
Title screen.
graphics (first used in the little-seen I, Robot, released in 1984), vector graphics were the best way to render a 3D environment. The game was also translated for use on home consoles using traditional raster graphics as Star Wars: The Arcade Game.

Start of wave 1.
The gameplay centers around the battle at the end of Star Wars. You are the pilot of an X-wing starfighter headed toward the Empire's dreaded space station, the Death Star. You view the action from a first-person perspective inside the X-wing.

The Details

Dogfight with TIE fighters.
Before play begins, there are three difficulty levels to choose from: easy, which starts you out at wave 1 with no bonus points; medium, which starts you at wave 3 with 400,000 bonus points; and hard, which starts you at wave 5 with 800,000 bonus points.

On your approach to the Death Star, you face three distinct stages: a dogfight with TIE fighters, a flight through the Death Star's outer defenses, and finally, a trip through the trench to the exhaust port.

"Red 5, I'm going in."
Stage 1: TIE Fighters
During this stage, you have no control over the flight of your X-wing, letting you focus solely on destroying the incoming TIE fighters, who are trying to blast you with fireballs. Your X-wing begins with six shields, and you lose one each time you are hit. Luckily, you can deflect fireballs with a direct hit from your laser cannon. Darth Vader's modified TIE fighter makes an appearance during later waves, although he can never be destroyed.

The Death Star's outer defenses.
Stage 2: Outer Defenses
As you approach the Death Star trench, laser turrets and towers will try to prevent you from reaching your destination by taking aim at your ship. Earn points by destroying them. Unlike the first stage, you have limited control over your X-wing, so you have the choice of avoiding fireballs or deflecting them. This stage does not appear in wave 1.

Stage 3: The Trench
After successful navigating through the Death Star's outer defenses, you make your way to the trench that leads to the exhaust port. Here, you face fireballs that you may avoid or deflect. On later waves, barriers that impede your progress must also be avoided. Once you reach the exhaust port, it takes a direct hit to destroy the Death Star. If you are successful (which is not difficult), it will explode, and you move on to the next wave. If not, you go back to the beginning of the trench and lose a shield.

"Great shot kid! That was one in a million!"
The Verdict
Star Wars: The Arcade Game has a lot going for it: great vector graphics, an easy-to-control flight yoke, and of course, the opportunity to destroy the Death Star. But what really makes the game complete is the use of sound effects and voices from the movie. And these aren't Bezerk-like computer synthesized voices, either, but the actual thing. Hearing Obi-Wan say, "Use the Force, Luke," or Han Solo yell, "You're all clear, kid!" adds that last touch of realism needed to push this Star Wars game over the top into greatness.

The home versions on the other hand, don't fare so well. They keep the basic gameplay of the arcade version intact, but without the vector graphics, sound effects, and voices of the original, so much is lost in the translation. Still, if you take into account the extreme hardware limitations of the home consoles at that time, they aren't bad little games on their own. (But no matter what you take into account, the explosion of the Death Star on the 2600 is downright pitiful.)

don_kenobi@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Tue Sep 14, 1999 10:48pm EDT