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''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 ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
''. Developed during the Golden Age of Arcade Games, ''Star Wars'' has been included on lists of the greatest video games of all time. The game features synthesized voices to emulate the actors from the film.


Gameplay

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.


Phase 1

In the first phase, the
Imperial March "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" is a musical theme present in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It was composed by John Williams for the film ''The Empire Strikes Back''. Together with "Yoda's Theme", "The Imperial March" was premiered on ...
or another part of
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
' 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.


Phase 2

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.


Phase 3

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.


Development

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''). Rotberg left Atari in October 1981, after which Atari signed a licensing agreement with LucasFilm and finished the game.


Ports

''Star Wars'' was converted first by Parker Brothers (with development by Imagic) in 1983 and 1984 to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, the
Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
, ColecoVision, and
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
. The ColecoVision version was programmed by
Wendell Brown Wendell Brown is an American computer scientist, Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and inventor best known for his innovations in Telecommunications and Internet Technology, Cybersecurity, and Smartphone app development. Brown has founded multiple ...
. The same game was converted again, in 1987 and 1988, for the
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
,
Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
, 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 Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
and
Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
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 The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
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.


Reception

The game was Atari's top-selling 1983 arcade release, with Atari producing 12,695 total arcade units. In the United States, it topped the '' Play Meter'' arcade chart for street locations in October 1983. 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. '' COMPUTE!'' praised the Atari ST version of ''Star Wars'', calling it "amazing, smoothly animated". The MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 versions by
Broderbund Software Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...
were reviewed in 1989 in ''
Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
'' #145 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. ''
Macworld ''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
'' 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.


Accolades

In 1995,
Flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
magazine ranked the game 61st on their "Top 100 Video Games." In 1996, ''
Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' 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, nddigitized voices", they ventured that it was "Probably the best licensed game ever." In 1999, ''
Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' 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." In 2001 it was voted one of the top 100 arcade games of all time by the members of Killer List of Videogames.


Legacy

''Star Wars'' arcade machines can be converted into '' The Empire Strikes Back'' via a conversion kit. 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.


High scores

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). 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 ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
''. Their efforts raised money for a local charity. 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 ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' and remains the world record to this day.


References


External links

*
''Star Wars''
at the Arcade History database * {{Authority control 1983 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Arcade video games Atari games Atari arcade games Atari 2600 games Atari 5200 games Atari 8-bit family games Atari ST games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Broderbund games ColecoVision games Commodore 64 games DOS games Rail shooters Star Wars (film) video games Vector arcade video games ZX Spectrum games Domark games Star Wars arcade games Video games scored by David Whittaker Video games developed in the United States