Vastar is a horizontally scrolling shooter released as an

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

in 1983 by

Orca The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopol ...

. The company went bankrupt and could not sell the game under their own brand, so they created the alias Sesame Japan Corporation to release this game.

Plot

Near the start of the game In the year 2956 AD, a fighting

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

named ''Vastar'' was developed by scientists in order to protect

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

from the ''Galaxy Empire''. The game's is set in a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

. Ruins of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

Mount Rushmore The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...

and the

Moai Moai or moʻai ( ; ; ) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but h ...

(stone heads from

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

) appear at points in the game.

Gameplay

The player controls Vastar, a fighting flying robot that can shoot enemies with laser beams. Vastar is destroyed by enemy contact or strike but it is provided with a shield that must be activated to prevent attacks. When the shield's energy runs out, Vastar turns itself in an airship that still can shoot laser beams but it's defenseless against strikes. As the player reaches Vastar's base (as well if the player loses a life and restarts with another one), the shield's power is fully charged again and Vastar returns to its default form.

References

External links

*
Vastar
' at '' Killer List of Videogames'' 1983 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Horizontally scrolling shooters Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer hotseat games Science fiction video games {{arcade-stub