Gamers today really take Star Wars for granted. Everytime we turn around, we trip over a new game taking place in George Lucas' cash cow universe: "Hey," we're told. "This is sort of like the other games -- except this time, it just focuses on lightsaber duels!" Or, "this time it's a massively multiplayer experience where you can hang out and give lap dances to other fans!" Or, "this time, you have the force powers of Yoda multiplied by Emperor Palpatine plus Luke Skywalker, minus any interesting level design!"
Back in 1983, though, gamers had only one way to scratch their Star Wars gaming itch: the Star Wars arcade cabinet. Available in both stand-up and awesomely ornate sit-down versions, the Star Wars vector game is...well, believe it or not, it might be my favorite Star Wars licensed game ever made.
And I only played it for the first time a few months ago.
Story:
It's the Death Star run from the first Star Wars movie.
Gameplay:
It's the Death Star run from the first Star Wars movie.
And it's awesome.
There are only three levels in the entire game (comprising the three stages of the Death Star attack), but they all feel totally different from one another.
The first level tasks consists of shooting TIE Fighters, and the deadly "fireballs" they shoot at you, as you approach the Death Star. It plays pretty much as you'd expect -- you have little to no control over your ship, making the whole thing feel like an intense shooting gallery. If you've ever played the first-person turret levels in Shadows of the Empire for the Nintendo 64, the first level feels exactly like that.
The second level, my personal favorite, forces you to dodge gun towers on the Death Star surface as you make your way to the exhaust trench. It's here where Star Wars' control scheme really gets a chance to shine. Though it may not seem terribly interesting now, Star Wars had a damn near revolutionary control scheme for its time -- both aiming and shooting are bound to the same yoke control. Moving the yoke lightly in any direction moves the cursor, while more extreme movments alter the position of the X-Wing itself. The second level simultaneously forces the player to dodge gun towers (which shoot out of the ground like weeds for no apparent reason) and shoot the turrets. Thanks to the smooth, responsive controls, this never feels as difficult or as frustrating as one might naturally expect a game from nineteen-eighty-and-goddamn-three to be.
The third level is the trench run, which focuses mainly on obstacle dodging and "fireball" blasting up until the final, downright orgasmic face-off with the exhaust port. Should you hit the port with your blasters in time, you're treated to a gorgeous cut scene of the Death Star exploding. It's impossible to describe unless you've seen it in person, but the screen positively bursts with vibrant, bright colors that radiate out in every direction.
It now occurs to me that I've made it this far into the article without talking about the game's graphics. As you can tell from the embedded YouTube video, the Star Wars arcade game was made with colored vector graphics. Where most graphics (the TIE fighters, the HUD, the visible edges of the X-Wing) are shown at regular brightness, certain important objects like the TIE Fighter projectiles or the Death Star explosion are lit at a much higher brightness level, which makes them much more visually distinctive. I can't really describe what it looks like in person, because I'm a shitty goddamn writer, but certain sprites are so much brighter than everything which surrounds them that they call attention to themselves and look much more pleasing to the eye. When you blow up the Death Star, the entire screen is filled with superbright colors like this. Hence, orgasmic.
And even if you do miss the exhaust port, don't worry: the game simply spawns you a few feet back from the port so you can try again, without forcing you to start all over. Such a remarkably forgiving design decision is, again, quite surprising for such an old game.
Then the whole game restarts on a higher difficulty level.
Why you're probably not playing it:
Star Wars is one of those few arcade cabinets that was so goddamn popular during the time of its release that you can probably still find it in any arcade that's worth a damn.
The difficulty, of course, comes in finding an arcade that's worth a damn. And even for those people who can find it, I wouldn't be surprised if most people only put two or three credits into it -- though Star Wars is incredibly rewarding even in short play sessions by only having three actual levels, it doesn't give you much incentive to keep pumping quarters in after you've already seen the Death Star explode once or twice -- at least, not on the level of a beatemup or a shooter where you're driven to keep tossing away money in a rabid effort to get to the actual end of the game.
Additionally, where most new Star Wars games (Force Unleashed, Knights of the Old Republic, etc) are mainly concerned with making the player feel like he's an actual part of the living, breathing Star Wars universe, the original arcade game just felt like an excuse for some really intense, Star Wars-themed action. Though the controls are incredibly tight and most of the music and digitized speech are ripped directly from the movie, the minimalist graphics and creative license taken with the film (TIE Fighters do not shoot "fireballs") thankfully make the whole thing feel like more of a badass, gameplay-comes-first-franchise-comes-second retro game than most modern Lucasarts titles do.
I played a lot of this at the arcade, Chuck E Cheese, and just about any arcade I visited in my youth.
My first video game I believe was Asteroids. Or was it pac man? huh.. never really gave this one much thought. I recall pushing a chair up to the asteroids machiene so I was able to see the screen and press the buttons.
I remember sitting in this cabinet as a kid being memorized by the music and sounds from the movies.
This was actually included with the pre-order disc for Rogue Squadron 3 on the GameCube. Though I highly doubt it would match a sit-down arcade cabinet in terms of amazing-ness. I was spoiled by polygons too much to fully appreciate it. :(
I remember playing this game at VGXPO. It was the first time I had played the actual arcade cabinet and I remember asking several people associated with the show how much they'd want to let me take that home with me.
Did time forget this game? Or am I just that old. The first time I played this game was in an amazing arcade in Jackpot, Nevada's Whiskey Pete's Casino. I was about, six or seven, I could just barely see over the amazing controller. The Rev doesn't mention it, but this game had an incredible "Tank" like controller. It was shapped like a flat H. You'd sort of grab onto the two sides and could rotate it left and right while sliding moving the stick forward or backward. And there were excellent "Fire buttons" that had a great clicky feel. It really looked like the gun controls that Luke and Han use to fight off the tie fighters as the Melenium Falcon is escaping the death star. That controller was so great.
Interesting tid bit. That controller was created for an Abrams tank training game that Atari developed for the army. The developer of the game was so conflicted over working for the military industrial complex that he eventually left the company. But not before making an incredible controller that would alse be used on the Empire Strikes Bake arcade cabinet (a game similar to the Star Wars game, with Vector Graphics, that depected mainly the hoth battle. Also a great game) as well as the Firefox Laser Disc game (no THERE is a game that time forgot).
The thing I remember most was the amazing samples from teh movie that would play. You'd hear luke yelling and Obi-Won talking to you. God it was the greatest. The Rev, also didn't talk much about that, but as a kid in an arcade you'd hear that digitized 4-Bit "Yahoo" speech sample going off about once every 30 seconds or so to add to the arcade ambience. The best was that if you let the continue counter run down to zero and didnt' put a new quarter in then Obi-Won would say. "Remember, the force willl be with you...always." god it gave me chills.
This game was also the star of my Atari 5200 collection. It was an arcade perfect port. It was one of the few games that worked well with the "non centering" atari 5200 joystick. I logged a lot of hours on that game. Man, I wonder if I can track a copy on ebay.
Not only was this on the Rebel Strike bonus preorder disc, it was also on the disc with the game proper, along with The Empire Strikes Back, which is very similar, and Return of the Jedi which is not.
I've never seen the machine in person. In fact, I don't recall if I've ever played a game with true vector graphics rather than a port or emulation for a console. Regardless, the Gamecube version of this is quite fun, if bastardly hard like all arcade games.
The towers "sprouting" I believe is a not-quite-convincing attempt at showing the towers coming into view rising over the curvature of the Death Star's surface. Many years later, Axelay would similarly abuse Mode 7.
Fun Fact: The texture on the Death Star spells out credits for the game on every even wave. I forget whether it says anything on the odd waves.
This game was all over Northern Ireland when I was growing up, problem was, because of the expensive cabinet etc it was 30-50p per play. Up to 5 times as much as Double Dragon or Green Beret. Ah nostalgia. Here are the bad boys I used to feed the machines (they were big, maybe not as big as this pic though): http://www.ukcoinpics.co.uk/dec/10/10_80.jpg
Also, darn tootin' kids these days, with their bump mapping and shading effects. Back then, we were given a bunch of colored lines and crappy sound effects, and we liked it!
This is the game that hooked me on video games. I played it for the first time as a kid on vacation at Myrtle Beach. There was an arcade on one of the piers, and I spent a lot of money there that year. I was probably about seven at the time, and I remember playing this like it was yesterday, I was absolutely mesmerized by what was happening in front of me. And damn it! I BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR!!! That was an amazing feeling for a kid, being a part of the movie.
The test is to try and destroy the death star without firing (gives you the "Use The Force" bonus), I think at my best I made it past level 19 using the force, it was insane, and a lot of fun, must of spent about as much money on that game as I did on Tempest, and SW had better value for your quarter (could play longer).
This is a game, like all good games where depth is really irrelivant. It's all just having fun and beating vader, over and over again.
This was the first arcade game I remember playing. Even my dad, who isn't big on video games trust me, played it as well at the local Chuck E Cheese. I remember I had it for PC way back in the day when mine had a "turbo" button on the front of it. I was upset that when we upgraded the PC it wouldn't play anymore because the PC was faster and it wouldn't scale down to play properly in dos. The game would start and would immeadiatly end because I died. I never even got a chance to get my hands on the joystick. Come to think of it...its possible I still have this sitting in a box somewhere in my attic, I'll have to look, on big and little floppy no less. Well once the weather here in Chicago gets above zero.
I've only had the opportunity to play this once when I was little. I discovered that a Dave and Busters-type place near me has one, but it's been out of order for months :(
I hardly think that one of the top arcade games of all time counts as a game that time forgot simply because the author hadn't played it before (blog fail). A better game that time forgot would have been the Empire Strikes Back add on module for the game that was super rare.
Also want to point out how rare the controller is now thanks to all the MAME cabinet assholes that bolt it onto some crappy particle board cabinet. Cost me $350 to replace a worn out portion of the controller recently. A note about the monitor is that they aren't produced anymore and parts are extra scarce. Replacement reconditioned monitors can sell for upwards of $1000
I've got mine parked in my basement and it's great. While I'd never sell it, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's a burden stockpiling parts just in case something breaks.
Whoa! Bring back the memories, Anthony!
This was a fun game! Yee!
Haven't played it in years!
My rich friend from junior high actually had this in his house.
Spoiled slut!
I used to love playing this and The Empire Strikes Back at my local Straw Hat Pizza. I got a chance to buy a cabinet from an arcade when I was still living at home, but my mother refused. Maybe she was afraid that all of the neighbor kids would spend all of their time in our garage. But that's okay, I know a guy at work who has, amongst other arcade and pinball games, Star Wars and I get to play for free.
I LOVE this arcade game. I almost bought one in good condition for $700 a few years back. I quickly realized I then couldn't pay my rent or actually, you know, get it home in some way.
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Contest:
2:00 PM on 01.13.2009
| 
My first video game I believe was Asteroids. Or was it pac man? huh.. never really gave this one much thought. I recall pushing a chair up to the asteroids machiene so I was able to see the screen and press the buttons.
I remember sitting in this cabinet as a kid being memorized by the music and sounds from the movies.
Well done, Anthony!
God damn, I love that game.
Interesting tid bit. That controller was created for an Abrams tank training game that Atari developed for the army. The developer of the game was so conflicted over working for the military industrial complex that he eventually left the company. But not before making an incredible controller that would alse be used on the Empire Strikes Bake arcade cabinet (a game similar to the Star Wars game, with Vector Graphics, that depected mainly the hoth battle. Also a great game) as well as the Firefox Laser Disc game (no THERE is a game that time forgot).
The thing I remember most was the amazing samples from teh movie that would play. You'd hear luke yelling and Obi-Won talking to you. God it was the greatest. The Rev, also didn't talk much about that, but as a kid in an arcade you'd hear that digitized 4-Bit "Yahoo" speech sample going off about once every 30 seconds or so to add to the arcade ambience. The best was that if you let the continue counter run down to zero and didnt' put a new quarter in then Obi-Won would say. "Remember, the force willl be with you...always." god it gave me chills.
This game was also the star of my Atari 5200 collection. It was an arcade perfect port. It was one of the few games that worked well with the "non centering" atari 5200 joystick. I logged a lot of hours on that game. Man, I wonder if I can track a copy on ebay.
I've never seen the machine in person. In fact, I don't recall if I've ever played a game with true vector graphics rather than a port or emulation for a console. Regardless, the Gamecube version of this is quite fun, if bastardly hard like all arcade games.
The towers "sprouting" I believe is a not-quite-convincing attempt at showing the towers coming into view rising over the curvature of the Death Star's surface. Many years later, Axelay would similarly abuse Mode 7.
Fun Fact: The texture on the Death Star spells out credits for the game on every even wave. I forget whether it says anything on the odd waves.
i want more redrose tinted and less anthony.
That sentence alone proves that I'm old.
Also, darn tootin' kids these days, with their bump mapping and shading effects. Back then, we were given a bunch of colored lines and crappy sound effects, and we liked it!
That also shows my age.
STILL a great game.
Great grab here Rev, excellent choice.
I love that I'm so old that some of my favorite people are younger than some of my favorite videogames.
This is a game, like all good games where depth is really irrelivant. It's all just having fun and beating vader, over and over again.
For this though, I had trouble exiting the Death Star and would be forced to do the trench part again and again.
Make sure to join me at the old age home, my friend! :)
Also want to point out how rare the controller is now thanks to all the MAME cabinet assholes that bolt it onto some crappy particle board cabinet. Cost me $350 to replace a worn out portion of the controller recently. A note about the monitor is that they aren't produced anymore and parts are extra scarce. Replacement reconditioned monitors can sell for upwards of $1000
I've got mine parked in my basement and it's great. While I'd never sell it, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's a burden stockpiling parts just in case something breaks.
This was a fun game! Yee!
Haven't played it in years!
My rich friend from junior high actually had this in his house.
Spoiled slut!
It was a glorious night.