Developed and published by Atari in 1983
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Just as the original Star Wars proved to be a groundbreaking movie, Atari's 1983 coinop interpretation of George Lucas' science fiction classic proved to be equally remarkable.

For one thing, the game's vector graphics looked absolutely gorgeous for the time, and still look pretty good today. The wireframe 3D environments and spacecraft were truly breathtaking to behold, not to mention the speed and relative smoothness at which the game operated.

The game is set during the final, climactic moments of the of the film, as the Rebel Alliance launch an assault on the underconstruction Death Star. Players must engage in frantic dogfights with Imperial Tie Fighters, making efforts to not only take down the craft, but to nullify their "fireball" blaster fire as well. Darth Vader himself will show up on later difficulty levels, kitted out in his own personal Tie Fighter, equipped with a shield.

Break through the fighter defences, and you'll skim across the surface of the Death Star itself, dodging blaster fire from turrets and laser towers. Make it through, and you'll embark on the iconic not to mention deadly trench run, attempting to knock out the super weapons platform by firing a pair of proton torpedoes into the exposed exhaust port. Succeed, and you'll be hailed a hero of the Alliance and earn a serious amount of points; fail, and you'll be forced to run the trench all over again.

Although I was far too young to ever experience the real arcade machine (I'd have been barely 1 year old at the time of release), I certainly remember playing the C64 and Amiga conversions many years later. These really don't do the arcade game justice, and I can only imagine just how mind blowing this must have seemed back in the day. The music, graphics, not to mention speech effects, really were a showcase for Atari, a company clearly at the top of its game.

As for the video, I played up till the completion of wave 10 before consigning myself to the void. The game has no ending and simply loops forever, but I think the video is pretty representative of everything in the game, and I even managed to "Use the Force" in the trench a couple of times toward the end!

** Update **
The surnames of game's developers appear on the side of the Star Destroyer at 03:32:
Mike Hally
Greg Rivera
Jed Margolin (https://www.jmargolin.com/)
Norm Avellar
Earl Vickers
Erik Durfey

Chapters
00:00 Attract mode & instructions
01:24 Wave 1
02:50 Wave 2
05:01 Wave 3
07:21 Wave 4
09:39 Wave 5
12:00 Wave 6
14:19 Wave 7
16:45 Wave 8
19:09 Wave 9
21:37 Wave 10

#starwars
#atari
#retrogaming