Star Raiders is a space combat simulator video game created by Doug Neubauer and published in 1980 by Atari, Inc. Originally released for the Atari 400/800 computers, Star Raiders was later ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST. The player assumes the role of a starship fighter pilot, who must protect starbases from invading forces called Zylons. Piloting and combat are shown in the 3D cockpit view, while a 2D galactic map shows the state of the Zylon invasion. Neubauer made the game in his spare time at Atari, inspired by contemporary media such as Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars, as well as the 1971 mainframe game Star Trek.
Star Raiders became one of the most successful games on Atari's 400 and 800 computers, and their first killer app. It influenced space combat games such as Elite (1984) and Wing Commander (1990), as well as spawning an official sequel and a 2011 remake. Star Raiders was included in a list of ten games that were submitted as a game canon to the Library of Congress in 2007.
Plot and gameplay
Star Raiders is a space combat simulator set during a galactic war between the Atarian Federation and the Zylon Empire. The player assumes the role of the captain of the Elite Atarian Starship fleet, fighting the Zylons before they eliminate humanity. To win, the player must destroy the Zylon ships before they destroy the Atarian ship and before their own ship runs out of energy.
Star Raiders is controlled using both a keyboard and a joystick. It is primarily experienced from a first-person, 3D cockpit view and larger, 2D map overviews for long-distance travel. The player can control the speed of travel in space, and the angle of display (rear and front-views), and engage a mini-display called the Attack Computer Display that displays the coordinates of enemy ships and other targets. In action sequences, the player will sometimes avoid or destroy asteroids before they damage their starship, while battling enemy ships using photon torpedoes. In this mode, the control panel displays the player's velocity, energy, number of kills, and remaining targets; Energy is consumed by traversing space, using shields, and firing photon torpedoes; energy can be restored by matching coordinates with a friendly starbase.
The player can activate a long-range scanner, which displays a top-down view of their ship and nearby targets. When the long-range scan is damaged, the player will see the objects in the area and false reflections of them. The player can also view a galactic chart, indicating the player's location, enemy ships, and friendly star bases. The player engages the hyper-warp to visit new sectors. A subspace radio delivers messages through the galactic chart when star bases are surrounded or destroyed. Six types of equipment can be damaged in action, which is tracked using the acronym PESCLR (for photon torpedoes, engines, shields, computer, long-range scan, and radio). Damaged equipment will affect gameplay, engine damage, for example, slows ship's movement.
Star Raiders' skill levels are Novice, Pilot, Warrior, and Commander. On high-difficulty levels, during hyperwarp moments, players must manually navigate their ship using crosshairs while warping. Zylon ships will move faster and strike more deliberately, with less randomness in their attack algorithm.
Development
Doug Neubauer worked as an electrical engineer before creating Star Raiders. While working at National Semiconductor, Neubauer programmed scenes with star backgrounds.
National canceled its home computer projects, leading Neubauer to move to Atari, where design manager Richard Simone hired him. Neubauer became a key figure in the development of the POKEY sound chip, used in the Atari 400 and 800 computers. Using the sound chip he created, Neubauer tried to emulate the sound effects from Star Trek, such as explosions, engines, and photon torpedoes.
During a period where Atari had fewer hardware design needs, supervisor Jay Miner allowed Neubauer to work on software that eventually developed into Star Raiders. Neubauer said he "just did [Star Raiders] for fun" and that "Atari was pretty laid back...I think Star Raiders, along with other early games, helped in finding any bugs in the Atari 400/800 chips". Development began in early 1979; Neubauer finished the game after eight to ten months.
Neubauer was inspired to make the game after discovering the text-based game Star Trek (1971). He said that it "just didn't look that interesting to play", but liked the idea of the galactic chart within the game. Neubauer wanted to create something that resembled 3D space combat for the system, and was inspired by science-fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138
Release
Star Raiders was released in March 1980. A port was released for the Atari 2600 in 1982, featuring an eight-button touch pad. The following year, the game was ported to Atari 5200, becoming the first game to use all 12 buttons on the console's gamepad. A 16-bit version of Star Raiders was released for the Atari ST computers.
The Atari 2600 version of the game was re-released in various compilations, such as the Atari 80 in One for Windows in 2003 and the Atari Anthology for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. The Atari 5200 version was included as part of the Atari 50 (2022) compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One. This port of the game included additional content such as overlays that show player status and rumble effects when entering hyperspace.
Reception
By October 1982, the Atari 2600 port of Star Raiders was among the sixth-best-selling console releases and continued to be a top-ten release in November.
Contemporaneous
Star Raiders received positive reviews from various computer publications such as InfoWorld, Softline, and Byte. Joretta Klepfer of Compute! did not find the game intuitive, but noted that it was both exciting to play and watch, praising the 3D gameplay, use of color and sound. Jerry Pournelle reported that at the West Coast Computer Faire and National Computer Conference, "the most popular exhibit was Atari's ... boy did they stand in line for Star Raiders".
David C. Cole of InfoWorld said the game is "graphically rich" and noted its addictive qualities and challenge. Cole noted difficulty in the game, stating in more-difficult modes if the ship is damaged it is nearly impossible to locate a base for repairs. An anonymous reviewer in Softline also noted the game's replay ability and challenge, while describing the game as bigger and better than its peers made for the Atari 2600. The review concluded; "the game stands repeat play well and remains quite difficult". Henry Allen echoed the praise in The Washington Post, saying Star Raiders is like "the best possible combination of a shooting gallery and a planetarium".
Greg Williams of Byte
Legacy
Star Raiders prompted several clones following its release. These include Phaser Patrol, Starmaster, Space Spartans, Sentinel, and Codename MAT. Schofield stated in 1986 Codename Mat and Sentinel were the better attempts. Phil Garson of Electronic Fun with Computers & Games said in 1982 review of Star Raiders that while there were many similar games on the market, "none has come close to the original."
According to Barton and Loguidice, Star Raiders established many conventions that would be part of the space simulation genre that would rise with later games such as Elite (1984), Star Control (1990), and Wing Commander (1990).
Barton and Loguidice described Star Raiders is one of the best-known games for Atari's 400 and 800 computers. The game remained popular throughout the 1980s; in 1987, readers of The Computer Entertainer voted for Star Raiders as the 14th favorite game of all time. While Byte called it "probably the single greatest contributor to the sales of Atari's 400 and 800 series computers", and Gamasutra retroactively named it as the first killer app computer game, Star Raiders's popularity contributed to the perception that Atari 8-bit were game machines like the Atari 2600, and not serious computers. When asked about the popularity of the game in 1986, Neubauer said: "It's pretty amazing, the way the game caught on. I think it was the first game to combine action with a strategy screen, and, luckily, the concept worked out pretty well." Neubauer also said the game "looks pretty primitive" by 1986 standards.
In 2007, Henry Lowood, the curator of the History of Science and Technology Collections at
See also
- List of Atari, Inc. games (1972–1984)
- List of space flight simulation games
- List of Atari 2600 games
References
Sources
External links
- Reverse engineered source code with documentation
- Star Raiders – Guide and Walkthrough by BHodges080