Star Raiders
A True Classic
By Lawrence ArmstrongFebruary 22, 2005
One of the most well-known Atari classics
is Star Raiders. This game’s appearance on the ST features
beautiful graphics. The game runs in a normal GEM environment, complete
with drop down menus. The title screen is similar to an actual game play
screen, except it features the title of the game filling the entire view
port in bright green/blue graphic characters, surrounded by some of the
enemies you will be facing. Below the title is your ship’s very detailed
control panel. Not only is it detailed, but most of it is actually
functional. You have a view screen, throttle, and other knobs and
readouts.
To start the game, you choose Start from the Options menu. This menu
also features several difficulty levels you can choose from--Commander,
Warrior, Pilot, and Novice. Once the game is started, the first thing to
do is locate where all of your star bases are. They appear as green dots
on the view screen in the middle of your control panel. The object of
the game is to destroy your enemies before they surround and destroy
your star bases. The enemies are clusters of orange dots on the view
screen. Learning keyboard commands is important, as most functions are
carried out this way. The S key turns on shields, which is very
important to keep you from being wiped out with a single direct hit. You
have a targeting computer which is activated with the C key. The H key
warps your ship at light speed into another sector. You can tell what
sector you are in by looking at the view screen. The orange triangle is
where you are currently located. After you’ve warped to an enemy
sector, you must be prepared to engage the enemy.
The game play for the ST version of Star Raiders is not as
exciting as other versions of the game. Unlike the 2600 version, where
you are engaged with very fast, skilled enemy pilots, ST Star Raiders
feels more like shooting at orbiting satellites. The enemies are usually
drifting aimlessly toward you from a distance and seem to have no
artificial intelligence or maneuvering capability. You aim your
targeting crosshair at them and shoot them like fish in a barrel. It is
not uncommon to be able to pick one off in the far distance when it
appears as a motionless spec in the center of your crosshair. The higher
difficulty levels of play are more exciting, with enemies swarming in
front of and behind you, usually with deadly and accurate photon
attacks. Another aspect of the game play is the ability to use the
number keys to control the ship’s speed, as it is necessary to
occasionally dock your ship at a star base for recharging and repair.
There is no music in this game, but the sound effects are pretty good.
The explosions, as is usual for the ST’s sound chip, are very shallow
sounding. The sound of firing your photon torpedoes, hyper warping, and
other sounds are quite suitable for their respective tasks. I just wish
there were someway for the programmers to get more realistic sounding
explosions from the sound chip.
This game is a classic on the Atari 2600/800 and is beautiful to look at
on the ST. The game play isn’t as realistic and exciting as the 2600
version. The enemies just don’t seem like very skilled pilots. Game play
consists of simply aiming your ship at the enemy and firing the photons,
except on the higher difficulty levels. I love the way this game looks,
and although it is rather boring on the Novice difficulty level, it does
indeed get quite a bit more exciting on the Commander level. If you
enjoyed other versions of Star Raiders, you should definitely
check this one out.
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Star Raiders |
Graphics |
95% |
| Publisher |
Atari |
Sound/Music |
60% |
| Genre |
Simulation |
Gameplay |
90% |
| System |
Atari-ST |
Control |
95% |
|
|
Overall |
90% |
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