Video games - Star Raiders

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	Video games - Star Raiders

Star Raiders was a popular game for the Atari 8-bit family of computers, released in 1979. It was programmed by Doug Neubauer. It was distinctive for its graphics, which (under most conditions) represented an out-the-cockpit, first-person view from a fictional combat spaceship traveling through a streaming 3D starfield in pursuit of enemy fighters (called "Zylons" in game documentation). While there had already been simple target-shooting games using this perspective, Star Raiders had graphics of considerably higher quality and more complex game play, and inspired both imitators throughout the 1980s and later-generation "space combat simulation" games such as the Wing Commander and X-Wing series. It was arguably also a predecessor of first-person shooters. The game's attract mode screen of a simple streaming starfield was a common sight in computer stores of the early 1980s, used to show off the Atari computers' graphics capabilities.

Star Raiders was packaged in a ROM cartridge, which was the prevalent distribution medium for Atari 8-bit games of the time. The game used both a joystick for direct control and the computer keyboard for entering commands.

The game was later adapted to other Atari computer and game platforms.

Game play

Galactic Chart and hyperspace

The gameplay is built on earlier, mostly text-based Star Trek-themed computer games in which the player's ship maneuvered about a two-dimensional grid fighting a fleet of enemy spaceships. In Star Raiders this part of the game took the form of a "Galactic Chart" display dividing the game's large-scale world into a grid of sectors, some of which were occupied by enemy ships or friendly "starbases". Flying about in the 3D view with the ship's normal engines was sufficient for travel within a sector; travel between sectors was via "hyperspace", accomplished through an elaborate and noisy "hyperwarp" sequence with graphics loosely reminiscent of the Star Wars and Star Trek films in which the stars seemed to stretch to radial lines. On the higher difficulty levels, hyperwarp had a skill element; the player had to keep a wandering crosshair roughly centered during the sequence in order to land in the right place.

Combat, damage and resources

To the Star Trek formula, the game added real-time 3D space battles. In the main, first-person-perspective display, the player could look out the front or rear of the ship and shoot shimmering fireballs at Zylon ships, which came in three different varieties vaguely reminiscent of ships from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica (whose villains were called Cylons). A small targeting display in the lower right corner indicated when weapons were locked on the enemy. There was also a "long-range scan" screen showing the surrounding region in a third-person plan view.

Enemies would fire back, and would cause damage if the player's ship was hit. The ship could also be damaged by collision with occasional meteoroids. Instead of the multiple lives that were and are a common video-game convention, the Star Raiders ship had only one life, but would be completely destroyed only if hit while its energy shields were lowered or out of order; otherwise it would sustain varying types of damage, which caused shields, engines, weapons or information displays to work intermittently, partially or not at all. The player had to manage finite energy reserves as well as damage to the ship; it could be repaired and restocked by rendezvous with a starbase. The enemy would also destroy a starbase if allowed to surround its Galactic Chart sector for too long, so the starbases had to be defended. All this lent Star Raiders a degree of complexity and a sense of player immersion that was rare in action games of the era.

Image:star-raiders-game-under-attack.gif|Two Zylon fighters attack. Image:star-raiders-game-galactic-chart.gif|Viewing the Galactic Chart. Image:star-raiders-game-hyperspace.gif|Travelling to another sector, via 'hyperspace.' Image:star-raiders-game-docking.gif|Docking with a friendly starbase for repairs. Image:star-raiders-game-long-range-scan.gif|Viewing the sector using the Long-Range Sector Scanner.

Scoring

Also unusually for the era, the player could actually win the game, which was accomplished by destroying all enemy ships in the galaxy. There was no running score display; only upon winning, dying or quitting the game would the player receive a "rating", which was a quasi-military rank accompanied by a numerical class (particularly bad play earned a rank of "Garbage Scow Captain" or "Galactic Cook"). The rating depended on a formula involving enemy destroyed, energy and time used, and starbases destroyed.

Technical Details

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Star Raiders ]

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