Atari Corp.
£24.95
Colour monitor required
Shortly after the release of the first 8-bit Ataris,
Atari themselves published a piece of software that was to
revolutionise the computer game. This was Star Raiders — since much
imitated on other machines with varying lack of success — a game
which has been consistently voted one of the best ever written. Even
today, many Atari owners would include it in a personal top three
'best games'.
I mention this ancient history to try and impress
upon those readers new to the Atari community the special place Star
Raiders has for us. At last, after a long wait, the ST version of
this classic has appeared. How does it compare with the marvellous
original?
When I first loaded up the game, I did so with a certain amount of
apprehension. Would this be a much-enhanced version of the original
taking into account the best features of the ST, or merely a
completely different game relying on a famous name to sell? Fear
not, this version is almost entirely faithful to the 8-bit original,
with one or two minor changes that in general enhance the game play.
One very pleasant surprise came on reading the
manual. The first instruction given is to make a backup copy of the
master disk, and use the copy routinely. That's right, Atari have
not copy-protected the disk in any way. For this I applaud them for,
although it has never happened to me, there can surely be nothing
worse than buying an expensive piece of software and then losing it
through some disaster which is no fault of your own. If we want more
software publishers to follow this line, however, I must beg and
entreat ST owners neither to give away or sell pirated (i.e. stolen)
copies of the game nor accept such a copy if it is offered to you.
This has caused too much damage to Atari owners in the past for
anyone to want to see it repeated on the ST.
Anyway, onto the game itself. The plot of Star
Raiders is simple. You are one of the elite 'Star Raider' pilots of
the Atarian federation, which is under attack from the Zycroids (any
relation to the Zylons of the original?) a race of mutated robot
creatures bent on destroying humanity. The aim is straightforward —
knock out all the Zycroid ships in your quadrant before they get you
'an all-time classic'
On loading the game (from the GEM desktop) you select
the difficulty level using the mouse and then start the game. This
is the only time the mouse is used, game control being entirely by
joystick and keyboard, as in the original. Four levels of difficulty
are available to you. As in the 8-bit version these are classed
Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander. When the game commences the
upper half of the screen shows a scrolling 3-D view out of the
window of your starcruiser, with the lower half containing the
control panel. This includes status lights for shields and weapons,
a tally of the enemy destroyed and an external systems indicator
showing you the current enemy vessel being tracked by your ship's
computer. In the centre of the control panel there is the tactical
display, which can operate in three modes — galactic map, long range
scanner and aft viewer. Those readers who have played the 8-bit
version will recognise the similarity here, but one useful feature
is that the use of a tactical display like this means that you can
have both forward and aft views available simultaneously. The
control panel is graphically very well done, as it is in many such
games written for the ST.
Before you commence battle, it is advisable to turn
on the onboard computer, which among other things displays the
gunsight and provides a head up display of information about
distance and bearing to the enemy ships. You should also turn on the
shields, without which the ship will be blown to atoms within
seconds of finding the Zycroids. This brings me to one point that is
a little different to the original — you don't actually have to go
and look for the enemy, they come and find you! There are seven
types of Zycroid craft, each with its own particular attack pattern.
You don't see them all in the easier levels, but are only faced with
the less dangerous ones. Graphically, the Zycroids are superb, all
you would expect to see on the ST. In fact this is true of all the
game objects from the meteors to the stunning rotating starbases to
the victory flyby accorded to you if you destroy all the Zycroids.
Did I forget to mention the starbases? Because your fuel is limited,
and because you may sustain damage to vital systems in combat there
are a number of starbases at which you can refuel and be repaired.
The Zycroids will attempt to destroy the bases, but this should be
prevented at all costs. There was a justifiable complaint about the
8-bit version that docking with the starbases was extremely tricky,
but this is thankfully not the case here. The game sound effects are
simple but adequate, and are spectacularly loud — the room will
reverberate if you turn the sound right up.
The quadrant of space you are in is divided into
sectors, and you must use your hyperwarp system to move between
them. The hyperwarp graphics are very realistic — rather similar to
that which you see in the 'Star Trek' movies. Unfortunately one
feature of hyperwarp has been discarded in this version — the need
to steer through hyperspace in the higher levels. I don't know why
this isn't there, it always added an extra dimension to the gameplay
for the more skilled player. However an added feature with no
counterpart in the original is something called the 'Emergency
Atomics Unit'. Using this, which you can only do once between visits
to a starbase, will destroy all the remaining Zycroids in the sector
and warp you out of trouble fast. Again I'm not sure why this is
present — in truth I wouldn't have thought the game difficult enough
to warrant this feature. That brings me onto my final point,
concerning the overall difficulty of the game. On the 8-bit version
I find Novice level to be easy, Pilot to be hard, and I can only
survive for a minute or two at the hardest levels. I am not a
particularly skilful player of this type of game, but on this
version I can survive easily at Warrior level and even the hardest
level of all isn't that troublesome. I just wonder if experienced
game players might find this just a little bit too easy.
So there it is, the ST version of an all-time classic
from Atari. If you know and love the original, you'll like this one
too. If you own an ST but have never played Star Raiders this is
your chance to find out why it has such a great reputation.
Definitely one to add to your collection.
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