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Star Wars |
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Manufacturer:
Atari Year: 1983 Class: Wide Release Genre: Space Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 1 Gameplay: Single Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls:
Sound: Unamplified Stereo (requires two-channel amp) |
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DescriptionPilot the X-Wing Fighter in the classic color vector arcade game! Blast away TIE Fighters, zoom across the surface of the Death Star, and roar down the trench with sampled voices and effects from the movie!Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationNearly the entire cabinet, except for the back, top, and coin doors, is covered with artwork, including several molded plastic sections.Cheats, Tricks and BugsIn the tower scene, you can shoot fireballs that are hidden behind the towers. In the trench scene, you can shoot fireballs through the catwalks.Moving the flight yoke far left and far right during the attract mode will switch between the instructions and the high score list. In the trench you can "use the force" and get an extra 100,000 points by not shooting anything except the exhaust port. The text "USE THE FORCE" will be at the top of the screen until you shoot. The 100,000 is actually awarded just before you have to shoot the exhaust port, so it's possible to take out some of the gun turrets at the end, too. (The bonus is actually lower on the first two waves.) It's rumored that if you shoot Darth Vader more than 30 times, you get 27 shields. It is said you can also get 255 shields, but this is rare. ConversionConversion kits exist to turn this game into The Empire Strikes Back.Game IntroductionBefore the action starts, the player is allowed to choose which level of difficulty to begin at, with compensating bonus scores for each higher level of play. Once the preliminaries are finished with, the battle begins, and the incredibly smooth first person perspective and 3-D effects take over.The steering mechanism and four built-in triggers enable pinpoint shooting and flying accuracy as well as rapid-fire. The four laser-cannons that are located on the sides and bottom of the video monitor hit the "cursor", which is manipulated by the steering mechanism that also controls the direction of your ship. The mechanism is a good copy of the firing triggers in the movie. There are three chapters in the story of the game. In the first, your X-Wing Fighter dogfights with Imperial TIE Fighters and Darth Vader's ship. In the second, you maneuver past bunkers and deflector towers on the face of the Death Star, blasting them along the way. In the final scenario, you find yourself speeding through the trench of the Death Star, avoiding obstacles and blasting gun turrets then, finally, hopefully time a proton torpedo for a direct hit on the exaust port target. What follows, if you are successful, is the Death Star exploding in a multitude of different colors. Then it is on to do battle again. Throughout the game, you are bombarded by fireballs and lasers, which you must destroy or avoid. Each hit on your ship destroys one of your shields. Any collision will also lose you a shield and the game ends when you run out of shields and you get hit by anything. You do, however, receive an additional shield every time you destroy the Death Star. The game features a dramatic state-of-the-art color vector graphics system that produces surprisingly realistic effects. The sound track is laced with the familiar voices of Luke Skywalker ("Red Five standing by.", "I cannot shake him!", "This is Red Five. I'm going in!", etc.), Obi-Wan Kenobi ("Use The Force, Luke!", "Remember, The Force will be with you. Always.", etc.), Han Solo ("Yahoo! You are all clear, kid!"), Darth Vader ("I have you now!", "The Force is strong with this one!", etc.), Wedge, and even R2D2 (various beeps and electronic sounds, documented in the manual as "Yes", "No", "I agree", "Sequence completed", "Ouch!", and "That really hurt."). There are also seven different musical themes from the movie that are played throughout the game including the Star Wars Theme, Ben's Theme and the Mos Eisley Cantina Band's number. Game PlayThe object of the game is to destroy the Death Star. You battle squads of attacking TIE fighters as well as Darth Vader's ship in the attempt to accomplish your goal.MiscellaneousManufactured in partnership with Lucasfilm Ltd.Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)Very Common - There are 254 known instances of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 242 of them are original dedicated machines, 1 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 11 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 93 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records. - There are 38 VAPS members currently looking for this game. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalThe Wells-Gardner color XY monitor assembly is pin-compatbile with the Amplifone monitor and can be used as a replacement. However, an aftermarket correction kit is desirable.The Amplifone HV transformers are often suspect and very expensive to replace. While all four fire buttons have the same function during gameplay, when using the "Freeze Mode" (single-step through frames), the triggers are used for firing and the thumb buttons are used to advance frames. TriviaThe controller is a derivative of the legendary military Battlezone version.After fighting the TIE fighters, when you are flying towards the Death Star, the yellow lines on the Death Star spell out either "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU" (odd-numbered waves) or peoples' names (even numbered waves). The text is faint, but definitely there. It is possible to see this just as the screen zooms into the Death Star at the end of the dogfight sequence. The text is clearly there if the game is paused, either via MAME, or by flipping DIP switch 8 in the options bank on the logic board. With regards to the order of their release, Star Wars was actually followed by Return Of The Jedi, a raster game that used the same flight controller, then by The Empire Strikes Back, a vector game shipped as a conversion kit for the original Star Wars. FixesInstalling a fan to cool the high voltage section on the monitor is recommended to extend its life. A blue "flare" at the end of the Death Star explosion can be removed by turning down the brightness at the HV.eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Star Wars Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Atari. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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