Empire Strikes Back, The

Empire Strikes Back, The Description

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Cabinet Information

The marquee's colors are blue, black, white, red, and yellow. There are pictures of Imperial Walkers on the left side and the Millenium Falcon flying through an asteroid field on the right. In the center is the Empire Strikes Back logo. The lower-front portion of the game is painted in black and gray in a pattern resembling pipes and conduits.

A smoke-tinted glass plate covers the monitor and a molded black plastic shroud frames-in the monitor area resembling the interior of an X-Wing cockpit. The flight controller is mounted on a overlay that simulates a control panel.

Cheats, Tricks and Bugs

TRICK: During the tie fighter sequence, if you shoot the ships before they leave the screen, you will stay focused on the Executor and have a very target-rich environment.

TRICK: The best way through the asteroid field is to aim for a far corner and stick with it unless you absolutely have to dodge an oncoming asteroid.

TRICK: It is not obvious, but when the high score list is displayed at any time, you can use the flight yoke to scroll up and down the list to see all of the top 25 players. Moving the flight yoke far left and far right will switch between the instructions and the high score list.

BUG: At the end of the asteroid field, the game says it is awarding points and a Jedi letter. However, the points are never added to the player's score.

BUG: If the player spells "JEDI" at the end of the tie-fighter sequence and dies during the asteroid field, the Jedi bonus timer will continue to run during the attract mode.

MISC: The high score list will reset if the Jedi-letter mode is changed on the game options screen.

Conversion

Clay Cowgill sells a kit that can be installed into the boardset to create a switchable Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back arcade game.

Game Play

In the first stage, the player flies a Snowspeeder over the terrain of Hoth, shooting down Probots who shoot fireballs and send transmission signals. The player can shoot down the transmission signals to prolong the stage, but if enough signals make it though, the game automatically advances to the next stage. To earn a letter in this stage, you must shoot down the indicated number of Probots.

In stage 2, the player flies a Snowspeeder over the terrain of Hoth with the goal of destroying Imperial Walkers and Scout Walkers before they reach the main power generator. Shooting the red viewports in the heads of either type of Walker will destroy it. An alternate method is to launch tow cables at the legs of the Walkers. This scores more points than shooting them. However, the number of tow cables is limited. To earn the JEDI letter in this stage, the player must destroy the indicated number of Walkers.

In stage 3, the player must fight his way through a wave of Tie Fighters in the Millenium Falcon. To earn the JEDI letter in this stage, the player must destroy the indicated number of Tie Fighters.

In stage 4, the player flies the Millenium Falcon through an Asteroid field. To earn the JEDI letter in this stage, the player must simply survive.

The stages get progressively more difficult with the advancement of each level.

Miscellaneous

VAPS Arcade Census

Common - There are 50 known instances of Empire Strikes Back, The owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 14 of them are original dedicated machines, 15 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 21 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 57,121 video games (3,420 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 30 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - There are 7 VAPS members currently looking for Empire Strikes Back, The. There is one VAPS member looking for a Empire Strikes Back, The circuit board set.

For Sale - There is one VAPS member with a Empire Strikes Back, The machine for sale. VAPS members are totally independent of VAPS and the International Arcade Museum, and we are unable to recommend, endorce, or guarantee any person or company selling games or game parts.

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 operators 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.

Technical

It is not a measure of the number of vectors on the screen or the frame rate, but appears to be a timing delay indicator. Obviously, it was intended for the programmers of the game, and it should have been removed before production. It is visible if you shrink the game in the X axis. Drawing an object that far out probably puts a small additional strain on the deflector PCB.

Fixes

eBay Listings

Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).

Legacy

1. Star Wars
2. Return Of The Jedi
3. Empire Strikes Back, The

Foto-Finder™

1. The Encyclpedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 192; Color photo;