Star Castle
1980 · Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Star Castle (1980) is Cinematronics' vector shooter, in which a ship chips away at three rotating shield rings to destroy the cannon at their centre — the game Yars' Revenge was built from.
Deep Dive
An enemy cannon sits at the centre of three rotating rings of shields, each of twelve sections that take two hits apiece. The player's ship must shoot a gap through the rings to hit the cannon, while three homing mines chase it around the screen, speeding up as the game goes on. Destroying the outer ring prompts the cannon to rebuild it, and destroying the cannon earns an extra ship. The game was drawn in black-and-white vector graphics, with a coloured plastic overlay turning the rings yellow, orange and red and the rest of the screen blue.
Developer Story
Designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by Scott Boden, Star Castle was released in October 1980 and later converted to the Vectrex in 1983. Flux magazine called it 'one of the all-time great vector graphics classics'.
Did You Know?
- Atari's Howard Scott Warshaw, asked to port it to the 2600, reworked its ideas into Yars' Revenge instead.
- It was Cinematronics' most successful game, selling more than 10,000 units.
Sources & further reading
- Star Castle — Wikipedia
- Cinematronics — Wikipedia
