Star Raiders
1980 · Space Combat · Atari 8-bit
Overview
Star Raiders (1980) is Doug Neubauer's first-person space combat game for the Atari 400 and 800, which made the computers' name and set conventions later used by Elite and Wing Commander.
Deep Dive
The player captains a starship in a war against the Zylon Empire. Combat takes place in a first-person 3D cockpit view, while a 2D galactic chart is used to plot hyperspace jumps across the sectors. Energy drives the engines, shields and photon torpedoes and is restored by docking with a friendly starbase. Six ship systems can be damaged in battle, shown on a status readout as PESCLR: photons, engines, shields, computer, long-range scan and radio. Four skill levels run from Novice to Commander.
Developer Story
Neubauer, an Atari engineer, wrote Star Raiders in his spare time over eight to ten months starting in early 1979, and it was released in March 1980. Ports followed for the Atari 2600, 5200 and ST. His later 2600 game Solaris is often seen as its successor, though he said it is not a sequel.
Did You Know?
- Neubauer took the idea of a galactic chart from the 1971 text game Star Trek, which he said he did not enjoy playing; the Zylons' name came from Battlestar Galactica's Cylons.
- In 2007 it was named to a ten-game video game canon submitted to the Library of Congress.
Sources & further reading
- Star Raiders — Wikipedia
