  
STAR RAIDERS
PROGRAMMED BY DUG NEUBAUER
(1979) FOR THE ATARI 400
GAME: First person space fight simulator that wages war between
the Zylons saving the star bases and the universe in your one man
ship- one of the very first graphic space games
Lee: Star Raiders was released in 1979!?!
Wow! has it really been that long? When Raiders was first released I was
8 and found it a really magical experience on the Atari. One of the
things I enjoyed about it was it being only a lovely ROM cartridge so I
could instatanly get stuck in to zzapping Aliens. The game is very much
like the early Star Trek rip off space text games that were surging
around at the time but amazingly this had lovely graphics and you could
see the TIE fighters...errm... Zylon ships sweeping by on the screen and
even a Galactic chart to check out. Other things than drew you more into
the world was the fantastic art work (and with the Atari 2600 version a
stunning DC Star Raiders comic! - as shown around this review)
It is a very easy game to get into
and you will find yourself easily addicted. The best thing is due to its
age the game plays even better than it ever did. The ship display and
sounds are beautifully retro - I just loved hearing the humming of the
engines as I zoomed into another playfield in time for a battle to save
yet another star base. Would could not love the furry fireballs and the
sound fx they make. Its all retro as they say.
Where did the vision for "Star Raiders" come from?
"The movie Star Wars had come out right around
that time. So I wanted to combine Star Wars with the text-based
"Star Trek" Game. Well, I wanted to play a 3-D
space game--something that looked like real life, not like cartoon
graphics, something that looked like Star Wars or Star Trek. There was a coin-op game that had just came out--I forget
the name--which had a 3-D-like look to it, so there was a precedent."
- Interview with Star Raiders creator, Dug Neubauer
Star Raiders classic score ratings (given at the
end of game) - Star Commander, Commander, Captain, Warrior ,Lieutenant, Major, Ace Pilot,
Ensign, Novice and Rookie - nice!
 HOW HIGH CAN YOU TRY?
OVERALL: One of the very first Atari
computer hits, and still unbeatable Star fighting action - Quite
simply one of the best games ever created for any system
Reviewed out of 10 kongs..
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