How Atari created the Star Wars arcade game (2017) | Hacker News Reader

How Atari created the Star Wars arcade game (2017)

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99 pointsvideotopia37 comments

I had a chance to try out an early version of the game which was mounted on actuators; it would tilt and shake according to inputs and explosions and so forth.

It was also a little buggy, and you could easily get into feedback loops where the machine would jerk you around a little, which would cause your hands to wiggle the controls, which would cause a larger jerk and even more control wiggling . . . it was touchy and a bit wild and could get violent. I was told that it tossed one guy out of the machine.

I had the pleasure of trying this game for the first time well past its prime only a few years ago. There's an amazing classic video arcade near my hometown in Mesa, Arizona called Starfighters Arcade, and they have the cockpit version of this game in fantastic condition.

The graphics in this game are seriously impressive for 1983. Both the cockpit and the standup version have color vector CRTs, which really makes an interesting picture (it was only the second game to have this, after Tempest in 1981). You really have to see it in person to know what I'm talking about, it's not something you can reproduce with an LCD or OLED screen.

Another thing I really miss about arcade games from this time is just how difficult they are. If you're just playing it for the first time, you shouldn't expect your game to last more than 30 seconds. A good run could last you more than 15 minutes though, once you get the hang of it.

Totally agreed re: seeing a vector monitor in person to really appreciate the effect. It's a real shame they aren't made any more.

If you are in the Rochester NY area, go to the Strong Museum of Play. They have this arcade game plus many many others - all still in playable condition. Plus their collection of video games is amazing - all the way to the beginnng of the history.

http://www.museumofplay.org/collections/video-and-other-elec...

Another good museum, that also has Star Wars in great working order:

National Video Game Museum in Frisco, TX

http://www.nvmusa.org/

I saw an Atari Star Wars cockpit at Atari Cambridge Research Labs, with a huge mess of cables draping out of it, hooking it up to some other equipment.

Here are some demos of other stuff they did there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR2CwKculBU&index=3&list=PL8...

I don’t remember that at all. Perhaps some haptic stuff Margaret was working on?

I'd love to be able to feel scraping against the edges and protrusions of the trench when I ran my tie fighter up against them!

I saw Margaret's force feedback joystick there too -- that was really cool. And also a robotic bear in Marvin's office.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Rt43H

Here's an image of Henry Minsky sacrificing his Dakin Bear to a robot:

Henry Minsky has a look of trepidation at the idea of sacrificing his Dakin Bear to one of his dad's robotics experiments. — with Dakin Bear at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). [frame grab from the skeletal robot's video camera]

Henry wrote:

"This was the first image saved from Cog, Brook's humanoid robot head. I was going to skin the bear and put it over the robot head.

But I couldn't bring myself to do so, even though Cog looked like the Terminator."

MIT's Cog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbZ9_rUZZMA

In 1992 my housemate had a Star Wars kiosk, which I sure got a lot of practice on...

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/%22bong$20hit%22$20...

Those links see a blast from the past. We were so young back then!

You don't say? ;) Check out David Levitt's music demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocwsVkqEKys

One of the first arcade games I "beat" when I was a kid. The local bowling lanes had a cockpit style cabinet I would play on when the parents did their league days.

Once you blow up the Deathstar, you repeat the game, but the missiles and ships are faster and more numerous. Also, timing the final shot gets harder as well. Those sparkle missiles got super fast after awhile. I only once got to level '4'.

They don't mention in the article, but this was probably the first game to use sampled dialog from a motion picture... as far as I can tell. It was extremely clear and crisp for the day as well. I was amazing to hear Obi-wan say 'Use the force Luke!' when firing the final shot.

The fun thing about the “use the force” quote is that it was a clue. If you could channel your inner Jedi, and the only shot you fired while in the trench was the one into the exhaust port, you were granted a pretty decent bonus (especially in the higher numbered waves).

Actually hitting the vent was sadly too easy; maybe it was designed that way since the "hard part" was over.

Just point your guns down and rapid fire; if you missed it that way, it was almost a bug in the game. Strafing the vent was pretty much a guaranteed hit.

> They don't mention in the article, but this was probably the first game to use sampled dialog from a motion picture

They do mention it, but not quite "sampled", unless the word has a different meaning to us.

> Synthesized speech was added to the game, using clips from the film. This was a first for Atari. Various familiar phrases were used in-game such as “Use The Force, Luke” and “Yahoo, you’re all clear kid!” are used to encourage the player, and of course add to the sense of “being there”.

If there was an arcade game that I would make space for in my living room, it would be the cockpit version of Star Wars. I spent a lot of quarters, and then got good enough that I could play forever on just one quarter :-).

Finding Amplifone XY scopes (the monitor in the machine) is really difficult. I saw a paper that discussed using a 4K display and an FPGA to emulate those displays in real time. If that got reasonable I might get the other bits.

when I was a kid, the cockpit version was the coolest most immersive experience ever. all my boyish excitement for the films was captured; I really did feel, for a moment, that I was Lukeskywalker.

"Red Five standing by!"

Yep I was 8 or 9 when it came out and magical doesn’t even begin to describe it.

My skills left me feeling more like Porkins but it was a great game!

Indeed, the cockpit, the controller, the 3D graphics...The awesome sound track.. It was immensely immersive, especially for its time. Cool thing about the vectorized graphics, it still looks great on my 4K tv with an emulator.

There used to be one of the cockpit versions at SFO airport in the old United terminal near the AMEX Lounge back in the late 80s/early 90s. What a time. Can't imagine seeing an arcade machine anywhere these days...

This was in my college dorm's game room and I spent a lot of time in that trench. But weirdly I could have sworn it wasn't in color. Was there a green-and-black version?

You may be confusing it with Atari's Battlezone, which was a black and white vector game, with a green gel overlay on the screen to create "color".

With a strip of red gel overlay for the radar at the top.

http://videogamehistory.wikia.com/wiki/Battlezone

There was another game similar to Battlezone only it was a cocktail table only version. Helicopter something or other, played it many times as a teen but I can't recall the name.

There were a lot of vector games, but I'd be astounded if anyone could confuse Battlezone with Star Wars. They're not even remotely similar.

Agreed - but time can be a strange mistress! The only vector game with predominantly green vectors I can think of would be Gravitar.

I recall playing a monochrome version as well. Maybe there was an edition with cheaper hardware?

You may have been using a cabinet with a replacement monitor. The vector monitors are a bit special, so after their heyday it would have been harder to find parts.

I think this was probably in the early 80s. It could have been a replacement. I wonder if an Asteroids cabinet was converted over.

I definitely remember it being in color, a few colors anyway.

I had a chance to play on the cockpit version in a huge arcade in Akihabara, Tokyo this year. I'm not sure whether Atari exported any units to Japan and I couldn't see any markings on it that would indicate that it was intended for the Japanese market. Presumably the arcade had paid a lot of money to import it from the US.

It's an excellent game that has aged very well, although the locals seemed more interested in their rhythm and fighting games. ;)

If anyone is near the Pittsburgh, PA area, Pinball PA has a working version of the sit down (and I think the upright too?) for play. Played it and it is an experience that still holds up. I'd recommend a visit for anyone with an arcade interest or nostalgia itch: https://www.pinballpa.com/

There's one at the Barcade in Jersey City, too. You can even reboot and switch it to the Empire Strikes Back ROM.

I gotta say that Star Wars is one of the few games that didn't benefit from a sitdown version. Seat distance wasn't adjustable, right?

I don't believe it is adjustable. The sit down version does add to the experience/immersion factor, IMHO, by blocking out the surrounding games if nothing else.

As a teenager I worked for my uncle who had a video game business. The Star Wars game stands out as a memorable game. The one thing I distinctly remember is the sound (Obi-Wan saying "use the force" etc.) it was wonderful, far better than most games during that time.

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