The Last Starfighter

The Last Starfighter CX-5260. Prototype. North America NTSC.
Orbiter CX-5250. Prototype. North America NTSC.

You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada by means of total war. First, you must defend your home system. You then must battle your way to the Procyon system to find your enemy. Your Gunstar can survive several hits and has Ion Cannons to damage Ko-Dan Destroyers, lasers for Ko-Dan Deckfighters, scanners to locate civilian populations of Ko-Dan, and Surface Star Bursts to completely kill every last citizens in all the Ko-Dan cities. The lower left corner has three lights to indicate which weapon is active. You have a limited supply of SSBs but the other weapons will continue working as long as you keep your ship repaired and do not overheat them. Your Gunstar is an experimental model, you don't have a Death Blossom to unleash. You'll have to be smarter and use strategy instead of dumb luck. However, your shielding allows you to plunge into the core of a sun to absorb energy directly from nuclear fusion. You can only stay here as long as energy is being absorbed. Don't panic if you get an emergency communication while in a sun's core; the enemy takes a long time to bombard your cities and you won't be doing them any good if you show up damaged and die. Once your ship is fully stocked an repaired, you must leave quickly or melt. A computer readout at the top of the screen informs you of the ships status. You can plot a course from the map screen. Fortunately your copilot (provided by the game) will keep track of most details like switching weapons for you when you need them.
Ko-Dan Deckfighters are red, numerous, and attack in threes. They also attempt to deter you from destroying civilian cities. Laser 'em.
Ko-Dan Destroyers are Blue, Green, and Red. Blue being the easiest and red the meanest. They all have shielding against lasers. Blast 'em with your Ion Cannons until their shields are gone. The last blast to the shield will also destroy the Destroyer. They will fire their own ion cannons at you.
The Ko-Dan Command Ship is large, yellow, bigger and meaner than Destroyers. There is only one.
Ko-Dan Frontier Cutters are unarmed but laser shielded civilian cargo ships. Your orders are to kill them all.
Ko-Dan cities can be found on many planets in the Procyon system as well as well your home system. The ones in Procyon are guarded by bases that must be destroyed first. The colonies into your home system are defenseless. Your orders are to destroy them all.
Ko-Dan bases are only in the Procyon system.

Controls:
Top button fires lasers
bottom button fires Ion Canons
1 brings up the map. the fire button will initiate warp travel along the course shown here.

Trivia:
There are two known prototypes of this game, the latest is dated 1984-05-21 and is ready for publishing. Though not released, it was eventually modified and released as Star Raiders II for the Atari 8-Bit. As that game was extremely impressive to players and critics in 1987; The Last Starfighter may have have enough clout to boost Atari 5200 sales in 1984. Especially considering some the below average competition of the time (1 2 3 4)
The arcade game seen in The Last Starfighter movie was purly special effects. No game exactly like that was possible in 1984. But Atari did modify some Star Wars machines to do something similar in vector. Neither the arcade unit nor the home versions of The Last Starfighter ever made it to the public.

(Zerothis) - # 2007-09-20 04:50:52

display: raster

version of
The Last Starfighter (Atari 400/800)

has this MOD
Star Raiders II (Atari 400/800)

parallels
Last Starfighter (Arcade)
The Last Starfighter (Atari 2600)
The Last Starfighter (Windows)