Star Raiders

created and published by Atari in 1979, running on Atari 400/800
type: shooter, flight
genre: Science Fiction
series: Star Raiders
perspective: 1st person fixed camera
player options: single player
languages: eng
4.4/5

Description

8k cartridge comes in 2 common variations ©1980 (plain and "Star Raiders" labels).
The very first 3D space shooter game. It included multiple enemy types, starbases, damage control, and various viewing modes. Your objective was to hyper-jump between sectors in the galaxy to attack enemy Zylon ships before they have the chance to destroy your friendly starbases. A classic!

Trivia:
Doug Neubauer was a chip designer at Atari, not a game programmer. He created Star Raiders in his spare time and never received compensation or official credit for the additional work.
The positions of all moving objects, including explosions and up to 64 particle debris are fully calculated in 3D
DN wanted to include sub maps, planet landings, surface strafing and a trench shootout (Star Wars style) but ran out of memory.
DN would eventually create a sequel, Solaris (for Atari 2600), that included everything but the 3D explosions. Most agree that it was a vast improvement over the still impressive original despite the 2600's inferior specifications.

Zerothis - # 2003-10-15 00:26:31

Technical specs

display: raster

Authors / Staff

coding

Doug Neubauer (programmer)

Tags (6)

video game
historical
other
hardware
software
locations

External reviews (6) - average: 85.5% - median: 81.5%

review sourceissuedatescore
C&VG (Computer & Video Games) (011-084)uk161983-027/1070%
view
Electronic Fun with Computers & Gamesus21982-124/4100%
view
Micro 7fr201984-105/683%
view
TV Gameruk51984-044/580%
view
TV Gameruk71984-064/580%
view
Tilt 1-38fr81983-116/6100%
view

Contributors (6)

AndreaD
teran01
zerothis
dandyboh
Sanguine
Ritchardo

Post an anonymous comment / review about this game.

Rate and review

2
LIKE
-
PLAYED
3
FINISHED
1
OWN
PLAYING
WANT
Star Raiders in-game screen.
Star+Raiders
Star+Raiders
View the full gallery