Star Ship

a.k.a. Outer Space / Star Trek / Space / Space Mission

published by Atari / Sears in 1977-10-14, developed by Atari, running on Atari 2600 VCS
type: shooter
genre: Science Fiction, Space combat simulator
series: Star Trek
perspective: 1st person
player options: single player
languages: eng
1.4/5

Personal reviews (2)

One of the nine games available upon the release of Atari VCS. Its best feature, together with its sound effects, was the screen being the cockpit of a star ship. (You could consider this game as an ancestor of Wing Commander!) Still, collisions were inaccurate, the Lunar Lander mode was terribly boring, and there were only 17 levels.

(Retro-Maniac) - # 2007-01-06 12:23:18
Star Ship, for the Atari Video Computer System, is a highly underrated game. Released at a time when little existed besides Pong, this program, featuring a first-person space battle (Star Ship), a first-person space travel game (Warp Drive), and a lunar lander game (Lunar Lander, not to be confused with Atari's later and admittedly better Lunar Lander arcade game which came out two years later) must have had an effect on gamers similar to that of Star Wars on its initial audiences.
While relatively rudimentary, the games (this cartridge contains three different games!) are most fun when played on the higher difficulty settings, and also with a second player. Also, certain strategies can be used to increase a player's score in the deceptively simple games (they're only simple if you're not concerned with scores).
The graphics of Star Ship may consist of little more than blocks (what do you expect from a 1977 game?), but the games feature solid gameplay for those who are willing to search for it.
Give Star Ship a try, but don't just turn the game on and start playing...you will be bored. Instead, give your 'Game Select' switch a workout and explore this cartridge; I recommend variations 4, 11, and 14 for one-player games.
In case some of you are wondering, this is not a nostalgia kick. In fact, Star Ship was ancient before I was even born (1985). I found this cartridge at a used video game store a year ago. I disliked it at first, but the more I explored it, the more I fell in love with it. My X-Box-playing friends hated it at first and laughed at it, but before long they really got into it, especially the 2-player games (going so far as to interrupt Halo sessions to play Star Ship!).

Jeff - # 2007-01-06 12:23:18

Description

These game variations are played from a first person point of view in your star ship. Your goal is to earn as many points as possible by shooting the various enemies and space debris. You have a time limit of 2 minutes 16 seconds in the one player versions. In the two player version the time limit is 4 minutes 32 seconds; for half of this time one player will be the star ship commander, and the other will control a space module and needs to dodge the star ships fire. The roles will be reversed for the second half of the time limit.

Becoro # 2024-02-09 22:55:16 - source

Technical specs

display: raster

Authors / Staff

author

Bob Whitehead (Author)

graphics

Cliff Spohn (cover artwork)

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Contributors (6)

AndreaD
teran01
zerothis
dandyboh
VGHchannel
Becoro

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Star Ship in-game screen.
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