Star Raiders (Atari 400/800)
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The NES had Super Mario Bros., the Sega Genesis had Sonic, and the Apple II had VisiCalc. The killer app for the Atari 400/800 was Star Raiders. This game was probably responsible for selling more Atari 400 and 800 computers than any other game or application, at least early in the Atari 8-bit’s life. Star Raiders was basically a space combat simulator, much like later and more modern titles that it influenced, including Elite and the Wing Commander series among others. While obviously much more primitive than those, it represents the birth of that genre and was well ahead of anything else out in 1979. In 2007, a group at Stanford University ranked it as the number 2 most important game of all time. It was that big a deal. This game probably went a long way towards cementing the reputation of the Atari 8-bit line as games machines. When the killer app for the Apple II is a spreadsheet application and the one for the Atari is Star Raiders, it’s not hard to see why.
There was much about Star Raiders that wasn’t particularly unique. The enemy ships, for example, were obvious knock-offs of ships from Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. However, the game play was unique for the time. The player has only two screens to look at. One is the Galactic Chart that shows nearby stations and enemy ships. The other is the cockpit view where most of the game play takes place. The player could select sectors they wanted to travel to via hyperspace and if an enemy was there, battle would commence.
Star Raiders came out first for the Atari 400/800 but was ultimately ported to other Atari systems as well. First up was an Atari 2600 port. This one included a Video Touch Pad controller to make up for the lack of a keyboard. The graphics were not nearly as good as the Atari 8-bit version but the gameplay was much the same. The Atari 5200 version was nearly identical to the computer version which is only logical since the 5200 was essentially an Atari 400 in video game system clothing. The controllers even already had a keypad built-in. Both the Atari 2600 and 5200 versions were released in 1982. Finally, there was an Atari ST version. This port was somewhat different and included more ships and different weapons among other changes. It was released in 1986.
Despite the popularity and ground-breaking nature of Star Raiders, there was never really a true sequel. Star Raiders II was released in 1986 but it wasn’t related to the original and was first intended to be a game based on The Last Star Fighter. An Atari employee had a true sequel mostly finished in 1984 but he was laid off and Atari never released it. This mostly finished and fully playable version was finally compiled and released to the wild in 2015.
However, there have been a number of remakes and re-releases (not to mention clones). The Atari 2600 version of Star Raiders was available via Microsoft’s Game Room service for a while starting in 2010 for Windows and the Xbox 360. The only official remake was one published by Atari in 2011 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows.
