Mode(s) 1 player Arcade system Atari System 16 Developer Atari | Cabinet Upright Initial release date 1976 Publisher Atari | |
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Designer(s) Ron Milner, Steve Mayer, Dave Shepperd, Dennis Koble Display Black and white raster, standard resolution Similar Star Ship, Night Driver, Sprint 2, Indy 4, Dominos | ||
Arcade game starship 1 1977 atari
Starship 1 is an arcade game developed, manufactured, and released by Atari in 1977. Starship 1 was later ported to the Atari VCS by Bob Whitehead as Star Ship.
Contents
- Arcade game starship 1 1977 atari
- Starship 1 1977 atari mame retro arcade games
- Gameplay
- Legacy
- References
Starship 1 1977 atari mame retro arcade games
Gameplay
The object of Starship 1 is to destroy alien spacecraft while maneuvering through star and asteroid fields.
The game uses a first person perspective on a black-and-white monitor. The player's ship is controlled with a control yoke that is connected to two potentiometers. There is also a lever that controls whether the ship is moving "fast" or "slow". Compared to common arcade games of the time, Starship 1 was comparatively advanced, but used quite a bit of analog technology that would become less common in arcade games in following years.
As enemies appear onscreen, the player tries to center the enemy in the crosshairs and shoot it with his "phasors" by pulling a trigger on the control yoke. Alternatively, the player has 5 "proton torpedoes" per game that can be fired by pressing a large white button on the dashboard. This will destroy any enemy ship on screen, regardless of whether it is in the crosshairs (which are painted directly on the screen).
The enemy ships are roughly patterned after ships from the Star Trek: The Original Series and the title device from the 1967 episode "The Doomsday Machine".
The player does not view the game monitor directly; the monitor is recessed in the cabinet, and the player views a reflected image of the monitor in a half-silvered mirror with a space background.
Legacy
According to research by Ed Fries, Starship 1 contains the first known Easter egg in any arcade game. Fries confirmed with Milner that by activating the machine's controls in the appropriate order, the player could have the message "Hi Ron!" (in reference to Milner) pop up on screen.