Star Wars (Domark)

Star Wars (Domark)

Game No.	360
Voting	5.58 points, 24 votes
Developer	Daniel James Gallagher, Ian Martin, Joe Booth
Company	Vektor Grafix
Publisher	Domark, Brøderbund
Musician	David Whittaker
HVSC-File	Whittacker_David/Star_Wars.sid
Release	1988
Platform	Acorn BBC, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple Macintosh, Apple II, Arcade, Atari ST, C64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Shoot'em Up
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	Remake of the Parker Brothers version

Description[edit | edit source]

Star Wars is the conversion of the Atari arcade machine. The first release on the C64 was by Parker Brothers and was already published in 1983 on cartridge. The Domark version was programmed completely anew in 1988 by Vektor Grafix and published as disk version as well as datasette version. Brøderbund took over the sale in the USA.

The game consists of three sections which repeat with a rising difficulty grade until the player has used up his shield energy.

Section 1: Space battle

In the first section you need to defend yourself against the TIE Fighters that protect the Death Star. This section is very hectic. The aim is simply to reach the Death Star. For this you need to shoot the lasers of the TIE Fighters, as well as the TIE Fighters themselves. Darth Vader's TIE Fighter can get hit, but not be destroyed.

Section 2: Death Star surface

In the second section the fight continues on the surface of the Death Star. There are turbo laser batteries that also shoot lasers. You now need to destroy the lasers of the turbo lasers and the turbo lasers themselves. The aim is simply to get into the trench. This sections is only available from the difficulty grade medium onwards or from the second attack wave onwards.

Section 3: Trenchrun

In the third section you need to fly through the Death Star trench to shoot a torpedo into an air shaft. In the trench itself there are turbo lasers and barriers. The turbo lasers and their missiles can be shot, you need to avoid the barriers. The aim is of course to shoot your torpedoes, so that the Death Star explodes.

Design[edit | edit source]

The Domark version has some screens that earlier versions have not, but it still stays a remake of the Parker Brothers title. The graphics were created completely anew and are a bit refined, but it was really tried to make a conversion of the arcade version true to original. Example: The TIE Fighters fall apart after they are hit. Compared with the Parker Brothers version is this a very sucessful conversion that also considers the details on the arcade machine.
There is also a digitalized sentence. When the title screen appears, you hear the sentence The Force will be with you!.

Hints[edit | edit source]

Controls

For steering the joystick in port 2 is used. The aiming facilites of the spaceship follow the joystick movement.
You shoot with a press on the fire button.
With the key J can the horizontal axis be mirrored.

Points

Missile	33 points
Tie Fighter	1000 points
Laser Tower	200 points
Trench cannonry	100 points
Exhaust Port	25000 points

Solution[edit | edit source]

Section 1:
Here it is best to concentrate on the TIE Fighter's lasers and not on the TIE Fighters themselves in the first place. The TIE Fighters serve more as a bonus. If you disregard the TIE Fighter's lasers, you will get rid of your energy very quickly.

Section 2:
Here it is also important to destroy the lasers before you are destroyed by them. The turbo lasers are bonus points.

Section 3:
You simply fly aroung the barriers. You can also fly around almost all lasers. Compared to the previous level is the flying around even far easier. In the lower difficulty levels one can take the time to shoot them. In the higher difficulty levels it is more important not to hit the walls. When the end of the trench is reached, you only need to press on the fire buttons until the torpedoes are triggered. Then the game restarts with a higher difficulty grade.

Cheats[edit | edit source]

POKEs:

POKE 36280,173: POKE 61272,173: SYS 32768

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
5.58 points at 24 votes (rank 898). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	9	28th December 2006 - "top" - 4060 downs
Lemon64	6,8	28th December 2006 - 12 votes
Kultboy.com	8,06	26th June 2011 - 15 votes
Happy Computer	76%	Games Special 2/88
ZZap64	70%	Issue 88/01

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Spaceball: "Although I am an absolute Star Wars fan I cannot really get into this title. At least not with the 8bit versions. The game is immensely more difficult than the PC or the Macintosh Version, because you sometimes just do not strike. With the PC and Macintosh version I can collect points without an end. With the C64 version I soundly fail. With a proper joystick one can surely see some plus points in the game. Apart from that is this game rather a bunch of hooey."

Andre2905: "For me the game is simply unplayably slow. I was a big fan of the 16bit versions, but on the C64 it was an absolute disappointment."

Darth Robo: "In any case a clear improvement to the version by Parker Brothers, which is does not mean much, due to the absolute woefulness. The C64 simply does not like vector graphics and it shows us this as soon as there is a bit going on on the screen. This is especially bad in the second level: Although you are at the right place with the crossline, you get e.g. hit because the processor cannot cope with it or a correct judgement is not possible due to all the jittering. If only few enemies need to be displayed - which virtually never happens - then the speed is even quite acceptable. Conclusion: You can play it, but you do not have to. 5 out of 10 points."