Star Raiders 2600 - RU a fan of this conversion?

[Flojomojo]

I wanted to like it as a kid. I really tried, I thought the keypad controller was cool and I liked the "alone in the cold of space" vibe. Maybe it was too "realistic" in that way.

 

I agree Starmaster is more fun and IMHO better designed.

 

Solaris, which shares much of Star Raiders' DNA, is amazing even today.

[Keatah]

Used to play StarMaster and StarRaiders in our tents made out of blankets and cardboard. Cool deep space stuff.

[Sardonyx]

Used to play StarMaster and StarRaiders in our tents made out of blankets and cardboard. Cool deep space stuff.

Yes! Saving the galaxy in your own private spaceship

 

Just for fun, I played around a bit tonight in Stella and figured out the memory locations for the target count. I set the game to Skill Level 40 and after starting the game, reset the target count to 1. I chased the Kylons all the way to the starbase and they never once engaged me. But oh boy...after they destroyed the starbase...well it wasn't pretty. That one lone fighter tore me new one. Thinking it might be luck, I tried again. Same thing. The one remaining ship would not engage until after the starbase was destroyed, but then delivered an amazing butt whooping.

 

I really want to see someone take on 40 of these ships and win at this level. Every single torpedo hit either damages or destroys a ship system. And they sling torpedoes like they just got a discount on them at the dollar store. It would take an amazing amount of skill and luck to make it through this level. Unless there's some trick to dodging every shot

 

If I get some free time I may try to walk through a disassembly of the ROM and figure out how it decides when enemy ships will appear and how much it models their location. It definitely seems like they hide. Also an interesting bit: watching the RAM for a few minutes, it seems a good bit of it's used just for tracking the little background star positions for the star field.

[Swami]

I believe I was expecting something a little like star wars arcade where you could actually aim your cross-hairs during the battles rather than waiting for ships on the radar to enter your screen and just time it for the ship to enter your torpedo shot path. It seemed the joystick had no effect. This appears true with the emulated version as well. I really enjoyed the extra steering control in the 8-bit version. I loved the 8-bit version with the larger map, control options and steering control. I think Atari had begun improving graphics at the expense of play power around that time. Their games got prettier, but with less depth of play.

[bradhig1]

I played and beat it a lot back in the day We had the touch pad controller and the overlay that came with it. atari 8-but and atari 5200 versions look a lot like starmaster.

[moycon]

I don't recall playing Star Raiders much as a kid, or Starmaster (Not sure if I had Starmaster to be honest, but I did have Star Raiders)

I do remember playing M Networks Space Attack often though, and remember really liking that game. All seem pretty similar, I think I always liked Space Attack because it wasn't so complicated.

[accousticguitar]

I played it quite a bit. The trick was to get the enemy ships into the lower part of the screen right in front of where the shots came out of the guns. They were a lot easier to hit then.

[BassGuitari]

"R U a fan of this conversion?"

Eh...not especially, no.

I can see the charm of it, I suppose, but having to connect a keyboard controller to play it is annoying, for one thing. For another, and I'm not normally one to complain about flicker, but the flicker is kinda, pretty, really bad in Star Raiders. And around the same time, Starmaster came out, which outclasses Star Raiders in every way.

I'm being kind of hard on Star Raiders, and admittedly I haven't played it in a long time, but with Starmaster at my disposal, Star Raiders becomes sort of a "why bother?" (Then again, I like Star Ship better than either of them, so what do I know? )

Now, the Atari 5200 version...that's teh shiz.

[Butt_Rogers]

I've dabbled in all the spaceship sim games for the 2600, and Phaser Patrol was the only one I decided to sit down and really get to know.

There's something about the firing mechanics of Phaser Patrol. The sound effects. It's really, really satisfying when your torpedo homes in on a ship and destroys it.

It's not impossible to get the highest ranking in Phaser Patrol either. (Keep in mind, I'm playing it emulated.)

I like the colors, I like the way the enemy ships look, I like the sound effects, I like the starmap, I like everything about Phaser Patrol.

I also enjoy how hard it is to actually hit the enemy ships - despite the homing torpedoes. The ships jitter around like crazy and it feels so nice when the reticle goes red and you have the reflexes to hit the fire button and you see that torpedo home in on the enemy ship and destroy it.

It's really satisfying when you kill 3 or 4 ships in a row with one shot.

To me Phaser Patrol is the king of these games.

[bradhig1]

Just played it again after many years and the enemies move too fast around the map and you don't have as much energy as in Starmaster. I would love to see someone on youtube get the hidden rank.

[bradhig1]

Got Scout 3 on level 1 T10.

[PengPeng0118]

On 6/20/2017 at 3:45 AM, Sardonyx said:

Yes! Saving the galaxy in your own private spaceship

 

Just for fun, I played around a bit tonight in Stella and figured out the memory locations for the target count. I set the game to Skill Level 40 and after starting the game, reset the target count to 1. I chased the Kylons all the way to the starbase and they never once engaged me. But oh boy...after they destroyed the starbase...well it wasn't pretty. That one lone fighter tore me new one. Thinking it might be luck, I tried again. Same thing. The one remaining ship would not engage until after the starbase was destroyed, but then delivered an amazing butt whooping.

 

I really want to see someone take on 40 of these ships and win at this level. Every single torpedo hit either damages or destroys a ship system. And they sling torpedoes like they just got a discount on them at the dollar store. It would take an amazing amount of skill and luck to make it through this level. Unless there's some trick to dodging every shot

 

If I get some free time I may try to walk through a disassembly of the ROM and figure out how it decides when enemy ships will appear and how much it models their location. It definitely seems like they hide. Also an interesting bit: watching the RAM for a few minutes, it seems a good bit of it's used just for tracking the little background star positions for the star field.

Really interested if you can modify the game to set target count to 1 or 2 for the other skill levels, just to see if its possible to save the starbase. I recently after months of practice beat skill level 40 (super tough!) and now am playing on skill level 10 to see if I can save the star base. Whenever I knock a few enemies out fast then they start jumping sectors more quickly than I would expect, similar to what you described however the manual does state they move faster as the number drops so at 1 maybe its a very short window - typical player I don't think would ever reach one enemy before the star base though, would love to know how they calculate the time...I know this is an old thread so not sure if anyone is still following it but it was super cool to read all everyone's discussions and see others had interest in this game once upon a time as it has been part of my life for quite awhile now! 

Video of me beating T40 on emulator.

 

[The Mr. Video]

When I was a kid and had Atari Greatest Hits on the Nintendo DS and Atari Anthology on the PS2, Star Raiders was one of my favorite 2600 games...then I got a 2600 jr. off of Ebay and discovered Starmaster. The 2600 version of Star Raiders isn't bad, just simple. I wish they did more with the galactic map other than using it to make quick pitstops like the 8-bit original did. Also, why did they make the video touch pad for Star Raiders when the controller works the same as the keyboard controller?

[BIGHMW]

On 6/28/2017 at 2:11 PM, BassGuitari said:

Now, the Atari 5200 version...that's teh shiz.

AGREED. With the entire arsenal of weaponry and complete control of your ship right there on the CX52 controller, THE VERY SAME controller that everyone who doesn't understand how the 5200 operates and why she was supplied with an ANALOG joystick with an integrated onboard keypad and twin-fire buttons complains about, you can't go wrong with it.

 

Better and more instantaneous control right there in the palm of your hand. No need to put down the stick in order to fish around looking for just the right key on the A8/XL/XE/XEGS computer, the 5200 version was definitely designed to work better with the CX52 than the A8/XL/XE/XEGS with the CX40 and separate keyboard.