Star Battle: First console "Star Wars" game?

[BassGuitari]

Is Star Battle the first game on a home game console to be based on Star Wars?

There was Star Fire in arcades in 1979 or '80, and unofficial Star Wars games came out for home computers almost as soon as home computers themselves came out (Bob Bishop's Apple II game comes to mind) in 1977-78.

But I can't think of an example of a console game clearly--if unofficially--based on Star Wars earlier than Star Battle on the Bally. For that matter, when did Star Battle actually come out? 1979-80ish? Release dates on Bally titles seem approximate at best in many cases.

(Atari referenced Star Wars in their catalogs at the time--the tagline for Space War was "Use The Force!" IIRC--but VCS games themselves contained no Star Wars references that I can recall.)

[ballyalley]

Is Star Battle the first game on a home game console to be based on Star Wars? [...] For that matter, when did Star Battle actually come out? 1979-80ish? Release dates on Bally titles seem approximate at best in many cases.

 

I wish I could help you with a precise answer, but the best I can do is saying I'm pretty sure that Star Battle was released in 1979. As you said, exact release dates for Bally/Astrocade cartridges are rather-- at best-- "approximate." The game is only a 2K ROM, making it among the earliest releases, but that doesn't nail the date down with any more precision. Certainly Star Battle wasn't release later than 1979, as there is a disassembly of the game from 1979 that is part of the Bob Fabris Collection:

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/ml/ml_source/ml_source.html#starbattlesourcecode

 

The best way to know for sure when Star Battle was released would be to go through the Arcadian newsletter, which announced new games when they were available. You should be able to narrow the release date down to month and year of using this (admittedly, slow) method.

 

Adam

[Blazing Lazers]

Likely not, as the Star Wars Game for the Studio II clones seems to hold that distinction. Aside from the name, the manual flat out says it was based off the movie, and it was likely programmed during the retail lifetime of the Studio II.