Starmaster

1982 video game

June 1982

Genre(s)Space combat simulationMode(s)Single-player

Starmaster is a video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game involves the player travelling through space attacking enemy starfighters who are invading starbases. The player traverses through a map called the galactic chart to destroy all the enemies and survive against oncoming enemy attacks and crashing with meteors.

Miller had previously worked for Atari developing games for the Atari 2600 before forming David Crane and making games Checkers (1980), Tennis (1981) and Ice Hockey (1981). Miller described Starmaster as being influenced by Cosmic Conflict (1978) for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 and Star Raiders (1980) for the Atari 8-bit computers.

The game became Miller's most successful game at that point in his career and would receive positive reviews from publications such as Electronic Games, The Video Game Update and The Fresno Bee. In 1983, at the Fourth Annual Arcade Awards, along with Atlantis (1982) it won a "Certificate of Merit" in the "Videogame of the Year" category.

Gameplay

Starmaster is set in outerspace where the player must protect starbases from enemy starfighters. ^[1] The game can be played a four levels of difficulty,⁬ with the first being "Ensign" having nine enemy fighters to defeat with meteors and enemies moving at normal speed while the highest being "StarMaster" with 31 enemies to defeat and the speed of meteors and enemies moving at 2.5 times the speed as Ensign.^[2]

The game has four distinct modes of operation: galactic chart analysis, warp travel, docking with a starbase, and engaging an enemy.^[2] On the galactic chart, the player navigates a map of the galaxy that is on a six by six matrix. Here they can view their location, starbase locations, and enemy starfighters. They can also see their Mission Attack Control Computer (MACC) which shows stats such as their energy remaining, their ship damage status and the energy required to make a warp to a selected location on the map. The color of the display panel also showcased information, such as green indicating they are flying to an empty sector while a red panel suggested flying to sections with enemy starfighters. The player can select a sector of the galaxy to which to warp to either engage with enemies or dock with a starbase for refueling and repairs. While warping to a section, the player must avoid meteors by either dodging them or shooting them with lasers. Getting hit causes energy to be depleted or could cause damage to the ship. Damage to the player limits the player's abilities. These range from losing shields leading to one hit kills from meteors or enemies, losing the ability to fire lasers, losing radar which makes warp travel cost double the energy, and losing radar which no longer lets you view enemies on the galactic chart.^[2]

Along with the joystick, the player can load the MACC menu by pressing the TV type switch on the Atari 2600 console.^[2]

To remove damage, the player must travel to a sector with a starbase and dock which will restore their energy and repair any damage done to their ship. Enemy starfighters are continuously attempting to surround and destroy starbases. When they succeed in taking over a starbase, an explosion is heard and the starbase disappears from the map.^[2] When entering an enemy sector, the player will have a gunsight represented by a crosshair shaped like an x. The player must destroy enemy starfighters by firing lasers from their ship in the fastest amount of time all while conserving energy. Each laser shot drains 100 units of energy while being hit by an enemy can drain 100 to 500 units of energy. The sector is cleared once control console turns from red to green.^[2]

The game ends when the player runs out of energy, all enemies' ships are destroyed or the player's ship is destroyed. When the mission is over, the top line of the MACC screen displays an evaluation based on how what difficulty level the played, how many enemies were destroyed, how many starbases remain, and how fast the player reached their end goal.^[2]

Development

Starmaster was designed by Alan Miller for Activision.^[3] Miller had previously developed games at Atari, Inc. such as Surround (1977), Hangman (1978) and Basketball (1978).^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] After leaving Atari, Inc. to form Activision with David Crane, Miller made the games Checkers (1980), Tennis (1981) and Ice Hockey (1981).^[5]^[8]^[9]

For his next game Starmaster, Miller described his influences as the game was Cosmic Conflict (1978) for the Magnavox Odyssey 2, and that he could make a game that more realistically simulated outer space flight by moving the stars towards the player.^[10] In a 2003 interview with Digital Press, Miller also included Doug Neubauer's game Star Raiders (1980) for the Atari 8-bit line of home computers, saying he "sought to replicate that feeling of flying through space on the much more limited Atari 2600."^[11] Miller said the game took about four to five months to complete.^[11] Activision employee Steve Kitchen said that Miller had spent months making the stars look correct in Starmaster.^[12]

Release

Starmaster was released in June 1982.^[13] Activision president Jim Levy predicted high sales comparable to Pac-Man (1982) for Starmaster in May 1982.^[14] In The Video Game Update, readers were asked about their favorite console games. Starmaster was included as receiving multiple mentions without cracking the top five most mentioned titles.^[15] By 1983, it became Miller's most commercially financial game.^[5]

Starmaster was included in the compilation titles Activision Anthology (2002) for PC, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance and in Activision Hits Remixed (2006) for the PlayStation Portable.^[16]^[17]^[18]

Reception

Review scores
Publication	Score
AllGame	4/5^[19]
The Fresno Bee	A^[20]

The Video Game Update stated that along with Chopper Command, Starmaster were the best new releases of the month and that Starmaster was the "a game to challenge the most sophisticated player, with enough features to make total mastery a long-term proposition."^[21]

Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz of Electronic Games noted the familiarity of the game noting it belonged to the "Trek" genre of games which had dozens of titles, but was an achievement for it's richness for an Atari 2600 game.^[3] The reviewers concluded that the game had staying power due to its wide range of play possibilities.^[3]

In 1983, at the Fourth Annual Arcade Awards, along with Atlantis (1982) it won a "Certificate of Merit" in the "Videogame of the Year" category. Demon Attack (1982) won the main award.^[22]

From retrospective reviews, Skyler Miller of AllGame commented that the game was superior to the Atari 2600 port of Star Raiders (1982) and that despite simple graphics and only one type of enemy, it was "easily the best space combat simulation for the Atari 2600."^[19]

References

^ Activision1 1982.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Activision 1982.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kunkel & Katz 1982, p. 64.
^ Kunkel 1982, p. 13.
^ ^a ^b ^c Sansweet 1983.
^ Bunch 2022, p. 140.
^ Bunch 2022, p. 236.
^ Donovan 2011.
^ Fleming 2007.
^ Kunkel 1982, p. 14.
^ ^a ^b Backiel 2003, p. 23.
^ Hacker 1984, p. 59.
^ Onosko 1982, p. 19.
^ Merchandizing 1982, p. 92.
^ The Video Game Update 1983.
^ Dunham 2002.
^ Harris 2006.
^ Harris 2006a.
^ ^a ^b Miller.
^ Vogt 1982, p. C8.
^ The Video Game Update 1982.
^ Kunkel & Katz 1983, p. 108.

Sources

Starmaster (Back cover). Activision1. 1982.
Starmaster Basic Instructions. Activision. 1982. AX-016-03A.
"Arcade Videogames Will Dominate Second-Half Releases". Merchandizing. A Gralla Publication. May 1982. p. 92.
"Critically Speaking...". The Video Game Update. Vol. 1, no. 4. July 1982.
"Questionnaire Results Tallied". The Video Game Update. Vol. 2, no. 2. May 1983.
Backiel, Al (January 2003). "The Wacky World of... Alan Miller". Digital Press. No. 50.
Bunch, Kevin (2022). Atari Archive: Vol.1 1977-1978. Press Run Books. ISBN 978-1-955183-21-5.
Donovan, Tristan (January 3, 2011). "The Replay Interviews: David Crane". Game Developer. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
Dunham, Jeremy (November 21, 2002). "Activision Anthology PS2 Review". IGN. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
Fleming, Jeffrey (July 30, 2007). "The History of Activision". Game Developer. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
Hacker, Randi (February 1984). "The Space Program". Electronic Fun with Computers & Games. Vol. 2, no. 4. Fun & Games Publishing.
Harris, Craig (December 11, 2006). "Activision Anthology". IGN. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
Harris, Craig (December 15, 2006a). "Activision Hits Remixed Review". IGN. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
Hubner, John (June 1, 1982). "Video Artists Use Strokes of Genius". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved June 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1983). "Arcade Alley: A Critical Look at Video Games". Video. Vol. 6, no. 11. Reese Communications. ISSN 0147-8907.
Kunkel, Bill (July 1982). "Inside Gaming". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 5. Reese Publishing Company. ISSN 0730-6687.
Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (October 1982). "Programmable Parade". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 8. Reese Publishing Company. ISSN 0730-6687.
Miller, Skyler. "Starmaster". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
Onosko, Tim (April 9, 1982). "Video Game Future Shoots for Stars". The Capital Times.
Sansweet, Stephen J. (January 19, 1983). "Designers are Stars in Video-Game-Field; Some Get Fan Mail;". The Wall Street Journal.
Vogt, Rick (November 19, 1982). "Video Game Report". The Fresno Bee. Retrieved June 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.