Can You Feel The Force?

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At long last, one of the most famous arcade games of all has been converted for the BBC and Electron computers. Domark has teamed up with game originator Atari to produce its version of the classic game.

Gameplay is divided into three parts. First comes the dogfight, in which you must destroy the approaching Tie fighters (representing the Empire) while avoiding their missiles. Then comes the flight through the towers, where you must fly over the surface of the Death Star avoiding the ground defence lasers. Finally, you fly along the Death Star's now famous trench and plant a missile in its exhaust port, destroying it.

The original arcade machine was launched several years ago, at the time when line graphics were fashionable. The game had wire-frame ships and scenery, digitised speech and a 'sit-in' console. The BBC version manages to emulate the graphics quite well, although a great deal of imagination is required with regard to the other features!

The game's graphics are in Mode 5, giving four colours and quite chunky blobs. Movement is smooth and impressively fast, although things slow up a bit when there is a lot of action on the screen. Sound, although simple, is just adequate for the game. Lasers 'zap' and explosions explode in a distinctly Defender-ish manner.

Although the objectives of the game are simple, it keeps the adrenalin flowing and so keeps the player returning for another go. With a standard price of £9.95, I would recommend Star Wars to any arcade fan. If you are a George Lucas film fan, you should also keep a look out for the two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, promised for release later in the year.

Robert Miller