Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (arcade game)
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back | |
|---|---|
North American arcade flyer
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| Developer(s) | Atari Games |
| Publisher(s) | Atari Games |
| Designer(s) | Mike Hally |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Rail shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Cabinet | Upright, cocktail |
| Arcade system | CPU: 1.5 MHz M6809 and 4 Pokey (sound) |
| Display | Amplifone Vector monitor, horizontal |
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game. It was released by Atari Games in 1985 as a conversion kit for the original game. As in Star Wars, the player takes the role of Luke Skywalker in a set of familiar battle sequences in a first-person perspective. Specifically, the arcade features the Battle of Hoth and the subsequent escape of the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. The game was also released for various home computers in the late 80's by Software company Domark Ltd. Ports of the game included the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari St & Commodore 64 and Amiga.
The game takes the original gameplay, graphics, sounds, from the first arcade game and updates them to fit the new movie. Vector objects are now much more noticeably detailed, and the asterisk-particle enemy shots resembling snowflakes from Star Wars are replaced with simpler and clearer vector star-shapes instead. The game was the third Star Wars arcade game; Return of the Jedi came out the previous year.
The main deviation from the first arcade game is the introduction of the "JEDI" bonus. If the player collects the letters of the word, all enemy shots will be instantly eliminated for a short time period and the player will receive military-style stripes next to their name if they make it to the high score list.
During the Battle of Hoth sequences, the player is flying a Rebel snowspeeder. The first section has the player patrolling Hoth in a search and destroy mission for Probots (Imperial Probe Droids). Imperial transmissions emanating from the Probots can be shot to prolong the stage. Once the transmission does end up fully transmitted, the player advances. To earn a Jedi letter, the player must eradicate the specified number of probots.
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Wikipedia