"The first good space comba simulator"

Back in 1979 Atari decided to market a new line of 8-bit home computers, and they needed a great game that would showcase the new computers then-advanced graphics chip.
A guy by the name of Doug Neubauer (sp?) wrote up an 8 KByte program in 6502 assembler that took full advantage of the graphics chip: that game was Star Raiders.

The game took the old text-based mainframe game of ''Star Trek'' and added a 1st-person ''cockpit view'' with dogfighting to destroy the enemy ships. Back in 1979 no one had seen anything like it. With 1st-person perspective and ''moving stars'' to simulate motion, it felt like you were zooming through outer space, blasting at bad guys.

I think it's fair to say that everyone who tried the game was completely blown away. By today's standards, it pales against Wing Commander, etc. but still holds its own for simple addictive gameplay.

Star Raiders was an easy conversion to the 5200 (basically just an Atari 400 with no keyboard) and was converted to a so-so version for the 2600.

It seems a bit quaint graphics-wise today, but even now I can sit down and play Star Raiders for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and enjoy it.

Definitely a 10 when you consider its place in video gaming.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/00, Updated 12/01/00