First Star Software, Inc. was a

Chappaqua, New York Chappaqua ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of New Castle, in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. It is approximately north of New York City. The hamlet is served by the Chappaqua station of the Metro- ...

based

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

development, publishing and licensing company, founded by Richard Spitalny (who remains the company's president), Billy Blake, Peter Jablon, and Fernando Herrera in 1982. It is best known for the series' ''

Boulder Dash ''Boulder Dash'' is a 2D maze-puzzle video game released in 1984 by First Star Software for Atari 8-bit computers. It was created by Canadian developers Peter Liepa and Chris Gray. The player controls Rockford, who collects treasures while ...

'', which began on the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

, and ''

Spy vs. Spy ''Spy vs. Spy'' is a wordless comic strip published in '' Mad'' magazine. It features two agents involved in stereotypical and comical espionage activities. One is dressed in white, and the other in black, but they are otherwise identical, and ...

'', which first appeared on the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. Games were ported to or written for home computers, consoles, and later for

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, and portable devices. Millions of units have been sold in both the ''Boulder Dash'' and ''Spy vs. Spy'' series of games. As of January 1, 2018 the First Star Software name and website are owned by BBG Entertainment GmbH which also purchased all intellectual property rights pertaining to ''Astro Chase'', ''BOiNG!'', ''Boulder Dash'', ''Bristles'', ''Flip & Flop'', ''Millennium Warriors'', '' Omnicron Conspiracy'', ''Panic Button'', ''Rent Wars'' and ''Security Alert''.

History

Fernando Herrera wrote an educational program for the

, '' My First Alphabet'', which was published by the

Atari Program Exchange Atari Program Exchange (APX) was a division of Atari, Inc. that sold software via mail-order for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. Quarterly APX catalogs were sent to all registered Atari 8-bit owners. APX encouraged any programmer, not j ...

in 1981. That same year, Atari, Inc., created an award to honor the year's best APX submission. The first Atari Star went to ''My First Alphabet'' along with a $25,000 prize. Herrera partnered with Richard Spitalny, Billy Blake, and Peter Jablon to found First Star Software. His story of winning the Atari Star made him the face of the company. First Star's inaugural release was the Atari 8-bit computer

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

'' Astro Chase'', which was later distributed by

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...

. Herrera also wrote ''

Bristles A bristle is a stiff hair or feather (natural or artificial), either on an animal, such as a pig, a plant, or on a tool such as a brush or broom. Synthetic types Synthetic materials such as nylon are also used to make bristles in items such as br ...

'' and '' Superman: The Game'' for First Star. First Star's two biggest titles came from outside developers, ''

'' and ''

'', each of which was the first game in a series.

Games

*'' Astro Chase'' *''Boing!'' (Atari 2600) *''

'' *''

'' *'' Flip & Flop'' *''Millennium Warriors'' *'' Omnicron Conspiracy'' *''Panic Button'' *''Rent Wars'' *''Security Alert'' *''

'' *'' Superman: The Game'' *'' Superman: The Man of Steel'' *''U.S. Adventure''

References

External links

Fernando Herrera Interview
from 2014 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies {{US-videogame-company-stub