''Starhawk'' is a 1979

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

designed and programmed by

Tim Skelly Tim Skelly (February 10, 1951 – death reported March 2, 2020) was a video game designer and game programmer who developed arcade games for Cinematronics from 1978 until 1981. He designed a series of pure action games using black and white vect ...

and manufactured by

Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and A ...

. ''Starhawk'' is a

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 ...

unofficially based on the '' Star Wars: Episode IV'' trench run, one of the first arcade games to blatantly use concepts from ''Star Wars''. The game was unique at the time for its

pseudo-3D 2.5D (two-and-a-half dimensional) perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little to no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise ...

graphics. It was distributed in Japan by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

, and was later ported for the

Vectrex The Vectrex is a vector display-based home video game console–the only one ever designed and released for the home market, developed by Smith Engineering. It was first released for the North America market in November 1982 and then Europe and ...

home system in 1982. The arcade cabinet had a

cinder block A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Tho ...

placed inside of it, to prevent it from tipping onto the player.

Plot

According to the Vectrex manual, the story involves "protecting your comrades from alien ships trying to infiltrate your culture" and "defending the sovereignty of your planet."

Gameplay

Various ships, reminiscent of

TIE fighter The Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter is a series of fictional starfighters featured in the '' Star Wars'' universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire and b ...

s, appear on the horizon of the trench and the player has to shoot them before they destroy the player's ship. The player is given initially sixty seconds, but additional twenty seconds is awarded for every 10,000 points scored. The player continues flying down the trench towards a target similar to the Star Wars

Death Star The Death Star is a fictional space station and Weapon of mass destruction, superweapon featured in the ''Star Wars'' Space opera, space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire (Star Wars), Galactic Empire, the Death Star ...

target. The game gets progressively more difficult as the player advances. Similar to the flying saucer from ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

'', a command ship periodically appears and shoots at the player. If the command ship is not destroyed quickly, the player loses 800 points. Besides the firing button, there are three buttons that control the speed of the crosshairs.

Scoring

* Command ship: 800 * Starship: 500 * Rocket: 300 * Missile: 100 * Bomber: 100

Reception

''Starhawk'' was the fifth highest-earning arcade video game of 1979 in the United States, below ''

'', ''

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

'', ''

Sprint 2 ''Sprint 2'' is a two player overhead-view arcade racing video game released in 1976 by Kee Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, and distributed by Namco in Japan. While earlier driving games had computer-controlled cars that moved along a ...

'' and '' Head On''.

References

External links