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Star Ship
Star Ship is a first-person space combat simulator video game designed by Bob Whitehead and published by Atari, Inc. as a launch title for the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS). The game has the player in a first-person perspective of a space ship, where can play a few variations of games that either involve shooting enemy space objects while avoiding asteroids, aiming at a second ship controlled by a player, trying to travel as fast through space within a time limit, or have a lunar lander craft land on a moon that is actively trying to avoid the player.
The game was Whitehead's first game for the system after being hired in January 1977. The game was based on the Atari arcade game Starship 1 (1977) as Whitehead was encouraged to make games that were adaptations of Atari's arcade line-up. The game received middling reviews from Video and Creative Computing. Atari officially stopped releasing the game in mid-1980.
Star Ship is from the view point of a star ship cockpit as it travels through space. The goal of the game is to destroy enemy space objects with a laser beam when they are within the target area to score points within a set amount of time. These space objects include a star fighter worth one point, and a space robot worth three points. If the player's ship collides with these space objects or the undestroyable asteroids scattered through space, they lose one point.
In single-player mode, the game lasts two minutes and sixteen seconds. The game's difficulty settings can be adjusted to allow for either one or two space objects to appear at a time and adjust whether they move at a slow or fast pace. In two-player mode, the game lasts four minutes and thirty-two seconds. In this game, the players take turns as the Star Ship Commander and the Module Commander. The former chases the module through space and earns points by shooting it successfully or when the Module Commander collides with enemy space objects. As the Module Commander, the player avoids the lasers from the star ship and has the ability to become invisible when close to the crosshairs of the Star Shop Commander. The Star Ship Commander can also earn points if the Module Commander colliders with space objects or asteroids. This two-player mode also has varied difficulty setting, allowing for no space objects, or including them with various slow and fast speeds of the asteroids and enemy space objects. A timer is set-up in this mode that has the players swap rolls when it finishes counting down. After a second timer counts down, the game ends.
A single player mode called "Warp Drive" is available where the players tries to travel as far as they can in space while avoiding asteroids. As a timer countdowns the parsecs, the player can opt to go into warp drive by pushing a button to move faster. The game has two modes which adjust the amount of asteroids that appear.
The final mode is Lunar Lander, which has the player control a Lunar Lander to reach a moon's surface. In single-player mode, the moon is controlled by the computer, while in a two-player mode, a second player can control the moon, with the goal of having it avoid contact with the Lunar Lander. This mode is also manipulated in difficulty by having no meteor showers, or allowing for fast and slow meteor showers that that cause the player controlling the lander to lose points if they connect with them.
Star Ship's lead designer was Bob Whitehead who joined Atari's programming department in January 1977. The game was his first game developed for the Atari Video Game System. While no project was officially assigned to him, he was encouraged by the company to adapt existing titles to the console. Prior to the release of Star Ship, Atari had developed an arcade game titled Starship 1 which released in August 1977. Whitehead was interested in the 3D perspective of the arcade game and found that outer space themed games were popular at the time, he attempted to adapt the in development arcade game to the console.
Whitehead said that both the "Lunar Lander" and "Warp Drive" games were variations on Starship 1 theme which worked well within the kernel he had developed for the main game as it allowed for some elements to be reused without requiring a lot of new code. Star Ship may have gone through a name change while in development as early press material and advertisements refer to it as Space Mission.
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Star Ship AI simulator
(@Star Ship_simulator)
Star Ship
Star Ship is a first-person space combat simulator video game designed by Bob Whitehead and published by Atari, Inc. as a launch title for the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS). The game has the player in a first-person perspective of a space ship, where can play a few variations of games that either involve shooting enemy space objects while avoiding asteroids, aiming at a second ship controlled by a player, trying to travel as fast through space within a time limit, or have a lunar lander craft land on a moon that is actively trying to avoid the player.
The game was Whitehead's first game for the system after being hired in January 1977. The game was based on the Atari arcade game Starship 1 (1977) as Whitehead was encouraged to make games that were adaptations of Atari's arcade line-up. The game received middling reviews from Video and Creative Computing. Atari officially stopped releasing the game in mid-1980.
Star Ship is from the view point of a star ship cockpit as it travels through space. The goal of the game is to destroy enemy space objects with a laser beam when they are within the target area to score points within a set amount of time. These space objects include a star fighter worth one point, and a space robot worth three points. If the player's ship collides with these space objects or the undestroyable asteroids scattered through space, they lose one point.
In single-player mode, the game lasts two minutes and sixteen seconds. The game's difficulty settings can be adjusted to allow for either one or two space objects to appear at a time and adjust whether they move at a slow or fast pace. In two-player mode, the game lasts four minutes and thirty-two seconds. In this game, the players take turns as the Star Ship Commander and the Module Commander. The former chases the module through space and earns points by shooting it successfully or when the Module Commander collides with enemy space objects. As the Module Commander, the player avoids the lasers from the star ship and has the ability to become invisible when close to the crosshairs of the Star Shop Commander. The Star Ship Commander can also earn points if the Module Commander colliders with space objects or asteroids. This two-player mode also has varied difficulty setting, allowing for no space objects, or including them with various slow and fast speeds of the asteroids and enemy space objects. A timer is set-up in this mode that has the players swap rolls when it finishes counting down. After a second timer counts down, the game ends.
A single player mode called "Warp Drive" is available where the players tries to travel as far as they can in space while avoiding asteroids. As a timer countdowns the parsecs, the player can opt to go into warp drive by pushing a button to move faster. The game has two modes which adjust the amount of asteroids that appear.
The final mode is Lunar Lander, which has the player control a Lunar Lander to reach a moon's surface. In single-player mode, the moon is controlled by the computer, while in a two-player mode, a second player can control the moon, with the goal of having it avoid contact with the Lunar Lander. This mode is also manipulated in difficulty by having no meteor showers, or allowing for fast and slow meteor showers that that cause the player controlling the lander to lose points if they connect with them.
Star Ship's lead designer was Bob Whitehead who joined Atari's programming department in January 1977. The game was his first game developed for the Atari Video Game System. While no project was officially assigned to him, he was encouraged by the company to adapt existing titles to the console. Prior to the release of Star Ship, Atari had developed an arcade game titled Starship 1 which released in August 1977. Whitehead was interested in the 3D perspective of the arcade game and found that outer space themed games were popular at the time, he attempted to adapt the in development arcade game to the console.
Whitehead said that both the "Lunar Lander" and "Warp Drive" games were variations on Starship 1 theme which worked well within the kernel he had developed for the main game as it allowed for some elements to be reused without requiring a lot of new code. Star Ship may have gone through a name change while in development as early press material and advertisements refer to it as Space Mission.