Star Wars: The Arcade Game 12/23/83

 

This is the first version in which the space dogfight screen appears.  The Tie Fighters haven't been implemented yet though, so the fireballs simply fall down the left side of the screen (where the blocks used to be).  The trench screen can now be selected by flipping the left difficulty switch, but other than adding the falling fireballs no further work appears to have been on it.


Prototype Differences
The left difficulty switch changes between the space screen and the trench screen.

There are no Tie Fighters.

There are two fireballs that drop down the left side of the screen instead of coming at you from the background.
The fireballs cannot be shot or avoided.
The fireballs are green instead of red or blue.
Your shields slowly count down from eight to zero, and then get reset back to eight.
You can shoot, but you can't actually hit anything since there is no collision detection.
Up and down actually move the crosshairs up and down.  This is the reverse of the final version which corresponds to real flight controls (up is down and down is up).
The stars are light green and are much blockier than the final version
The stars fall straight down from top to bottom instead of coming from the middle and going to the left and right.
The counters for tower points and number of towers left is always displayed on the screen even thought he tower screen is not present in this version.
The tower screen is missing.
The walls of the trench are green instead of blue.
There are no barriers in the trench.
Neither the space screen or trench screen have an end.
There is no copyright message
The game starts automatically.
The score counter doesn't work.
There are no sounds or music.
The design of the cannons is different.

 

 

Fireballs from above!

 

Green blocky stars...

 

Green trench walls!

 

The counter for the tower screen is still on the screen.

 

 

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