An epic science-fiction adventure featuring fantastic creatures, exotic locales, space battles, and the ultimate conflict between good and evil. From the beginning, Star Wars was the perfect inspiration for some great videogames. One of the most popular movies of all time gave new life to science-fiction and fantasy films and helped spark the science-fiction themed videogame craze.

There have been no fewer than 17 computer and console videogames with the Star Wars name, as well as four coin-op videogames. The Atari 2600, the most popular console system of the early 1980s, saw the first of these games when Parker Brothers acquired the Star Wars license in 1982. Parker Brothers would release a total of four Star Wars games for the 2600, with at least one known prototype game .

Interestingly enough, the very first Star Wars videogame was not based on the first movie, but on the sequel-The Empire Strikes Back. Perhaps this was due to the fact that when the game was released, the original movie was already five years old. The sequel, which had been out for only two years, was more recent in people's minds. In addition, anticipation was building for the third film which was due out the next year.

In any event, the action in this game is based on one of the most exciting sequences in the film-the Rebel's attempt to stop the giant Imperial Walkers with their small snowspeeders. You must fly your snowspeeder in an attempt to stop these Walkers from reaching and destroying your power generator. Meanwhile, the Walkers fire lasers at you. You can take a maximum of five hits before being destroyed. Landing in a valley repairs your damage, but this can only be done twice per ship. Walkers take 48 hits before being destroyed. Every eight hits they change color to let you know that they are damaged. Damaged Walkers slow down and fire less often and less accurately. Every so often a flashing square will appear on the Walker. This is a bomb hatch which allows you to destroy the Walker with a single shot.

The graphics are very simple, consisting of a horizontally scrolling playfield with mountains in the background and valleys in the foreground. The entire playfield is approximately eight television screens wide, and flying off one side brings you back on the other. The snowspeeder and Walker are colored black, but change color when hit. There is a radar screen at the bottom of the playfield which shows the position of the Imperial Walkers relative to the power generator. Sound effects are also minimal, consisting of laser fire and the relentless "thump" of the Walkers' feet. The Star Wars theme plays if you can avoid being hit for two minutes. While the theme plays, your snowspeeder is invicible.

There are 32 game variations: 16 for one player and 16 for two players. The variations include four levels of difficulty, smart bombs fired by Walkers, and solid Walkers. That is, in normal game variations your ship can fly right over the body of the Walker you are trying to destroy. In the solid Walker variation, you can only fly through the legs. Hitting the Walker's body will destroy your ship-although it will also damage the Walker. The difficulty switches changes the size of the valley where you land for repairs.

The gameplay is sort of a cross between Defender and Space Invaders. As in Defender, you shoot enemies while flying on a horizontally-scrolling screen. Like Space Invaders, the enemies keep coming closer and closer until you are overwhelmed.

Strategy tip: Do not destroy the lead Walker, but hit it until it is heavily damaged and extremely slow. This will slow down the progress of all the Walkers towards your generator. Damage the first two Walkers in this fashion, then destroy the remaining three. Wait until the last moment to destroy the lead Walker. If you keep the lead Walker damaged and destroy the ones behind it, you will go far in the game.

This game is loosely based on a sequence from the original Star Wars movie in which Luke Skywalker is practicing using his lightsaber on a floating "seeker" droid. This is one of the few Parker Brothers games to use the Paddle Controllers.

The screen depicts a circular arena from the top view. The border of the top half of the screen is red, and the border of the bottom half is blue.

Jedi Knights appear in a stationary position in the center top and bottom of the screen. Each has a light saber and a shield in the corresponding color, red or blue. A seeker droid travels the arena, firing bolts at each Jedi Knight's shield. When the shield is destroyed, a shot through the opening will hit the opponent.

Gameplay is similar to Warlords, in that players use the paddle to shoot and block shots and the object of the game is to destroy a shield and hit the player behind it. In Jedi Arena, however, you use the paddle to direct the bolts from the seeker against your opponent. After a certain period of time, the seeker builds up energy and will start firing wildly. You cannot attack at this time but can only defend yourself. In game variation 7 and 8, the seeker is invisible until you or your opponent fire a bolt.

Once again, the game features the Star Wars theme. Graphics are very minimal, even for the 2600. There are 8 game variations: four one player and four two-player-which allow you to change the speed of the seeker and whether or not it is visible. The difficulty switches give you either 3 or 4 lines of protection in your shield.

Overall, Jedi Arena is not very satisfying. For one thing, there are not enough elements from the Star Wars universe in it. It could have been released without the Star Wars license. In addition, the game has a flaw which almost makes it unplayable. The flaw is this: the paddle controller which directs the aim of the bolts at your opponent also moves your lightsaber which you need to defend yourself. Suppose that the seeker is at the left side of the screen. To hit your opponent at the top of the screen, you must move the paddle to the right. This moves your lightsaber at the bottom of the screen to the right-leaving your shield open to hits from the seeker (which is to the left). If the opponent wants to block your bolt, he or she must move their lightsaber to the left, leaving them unable to fire a bolt at you. In order to avoid this, you must instead play defense. When your lightsaber blocks a bolt, it temporarily freezes it. This allows you to momentarily go on the offensive.

As a result, I never felt in control of the game ("Control! Control! You must learn control!"). I felt that I was just watching the game, not participating in it.

This was the first in a planned series of games based on the third movie in the trilogy. Although a prototype was found for Ewok Adventure, no other ROTJ games were ever released.

In this game, you pilot the Millennium Falcon in an assault on the second Death Star. The game takes place in two screens. In the first, you must destroy TIE Fighters in space while waiting for a hole to open in the shield. In the second, you are attacking the Death Star itself.

This game definitely showed the limits of the 2600. The most thrilling sequences of the movie are those involving the speeder bike chase on Endor and the Millennium Falcon entering and exiting the Death Star tunnels. The Ewoks battling the Imperial Troops and the final light saber battle between Luke and Darth Vader also spring to mind. These sequences were recreated in the coin-op and SNES ROTJ games, but must have been impossible for the 2600. Instead, the game features a pretty boring space battle which has been done better in games such as Space Attack and Star Strike (both by M Network).

The joystick is used to maneuver your ship, which is vertically limited to the bottom third of the screen. Fighters come from the left and right, and must be avoided or destroyed. Every so often a hole will appear in the shield in the middle of the screen. Line the ship up vertically with the hole and push the joystick forward. You will "warp" to the second screen, which features a large Death Star with a colored square in the very center. Shoot the Death Star to chip away at it until you can hit the center (like hitting the mother ship in Phoenix). As you shoot, avoid the fighters as well as the occasional laser shot from the station itself. After you hit the center, move away from the Death Star as far as possible. As it disintegrates, it will shoot fireballs out which can destroy your ship if they hit you.

Gameplay is reminiscent of many other games such as Solaris and Yar's Revenge (both by Atari). The lack of space to maneuver in makes it difficult to avoid the TIE Fighters. The shield holes often close as you approach, destroying your ship for contacting the shield. There is also little room to move away from the Death Star, making it hard to avoid the fireballs. Overall, the game is just not that exciting.

Released during the videogame market crash of the mid-1980s, this cartridge may be harder to find. The game is interesting in that it is based on an Atari coin-op game and yet Parker Brothers got the license to make the 2600 version. It is also interesting because even though it is a translation of a vector graphics game (like Asteroids and Tempest), the programmers were able to make it look a lot like the original.

The object of the game is to destroy TIE Fighters on your approach to the Death Star, destroy towers on the surface of the Death Star, and finally enter the trench of the Death Star in order to launch a photon torpedo down the shaft which will destroy it. This is the climatic scene of the Star Wars movie and probably one of the most memorable sequences in all of the trilogy.

While not as graphically impressive as the coin-op, Star Wars: The Arcade Game is a great translation. The Star Wars theme is once again present, and the gameplay is excellent although not as fast-paced as the coin-op. For obvious reasons, no sampled voices from the films are present. I find myself hearing Obi-Wan's "Use the Force, Luke" and Luke's "We're going in!" statements anyway.

Joystick control on the towers portion of the game is not very good. It is difficult to tell whether you are moving left or right, making it hard to avoid hitting the towers. In the first stage of the game, the joystick moves a crosshair around the screen. In the trench stage, the crosshair moves but so does the background. It may be hard to get used to the controls at first, but if you liked the arcade game you'll like the cartridge.