This is the first Starmaster retrospective that I didn't roll my eyes. Let me explain. For a while now, most TH-cam users who have done retrospectives for this game place it as being released simultaneously with the 2600 Star Raiders, or after it. Granted, most of those videos have been produced by people who were much younger, and so they don't have the benefit of memory to go by. So yours is the first video I have seen in a while that correctly stated the release order of Starmaster vs Star Raiders. An excellent video regardless. Speaking of promotional offers, before Star Raiders was released for the 2600, there was a contest from McDonalds where winners would receive a copy of the game on its release. I remember looking forward to its release, but I also remember playing Starmaster regularly before even that contest.
I loved this game as a kid. But I was so young, I didn't have a clue about how to actually win. I'd just go shoot baddies until I died or ran out of energy. The sound was so intense, almost scary for a 5 year old.
I got my Atari 2600 second-hand, along with a copy of StarMaster, but no instruction manual. So back in the pre-internet days I had absolutely NO clue what I was doing. But I still loved it!
I think there were 5 games of this type based on Star Raiders, so if you learned one, you likely could figure out the others. But definitely having the instructions on a game with such complications as ship damage, docking and base destruction is important.
I still cannot believe Miller packed so much gameplay into 4 kilobytes!! Starmaster is an all time favourite, alternately #2 or #1 behind Empire Strikes Back for balls-to-the-wall action. I easily qualified for the 'starmaster' chevron on the patch as a kid, but never sent in a picture to Activision, something I regret although it probably would have ended up sewn into my cub-scout blanket, an object long lost to the landfill.
I didn't have anything to which I wanted to attach my Pitfall patch, or emblem as they called it, so it got separated from my collection of Atari manuals, controllers and games. (Eventually game "patches" would be fixes you could download.) Today the patches cost more than the cartridges on eBay.
This is one that I definitely appreciated more when I came back to it after a few years. A lot of the mechanics are a little hard for a kid to pick up, but get easier to grasp later on.
Love the 2001: A Space Odyssey reference! And lets give a shoutout to Starship arcade/VCS game for pioneering the 'stars coming at you' effect giving a first person view of moving forward! Great vid, Kevin
One of the things which truly surprises me with Starmaster is just how well it can be picked up, even without having the manual. I originally grabbed a loose cart, and maange to really get a lot out of it - though I'll admit, having easy access to A8 Star Raiders does mean it's not one I've revisited in a very long time. Despite all that though - what Miller got out of a stock console/cart combo can't be ignored, and it's something I'm still impressed with.
Gotta disagree there. It may be easy to pick up for people already familiar with the console and its controls/layout, but the first time I tried it I was completely lost and ended up resorting to finding a manual online so I could make any sort of progress. Granted, it's definitely not any harder to pick up and play than most games of the time, but I still wouldn't call it easy or intuitive.
As a devotee of the 2600 STAR RAIDERS, somehow I didn't even know this game existed. However, those various contests sound amazing. Always fascinated about the IRL tie-ins to early video games, such as the patches.
I loved this game when I was a kid, and I even entered the Greatest American Hero contest. Sadly, I did not get to go to Hollywood and be in an episode that never aired. This game had a lot of strategy for a 2600 game, and it was always fun to see how long you could go without docking.
I think he said the episode aired, but not scenes with the contest-winners who were not union. I don't think you need to be union members to be extras in the back of the class, at a party or something. But you can't have speaking roles. Sometimes when an extra or passerby blurts out a one-liner, they keep it. But you don't usually go from an extra to an actor, I think.
Co-creator of Elite, Ian Bell, has stated that the way StarMaster feels when you're flying into the stars, as if you're traveling was the first "shiver of inspiration" for what would become Elite. He said about 3 months after he first saw StarMaster he saw StarRaiders being played on a atari 8-bit computer and he thought of making a demo with the feeling of travel of StarMaster and the complexity of StarRaider. I think you can definitely also make the argument that the Elite HUD owes more to StarMaster than StarRaiders. Notably elites other co-creator, David Braben, denies any atari influence on the game whatsoever. Probably because Ian Bell says there is so thus he has to do the opposite as they can't stand each other.
@@play_history I heard him say it at a convention in Nottingham. However I do know that talk was recorded, so let me find the date/year for you. It was few years ago, pre covid
Had no idea Starmaster was released before the Star Raiders version on the VCS. Starmaster is definitely more polished of the two, but I prefer Star Raiders. Maybe because of the more enemy variety compared to the same redundant ship on Starmaster. Strictly, as far as, the VCS goes I go: Star Raiders, Star Master, Star Voyager and Space Battle (?) from Mnetwork.
@@jeremiahthomas8140 They said Mattel wanted to change the names in case the Atari versions were perceived poorly, so as not to reflect against the Intellivision versions. I just can't help but think what would have happened if another third-party company like Mattel released their games for the Atari VCS a year earlier in 1981 to beat the glut of 100 games in 1982. Either Mattel was waiting for the Atari lawsuit against Activision making games for the Atari VCS to work itself out, or it took them a while to realize they had already lost the console war when Space Invaders sold millions of Atari VCS in 1980 so the Intellivision was nearly D.O.A. As far as I know (going from a list of only 27 games said to have sold over a million on Atari) none of the M-Network conversions or original games sold a million copies. They did advertise on TV in 1982!
StarMaster is great, but I think I prefer Star Raiders (the 2600 version) by just a hair. They are both great games with a lot of similarities, but a lot of differences, too.
I think I was 12 or so when I got my Star Master patches for high score. Had to take a Polaroid picture of my screen (yeah old) and waited about 5 to 6 months for my patches to arrive.
I think there were 100 games released for the Atari 2600 in 1982 and almost 100 in 1983, 30+ from Atari. In a previous episode you looked at more than one game, so I'd hoped you would have analyzed all 4 Star Raiders games at once: M-Network's Space Attack, Activision's Starmaster, Imagic's Star Voyager and Atari's Star Raiders (and 14:03 Phaser Patrol). I'm not a fan of this kind of game, and an early first-person space game, Star Ship, wasn't very good, and was removed from the catalog in 1980. I would like to know if the special controller I got with Star Raiders is the same as the keyboard controller Atari had for Concentration and those other early "Learning" games. I don't have any, but if I did get one, it would be nice to know I already have a compatible controller.
The keypad with Star Raiders is a different form factor but internally is the same as the one Atari sold with Codebreaker et al and the Sesame Street games. If you’ve got one that works you just need to handle knowing what each button does!
Believe it or not, it was probably better not to do Empire Strikes Back after the huge last episode you did. (And that Greatest American Hero trivia was interesting). StarMaster looks and appears to play as a very good Star Raiders clone, and those wizards at Activision did it with the stock hardware. Next time Apollo and what appears to possible a Kaboom clone?
It might be good to do all of Parker Bros.'s Star Wars games in one video: The Empire Strikes Back (1982), Jedi Arena (1983), Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars The Arcade Game (1984). There's 100 games released for the Atari VCS in 1982 and almost another hundred in 1983, so if they're not combined, it might take the next 10 years!
Regarding the patches: I remember seeing a picture of some local pastor who had seen a Starmaster patch to his vestments and wore it during services.
That's a lovely game, I'd quite like to play it!
It looks quite advanced and quite good!
This is the first Starmaster retrospective that I didn't roll my eyes. Let me explain.
For a while now, most TH-cam users who have done retrospectives for this game place it as being released simultaneously with the 2600 Star Raiders, or after it. Granted, most of those videos have been produced by people who were much younger, and so they don't have the benefit of memory to go by.
So yours is the first video I have seen in a while that correctly stated the release order of Starmaster vs Star Raiders. An excellent video regardless.
Speaking of promotional offers, before Star Raiders was released for the 2600, there was a contest from McDonalds where winners would receive a copy of the game on its release. I remember looking forward to its release, but I also remember playing Starmaster regularly before even that contest.
I loved this game as a kid. But I was so young, I didn't have a clue about how to actually win. I'd just go shoot baddies until I died or ran out of energy. The sound was so intense, almost scary for a 5 year old.
A Sunday treat! Keep em coming!
Excellent, classy video as ever, great job! And great memories...
I got my Atari 2600 second-hand, along with a copy of StarMaster, but no instruction manual. So back in the pre-internet days I had absolutely NO clue what I was doing. But I still loved it!
I think there were 5 games of this type based on Star Raiders, so if you learned one, you likely could figure out the others. But definitely having the instructions on a game with such complications as ship damage, docking and base destruction is important.
Activision did a great job creating this game and using the 2600 switches for game play.
I still cannot believe Miller packed so much gameplay into 4 kilobytes!! Starmaster is an all time favourite, alternately #2 or #1 behind Empire Strikes Back for balls-to-the-wall action. I easily qualified for the 'starmaster' chevron on the patch as a kid, but never sent in a picture to Activision, something I regret although it probably would have ended up sewn into my cub-scout blanket, an object long lost to the landfill.
I didn't have anything to which I wanted to attach my Pitfall patch, or emblem as they called it, so it got separated from my collection of Atari manuals, controllers and games. (Eventually game "patches" would be fixes you could download.) Today the patches cost more than the cartridges on eBay.
this is a childhood favorite! loved playing and beating this back then
This is one that I definitely appreciated more when I came back to it after a few years. A lot of the mechanics are a little hard for a kid to pick up, but get easier to grasp later on.
Love the 2001: A Space Odyssey reference! And lets give a shoutout to Starship arcade/VCS game for pioneering the 'stars coming at you' effect giving a first person view of moving forward! Great vid, Kevin
One of my favorites!
One of the things which truly surprises me with Starmaster is just how well it can be picked up, even without having the manual. I originally grabbed a loose cart, and maange to really get a lot out of it - though I'll admit, having easy access to A8 Star Raiders does mean it's not one I've revisited in a very long time.
Despite all that though - what Miller got out of a stock console/cart combo can't be ignored, and it's something I'm still impressed with.
Gotta disagree there. It may be easy to pick up for people already familiar with the console and its controls/layout, but the first time I tried it I was completely lost and ended up resorting to finding a manual online so I could make any sort of progress. Granted, it's definitely not any harder to pick up and play than most games of the time, but I still wouldn't call it easy or intuitive.
@@TheFirstHunt Yeah, I think that's why he said they put a second operations manual in with the game.
As a devotee of the 2600 STAR RAIDERS, somehow I didn't even know this game existed. However, those various contests sound amazing. Always fascinated about the IRL tie-ins to early video games, such as the patches.
I loved this game when I was a kid, and I even entered the Greatest American Hero contest. Sadly, I did not get to go to Hollywood and be in an episode that never aired. This game had a lot of strategy for a 2600 game, and it was always fun to see how long you could go without docking.
I think he said the episode aired, but not scenes with the contest-winners who were not union. I don't think you need to be union members to be extras in the back of the class, at a party or something. But you can't have speaking roles. Sometimes when an extra or passerby blurts out a one-liner, they keep it. But you don't usually go from an extra to an actor, I think.
Man cant wait for the star raiders episode
Co-creator of Elite, Ian Bell, has stated that the way StarMaster feels when you're flying into the stars, as if you're traveling was the first "shiver of inspiration" for what would become Elite. He said about 3 months after he first saw StarMaster he saw StarRaiders being played on a atari 8-bit computer and he thought of making a demo with the feeling of travel of StarMaster and the complexity of StarRaider.
I think you can definitely also make the argument that the Elite HUD owes more to StarMaster than StarRaiders.
Notably elites other co-creator, David Braben, denies any atari influence on the game whatsoever. Probably because Ian Bell says there is so thus he has to do the opposite as they can't stand each other.
What's the source on this? I'm curious to read it.
@@play_history I heard him say it at a convention in Nottingham. However I do know that talk was recorded, so let me find the date/year for you. It was few years ago, pre covid
Had no idea Starmaster was released before the Star Raiders version on the VCS. Starmaster is definitely more polished of the two, but I prefer Star Raiders. Maybe because of the more enemy variety compared to the same redundant ship on Starmaster. Strictly, as far as, the VCS goes I go: Star Raiders, Star Master, Star Voyager and Space Battle (?) from Mnetwork.
Space Attack from M Network. Is Space Attack the same game as Space Battle?
@@jeremiahthomas8140 Always get the names on those confused. The Space **** game with the quasi Star Raiders gameplay.
@@jeremiahthomas8140 They said Mattel wanted to change the names in case the Atari versions were perceived poorly, so as not to reflect against the Intellivision versions.
I just can't help but think what would have happened if another third-party company like Mattel released their games for the Atari VCS a year earlier in 1981 to beat the glut of 100 games in 1982. Either Mattel was waiting for the Atari lawsuit against Activision making games for the Atari VCS to work itself out, or it took them a while to realize they had already lost the console war when Space Invaders sold millions of Atari VCS in 1980 so the Intellivision was nearly D.O.A. As far as I know (going from a list of only 27 games said to have sold over a million on Atari) none of the M-Network conversions or original games sold a million copies. They did advertise on TV in 1982!
I was absurdly proud of beating this one on Starmaster difficulty. Sadly, I never got the patch for that...
StarMaster is great, but I think I prefer Star Raiders (the 2600 version) by just a hair. They are both great games with a lot of similarities, but a lot of differences, too.
I think I was 12 or so when I got my Star Master patches for high score. Had to take a Polaroid picture of my screen (yeah old) and waited about 5 to 6 months for my patches to arrive.
I think there were 100 games released for the Atari 2600 in 1982 and almost 100 in 1983, 30+ from Atari. In a previous episode you looked at more than one game, so I'd hoped you would have analyzed all 4 Star Raiders games at once: M-Network's Space Attack, Activision's Starmaster, Imagic's Star Voyager and Atari's Star Raiders (and 14:03 Phaser Patrol). I'm not a fan of this kind of game, and an early first-person space game, Star Ship, wasn't very good, and was removed from the catalog in 1980.
I would like to know if the special controller I got with Star Raiders is the same as the keyboard controller Atari had for Concentration and those other early "Learning" games. I don't have any, but if I did get one, it would be nice to know I already have a compatible controller.
The keypad with Star Raiders is a different form factor but internally is the same as the one Atari sold with Codebreaker et al and the Sesame Street games. If you’ve got one that works you just need to handle knowing what each button does!
Great game. Although out of this genre, I played Phaser Patrol the most.
I'm surprised you didn't also mention Starpath's Phaser Patrol. That is another excellent game is similar to Star Raiders and Starmaster.
He did indeed feature Phaser Patrol in this video.
@@Hologhoul OMG, you're right! How did I miss it?
14:03
Is Alan Miller to blame for all of us thinking the stars would fly past us if we traveled through space?
I still feel guilty about persuading my father to buy Star Raiders for me. This game would've been the better and cheaper choice. Sorry, Dad.
Believe it or not, it was probably better not to do Empire Strikes Back after the huge last episode you did. (And that Greatest American Hero trivia was interesting). StarMaster looks and appears to play as a very good Star Raiders clone, and those wizards at Activision did it with the stock hardware. Next time Apollo and what appears to possible a Kaboom clone?
It might be good to do all of Parker Bros.'s Star Wars games in one video: The Empire Strikes Back (1982), Jedi Arena (1983), Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars The Arcade Game (1984). There's 100 games released for the Atari VCS in 1982 and almost another hundred in 1983, so if they're not combined, it might take the next 10 years!
I’m trying to get the last two patch scores for this game.
Edit: Make that the last patch score for this game.