noiseredux's Monthly VG Movie: Once Upon Atari

[CRTGAMER]

The Last Starfighter

If you want to "play along," there are a few confusing options. While various arcade and home ports of The Last Starfighter game in the movie were planned, none (officially materialized). The Atari computer versions were eventually released under the title Star Raiders II; The 2600 version was released as Solaris. The NES game titled The Last Starfighter is actually a port of a C64 game called Uridium. Luckily a faithful freeware port of the arcade game was developed for PC in 2007.

The Last Starfighter is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. It's also up for digital rental through Vudu and Sony Entertainment.

Nice review, love the movie! Anyone looking at buying the movie there is a Special Edition DVD in a clear case. One of the extras shows the Arcade reproduction cabinet.

Robert Preston reprises his role as Music Man, a fast talking con artist.
He uses an Arcade game to find the best Starfighter.
"You may have thought it was a game, but it was also a test! AHA!"
"To find those with the gift to be Starfighters and here you are my boy!"

When Alex wants to quit:
"Do you know how long it took to invent the game, the merchandising, to get it in the stores by Christmas?"

Dan O'Herlihy as the horse laughing alien character Grig
"How many Starfighters are left?"
"One"
"It'll be a slaughter!"
"Thats the Spirit!"
"No my slaughter! One ship against the entire Armada?"
"I've always want to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds."

The PC Game is "Arcade" perfect to the movie cabinet, a standalone emulator that works in Windows XP and Windows 7. A difficult game and certainly different. Starwars style hunt the enemy spaceships with twinstick (stick and mouse) gameplay.

Here are a couple of other Prototypes to try:

TRON SPACE PARANOID ARCADE
LAST STARFIGHTER ARCADE
POLYBIUS ARCADE

Arcade Prototype Downloads - http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 45#p296545

[marurun]

I watched this when I was a kid. I love that the way the enemy is ultimately defeated is that the ship just spins around and shoots a bunch of lasers in every direction.

Unless I made that up, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly.

[samsonlonghair]

I watched this when I was a kid. I love that the way the enemy is ultimately defeated is that the ship just spins around and shoots a bunch of lasers in every direction.

Unless I made that up, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly.

The Protagonist just presses the red Deus Ex Machina button.

Still, this is a fantastic movie. Roger Ebert said, "Yes, this is a Star Wars ripoff, but it's a GOOD Star Wars Ripoff!" He included it in his guilty pleasure movies special.

[noiseredux]

watched last night. I feel like I remembered so much of it from my youth. Though the CGI really impressed me. Seemed so ahead of 1984. As an adult, I still found this movie really enjoyable.

Also, my wife and I picked up an Atari Flashback 6 this week, and coincidentally the 6 adds in Solaris which was apparently the final retail version of Starfighter on the 2600. Neat.

[Gunstar Green]

watched last night. I feel like I remembered so much of it from my youth. Though the CGI really impressed me. Seemed so ahead of 1984. As an adult, I still found this movie really enjoyable.

Also, my wife and I picked up an Atari Flashback 6 this week, and coincidentally the 6 adds in Solaris which was apparently the final retail version of Starfighter on the 2600. Neat.

Really? I always loved Solaris but I had no idea it was related to The Last Starfighter. Upon Googling it seems that it does though!

I agree: Neat.

[prfsnl_gmr]

watched last night. I feel like I remembered so much of it from my youth. Though the CGI really impressed me. Seemed so ahead of 1984. As an adult, I still found this movie really enjoyable.

Did you watch the copy I sent to you? If so, how does it look on Blu-Ray?

[noiseredux]

Yes and super impressive.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Nice!

[ExedExes]

Also, my wife and I picked up an Atari Flashback 6 this week, and coincidentally the 6 adds in Solaris which was apparently the final retail version of Starfighter on the 2600. Neat.

Solaris makes it to a Flashback? Pretty impressive feat as it was never in any Atari compilations until now. The reason being that the designer, Doug Neubauer, not Atari, owned the rights to it. I see Radar Lock (also by Doug and uses the Solaris engine) also made it, but that one was on previous Atari collections. Best game on the 2600 hands down.

[Gunstar Green]

Also, my wife and I picked up an Atari Flashback 6 this week, and coincidentally the 6 adds in Solaris which was apparently the final retail version of Starfighter on the 2600. Neat.

Solaris makes it to a Flashback? Pretty impressive feat as it was never in any Atari compilations until now. The reason being that the designer, Doug Neubauer, not Atari, owned the rights to it. I see Radar Lock (also by Doug and uses the Solaris engine) also made it, but that one was on previous Atari collections. Best game on the 2600 hands down.

Still not buying an Atari Flashback until one includes Berzerk.

Is it a rights thing? They didn't seem to have any trouble getting Frenzy for the Colecovision one.

Sorry, off topic.