<![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I loved Masters of Teras Kasi, i'm just wondering why they haven't made an updated version of this where you can play as Yoda, Darth Maul, Dooku,etc

andyman30

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> X-Wing. Love that game.

I still wonder why Lucasarts never did a Star Wars Adventure title.

It's not like Indiana Jones and the Secret of Atlantis bombed.

I think this now a carbon copy of a Kotaku post.

Seth L

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Rebel Assault I was the killer app for the CD-Rom format in PC gaming which had been all floppy based before that. So I think it bears a mention for that reason alone.

No one mentioned Star Wars Arcade for the Sega 32X which was the entire reason I got the 32X and it was well worth it. The KOTOR games are some of the best RPGs ever made.

How about the Episode III game for Xbox/PS2? It wasn't a great game but it was fun and had some good lightsaber play.

Who remembers Yoda Stories? [www.gamespot.com] Man it was bad.

I also spent a lot of time in the arcade playing the Episode I pinball game, which was a hybrid pinball/video game that was pretty fun.

tcullings

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> You completely forgot the original Dark Forces, released 1995!

Knirfie

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Crap that came out in 2000. (need edit)

Darkweave

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Star Wars: Force Commander (PC)

Think you have what it takes to command a battalion of AT-ATs' Or to defend the Rebel stronghold at Hoth? Prove it in Star Wars: Force Commander, a real-time strategy game from LucasArts. You'll lead both the Empire's monolithic military might and the ragtag-yet-resourceful Rebels. Keep your war machine humming in single- and multiplayer modes. The ultrarealistic 3D terrain and vehicles give you the power to guide your troops to victory. This is war. This is Force Commander!

This game was so craptastic Lucas should have been shot for ever letting it out the door. Proof positive that they would slap the Star Wars name on even a piece of pooh to make a buck!

Darkweave

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> As a kid, I remember going to a "friends" house to play Empire on the 2600. I didn't like to spend time with him, just the game.

Like others here, I liked Rebellion and found it addictive. It was more interesting to me than Galactic Battlegrounds. I even liked Force Commander.

The only Star Wars game I've never tried is Tie Fighter... I know it is supposed to be one of the best games ever but I never got around to it. I LOVED all the X-Wing games though.

I also loved the Dark Forces game, which jeopardized my own college career, and all the FPS games spawned thereafter.

I have the RoTJ Arcade game on my MAME machine but it is too hard to reconfigure for Zaxxon controls to be any fun.

Remember the good old days where you got your advertisements for video games and cartoons in your comic books?

blynkin

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I have heard that Lucus Films coordinates all their books, movies, video games, and comic book properties pretty tighly. As a result, all of these products are part of one huge story of the SW universe.

pupaboy3

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> It's a sin that no one's mentioned Sega's Star Wars Trilogy Arcade Game. I spent more hours on that than I did in Sociology class.

The graphics were tight and the controls were great (even though the player has no control of the camera).

You got to blast Wampas in the chest, fight Boba Fett and low up TWO Death Stars!

TheFilthyBungalow

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> C'mon, a history of Star Wars games which mentions Dark Forces only as a footnote under its sequels? You must have been a console boy.

For the Atari 2600, Empire Strikes Back wasn't really a terrible game at the time. And I think the ESB vector graphics arcade game was actually a conversion kit for the original Star Wars game, which explains why it came out of order and was rarer to see.

Mecandes

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Both KOTOR and KOTORII dominated my life from start to finish...the 6x I beat both of them altogether that is...My only dream would be for Bioware or Obsidian to jump on the bandwagon for a Third. I'm not biased between the 2 developers as they both did a fantastic job in re-iterating the Star Wars universe.

acez2087

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Was io9 just ripped off by gametrailers.com?
[www.gametrailers.com]


tibbie

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> oh, you are also missing the Jango Fett:Bounty Hunter game.

AmericanHector

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Your article says it's a review of LucasArts games, not just Star Wars games. Any mention of LucasArts and gaming without mentioning Ballblazer is just weird...

darcymcgee

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I lived and BREATHED X-Wing and Tie-Fighter. I was playing Alliance on my Macbook Pro for a while at the beginning of the year last year.

GOOD times.

Falconfire

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Am I the only one here who really liked 'Shadows Of The Empire'? Aside from Starfox 64, it was the game that kept my N64 the most busy. The controls were intuitive and the animation outstanding when considering the console generation. Music was stellar (see what I did there?), and I didn't particularly care that there weren't any of the usual heroes. Bobba Fet put in a good appearance, and then there was the sewer level with all the interesting creatures.

I'd prolly die if Lucas did an HD overhaul of it like other game studios are doing for older-yet-cherished games.

Ronestar

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I laughed because the Dark Forces screenshot in the slideshow is actually the unofficial but impressive Dark Forces mod for Jedi Academy. The real Dark Forces came out in 1995.

Magic_Al

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> All I'm agonna say is: Star Wars: Rebellion, a great and underrated strategy game.

Loserface

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> The Empire Strikes Back arcade game was so herd to find because it was actually a mod kit for the Star Wars game. Arcade owners were reluctant to spend the money and effort to upgrade a game that was already pulling in plenty of quarters.

jeffedsell

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Yeah, swg actually had a credit to USD transfer rate on ebay.

AmericanHector

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I liked Star Wars Galaxies. Also, one good thing about Force Commander was the heavy metal version of the Imperial March it used as a theme.

Marcus

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Jedi Outcast was not only a good Star Wars game, it was just plain, old-fashioned good. Academy suffered from an ambitious change in format that suffered from terrible execution.

jcormier

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> You are forgetting about the Star Wars Galaxies emulater. People actually fighting big bad Sony.

AmericanHector

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @Kevin Kelly: Yes. Star Wars was for the NES. Super Star Wars was for the SNES.

Star Fox a 3D shooter developed by Nintendo for the SNES.

Discrete-Daniel

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> If any of you fellas liked Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader enough to feed your X-Wing addiction and subsequently bought Rogue III: Rebel Strike which turned out to be the most horrbile lets run around shooting Stormtroopers shit fest game ever, all is not lost. As you can play the classic coin op games via the passcode screen, just do this:

Star Wars arcade game:
Enter RTJPFC!G as a password and accept it, then enter TIMEWARP as a second password and accept it.

Empire Strikes Back arcade game:
Enter !H!F?HXS as a password and accept it, then enter KOOLSTUF as a second password and accept it.

Return Of The Jedi arcade game:
Enter !?ATH!RD as a password and accept it, then enter GAME?YES as a second password and accept it.

Vintage gaming at your fingertips, also you have to walk up to the cabinets dressed Darth Vader to access them, how cool is that?

Bal-Cleric

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Huh. For some reason, I played the Empire Strikes Back coin-op more than either of the other two. The AT-AT level was a lot of fun, because you could destroy them two different ways; either shoot them directly in the eye (presumably killing the drivers) or by deploying the tow cable and tripping them.

Now that I think about it, it seems odd that those snowspeeders had tow cables to begin with.

Captain Valiant

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Call me an Imperial Minion; I completed Tie Fighter, but couldn't for the life of me finish the third X-Wing mission (which invloved zipping around in an A-Wing, trying to scan Star Destroyers as more and more of them keep popping out of hyperspace).

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @Discrete-Daniel: Wasn't Star Wars for the Nintendo, and then Super Star Wars for the SNES?

Kevin Kelly

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Blockbuster never has any good games in
I don't wanna play Bombad Racing
I mean, what the heck is that?

-Brak, from "White Kids Love Hip Hop"



D Appammottoxx

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @oldbenway: It was just a condensed version of the games, and yes I hated Rebellion. But I mentioned TIE Fighter and Jedi Knight II both.

Kevin Kelly

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> No kidding man--don't write an article on star wars games and forget some of the most amazing ones--you left out Rebellion(yeah, some people hate it, but once you "got" the game, it was amazing...), TIE Fighter (and it's expansions), Jedi Knight II? One of the best games lucasarts ever did.

And that "weird" view in Return of the Jedi was a pretty common view for games back then (think Zaxxon), and that game was EVERYWHERE. And it was hard as shit to beat. WTB THOSE games on Wii VC, sigh.

Does Afterlife count as a star wars game, since you could summon the death star to take out the underworld?

oldbenway

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> You forgot the original Star Fox for SNES. Granted it wasn't a Star Wars game, but it made up for the disappointment of Super Star Wars until such time as I had a computer fast enough to play X-Wing.

I still fire it up every now and then because the "space armada" level is exactly what I want in a Star Wars shooter, right down to the music.

Discrete-Daniel

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @dave the wet sprocket: In defense of your parents, I mean.

moff

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @dave the wet sprocket: Jewel of the Nile is really hard to tear yourself away from.

moff

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Are we discounting roleplaying games that are non-electronic when we say "first roleplaying game?" Greg Costikyan's Star Wars RPG was released in 1987 and, besides being a fun book and a terrific game, was a milestone of RPG design. Yeah, it was a paper game, but those games are being routinely pillaged and paid homage in modern RPGs, which are their direct descendants. Hell, KOTOR even uses d20 System mechanics -- a direct import of paper-RPG system work.

I'm just saying.

Wordwill

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Why hasn't anyone mentioned Yoda Stories yet? Sure, it was crappy and very, very repetitive, but still fun to play!

Togan

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> You guys forgot the monster sized Star Wars game in arcades that was hanging around in 2001. It was 3D raster graphics and covered the original series of movies, had giant stereo speakers, surround sound and screens for passer-byes to gawk at your playing skillz.

dOk

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> i remember my parents taking the family out to see 'jewel of the nile'. i remember leaving in the middle to go to the bathroom, which was just a clever ruse to get my addicted butt in front of the vector 'star wars' in the lobby.

if my kid was supposedly in the bathroom for as long as i was that day, i'd like to think i'd be a little more concerned than my parents were.

dave the wet sprocket

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Sorry, you just forfited all credibillity by misspelling wookiee.
Mir'osik!

Wookiee1

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> also, there was obi wan. which was kind of like a retarded double dragon/tomb raider mash up that was just awful. which reminds me of this great old man murray post (the omm guys now write games at valve like portal, tf2 and left4dead):

I'd ask you all what you did on my break, but I already know. You mailed me about the Lord "I'm fired? Well, that's the last straw. I quit!" British situation. Thanks for that. One sharp-eyed reader called Bob D. found this excellent quote from Obi Wan team member Ryan Kaufman in the new issue of PC Gamer:

The number one favorite thing to do right now is to Force push a bunch of crates or flower boxes down some stairs, wiping out a bunch of hapless Battle Droids. Man, it don't get better than that. They bounce and tumble end over end; it's really, really amazing.

Let me get this straight: your game doesn't get better than pushing some crates around? Is this the line to not buy Obi Wan? Excellent, I'm in the right line.


[www.oldmanmurray.com]

putch

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> rebellion was god-awful. i can understand why it was left off. it's literally a joke in the gaming community. similarly there was also force commander which was probably one of the most poorly designed rts' ever made.

a few people also mentioned alliance. which, for my money is probably the best of all of the x-wing spin offs. but also missing is x-wing vs. tie-fighter where they tried to get in on the new "deathmatch" craze that doom had started.

putch

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @TheName: Yeah, I second on X-Wing:Alliance. This was the best among the x-wing tie fighter series. I really wish they would create a next gen version of this whole series.

Cantonkid

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> @ zafner
I agree. This list lacks Rebellion. It may be an old game, but I still enjoying playing it from time to time. There is nothing more satisfying then cruising around the galaxy with a Death Star destroying Rebel planets or watching a fleet of Star Destroyers bombard all life from a planet.

Daltron4

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> As far as I am concerned Episode I Racer was the only great thing to come out of the prequel business.
Rogue Squadron made having an N64 worth it. I still blow the dist off of mine and play it from time to time. When are they going to release another Star Wars flight sim?
Dark forces was fantastic. It and Quake were the holy duo of shooters back when processors still went into slots.

E0157H7

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> There was a Rebel Assault I and II. In retrospect, the games were pretty bad. Rebel Assault I was pretty much Star Wars, with all the characters replaced with generic ones (Luke = Rookie 1). Rebel Assault II was pretty cool, and had cheesey full motion video cut scenes. It had a TON of easter eggs!

This list is only a brief history, leaving out most of the crappy ones out.

rdldr1

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> What, no Star Wars: Bounty Hunter? Well, I can see why. It wasn't a very good game. Also, I've played Starfighter, Jedi Starfighter, and Clone Wars. I really enjoyed Jedi Starfighter, while the other two were pretty bad.

armchairnixon sees you doing that thing there...

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Actually, there was an (unlicensed) Star Wars game for the Apple II that dates back to at least 1979. It was a simple joystick-controlled shoot-the-Tie-Fighter arcade-type game; graphics were pretty primitive, to say the least. Think of the Tie Fighter targeting display that Darth Vader used in the original Star Wars, but with 1979-era Apple II graphics and a Tie Fighter outline instead of an X-Wing outline.

I saw it in San Diego before moving to Houston (which is why I can date it to 1979 -- I moved in August 1979) at a little mom-and-pop computer store in La Mesa, CA. The owners were using it as a demo for the Apple II that was on display. ..bruce..

bfwebster

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Come on, Rebel Assault!!! That was my first taste of star wars gaming goodness and was a good set up for X-Wing et all.

darthfergie

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> My two favorite Star Wars games would be Dark Forces (the 1995 original) and Tie Fighter Collectors CDRom. Dark Forces easily had one of the best stories seen in an FPS until Half-Life came out nearly four years later. Tie Fighter combined one of the best space simulators with better graphics and the sublime experience of being a minion of the Galactic Empire.

Worst of all time, easily Force Commander. Worst interface EVER. Next up from that, probably the Rebel Assault games, but that may just be because I hate rail shooters as if they drank my milkshake.

tcolberg

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> What, no Star Wars: Rebellion? I remember this PC game as being from about 1997, I think. Take over the galaxy; play as the rebels or the Empire. Send characters on missions: diplomatic, sabotage, reconnaissance. Build fleets of fighters and capital ships and pit them against the opponent in a weird semi-turn-based 3d environment that was rendered positively embarrassing when Homeworld came out a year or so later. Discover new Jedi, and train them.

Weirdly, there's a very similar game in the Trek universe called Birth of the Federation. The Trek one had better graphics, but no characters, and right now it's like $75 on eBay, while I think Rebellion is still pretty cheap.

zafner

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> jedi knight 2 jedi outcst is great. i just got it in " star wars the best of pc" . even today it is a fantastic game.

antimatty

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Anyone remember the Star Wars game for the Gameboy? I think it's another version of that side-scroller. Kinda average really, and some of the levels were stupidly hard.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Don't forget Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance; last (possibly least) in the long line of X-Wing sequels.

@Epaminondas: That's what virtual machines are for! All sorts of info out there (DOSBox is an easy method). Google = your friend.

TheName

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> The follow up to X-Wing on the PC, Tie Fighter, is the single most awesome flight game I've ever played. There was a Tri-pannel TIE fighter in one of the expansion packs called the Defender I think that was the perfect space fighter.

If only the Trek franchise could have had the track record of Star Wars! :(

@ManchuCandidate: If only I'd had the forsight to hold on to an old system for exactly that purpose!

Blue Oyster Cultist

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I dropped so many quarters on that vector-graphics Star Wars coin-op at the convenience store by school. Hearing Han Solo go, "Woo-hoo! You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!" as I finished the trench run, that's every 12 year old's wet dream. Well, at least in 1983 . . . before internet porn . . .

AZTriGuy

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> That's really weird, because I was reading along wondering if you were going to mention the really fun racing game my friends and I had played one summer whose name I couldn't remember. It's no Mario Kart, but it's not execrable. The Mac version of Knights of the Old Republic, on the other hand, has pretty miserable game play.

moff

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> How could you only touch upon Dark Forces? It was the first Star Wars FPS and was one of the best star wars games ever. Especially since it was one of the only games that didn't even touch on Jedi. Although they changed that for Jedi Knight and effectively killed the series with Jedi Academy

DamnProud13

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> I loved the original Rogue Squadron - I had it for my Mac when I was 12 or 13, and man was that addictive...

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> x-wing vs. tie fighter was 40 dollars well spent back in 96'.

I actually kind of liked episode 1 for playstation, but it was a little bit of a dissapointment.

Gotta give my all time favorite to Shadows of the empire for 64. The Hoth stage, was so great and it actually made me interested in the book which I eventually read and like.

sav127

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> What makes me feel old is that I think I've played most of the pre prequel games when they first came out.

ESB for the 2600 was cool at the time, but the gameplay sucked.

Played ESB vector graphics twice while on holiday in Florida, till my parents physically dragged my 13 year old ass out of the arcade for dinner.

Lucasfilm did a great job with the Star Wars X-wing/Tie Fighter Series. I wish they continued the series. Sigh. Still play those games from time to time (I have a 9 year old desk top that has them loaded.) A real challenge was attacking a Calamari cruiser loaded with concussion missiles in an unshielded Tie (can't repell fire of that magnitude.)

ManchuCandidate

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> oooh, the 2600 and the arcade... good times.

Evil Tortie's Mom

]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History Of Star Wars Video Games]]> Galactic Battlegrounds I oddly loved, it was just Age of Empires II with Star Wars characters and you got to control the Droid Army! Ahh the long range cannon, imagine a giant spherical Droideka, it was the bees knees, that Droid Army was best thing to come out of Episode I.

I also still stand by Republic Commando being a jolly good and oven overlooked romp.

Bal-Cleric

]]>