Great video!
I won’t argue with any of your selections there. However I will note that I played a lot of both Pac-Man and Defender way back when, and I grew to really enjoy Defender a lot. Despite the graphical issues, it was really fun to play.
I had an Atari 2600 and had yet to use any "real" computer (I would later learn BASIC programming on the Commodore PET computers at school. I was 11 11 for most of 1979 and I think the first place I saw Star Raiders was in a display at a department store. Macy's, probably.
I was blown away. I was already a space/sci-fi fan and to see a game where I could actually fly a spaceship through space? Wow! I knew I wanted it.
A friend later got an Atari 800 (and a year or so later I did too) and we played the heck out of that game. It seemed so immersive at the time! I could really feel like I was flying and shooting aliens.
It remains my all-time favorite video game on any system anywhere.
I was excited… until I watched the trailer. Now I really don’t know what to expect. The original arcade game was one of my favorites. I just hope they don’t screw it up.