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Star Raiders Dual (anyone heard of this title?)


ACML

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Here's an interesting game. It's called "Star Raiders Dual" as in "head to head". I came across it in ~1983 maybe. It appears to be a modified version of the original Star Raiders that has a solo and a dual mode that requires the other player to start the game on another Atari. I'm guessing you connect the two machines via the SIO cable and it acts as a null modem cable. It is most likely from the early 80's (pre-XL) as it requires the 400/800 OS-B OS to run the dual mode (press SELECT). Has anyone ever seen this title before and more importantly, ever played it head to head? I suspect it was never released to retail and may very well be a prototype from Atari. If anyone knows anything about this title, please share your knowledge.

Star Raiders Dual (ATARI) OS-B.XEX

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Looks very interesting.

 

I checked the code and I think it is designed for 4-port machines connected using joystick ports 3 and 4. Unfortunately, I can't test it as I don't have any 400/800 machines...

 

F.

 

I have some 800s... any idea of the port wiring for this setup?

 

I have no idea but I would try direct pin to pin (1-1, 2-2, etc.) wiring...

 

F.

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I have some 800s... any idea of the port wiring for this setup?

 

I have no idea but I would try direct pin to pin (1-1, 2-2, etc.) wiring...

 

F.

Might not be a good idea to connect the 5V pins together.

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Hmm,

 

null-modem capability...?!? I am on Mathy`s side here, so I say: make it gamelink/multilink compatible please ! ;-)

And while you are at it, patch it for XL/XE use also (and while you are at it, patch or better re-write Midi Maze for gamelink/multilink also)... ;-) ;-) ;-)

 

-Andreas Koch

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Hmm,

 

null-modem capability...?!? I am on Mathy`s side here, so I say: make it gamelink/multilink compatible please ! ;-)

And while you are at it, patch it for XL/XE use also (and while you are at it, patch or better re-write Midi Maze for gamelink/multilink also)... ;-) ;-) ;-)

 

-Andreas Koch

Let's go full tilt and add Alone Against the Empires mode too (A8 BattleSphere anybody :) )

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Nice!! Where did you find this? And can someone make a video of this in play? I don't have immediate access to my 800 setup.

 

I think I got this at an Atari User group meeting in San Diego or Mira Mesa, California around 1984/5. We kind of ignored it as most at the time, didn't know what a null model cable was. We didn't get acquainted with that until DOOM in the early 90s'. It just kind of sat on a disk, raising my curiosity every now an then, but never enough to try and figure out what it was. Not until I discovered AtariAge. I figure someone here must have heard of this. I guess not. Apparently, no one here has seen it before. I might some more unusual titles in my collection. I'll give it a look.

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  • 1 month later...

Here's an interesting game. It's called "Star Raiders Dual" as in "head to head". I came across it in ~1983 maybe.

 

I wonder if Curt Vendel would mind hooking up his Alan-K link for a trial run :D

 

Perhaps ACML has an Alan-K boot disk in his collection?

 

The Atari Alan-K Project

 

Well, since (as others have clearly stated) the code accesses the PORTB, TRIG2, and TRIG3 registers, that is quite sure to yield NOTHING!!!!

 

Those Alan-K network modules hook up via the SIO ports and require a custom Network Operating system to be loaded in order to access them. Nothing to do with Joyports 3 & 4...

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  • 2 years later...

Came across here while googling for exactly the same thing ;) Here: http://www.asterius.com/atari/history1.html Martin Doudoroff writes:

 

I visited an Atari user’s group meeting in San Francisco, where they were demonstrating two Atari’s linked together so they could play Star Raiders [a computer game inspired by the movie Star Wars’ outer-space dog fights] with one computer against the other—a very early “Internet-like” game setup.

 

But I haven't found the name and/or more information yet.

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I did ask Mr. Doug Neubauer (he programmed the original Star Raiders) if he knew anything about this head to head version. He said he did not know about this version and was not familiar with it (never saw it before). So much for a follow on prototype. Someone previously in this post described another San Francisco based user group actually playing this head to head. I wonder if this would have been the first video game to use a null modem cable to play between to different machines (circa 1983/4)? Has anyone here on AtariAge ever played this successfully on two different machines?

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post-27335-0-61185900-1377206968_thumb.jpg

Edited by ACML
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The thing people need to know - this game is not Star Raiders.

 

It appears to be an amateurish lookalike and there's every possibility that even if it was made to work, it might be a crap game not worth playing.

 

It is important to know that this doesn't have Star Raiders code in it. And it is not official Star Raiders anything.. Not only that, Star Raiders' author knows nothing about it. This is a written-from-scratch game.

 

Consider, if this was a true Star Raiders Dual edition - the Photons would sound the same as the real thing, not worse, the Attack Computer would be the same and so would the design of the ship. I smell a clone!

 

Cool concept for its time.

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