Star Wars Arcade for the Atari5200 - how many «waves» before it either recirculates or you finish the game? Anyone who knows?

[Giles N]

I´ve gotten to wave 11 at the most; the trench-run got fairly difficult with walls blocking the entire trench with only a tiny block of opening to navigate through...

Does anyone know if there is a limited number of waves (ie levels or rounds) to Star Wars Arcade either to start all over from beginning or to complete the game?

Anyone?

And... how do you like it..?

Edited July 25, 2019 by Giles N

[Flojomojo]

I don't like it, not compared to the real version. ? 

 

I believe it gets harder and harder then flattens out, same difficulty over and over again, but I can't get too far with that floppy joystick. 

 

Maybe be there's a high score club for it?

[jaybird3rd]

They had to make some concessions from the arcade original (the voice samples, the animations, etc.), but that's inevitable for a 16K home console implementation.  Taken on its own merits—which is how I prefer to evaluate arcade ports—I've always found the 400/800/5200 version to be a fun game.  The 5200 version in particular is one of those games that benefits from the analog controls; I find that the digital joystick on the 400/800 makes it harder to aim.  I don't think I've made it even as far as you have, but that's less of a controller issue and more of a lack of time and practice.

[+DamonicFury]

14 hours ago, Giles N said:

I´ve gotten to wave 11 at the most; the trench-run got fairly difficult with walls blocking the entire trench with only a tiny block of opening to navigate through...

Does anyone know if there is a limited number of waves (ie levels or rounds) to Star Wars Arcade either to start all over from beginning or to complete the game?

Anyone?

And... how do you like it..?

The game just keeps going and going, like the arcade game it is based on.  I've gotten over 100k points at it, but some dedicated soul once got 11 million!  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/272745-5200-oe-hsc-season-5-round-2-star-wars-the-arcade-game/?tab=comments#comment-3903734

 

As for the game itself... the other commenters are dead on... it really pales compared to its super-exciting arcade parent.  But jaybird3rd is right as well that on it's own mertis, taken as another 5200 game, it's not a bad game.  But if you get good enough to get to the point where the difficulty plateaus, there's little reason to go back to it.  It never gets anywhere near as challenging as the arcade game.

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

This was done quite a long time ago and I've not attempted to best it since. But I recall that the difficulty leveled off around wave 15 and at that point even the trench run only had a few set patterns it cycles through. It took many hours to do this in one sitting and I got as far as about wave 90 something before I couldn't stay awake anymore and had to call it quits. My guess is that it will either just stop at wave 99 and the game keeps playing but the waves never update beyond that or it would roll back to wave 1 but not sure if the difficulty would also reset as well.

 

I haven't the reflexes I used to have to likely do this again but I have wondered this myself since the night I did this...

 

https://www.twingalaxies.com/game/star-wars-the-arcade-game/atari-5200

 

[+Cafeman]

Wow. 

[Giles N]

11 hours ago, DamonicFury said:

The game just keeps going and going, like the arcade game it is based on.  I've gotten over 100k points at it, but some dedicated soul once got 11 million!  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/272745-5200-oe-hsc-season-5-round-2-star-wars-the-arcade-game/?tab=comments#comment-3903734

 

As for the game itself... the other commenters are dead on... it really pales compared to its super-exciting arcade parent.  But jaybird3rd is right as well that on it's own mertis, taken as another 5200 game, it's not a bad game.  But if you get good enough to get to the point where the difficulty plateaus, there's little reason to go back to it.  It never gets anywhere near as challenging as the arcade game.

 

Ok, thanks for the answer...

In my own opinion I think its not realistic to think a home-console system produced in 1982 could have done an arcade-perfect port or anything.

I think its weakest point is the tie-fighter shooting-section, since it so often only gets to shooting down the incoming fire, and very little about shooting down the tie-fighters...

But the 5200 is an early system... I think Star Wars Arcade has charm and I think the trench-runs are really cool, and I love dodging those walls and bridges waiting for the... goodness I don´t remember what the weak spot in Death Star was about ...  - exhaust-something...? - well, whatever... that yellow square-thing that, if hit with the proton-torpedo, eventually blows the thing... to let you go home...? No-no; just to the next Death Star...
... guess the Empire was at its peak if they had 99+++ Death Stars waiting ... 

Star Wars Arcade was actually one of the reasons I bought the system in the first place, being curious as to what  home-consoles at the time the Arcade was popular could do...



 

[kiwilove]

No - I haven't played the 5200 version - so can't comment on that.  The 400/800 version is nothing like the arcade.  Which is to be expected because the hardware is so different.

 

For me - the best home version was the Atari ST conversion - which I thought captured the coin-op game for the home completely though I'm not that good so as to play through it several times over.  It seemed to capture the graphics accurately at a good enough frame rate - and the playability of the coin-op.  Very few Atari ST titles come close to being a near 100% accurate coin-op conversion.  I would rate it in the high 90%s.

 

Harvey

[TB-303]

Waves counter maxes out at 99, this results in the same trench patterns until the run ends. Score counter rolls over after 99,999,999.

[Giles N]

On 1/19/2020 at 1:42 PM, TB-303 said:

Waves counter maxes out at 99, this results in the same trench patterns until the run ends. Score counter rolls over after 99,999,999.

Ok, - your insightfull research serves you well!

 

Only gotten to 27th wave, which I anyway count as quite a memorable day for The Galactic Empire; loosing 26 Death Stars and all in less than one-and-a-half hour...

Edited January 21, 2020 by Giles N

[TB-303]

2 hours ago, Giles N said:

Ok, - your insightfull research serves you well!

 

Only gotten to 27th wave, which I anyway count as quite a memorable day for The Galactic Empire; loosing 26 Death Stars and all in less than one-and-a-half hour...

Waves maxout at ~2:43:45. Score roll over at ~9:05:15

 

[Giles N]

9 minutes ago, TB-303 said:

Waves maxout at ~2:43:45. Score roll over at ~9:05:15

 

9 hours + of playing; thats crazy!

 

But quite a gaming-achievement!

[plee]

For the arcade, the towers rotated about 6-8 different sets, and the trench does about the same (there was about two very difficult trench waves for using the force).  I'm assuming the 5200 version is the same.  I got to about level 105 in the arcade (stops counting at 99 also) since we wanted to see if it got past 99...I don't think the score rolls on the arcade, at least I try since I didn't want to play any more...

[+wongojack]

I had no idea about the level rollover.  What would we do without internet videos of people playing games for 10 hours in a row?!

 

However, I seem to be way more positive about this one than most on this thread.  This is a solid game in the 5200's library and offers something unique that other home versions didn't have.  I think this is the best home version of the game.  It works great with the non-centering analog joystick and the hit detection is actually pretty good compared to 2600, Coleco, C64.  There are actually 2 on the C64, and one was done pretty late in the lifespan, but I prefer the 5200 version to both.

[Giles N]

On 3/2/2020 at 9:50 PM, wongojack said:

I had no idea about the level rollover.  What would we do without internet videos of people playing games for 10 hours in a row?!

 

However, I seem to be way more positive about this one than most on this thread.  This is a solid game in the 5200's library and offers something unique that other home versions didn't have.  I think this is the best home version of the game.  It works great with the non-centering analog joystick and the hit detection is actually pretty good compared to 2600, Coleco, C64.  There are actually 2 on the C64, and one was done pretty late in the lifespan, but I prefer the 5200 version to both.

I love it!

[Giles N]

 

Last evening:

 

Losing 18 Death Stars in about 40 minutes is also quite a bad day for the Galactic Empire...

 

?

Edited March 3, 2020 by Giles N