Star Raiders or Star Master?

[pocketmego]

I am trying to determine what the better game is between these two Space Operas. My personal battle with the Zylons goes way back, being that once I saw Star Raiders I had to have it. I played that game and went one a many a long and imagination filled voyage toward the destruction of a terible alien menace. However, I am new to Star Master which I played on the Activision PS collection and found it a bit confusing.

 

Lately I've wanted a new copy of Star Raiders of which there appear to be tones of them out there and every damn one of them is sans key-pad. But, Star Masters is availabkle and I don't think it requires any extra peripherals.

 

So which do you all think is the better of the two?

 

-Ray

[NovaXpress]

Battlezone.

 

Oh shit, wrong comparative topic!

[pocketmego]

Battlezone.

 

Oh shit, wrong comparative topic!

 

Not Robot Tank?

 

LOL

 

-Ray

[NovaXpress]

Robot Tank is like a kidde version of Battlezone. Bullets that cease to exist if you can't see them? Arbitrary damage penalties? No variety of enemies? I don't care that it offers fog effects(grey screen instead of black? how awesome), Robot Tank pales in comparison to 2600 Battlezone.

[pocketmego]

Robot Tank is like a kidde version of Battlezone. Bullets that cease to exist if you can't see them? Arbitrary damage penalties? No variety of enemies? I don't care that it offers fog effects(grey screen instead of black? how awesome), Robot Tank pales in comparison to 2600 Battlezone.

 

hey I'm with you I'm all about the Battlezone and I'll take Solaris over Star raiders...wait, what was the topic?

 

 

-Ray

[NovaXpress]

Enduro.

[Paranoid]

Adventure remains the best Pac-Man style game on the Atari 2600, regardless of your opinions on these other contenders, and that is my last word on the subject! The maze on Star Raiders is little more than an interconnected grid of SQUARES, after all. Certainly they could have come up with something more challenging than THAT!

[Mot]

I am trying to determine what the better game is between these two Space Operas. My personal battle with the Zylons goes way back, being that once I saw Star Raiders I had to have it. I played that game and went one a many a long and imagination filled voyage toward the destruction of a terible alien menace. However, I am new to Star Master which I played on the Activision PS collection and found it a bit confusing.

 

Lately I've wanted a new copy of Star Raiders of which there appear to be tones of them out there and every damn one of them is sans key-pad. But, Star Masters is availabkle and I don't think it requires any extra peripherals.

 

So which do you all think is the better of the two?

 

-Ray

I would vote Starmaster on 2600, especially sans keypad (you should be able to find one cheep though). But Star Raiders is best on the 8-bit with number keys for speed up/down. I remember: map, hyperspace, forward view, shields, speed 9, speed 2, fire…

 

Don't try to play Starmaster on a 7800 as the black and white lever is used to switch between map and reg display. Unless you use your toe's to hold down the Pause button.

 

See also:Starmaster review

 

and also:Overall, my pick among Star Raiders and its clones still (and probably always will be) Star Raiders on the Atari 8-bit computers. For the VCS, however, Starmaster surpasses Atari's effort with fancier graphics and a few frills not found in VCS Star Raiders. It's not a reflex game in the slightest, but take some time to learn how to play Starmaster, because the beauty of this game is definitely more than skin deep.

[BrianC]

Robot Tank is like a kidde version of Battlezone. Bullets that cease to exist if you can't see them? Arbitrary damage penalties? No variety of enemies? I don't care that it offers fog effects(grey screen instead of black? how awesome), Robot Tank pales in comparison to 2600 Battlezone.

 

Kiddie version? It may have only one enemy that can only attack when in front of you, but it still provides challenge. Also, the difference with the fog effects is that they hide the tanks when they are in the back of the screen rather than hiding tanks all the time. It's not cosmetic. On a black screen, you can only see the enemies when they shoot, but on a grey one, you can see them when they are close.

 

Don't try to play Starmaster on a 7800 as the black and white lever is used to switch between map and reg display. Unless you use your toe's to hold down the Pause button.

 

Can't you just use the difficulty switches on the 7800? If I remember correctly, that's what I did when I played it on the system.

Edited August 13, 2006 by BrianC

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Don't try to play Starmaster on a 7800 as the black and white lever is used to switch between map and reg display.

Unlike stated in the manual, the difficulty switches work exactly the same as the B/W switch.

[Foxsolo2000]

Without hesitation Star Master for it wins hands down. Star Raiders was one of my all time favourites on the old Atari computers but the 2600 version was too watered down to win against somehting like Star Master

[accousticguitar]

I have Starmaster on the PS1, and it is hard to play on it. The controls were made for a joystick, not a gamepad. It plays much better on the original equipment. As to which one is better, I like them both. They are similar, but not the same. I would give the edge to Starmaster, but Star Raiders is good too.

[chuckwalla]

Battlezone.

 

Oh shit, wrong comparative topic!

 

For the 2600 go with Starmaster.

Star Raiders is pure classic video game play on the 5200/8-bit though.

[Deteacher]

I agree with the masses:

 

2600: Starmaster!

8-bit: Star Raiders!

[Paranoid]

Honestly, yeah... I'm with everyone else on this.

 

When I had a 2600, Starmaster just blew me away, and once I figured it out, I played it for days and loved it.

 

But once I got a 5200 and played Star Raiders on that, going back to Starmaster was just unthinkable.

[Paranoid]

And Nova... didn't you start the original Robot-tank versus Battlezone thread that eventually ended up locked?

 

You're just a bad seed...

[Inky]

Starmaster is the better of the two. NO flicker, no extra hardware needed.

 

If you want the true star raiders experience, you gotta go with the 8-bit version.

[shadow460]

Obviously no one here has played Phaser Patrol. Once you fly that one, you will never look back.

 

Here's where Starmaster pales in comparison to Phaser Patrol:

Phaser Patrol:

fifteen second load itme

better graphics (there is no need to have different colored explosions)

better damage factors (one hit might cripple your weapons instead of disabling them altogether)

more realistic map

ability to turn shields off to ensure certain death save energy

on screen mini radar that lets you see enemy positions while in flight

guided shots

fragile cassette that you must replace if it's left in the sun

 

Starmaster:

Hmmm, let me think...

Looks like Phaser Patrol makes Starmaster and Star Raiders both look like discount bargain titles!

Perhaps the mighty Solaris can stand up to it

Phaser Patrol is more difficult that Starmaster on the hard setting. You will have your hands full just living to tell about your flight.

 

Star Raiders can be played with a kids controller or a standard keyboard controller if you have trouble locating the Video Touch Pad.

Edited August 13, 2006 by shadow460

[Foxsolo2000]

Obviously no one here has played Phaser Patrol. Once you fly that one, you will never look back.

 

Here's where Starmaster pales in comparison to Phaser Patrol:

Phaser Patrol:

fifteen second load itme

better graphics (there is no need to have different colored explosions)

better damage factors (one hit might cripple your weapons instead of disabling them altogether)

more realistic map

ability to turn shields off to ensure certain death save energy

on screen mini radar that lets you see enemy positions while in flight

guided shots

fragile cassette that you must replace if it's left in the sun

 

Starmaster:

Hmmm, let me think...

Looks like Phaser Patrol makes Starmaster and Star Raiders both look like discount bargain titles!

Perhaps the mighty Solaris can stand up to it

Phaser Patrol is more difficult that Starmaster on the hard setting. You will have your hands full just living to tell about your flight.

 

Star Raiders can be played with a kids controller or a standard keyboard controller if you have trouble locating the Video Touch Pad.

 

Yes I agree with you on everything you just said but the question was Star Raiders or Star Master, not multiple choice fill in the blanks as you go along

[shadow460]

No fill in the blank? Aww, that's no fun.

Hopefully he can get hold of a Supercharger, though. I mentioned Phaser Patrol because it really does stand that far out from the ones he asked about.

[Lord Thag]

You know, I MUCH prefer Star Raiders on the 2600. My main gripe with Starmaster is that there is only one enemy at a time that is slow and predictable *yawn*. Star Raiders is fast and frantic and HARD, even if the starmap is pretty lame. Phasor Patrol beats them both graphics and gameplay wise, but it's a bit too easy for me. I do like Starmaster, just not as much as Star Raiders. I can beat Starmaster on hard. I still can't master Star Raiders.

[Paranoid]

Phaser Patrol also came later, at the end of the curve for Atari 2600 titles and just shortly before the console was eclipsed by the 5200 and Colecovision.

 

Phaser Patrol was definetly a great game. It did replace Star Master as my favorite title for this kind of play... until I got my 5200 and a copy of Star Raiders... which was, likewise, eons ahead of Phaser Patrol.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I can beat Starmaster on hard.

With all four starbases alive?

[Mayhem]

I always got on better with Star Master and prefered it

[Paranoid]

You know, as an escapist thing for a 10-12 year old kid... I seem to recall really getting a kick out of how Starmaster made novel use of the various switches on the 2600... Somehow, hitting toggle switches and sliding slider-switches SEEMED to feel more "authentic" or realstic... or maybe it was just novel to have those switches do something IN a game. But even the 5200 version didn't have this same kind of magic... because hitting buttons on a keypad wasn't the same.

 

Does that make sense to anyone? It didn't change the fact that overall I moved from Starmaster to Phaser Patrol to 5200 Star Raiders and with each move I didn't really want to go back to the previous title. But I definately got more into the "fantasy" of being in a spaceship doing battle with aliens with Starmaster, as far as hitting switches and buttons to do things was concerned.

 

How did they achieve changing screens and settings in Phaser Patrol? I don't remember the control scheme from this one as clearly. Was it the second controller, or button-direction combonations?