The Retro Star Wars Thread — Page 5

Atari Star Wars games

Star Wars: The Aracade Game

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Gameplay footage

TV commercial

Star Wars: Jedi Arena

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Gameplay footage

TV commercial

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

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Gameplay footage (taken from “How To Beat Home Video Games - Vol. 1” 1982 VHS)

TV commercial

TV commercial (Frogger and ESB)

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle

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Gameplay footage

TV commercial

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Star Wars: Ewok Adventure (cancelled game)

Gameplay footage

Source (AtariMania.com)

^ Who did the cover art on that “Revenge of the Jedi” ad? It’s good enough that it kind of looks like Nilo Rodis-Jamero’s work.

Also, the first Parker Brothers ad is hilarious. Reminds me of Lucasfilm’s later cover art for Maniac Mansion.

ATMachine said:

Who did the cover art on that “Revenge of the Jedi” ad? It’s good enough that it kind of looks like Nilo Rodis-Jamero’s work.

I’m actually having a really hard time figuring out that myself.

All I’ve been able to find out is that it was placeholder art on a one-sided mock-up used for trade-show displays. No idea who actually made it, or where Parker Brothers got it from.

The final artwork, which appeared on the only existing cartridge, was made by the Hildebrandts.

Neat.

These designs are pretty cool just on their own (provided you flip them of course).

Source (has all the above images in high-res)

Caravan of Courage Button

"With the release of The Ewok Adventure, better known in the UK and Europe as Caravan of Courage, the UK arm of the fan club sent out this 2" button featuring the one and only Wicket W. Warrick to promote the coming of the TV movie to the UK and select European screens."
Source (StarWars.com)

Can you imagine someone actually walking around with this bug-eyed Ewok pinned to their chest?

(I also like how the parenthesis on the tag-line kinda makes it look like it’s phrased as a question; “Can Ewok adventure?”)

[MAME history.dat said:]

Return of The Jedi © 1984 Atari.

Return of the Jedi is a scrolling shoot-em-up based on the legendary Star Wars trilogy (specifically, the third film, ‘Episode VI: Return of the Jedi’) and - unlike its vector-based prequel - is rendered in an isometric forced-perspective viewpoint, similar to that pioneered in Sega’s 1982 classic, “Zaxxon”.

The ultimate aim of the game is to reach and destroy the Death Star and escape alive. Success is achieved by surviving an ‘attack wave’, which consists of four different scenes. Play switches between Endor and space-based scenes, with each one putting the player in control of a different vehicle from the movie.

The scenes are based on three distinct locations taken from the original movie. They are: The forest moon of Endor, Attack on the Death Star, and Space battle.

• SCENE 1: Speeder Bike chase on Endor as Princess Leia. The goal is to reach the Ewok village alive.

• SCENE 2: Scout Walker chase on Endor as Chewbacca. The goal is to reach the shield generator.

• SCENE 3: Millennium Falcon attack on Death Star as Lando. The goal is to reach and destroy the Death Star power reactor.

• SCENE 4: Millennium Falcon escape from exploding Death Star. The goal is to escape the exploding Death Star.

• SPLIT SCENE: Play switches between scenes 2 and 3.

The scenes loop for as long as the player has lives remaining; although to increase variety, the order in which they appear is randomised as play progresses. Each successive wave increases in difficulty.

• TECHNICAL -

This particular game was available as both a dedicated upright cabinet and a full scale sit-in cockpit. The cockpit cabinet was rather less widespread than the upright version. The marquee on the more common upright cab featured a ‘Return of the Jedi’ logo with red letters on a background of stars; with the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star clearly visible. The sideart only covered the top half of the machine. It was a montage of shots that was dominated by a picture of Princess Leia on a speeder bike and a large image of Darth Vader’s head.

Game ID : 136030

Main CPU : MOS Technology M6502 (@ 2.5 Mhz), MOS Technology 6502 (@ 1.512 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (4x) POKEY (@ 1.512 Mhz), Texas Instruments TMS5220 (@ 672 Khz)

Control : stick
Buttons : 3

• TRIVIA -

Return of The Jedi was released in September 1984. 800 Units were produced. the selling price was $2095.

Return of the Jedi was the second arcade game based on the ‘Star Wars’ movie franchise despite it being the THIRD film of the trilogy. This Atari title was actually released a full year before ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. The films were released in the order; “Star Wars”, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”; whereas the games were released as “Star Wars”, “Return of the Jedi”, and “The Empire Strikes Back”.

This game is known in Japan as ‘Jedi no Fukushuu’ (translates from Japanese as ‘Revenge of the Jedi’).

Return of The Jedi was one of the first games to use a special graphics dithering method to make the graphics look visibly smoother.

This was one of the first Atari titles to modify all game options via a setup menu, rather than by using dip switches. Eighteen years later, the industry still hasn’t fully converted over to being ‘jumperless’.

All scenes are controlled with a flight yoke that is similar in design to the one used on the vector “Star Wars” game. This is usually the first thing to fail on any given machine. These can be rebuilt fairly easily though, but you may have to do a little bit of hacking to get them to work.

• TIPS AND TRICKS -

• Hints :

1. Do not allow enemies to tail you too long. This is how they can destroy you.
2. Lead enemies to the top of the screen, then drop back quickly so you can destroy them.
3. The player must try to be the first through the EWOK traps in the forest of ENDOR.
4. By staying in the center of the screen, the player has more maneuverability.

• SERIES -

1. Star Wars [Cockpit model] (1983)
2. Star Wars [Upright model] (1983)
3. Return of The Jedi (1984)
4. The Empire Strikes Back (1985)

• STAFF -

Designer / Programmer : Dennis Harper
Graphic designer : Susan G. McBride
Audio designer : Synthia Petroka
Software support : Mike Mahar

• PORTS -

• Computers :
  Atari ST (1987)
  Amstrad CPC (1987)
  Commodore Amiga (1988)
  Commodore C64 (1988)
  Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)

• CONTRIBUTE -

Edit this entry: http://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2213&o=2

I always felt vector graphics looked very appropriate for SW, considering how the computer graphics within the SW-universe itself more-or-less looked like it.

More buttons/badges from 1977

So, did people actually wear these?
(I know they still make SW pins, but I’ve never seen anyone actually wear them.)

Wow, I honestly never noticed that typo, and now it’s really bugging me.

However, I’m curious; was “Vader Lives” (with or without the typo) a ‘thing’ back in the 70’s?

Having grown up during the release of the PT I already knew that Vader would have to survive the events of ANH considering there were two more films with pictures of him on the VHS covers. However it just recently occurred to me that for kids (and adults for that matter) back in the 70’s him being shot out into space by Han must have been somewhat ambiguous.

So for those of you who actually remember this time, was “Vader Lives” a common thing? I haven’t heard of it before, but when I googled it I found a few pieces of merchandise (both official and unofficial) with this ‘slogan’.

Poster from 1978, also with the “Vadar” typo;

Comic ad with an oddly drawn hooded Vader from Fantastic Four #194 from 1978. Even though it’s in a Marvel comic it’s apparently trying to sell a bootleg SW toy. This one actually spells “Vader” correctly in the title, but misspells it in the actual ad several times. Source

This one can’t be real. At the very least it was not licensed.

Were these things common back in the 70’s, or are these just some weird attempt at (possibly bootleg) marketing?

Yeah, I should probably stop underestimating how far marketing will go to sell something (especially something as big as SW). There’s just something about a Star Wars beer that seems odd to me.

Also, it does make sense to build up to ESB with a “Vader Lives” slogan.

After all they made quite a big deal out of it in the Marvel comics when Vader returned.