Star Castle - vector graphics in Asteroids and Battlezone games
Star Castle - vector graphics in Asteroids and Battlezone games
You may not remember Star Castle - actually, I didn’t either - but visually this game (released in 1980) uses the same ‘vector graphics’ that are seen in games such as Asteroids and Battlezone. Vector graphics are, as seen in the screen shot to the right, simple lines to create objects - and while it may seem cheesey compared to present day graphics, they were considered cutting edge stuff back in the ’70s and early ’80s. This was also one of the first games to use an experimental artificial intelligence to harrass the game player’s ship. A barely noticable feature of the game from our perspective, but a fundamental element of all video games today. Your task in Star Castle is to break through the three layers of walls and destroy the central behemoth. Success in this game is primarily determined by how well you can control your ship.
Cinematronics produced an arcade game in 1980 and it was known as Star Castle. The Star Castle game was designed by Tim Skelly. The Star Castle game worked in the Vectrex cideo game console. The game is vector based and monochrome and the color of the rings and screen are provided by a translucent plastic screen overlay. The game was not widely used or remembered but it was a model for the Atari 2600 game Yar抯 Revenge and this game became very popular. Star Castle was featured in the movie Maximum Overdrive in 1986. When the game reaches about 182,000 points, it slows down. The points will not roll over at one million and it isn抰 known if it will roll over at 10 million. There is about 4 hours of game play.
The object of the game is to destroy the enemy cannon which is in the center of three rotating energy shield rings while it avoids or destroys mines which are enemy that spawn from the core and pass through he rings then try to destroy the players ship. The spaceship can rotate go forward, and fire small projectiles. The cannon has shields that are made of twelve sections each and each section has to take two hits before it can be destroyed. Once the rings have been damaged, the player can better destroy the cannon but the cannon also has more power to destroy the spaceship. The next level begins after the cannon has been destroyed. This level starts much like the first one but everything moves faster. If the player destroys the outer ring, the cannon will create a new one. The middle ring will expand to replace the outer ring that was destroyed. The inner ring will replace the middle ring and a new ring will appear from the core to replace the inner most ring. In order to destroy the cannon the player has to be careful not to completely destroy the outer ring. The spaceship can be destroyed by the homing mines. There are three of them so it is important that the ship does not make contact with any of them. The mines can be destroyed but it is not an easy task because they are very small and hard to hit. The player will not receive any points for destroying the mines. The mines are revived each time the shield ring regenerates. In some variations of the game, the three mines are churning constantly so a new mine will spawn from the core when one is destroyed. The spaceship has to keep moving to avoid the mines and each level speeds up.
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