Starmaster - Atari 2600

Unfortunately, this game is cur­rent­ly available only in this ver­si­on. Be patient :-)

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   Starmaster is a video game produced for the Atari 2600 video game console. It was created by Alan Miller, and released in June 1982 by Activision. The game is very similar in many respects to Atari's 8-bit computer game Star Raiders.
   In the game the player pilots a starfighter, with the purpose of destroying a number of enemy ships before they destroy four friendly starbases. Gameplay is presented mostly in first person cockpit view, which is achieved with surprisingly good effect given the 2600's primitive graphics capabilities.
   The starfighter carries laser weapons, shields, and a faster-than-light drive. The fighter also carries a limited energy supply, which is drained by firing the lasers, being hit by enemy fire, warping, or simply flying around. If the ship's energy drops to zero it is destroyed, and the game ends. Enemy fire can knock out the fighter's subsystems (such as weapons) on top of draining energy.
   The game 'universe' is a square-shaped galaxy mapped into a grid of 36 sectors. Each sector can be home to some enemy ships, a starbase, both, or nothing. The player 'warps' the fighter to a sector to engage enemy ships; once they are all destroyed, the player moves on to another. The player can also warp to a sector with a starbase, and dock with it (a rather tricky process) to replenish energy and repair damaged subsystems. Enemy ships in turn maneuver through the galaxy as they home in to destroy the starbases.
   The game is won when all enemy ships are destroyed, or lost if either the player's fighter or all four starbases are destroyed. In this way a game can last only a certain time, in contrast to games like Space Invaders which can go on forever.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

This ver­sion of Starmaster was de­sig­ned for A­ta­ri 2600, which was com­mer­ci­al­ly ve­ry suc­ces­s­ful vi­deo ga­me con­so­le of se­cond ge­ne­ra­tion pro­du­ced by A­ta­ri from 1977 to 1992. It was the first con­so­le that used re­mo­vab­le me­mory mo­du­les with ga­mes. At the time of its grea­test fa­me, mo­re than 30 mil­li­on units of this con­so­le were sold for about $ 200 a pie­ce. To da­te, the ga­me li­bra­ry for this con­so­le con­tains near­ly 1,000 o­ri­gi­nal ga­mes. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about the Atari 2600 can be found here.

You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.

5 different online emulators are available for Starmaster. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Starmaster are summarized in the following table: