This is one of my favorite 2600 games, one that I think I could still enjoy spending time with today. I like that it has some depth and an achievable goal, unlike many Atari games. I played this a lot as a kid, but every once in a while I'd hit the wrong switch trying to bring up the star map and end up ending my game instead. I think I was hitting the "game select" switch instead of the "color/b&w" switch. Then I got in the habit of using the difficulty switches, but those are in the back on a 4-switch 2600 and I had to reach way up over the TV to get to them. 1st grade problems.
This was a great game, and it required a lot of strategy and skill to build up a good high score. In 1982 there was a tie in with the TV show "Greatest American Hero" . High scores could meet the cast or get a t-shirt.
I like this one way better than Star Raiders. I must've owned it, but still wasn't high on my regular play list. Felt like I was piloting an X-Wing while battling Star Trek Romulan Warbirds... which is a scenario I would have dug immensely as a youth LOL !
Your videos are great! I love that you give a run down of how to play the game and what everything means. It's hard to know when you can't get a manual. Also cool of you to say how much copies of the game are going for. Great channel. Keep it up!
This is the game I meant to buy. Accidentally bought StarRaiders, so now I have to either try to find the video control pad for it, or try to return the StarRaiders cartridge, then get the actual StarMaster game.
Since I was so quick to personally rank Star Voyager over Star Raiders myself, I guess I'll need to dig this one out, and give it a try again, because it isn't sticking out in my memory, but I do know that I own it. All of that said, I must say, I do need to find myself some of those patches.
Activision's Starmaster is currently ranked 49/264. I guess this kind of game was popular since 4 companies made similar game for the 2600: Atari's Star Raiders (now 75/264), Imagic's Star Voyager (89/264) and M-Network's Space Attack (149/264). I think I beat the easiest level on Starmaster with 3842, but haven't been that interested in revisiting it. I wasn't able to beat the hardest level on Star Raiders. I don't have Star Voyager though I played it at another kid's home in the '80s. I'm just not too into this kind of game. This video says if you're a Patreon member you can vote for future games to be reviewed, but I don't see that feature there after I signed up. Perhaps it was dropped a few years ago? I did win a couple of his challenges on his Discord page, so picked some games I liked for subsequent challenges (Riddle of the Sphinx, and Stampede) but so far they haven't been reviewed yet.
I think this one would rank as one of the better games ever made for the 2600. Much more complex then most and a polished feel.. Sadly I played Star Raiders and Star voyager after this one and couldn't get into either since they both felt like bad clones of StarMaster.
Did any of you actually take a picture of your score and then send it to Activision headquarters to receive a patch? - 3,800 pts./game 1 - Order of the Supreme Starmaster - 5,700 pts./game 2 - Leader - 7,600 pts./game 3 - Wing Commander - 9,000 pts./game 4 - Starmaster
I really liked this game back in the 80s. I could never beat the higher difficulty levels though. One of my old magazines had a guide for beating the Starmaster level, but unfortunately while he tells you what you need to do, he doesn't really give you any tips on how to do it. His instructions are like "Warp to the sector above where you start and kill the four enemy ships there, then warp to the right right and destroy the three enemy ships there." He allots something like five seconds to destroy each ship, so basically you have to hit them all on the first shot. I have enough trouble just trying to kill them without dying and the author expects you to shoot them down like they're sitting ducks. He even tells you what the energy counter should be at when you destroy each group.
En "sign"? That isn't how it is pronounced. It is Ensign like "in-sin". Otherwise this is one of my favorite 2600 games and I used to routinely get Star Master ranking when I played it in the mid to late 80s.
Seizure Raider...geez i forgot how much the screen flashes. I havnt played this in a long time. It has some nice sound effects though i liked to listen to.
I disagree, I can't stand 2600 Star Raiders. The radar on it is useless, the enemies move way to choppy around on the screen making it a much more difficult game than it should be. Now.. Star Raiders on the 8-bit and 5200 on the hand is the best of its kind from back in the day!
Ivory Tower Collections. If that's what you think, I can not and don't want to change or criticize it. I liked that it came with a special touch pad controller which made switch between different screens quite easy and gave it a far more strategic feeling (at least in my memory, iirc) than Star master, which is imho just a FP action space shooter (although far from being a mediocre or bad game) I also can't remember Star Raiders on the 2600 being overly difficult at all. But yeah, the 8-Bit Computer version was of course the best (never played he 5200 version though).
Aswome video Love your review's u are one of the best Atari 2600 gamer review ever on RUclips
i always loved using the console switches up close it made me feel like I was in a real spaceship having a control panel and controller
True classic,imo. I wish it would get more love in compilations and plug and plays
I bought an Atari Flashback gold and its included
Starmaster was a marvel of simplistic programming. Great game . . .
This is one of my favorite 2600 games, one that I think I could still enjoy spending time with today. I like that it has some depth and an achievable goal, unlike many Atari games.
I played this a lot as a kid, but every once in a while I'd hit the wrong switch trying to bring up the star map and end up ending my game instead. I think I was hitting the "game select" switch instead of the "color/b&w" switch.
Then I got in the habit of using the difficulty switches, but those are in the back on a 4-switch 2600 and I had to reach way up over the TV to get to them. 1st grade problems.
Starmaster could have been the inspiration behind The Last Starfighter.
This was a great game, and it required a lot of strategy and skill to build up a good high score. In 1982 there was a tie in with the TV show "Greatest American Hero" . High scores could meet the cast or get a t-shirt.
I like this one way better than Star Raiders. I must've owned it, but still wasn't high on my regular play list. Felt like I was piloting an X-Wing while battling Star Trek Romulan Warbirds... which is a scenario I would have dug immensely as a youth LOL !
Your videos are great! I love that you give a run down of how to play the game and what everything means. It's hard to know when you can't get a manual. Also cool of you to say how much copies of the game are going for. Great channel. Keep it up!
This is the game I meant to buy. Accidentally bought StarRaiders, so now I have to either try to find the video control pad for it, or try to return the StarRaiders cartridge, then get the actual StarMaster game.
Since I was so quick to personally rank Star Voyager over Star Raiders myself, I guess I'll need to dig this one out, and give it a try again, because it isn't sticking out in my memory, but I do know that I own it. All of that said, I must say, I do need to find myself some of those patches.
Dude, fantastic video, you are explaining so much that I didn't know about such a huge part of my childhood
Activision's Starmaster is currently ranked 49/264. I guess this kind of game was popular since 4 companies made similar game for the 2600: Atari's Star Raiders (now 75/264), Imagic's Star Voyager (89/264) and M-Network's Space Attack (149/264). I think I beat the easiest level on Starmaster with 3842, but haven't been that interested in revisiting it. I wasn't able to beat the hardest level on Star Raiders. I don't have Star Voyager though I played it at another kid's home in the '80s. I'm just not too into this kind of game.
This video says if you're a Patreon member you can vote for future games to be reviewed, but I don't see that feature there after I signed up. Perhaps it was dropped a few years ago? I did win a couple of his challenges on his Discord page, so picked some games I liked for subsequent challenges (Riddle of the Sphinx, and Stampede) but so far they haven't been reviewed yet.
I think this one would rank as one of the better games ever made for the 2600. Much more complex then most and a polished feel.. Sadly I played Star Raiders and Star voyager after this one and couldn't get into either since they both felt like bad clones of StarMaster.
Did any of you actually take a picture of your score and then send it to Activision headquarters to receive a patch?
- 3,800 pts./game 1 - Order of the Supreme Starmaster
- 5,700 pts./game 2 - Leader
- 7,600 pts./game 3 - Wing Commander
- 9,000 pts./game 4 - Starmaster
Best game on the 2600!!!
Inverted controls, totally makes sense and still used by myself today on fps.
I really liked this game back in the 80s. I could never beat the higher difficulty levels though.
One of my old magazines had a guide for beating the Starmaster level, but unfortunately while he tells you what you need to do, he doesn't really give you any tips on how to do it. His instructions are like "Warp to the sector above where you start and kill the four enemy ships there, then warp to the right right and destroy the three enemy ships there." He allots something like five seconds to destroy each ship, so basically you have to hit them all on the first shot. I have enough trouble just trying to kill them without dying and the author expects you to shoot them down like they're sitting ducks. He even tells you what the energy counter should be at when you destroy each group.
En "sign"? That isn't how it is pronounced. It is Ensign like "in-sin". Otherwise this is one of my favorite 2600 games and I used to routinely get Star Master ranking when I played it in the mid to late 80s.
One of my favorite on the ole 2600!
That was my favourite!!!!!!
Seizure Raider...geez i forgot how much the screen flashes. I havnt played this in a long time.
It has some nice sound effects though i liked to listen to.
Yep looks better than Star Raiders... I remember the ads for this on UK tv back then.
Such a fun game in short bursts. Not much for the FPS on Atari but I did play this one often.
0:15 What is that Tick figure?
I want it back!!!
Imho inferior to Atari's Star Raider, but also clearly superior to Imagic's Star Voyager.
But of course nothing comes even close to Elite.
I disagree, I can't stand 2600 Star Raiders. The radar on it is useless, the enemies move way to choppy around on the screen making it a much more difficult game than it should be. Now.. Star Raiders on the 8-bit and 5200 on the hand is the best of its kind from back in the day!
Ivory Tower Collections.
If that's what you think, I can not and don't want to change or criticize it. I liked that it came with a special touch pad controller which made switch between different screens quite easy and gave it a far more strategic feeling (at least in my memory, iirc) than Star master, which is imho just a FP action space shooter (although far from being a mediocre or bad game) I also can't remember Star Raiders on the 2600 being overly difficult at all.
But yeah, the 8-Bit Computer version was of course the best (never played he 5200 version though).
Ensign is pronounced "ensin".