Port of «StarMaster» for Atari 8-bit computers
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Space action for users of the Atari XL/XE series computers, with "StarMaster", a port of the unique game published by Activision (1982) originally for the Atari 2600 console.
This is the sixth port developed by AtariAge forum user "Glurk." "A very difficult one to make, programming-wise. It uses 16-bit sprites (two combined) for everything, and I had to write a tight one-liner to make the stars and lasers. So the code actually uses undocumented 6502 opcodes, and they were really needed!" he explained towards the end of March.
"Starmaster" is a first-person game in which you must protect starbases by destroying enemy ships and also avoiding meteors when traveling in hyperspace. It has four difficulty levels (Badge, Leader, Wing Commander and StarMaster). It also displays on-screen messages about the status of your weapons and defenses.
"Glurk" said he didn't make any major changes to the graphics from what was written by Alan Miller. "The stars are a single pixel high instead of double, as it was easier to do that way, and I think it looks better too. I changed the font to the same one I used in my Star Raiders hack; the standard Activision font looks out of place in outer space (...) I left the color cycle code in there, so after a while it goes into screen saver mode. This is more faithful to the 2600 version than I usually do," he added.
StarMaster for Atari 8-bit computers
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- It should be remembered that Glurk has in its file the ports of«Barnstorming»(Activision, 1982);«Frostbite»(Activision, 1983);«Fishing Derby»(Activision, 1980);«Freeway»(Activision, 1981); and Tennis (Activision, 1981).
- As with other games, Activision gave away an embroidered "Order of the Supreme StarMaster" badge if you sent in photos of yourself beating a certain score on each difficulty level.
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