Way back in 1980 Cinematronics released Star
Castle as a vector arcade game requiring a colour overlay so as
to give the impression the vectors were in fact colour. Designed
by genius game maker Tim Skelly ,and programmed by Scott Boden,
arcade Star Castle was also featured in the beginning of the
movie 'Maximum Overdrive' which incidentally featured music from
Australian hardrock band AC/DC (Butler 2003).
The release of arcade Star Castle was shrouded in controversy
as Cinematronics nearly had to recall the machine as the stars
which are featured in the background of the game formed an
outline of the centrefold from February 1980 'Oui' pornographic
magazine. This has got to be one of the most colourful Vectrex
overlays and I remember the excitement I felt when I received my
first Vectrex Star Castle. Again the game was only released in
the U.S. therefore it gets auctioned on ebay for around $US80
-$US90
A small handheld version of Star Castle was also released in
the 80's which was called 'Tiger - Star
Castle'. The ship in Star
Castle is very similar to the Asteroids ship and the object of
the game is to manoeuvre it and take shots at a cannon positioned
in the centre of the playfield and eventually destroy it. The
cannon is surrounded by a fortress composed of 3 spinning force
fields which look like rings and occasionally sparks fly from the
rings and head straight at your ship. Once the force field is
destroyed the cannon takes a shot at your spaceship and more
often than not this destroys your ship. It can get quite
frustrating at times.
Nevertheless Star Castle is an enjoyable, if not difficult,
game which was one of the last GCE releases for the
Vectrex.
Score 7/10
Review written by Daniel Foot
|