Star Raiders 2

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Star Raiders II is a game produced in the 1980's for Atari home computers and game consoles. As a quasi sequel to Star Raiders it contains many similar elements, namely, the enemies are the zylons, the ship can travel through hyperspace and it refuels at starbases. Unlike Star Raiders, there is a scoring system, the 3d component of the game is poorly operated, but the action takes place both around planets and in open space.

The game starts with the player's ship orbiting an apparently Earth-like world being attacked by numerous orange "W"s. These are the zylon fighters. Also featured are diamond shaped Destroyers and flagships. After the player defeats the fighters the space around the planet is free of hostile ships. After any other encounter with fighters, the player may fight associated star destroyers. Star Destroyers are more durable and have more powerful weapons. The player may move between places of interest using hyperspace. Points of interest include stars, planets, starbases, enemy fleets, and another starsystem. Going to a star is a dangerous activity as spending more than a few seconds in orbit will melt the ship. It is, however, not without payoffs as fuel is automatically reloaded when in orbit around a star. Enemy fleets originate at the alternate star system and move slowly across the warp targeting screen to planets or starbases. When they arrive at planets, they no longer have flagships and when they arrive at a starbase only fighters remain.

The player must defend his own planets by intercepting enemy fleets in space. (If they are allowed to reach a planet, they will attack it and destroy cities until the planet is barren. Should they reach a starbase, the player will no longer be able to refuel.) The player can jump through a wormhole to the Zylon home system and attack their home worlds. Victory is achieved by destroying all the cities upon the surface of the Zylon worlds, while preserving those on your own.

Commands are issued via the joystick and keyboard. Around a planet there are three weapons available, lasers and an ion cannon provide ship-to-ship fire while bombs can be used to destroy cities. In space only the ion cannon and lasers are available.

Star Raiders II was originally intended to be based on the movie "The Last Starfighter", but the sale of Atari to Jack Tramiel nullified that deal, and the game was re-named "Star Raiders II".