Star Wars computer and video games
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Star Wars has spawned over one hundred computer and video games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on movie material, with the remaining games heavily involved in the Expanded Universe.
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[edit] Early history
The first video games based on the franchise were released on the Atari 2600, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1982) in which the player drove a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth, destroying AT-AT walkers. Several other games appeared, such as Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle (1983), where the player controlled the Millennium Falcon in a mission to destroy the second Death Star, and Jedi Arena (1983), the first game to attempt to simulate a lightsaber battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the A New Hope scene, where Luke Skywalker trains with a seeker). More significantly, in 1983, the Star Wars arcade game was released by Atari based on A New Hope. In this game, featuring color vector graphics and the first ever digitized speech from a film, the player enters the seat of Luke's Red Five X-Wing fighter and battles waves of TIE fighters led by Darth Vader, weaves through towers across the surface of the Death Star and plummets through the Battle Station's trench in an attempt to destroy it. The sequel for the game, The Empire Strikes Back, used the same technology to re-create scenes from the second film, including battles with AT-AT walkers and an asteroid field.
Due to the video game crash of 1983, which temporarily killed the home console market, no further games based on the franchise were released until 1987 when UK software publisher Domark released several 8-bit versions of the Star Wars vector arcade game, followed by similar conversions in 1988 of The Empire Strikes Back machine. In 1987, Namco developed a Star Wars game for the Famicom for the Japanese market exclusively, based on A New Hope, but with several liberties taken with the movie's storyline.
In 1991, the platformer Star Wars was released for both the NES and Game Boy, and one year later, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back covered the plotline of the fifth episode of the saga. Also in 1992, Super Star Wars was released for the SNES, followed by the remaining games in the trilogy: Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (1993) and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1994).
[edit] Expansion of the franchise
At the start of the 1990s, the Star Wars franchise began to move away from the official films and began to focus more on the Expanded Universe. The first, X-Wing, released in 1992, started the X-wing computer game series, which would prove itself to be one of the most popular space flight/combat simulators series ever.[citation needed] X-Wing was followed by several sequels and expansions. Other titles such as The Software Toolworks' Star Wars Chess were published or licensed by LucasArts, who also used the first "multimedia explosion" to release Rebel Assault (1993), which used FMV and photos extensively.
However, the first step towards modern games was done with Dark Forces, a 1995 first-person shooter that put the player in the role of Kyle Katarn. The 1996 Nintendo 64 title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was part of a LucasArts attempt to create a story between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of Jedi, putting the player in control of mercenary Dash Rendar. Shadows of the Empire featured fan-favorite parts from the Super Star Wars line, such as another reanactment of the Battle of Hoth, driving a snowspeeder and tying a cable around AT-ATs legs. After the Special Edition original trilogy re-release in 1997, LucasArts published two other novelty titles, Yoda Stories and Star Wars Monopoly, sequels Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, and a Star Wars themed fighter, Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi.
As The Phantom Menace release approached, dozens of licensed titles appeared, from the praised expansion to Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and the first game in the Rogue Squadron series and even educational titles, the market was flooded with several games, most of them of questionable quality.[citation needed]
[edit] The saga continues
After the release of Episode I in theaters in 1999, an onslaught of games from the prequel trilogy began to be released for most major platforms. The first, Star Wars: Episode I Racer, based on the podracing sequence in movie, managed to sell well due to the hype surrounding the return of one of the most popular movie series ever. Others, including Battle for Naboo and Jedi Power Battles, were released, but with little success. The first strategic game in the Expanded Universe was titled Star Wars: Rebellion and broke new ground in that it incorporated ships and planets not found in the original canon, such as the Rebel Assault Frigate and the Bulwack Cruiser. But for all its ground-breaking new looks, it was not as successful as would have been hoped. The second strategic title, Star Wars: Force Commander was also released, but failed to keep up with other RTS games, since it was more focused on battling (no resource-gathering) and used a primitive 3D engine.
In 2002, Attack of the Clones premiered in theaters, and another wave of Star Wars based games, including The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, and Bounty Hunter were released, this time focusing on events and characters from Attack of the Clones such as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Wars.
Also in 2002, Jedi Outcast was released and gave players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber duels, and it also detached itself from the usual idea of movie tie-ins. Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter was released allowing the player to be a Jedi Master flying a Jedi starfighter. A third RTS game with a much more conventional approach to the genre's norms and using the Age of Kings engine, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, offered a better alternative to those seeking strategy in the Star Wars universe. One year later, the last game in the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Academy, was released, as well as Knights of the Old Republic, a BioWare RPG that debuted on the Microsoft Xbox and PC. Knights (also known as KotOR among fans) was critically acclaimed, even winning "Game of the Year" at the Game Developers Choice Awards, (along with many other critics ) in 2003. The first MMORPG, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was also released in 2003 and was subsequently followed in 2004 by its first expansion Jump to Lightspeed.
Adjoining the release of the final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Battlefront, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (both in 2004), Star Wars: Republic Commando, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Lego Star Wars (2005) were released. A sequel to that Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was released during 2006. Three more games, Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III: Rage of the Wookiees (a second expansion to Galaxies), and Episode III: The video game (action) were also released close to the premiere of the third movie, with various degrees of success.
After the films, more Star Wars titles are continually being released and developed. Empire at War (an RTS), was released in early 2006. Force Unleashed, currently in development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will use a new and detailed graphics engine.
