Blog:Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star (X68000)

CRV (talk) 13:06, 23 December 2012 (CST) [permalink] [comments]

With the recent Sega patent brouhaha, it seems like a good time to write this post. You'll see what I mean in a bit.

Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star by M.N.M Software (now Mindware) for the Sharp X68000 computer is a vector graphics-based shooter similar to the Atari arcade game. (There's also a PC-98 conversion that M.N.M was not involved with.) There are some differences, the big one being greater freedom of movement. You control the ship, not crosshairs.

There are even more speech samples than the arcade game. (Check out the intro.) And Yuzo Koshiro fans will be interested to know that he handled the music.

Yet another difference is the ability to switch between different cameras with the function keys. In all honesty, this is more fun to watch than to actually use, but it has some historical significance.

In 1992, around the time of Virtua Racing, Sega filed a patent in Japan for "viewpoint change." About five years later, the patent was granted. Understandably, there was some anxiety in the Japanese game industry, what with all the 3D games at the time using this feature.

Atari Games and Sega made a deal, but not everyone would stand idly by. Konami, Nintendo, Technosoft, and T&E Soft came together and, using the Force of the legal system, opposed the patent, citing Attack on the Death Star as prior art. Mindware president Mikito Ichikawa even testified in court that he had shown the game to Sega. The patent was revoked.

{{#ev:youtube|QLxJ-z_SSw4}}

Comments

<startFeed />

I am Christina Aguilera said ...

<comment date="2013-01-17T05:58:49Z" name="I am Christina Aguilera"> Oh man, Yuzo Koshiro is the best. It sounds a lot like his similarly-orchestra-oriented work for Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor. Or ActRaiser for that matter, if we're thinking outside of his FM-generated stuff. </comment> <endFeed />