Star Raiders, an Exhibit

 How many of us can actually say we’ve flown through outer space and lived to tell about it? Nowadays, with the tremendous advancement in technology we have developed ways to simulate that age old fantasy of flying through the stars. Star Raiders, Atari’s smash hit game, was developed in 1979 for the Atari 400 and 800 computers. It involved "unbelievably complex controls"(Fleming) and space combat simulation, offering a front and rear view with turrets on both views, along with intensive gauges and meters. With this said, Star Raiders gameplay, graphics, and user interface had opened up a new window of gameplay and has had quite a huge influence on games later to come.

As we all know, the dream of space travel wasn’t developed only by the creators of Star Raiders. So it’s safe to say that the thought of the game wasn’t inspired by any previous games, just the sheer imagination of the creators. But then again, no idea is “original.” The elements of the game were taken from other influences. For example, the “Zylons” , the enemy space ships, seems unbelievably similar to the “Cylons” in Battlestar Galactica. Also, the Zylon ships look strangely similar to the Tie Fighter model from Star Wars. Also, the Galactic Chart was influenced by the early Star Trek Computer Game(Neubauer).  Needless to say, even an influential game took ideas from other games, movies and stories.