
Atari Star Raiders Source Code (1979) - cmrdporcupine
https://archive.org/details/AtariStarRaidersSourceCode
======
cmrdporcupine
Transcription effort (seeking volunteers) from scanned printed copies here:
[https://github.com/XioNYC/StarRaiders](https://github.com/XioNYC/StarRaiders)

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karmakaze
Can't you just disassemble the binary opcodes and diff with the OCR to place
the comments in the right places?

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cpeterso
The "Distributed Proofreaders" project uses a similar technique to crowd-
source OCR transcription of old public domain books in the browsers using
side-by-side comparisons:

[http://www.pgdp.net/c/](http://www.pgdp.net/c/)

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gorhill
Video footage of that code executing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_VDM8nC9sM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_VDM8nC9sM)

~~~
themodelplumber
Wow, the silent hyperspace mode followed by the red alert alarm sequence is
pretty cinematic! Had to watch that a few times.

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ddingus
Yes. Playing this back in the day, with a stereo, larger TV, etc... delivered
a pretty serious impact. There was nothing else like it.

IMHO, that game sold a lot of Atari computers. Was written by the guy who
designed the sound chip, and it was kind of a side project that turned out
great enough to showcase the computers.

The particle calculations are not well optimized. While this is seen as a bug,
and there is an effort to make the game run faster, many players appreciate
the slowdown in battle. There is a feel associated with that which adds a lot
to the overall impression of the game. It's oddly gratifying to feel it slow
down as the enemy and their shots explode...

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pkroll
It's like the "wasted" in GTA going to slow-mo to accent the kill. Only it's
serendipitous slow-mo.

~~~
ddingus
Yeah, that's how I feel about it. Somewhere, I read some comments by the
author on all of that. He just did fairly straight up, simple, cheater type 3D
on the 6502. Those slowdowns were an artifact of all that.

They add a lot to the game, though the author didn't intend for it to go that
way.

Funny, for that time period, there are a lot of "effects" that were resource
limits, or bugs that ended up making for a better experience. Little things,
like getting an extra color to work with were a very big deal.

We have come so damn far...

This did cause me to pull my old 400 out of the closet. It has this cartridge
in it. Turned it on, and it plays fine. My HDTV is a bit cranky about it all
though.

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jhallenworld
Nice straightforward assembly language program (not too much data, no meta-
programming).

I have to mention Yoomp! Same machine, new game 30 years later:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxICcU3bPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxICcU3bPo)

Another video implies you can buy a physical version of the game (I mean
cassette and diskette media).

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warmwaffles
I love the music for that game.

~~~
jhallenworld
Unfortunately you only get stereo on an emulator with simulated dual-pokey.

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cpeterso
Where did this source code come from? There must be an interesting story about
were this print-out came from, why it was preserved, and now published 36
years later.

~~~
bluedino
I'm sure there is, I like the story behind the code on this page:

[http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/7800/games/](http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/7800/games/)

 _these games were rescued from Atari ST format diskettes that were thrown out
behind 1196 Borregas when Atari closed up in 1996._

~~~
nolok
I think the footer is worthy of being quoted too

> Note: If you are going to Mirror these sources or place them onto your own
> site, please have the respect and courtesy to include with them - Source:
> www.atarimuseum.com as these wouldn't exist if I hadn't of climbed into a
> filthy dumpster at 3am in the morning behind the old Atari building in
> Sunnyvale and salvaged them and restored them from their diskettes.

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greggman
I'm sure I've missed out on plenty of games that reproduced the feelings I had
playing Star Raiders but ... That game felt so awesome at the time.

If you don't know the game you need to destroy every enemy on the map. The
enemies need to destroy you or all your star bases. On the map the enemies
move sector to sector every few seconds (30? 60? 120?) probably depended on
the difficulty level. If some enemies made it to one of your Star Base sectors
you had just a few seconds to get over there and kill them all before you lost
a base.

To move from sector to sector you'd go to the map, pick a sector, then press H
for hyperspace. The ship could accelerate, then warp to the next sector
decelerating

Add to that your ship could take damage. Normally you had 0-9 thrust levels.
With damaged engines the thrust would be erratic. With broken engines you
couldn't go anywhere. Normally you could fire 2 shots at from the bottom left
and bottom right. Damaged then only 1 short. Broken 0 shots. Then you had
shields. Damaged they'd flicker on and off. Broken no shields. One hit with
shields down and you're dead! Hit a meteor with shields down you're dead.

So, if you're playing on hard you have to target the ships closest to your
bases and get rid of them quick. They fire like crazy! If your shields go down
or get damage you have to warp instantly or you'll be dead. No time to look at
the map. Just press H now. When you warp there's a targeting reticle, on hard
it move erratically. If it's in the center when you warp you'll arrive at the
destination you picked on the map. If it's off by 1 inch you'll warp 1 inch
off in the same direction on the map. That meant if you were good you could
warp to your base without using the map. It felt so awesome to get it right.

You'd beam in. Then you have to find the base in 3d. Sensors help. Once there
you have to wait for some guy to come out and repair your ship. So nerve
racking when you know in a few moments some other base will be gone. Then you
need to warp out back into the battles ASAP.

It all added up to some of the most intense space battles I've ever personally
played in a video game.

~~~
ddingus
You played a lot! I agree with most of your comments and want to add all of
that gets just a bit better, more easy, and fun with a second player.

A friend and I would take turns piloting and engineering. The trick was to
make good decisions as the "engineer" player, like taking that warp when
destruction was imminent, or being able to vary speed while watching the pilot
deal with the baddies.

Of course, it was great fun to yell, "shields!", "map", "4", etc... too!

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jmount
Loved that game (and its variants). The ship took damage and became less
effective, so you had to take time out to find a base to repair. So few games
of that era carried any interesting state.

~~~
angdis
Loved it! Spent many hours on that cartridge. I remember trying to follow the
"supply ship" that came out of the base, squirrely MOFO never went anywhere!

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Cheyana
Played this game for hours on my Atari 400. It reminded me of the first arcade
game I ever played, which was Starship 1.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWMf-
TSWxsM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWMf-TSWxsM)

The local driving range had pinball machines, and I used to hang out among
them while my dad played a round of golf, then one day this big ol' cabinet
showed up. Pinball machines just didn't do it for me after that.

~~~
CWuestefeld
I can still remember my first exposure to video games.

It was during my dad's (second) wedding. My grandfather told me he had
something to show me. He brought me into the bar at the reception hall, and
sat me down in front of a Space Invaders machine with a stack of quarters. The
rest is history.

Just thinking about this now, I'm re-experiencing the darkened environment of
video arcade, with weird electronic noises from every direction. I had a few
quarters in my pocket, and I was trying to decide which machine to spend them
on. The movies _War Games_ and _Tron_ may be iconic, but their portrayals of
video arcades really didn't match my own experiences.

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Dav3xor
There's something about the moving starfield in that game...

~~~
ddingus
I like that it's near field, drawn with particles that zoom through the player
space. They aren't "far" away, yet have a nice feel.

The end result is a really great sense of motion.

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dvh
Wow, star riders was actually the reason why I wrote my space simulator, I
also wanted to keep the pixelated look but html canvas (via
imageSmoothingEnabled) only support pixelation for images, not for lines so I
eventually gave up on that old-style look.

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Bud
Viewing this sort of reminds me of looking at the autograph score of the Bach
B Minor Mass.

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FrankyHollywood
talking about software engineering:

"Negative sides include, above all, that the field is so terribly new and
undeveloped... time tables seem to be far to optimistic"

That problem has not been solved over the last 40 years! :)

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pcunite
Is the source to Defender available anywhere online?

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johntaitorg
Might be worth converting that nice PDF to indirect DjVu format to get the
size down.

