HOW TO (Almost) BECOME A STAR COMMANDER
By Lee Pappas
Star Commander, Class I

ATARI's Star Raider cartridge contains the most advanced computer graphics game in the world. This certainly shows up in the advanced graphics and the complexity of the game. It took 10 months for Doug Neubauer to write the program, and several more for ATARI to finish and polish it up. I have spent over 100 hours playing Star Raiders and I hope some of what I have learned will assist you.

This preflight summary won't make you a Star Commander, Class One for certain, but it may help. The only sure way to make it to the top is to play the game until you finally reach top rank. But don't try this on the Novice level. For the first time users this level is fine to learn the basics of the game, but according to the formula that figures out your final rank, it is near to impossible to achieve the higher ranks. Having completed a game at this level using only 2550 units of fuel, no shields or engines (except Hyperspace), firing only 1 torpedo per ship, and finishing in 2.45 stardates, I end up with only Lieutenant for a rank! Plug these figures into the formula and you'll see why.

The Commander level represents the final challenge in Star Raiders. The point of the game is to work your way up from the low ranks until you finally reach the honor of Star Commander, Class One. (Actually the game was written to have fun!).

Rule one, and the most important, is to take advantage of a ballistical flaw in the game; the ability of the photon torpedos to destroy a target out of its plane of trajectory. This means a target can be annihilated by a photon when in reality the torpedo shouldn't have hit it (i.e. the photon will strike objects out of its flight path). This sounds confusing, but look for this and you'll understand. If not for this occurrence I wouldn't hit ships half the time I actually do.

Another helpful time/energy saving trick is to keep track of where your starbases are in relation to your position. If you lose your shields and need to get out of a sector fast, you can just hit "H" and arrive at a nearby base without using the Galactic Map. This is explained in paragraph three of the Survival Tactics section on the instruction manual's last page.

And never let those blood thirsty Zylons destroy your base (a nasty thing to do). Not only do you lose lots of points, but those slimy little aliens build two more ships from the rubble. Therefore, if your base is in imminent danger, destroy it yourself. You lose less points and you have two less ships to worry about.

If you lose your port (left) torpedo and still have a functional starboard (right) photon, you can actually do better than with both fully operational!

After all, the Zylons only have one bank of torpedos and they don't do so bad. One torpedo resets faster than two, and you can zap those Zylons faster with one side in a rapid fire pattern. Don't forget, each photon expends 10 units of energy. (A volley of two uses twenty).

Use the Attack Computer lock-on-target feature mostly on basestars. Close in on them centering it in the cross hairs, and hit that button when the computer locks on. With the fighters and cruisers you are better off using manual firing. I never use the Pause control except to answer the phone, etc. To use the Pause to gain extra time studying the Galactic Map is cheating. In real life you couldn't do this so you shouldn't do it in Star Raiders.

If you lose your Computer and Engines, it can be difficult to close in on the Zylons as they tend to run. You can hit "H" to close in on them while using Long Range Sensors to monitor heading (if LRS are operational), then abort when in range, but every time you hit that Hyperspace key, even accidentally - you use at least 100 units of energy.

And don't jump more than five sectors at a time on the Galactic Map. The warp energy jumps from 250 units to 500+. Also observe the time before making the jump to hyperspace, the Zylons move on increments of .00 and .50. The best velocity to use during battle/cruise mode is 6, and on interception of far off ships, 9. Saving time is as important as saving energy! Open fire on the Zylons when their range is 120 units. Aim for them, then tilt your ship to make your torpedos contact the Zylon ship (except for basestars). You have a good chance of hitting the ship; and at that distance, the Zylon torpedos dissipate before reaching your ship.

If the Zylons get above your cross hairs, bring your ship up. You rarely can hit the enemy ship at that position. The real danger comes when you have a Zylon ship aft and another forward. The best tactic may be to shut down the Tracking, destroying the forward ship, then the aft attacker.

When entering a sector containing a starbase, lower your shields, as there are no enemy ships or asteroids in that sector (unless your base is blown up!). As for colliding with asteroids there usually isn't much you can do. The only time I was destroyed by an asteroid my ship was traveling at velocity 98, and that close to light speed, contact with an asteroid makes for an interesting sight as you watch what's left of your ship take 20 seconds to come to a stop! So, use all of these techniques to kill the Zylon menace, and with lots of practice you will stop those savage murderers from killing your loved ones on the starbases you are protecting. Now fire up the star drive and blast those Zylons into space jelly!