The Game: In a lone space fighter, you’re on the most dangerous space combat mission this side of Luke Skywalker. While evading or destroying drone robots and gunships in a hazardous asteroid field, you’re trying to mine the raw materials needed for Sinibombs, your only defense against the huge, terrifying space station, Sinistar. You can bomb the components of Sinistar as they are being put in place, but as a last resort, your Sinibombs can damage it in its complete form as well. If you should happen to find yourself within range of the fully-operational Sinistar without the armament needed to protect yourself, there are snowballs in hell that stand a better chance of surviving than you do. (Williams Electronics, 1983)
Memories: A truly intimidating and challenging game, Sinistar‘s only drawback is a slightly aggravating control system; since it doesn’t quite adhere to the physical rules of bodies, motion and inertia that were so interestingly utilized in such games as Asteroids, Sinistar is a bit more difficult to get a handle on.
But that aside, it’s a real hoot of a game, and it made better use of voice synthesis than any game before it. Many games such as Berzerk had utilized robotic voices to utter barely-comprehensible threats, but Sinistar‘s much more menacing voice – heard only when the Sinistar station is complete – would urge you to “RUN!” and, when it caught up with you and destroyed you, would utter a robust “I HUNGER!!” or a blood-curdling war cry. In short, it’s a wonder that no snack food company ever licensed Sinistar for TV commercials in its heyday.