Greetings Starfighter... You enlisted in the Star League to defend the borders against the Xur and Ko-Dan armadas. The game is based on the sci-fi movie "The Last Starfighter." This is at least the fourth game based on the film to be announced for consoles. Before it, there were Star Raiders, Space Armada and Solaris for 2600... Under the same name, the game was released on the NES platform, and on other platforms it was given the name Star Raiders 2.
The fate of the game is not enviable. Who is to blame for the fact that in 1984 there was no hardware to implement everything that was in the movie? The arcade machine planned by Atari remained in the prototype. Versions for 5200, 400/800 and 2600 are also up in the air. For the 2600, the game was still released, under the name Solaris, but for the 5200 and 400/800, alas ...
Unlike the arcade version, the console games were planned as strategic shooters, like Star Raiders. The reason is simple. Initially, the game was developed as an independent project Orbiter. With little time left before its completion, Atari decided to reprogram the game into The Last Starfighter. In 1985, on second thought, Atari released The Last Starfighter as Star Raiders II as a disc for the Atari XL and a cartridge for the XE. Star Raiders II is essentially the same TLSF, with some changes, in the style of Star Raiders. Any mention of Last Starfighter from the game has been removed. This is such a confusing story.