Star Fighter

Mail order form

The game carried a mail order form for a special game-themed flight jacket for £39.99.

RISC OS versions

There were two releases for RISC OS (listed as Acorn 32-bit here). The original version (release one) was released in 1994 on two 3.5" floppy discs for the Acorn Archimedes and Risc PC. When the StrongARM processor upgrade was introduced for Risc PC in 1996, as with many other games several incompatibilities were discovered. Even more problems arose after the introduction of RISC OS 4 in 1999. In 2000 Christopher Bazley released SFpatch to resolve the incompatibilities. iSV Products re-released the game in 2001 (release two) with the changes as Starfighter 3000: Other Worlds. More patches were released and in November 2003 APDL, who had taken over publishing from iSV Products, released a 32-bit compatible version (release 3) that also ran natively on the then new Iyonix PC. It could also run in a window on the RISC OS desktop and introduced additional bug fixes for problems dating back to the first version of the game. Instead of buying the full release it was also possible to receive the third version for a lower price if you returned the disc of version two to APDL. In September 2005 a patch (version 3.14) was released for owners for any version of the game, also release one, to bring every version to the latest one and to make all previous patches obsolete. The game is now at version 3.17.

There was also a second version of the game, developed by FlaYmz (formerly Visions Of The Impossible), headed by Nathan Atkinson, called Starfighter 3000: Next Generation. FlaYmz were created from ex-VOTI members as the last involvement the VOTI team had in the RISC OS scene as the market was deteriorating rapidly. The new company name was created as it was felt necessary to keep Starfighter 3000: NG separate from the VOTI catalogue. The game is a port of the later released 1996 3DO version to bring over the graphical enhancements from that release. Code was sourced from one of the original coders Andrew P. Hutchings but the most problematic task was to deal with the many graphical routines which the 3DO used its hardware for. Documentation on the 3DO was difficult to find so the programming effort was massive, being entirely done by Lee Noar. Other people involved were Paul Thomson, Lee Johnston and Ramuh who were all involved in the bolt on introduction sequence.

Originally the game was designed for the new Microdigital Omega PC, to be sold in 2003, but the deal with Microdigital fell through when the company started having monetary issues. After five years this version of the game was released through the April 2008 RISCWorld DVD included with the magazine. Nathan Atkinson was also involved with orchestrating release two of the initial version of the game through iSV Products.

Awards

• Electronic Gaming Monthly
• March 1997 (Issue 92) - 3DO Game of the Year runner-up +3DO Game of the Year runner-up (Readers' Choice)