40 years ago today the world changed...

jedion357's picture
jedion357
May 25, 2017 - 6:23am
May 25 1977 Star Wars released to theaters.

The Space battles we're unlike anything we had seen and totally awesome. 

Everyone wanted to be Han Solo, have a Wookie companion and fly around in the Millennium Falcon. 

We collected Star Wars trading cards and had action figures and science fiction was changed. It didn't matter that at it's heart Star Wars is a fantasy- it looked like science fiction and it was cool.

It ushered in Battle Star Galactica, Star Fleet Battles, Battle Beyond the Stars, Jason of Star Command and Star Frontiers and our imaginations soared on rocket boosters. It forced Paramount to step up it's game with Star Trek and we got the Wrath of Kahn. 

It was a good time to be 11 years old and a sci Fi fan. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

ExileInParadise's picture
ExileInParadise
July 3, 2017 - 3:34pm
Totally agree with your ratings for 1st - 3rd on the movies.
And I kind of stop there.

The Star Wars d6 RPG by West End Games is the bomb-diggidy.
The published game books are very respectful of the original core of the story and packed full of the pre-production goodies - and the adventures are generally very much the feel of the early movies.
Star Wars d20 was okay, but, meh like most d20.

As far are computer games...
The Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600 ate many hours of my childhood.

X-wing and TIE Fighter were both great - but once through - not a lot of reply for me.

Star Wars Galaxies - pre-Combat Upgrade - was the closest ever to letting you live in the Star Wars universe. It was sad to see Sony and Luca$film visionless-aries water it down and try to make it something less awesome. Give SWGemu a chance and try your luck on some of the thousands of missions... the game starts off with you as a nobody... but by the end as you've rising in skills, you eventually run across some of the movie characters and situations. Fanatastic stuff.

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
July 4, 2017 - 8:44am
ExileInParadise wrote:


As far are computer games...
The Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600 ate many hours of my childhood.

X-wing and TIE Fighter were both great - but once through - not a lot of reply for me.

I never owned the Atari ESB but played it many times at a friend's house back in the day.

Yeah, XvT does eventually come to an end...I never reached the ending in X-Wing but I've conquered TIE on several occasions.

Another fun one was Roque Squadron, although I didn't care for the "flight limitations" that kept you in the game area (if you strayed too far it would turn you around to get back to the scene). You could unlock Beggar's Canyon/Skyhopper and the Death Star trench run along with a few others, and it was fun taking various other fighters into those scenarios (sucha s the Naboo fighter in trench run or an A-wing into the Death Star).
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 4, 2017 - 9:33am
I came across a "module" for a Star Wars miniature game- handful of linked scenarios for wargame style miniatures game. bought it out of a marked down bin ($1) then gave it away I believe.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!