Williams Electronics' SINISTAR - Nerve-Wracking Arcade Action from 1983

In a move characteristic of Williams Electronic Games' brilliance of the early 80's,
the company released its now-legendary Sinistar video game, in both upright and sit-down
formats, in 1983. Although not a major arcade hit in its time, the game has since developed a
fanatical following among collectors and enthusiasts, becoming one of the most frantically
sought-after games ever. 

Fast-paced, gripping and utterly ahead of its time, Sinistar represented a number of firsts
in game design. It was the first game to use stereo sound (in the sitdown version), with two
independent left and right sound boards for this purpose. In addition, Sinistar was the first game
to use digitized speech as successfully as it did; the Sinistar character's speech is 
one of the most exciting aspects of the gameplay. Sinistar was also the first game to
use the 49-way,custom-designed optical joystick that Williams had produced specifically for this
game (a variant of which later appeared in the game Arch Rivals, although this one was
not electrically identical to the original).

One possible reason why Sinistar was not a massive arcade hit could be its sheer difficulty;
this is one of the most challenging games in arcade history. The basic premise of the game is this:
You pilot a lone fighter ship through your quadrant of the galaxy, initially blasting away at 
drifting planetoids to "mine" Sinisite Crystals from them, which fills up your fighter's bomb bay
with up to 20 Sinibombs. All the while, Worker ships (from the planet Sporg, apparently) work 
to construct a Sinistar nearby. In addition to your crystal mining mission, you must also contend
with aggressive Warrior ships which will try to blast you out of existence. When the Workers 
complete the Sinistar, it comes to life with a frightening <a href="bewareilive">"Beware, I Live!!"</a>,
and comes after you. During this pursuit, the Sinistar will invariably taunt you with
phrases like <a href="runcoward.wav">"Run, Coward!!"</a>, <a href="bewareilive.wav">"Beware, I Live!!"</a>,
<a href="ihunger.wav">"I Hunger"</a>, and <a href="runrunrun.wav">"Run, Run, Run!!"</a>.
You can only destroy it by bombarding it with Sinibombs. Destroy it, and you
will hear a <a href="aargh.wav">bone-rattling scream</a>. You are then warped to the next, more difficult
quadrant, where the action gets more intense, the Sinistar is assembled faster, and the Warrior ships
are more aggressive. 

There are four basic levels to the Sinistar gameplay, which repeat with increasing difficulty if you manage
to survive: Worker zone, Warrior zone, Planetoid zone and Void zone, which is extremely challenging due to
the scarcity of planetoids to be mined.

There are a few main aspects of the gameplay that make it particularly difficult, even on the default difficulty
setting. First of all, your ship can't maneuver as fast as the Warrior ships- they are more nimble, agile and show up
in large numbers. Secondly, they fire shots which travel very fast, making them virtually impossible to avoid.
On top of this, they are wont to appear from many different directions, all firing at once, doggedly
tracking and pursuing your ship. It all adds up to major action, but it is extremely hard to get
past the 300,000 score realm. Still, this is one of the most exciting and addictive games out there, even now.

Below you'll find many of the sprites from the actual Sinistar ROM code (a big, big thank you to
Sean Riddle, who is one of the most technically-savvy and knowledgeable people in the world of 
video game collecting- check out his page <a href="www.ionet.net/~sriddle>here.</a>), as well a
a few cool links to Sinistar- and collecting-related pages. 

I miss games with the imagination, excitement and brilliance of Sinistar; the era of this kind
of innovation in game concept, plot and design seems to be over, at least for the time being.
However, on an interesting note, rumour has it that the Bay Area's Digital Eclipse (makers of
the excellent Defender, Joust and Robotron ports for the Mac and PC; see <a href="www.phantom.com/~giant/hype/hype3.html"
Hype #3</a> for more on these) may be releasing a Mac version of Sinistar. We'll have to wait and see.......

LINKS

Click <a href="http://www.cybercomm.net/~king/arcade-i.html">HERE</a> for King's Arcade page, another 
very happening collecting/classic arcade games page with a good Sinistar section.

<a href=news:rec.games.video.arcade.collecting>Here</a> is a link to the Rec.games.video.arcade.collecting
Usenet newsgroup, the primary Internet forum for collectors.