Star Raiders II is a video game released in 1986 for the Atari 8-bit family as a sequel to 1979's Star Raiders, which was the killer app for the Atari computers. The game was originally developed as part of a tie-in with the movie The Last Starfighter, which featured an arcade game of the same name as part of its plotline. Versions for the Atari 5200 and the Atari 8-bit computers were developed in...
Developer
Atari
Publisher
Atari, Electric Dreams
Release Date
1986-01-01
Star Raiders II is a video game released in 1986 for the Atari 8-bit family as a sequel to 1979's Star Raiders, which was the killer app for the Atari computers. The game was originally developed as part of a tie-in with the movie The Last Starfighter, which featured an arcade game of the same name as part of its plotline. Versions for the Atari 5200 and the Atari 8-bit computers were developed in 1984, although those were never released. Later the tie-in was dropped, and the game converted into a sequel to Star Raiders by changing a number of gameplay elements. The gameplay remained different from the original Star Raiders. Conversions for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64 were published under license by Electric Dreams Software in 1987. In 2015 it was revealed that a true sequel, also called Star Raiders II, had been under development for some time by Atari programmer Aric Wilmunder. It was nearing completion when he was laid off during the massive downsizing of the company in early 1984. Although the programmer continued talks with Atari after its takeover by Jack Tramiel, no deal was ever forthcoming. The source code, largely complete but not polished for release, was posted publicly in December 2015. This version is far more faithful to the original version in terms of gameplay.