#starfighter arcade

[tamara-kama]

I was once taken on a date to this arcade in Mesa, Arizona and I had a really good time.

With the pricing model of a single charge at the door and all the games on free play it was like a party from the time they open to when they close..

It's even bigger now than when I last went!

Downside is it's 4 hours the last time I went.. from about 5-9PM.. that goes by quickly.. haha

[devileaterjaek]

[dreamer-ame]

arcadecore Space Invaders Pac-Man Centipede Donkey Kong Frogger Dig Dug Q*bert Starfighter

[stardestroyer81]

⭐ Strike a taunt, Star! ⭐

As promised in my previous Star Tower post, here is a handful of taunt frames I've drawn of yours truly! The second one in particular is a completely original pose I came up with myself, though here are the references for the first, third and fourth ones! 💙✨

[sixaratm]

E.T. Arcade / A trailer park in Acton, CA - 1984

“This game was $1.75 and different from all the others.”

[earth-1218designate]

Shit, after those two shitty 2k20 "agenda" flicks, this blast from the past double feature was a big assist to wash out all the shit propaganda of this era that I witnessed on the silver screen.

Though "The Last Starfighter" was too juvenile for me, as an arcade gamer I did enjoy the premise of the film and some of the effects.

"Nightmare on Elm Street"? Holy shit. That film was a 5 star.

It's a tough task to make Caucazoid females look attractive. The nightgown strip scene at the climax, The nightgown murder as the first kill. Females need to go back to wearing nightgowns. I think I have a new goal to smash out a broad in a nightgown.

Since the film was shot in The City, I found a film in "Elm Street" that had me swelling with pride to be from L.A. And that's a tough task to achieve.

And that Depp death scene? Kubrick's "The Shining" can eat it's heart out. And then the bucket of blood for the Price homage? So rare for a film to surpass it's inspirations.

Progression. Not retreading. The 80's "Elm Street" is a blueprint on how movies should be made.

-

17th/Aug.2k24

C.V.R. The Bard

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: Cinematech - Jedi Another Day | 5/11/05

The Sith just hit the fan.

(Somehow, this show returned. Check out Cinematech Reborn!)

(And catch both on 4GTV!)

[tamara-kama]

This reminds me of the cat in The Last Starfighter that was sleeping in the mailbox in the beginning.

[vintagegeekculture]

"Greetings, Starfighter. You have been selected by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada."

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Last Starfighter (1984) directed by John Carpenter protégé Nick Castle.

Beginning as a scifi update of Arthurian Legend, with an arcade machine instead of a sword from a stone, the Last Starfighter is about a kid in a trailer park who discovers that a video game he achieved a high score on was actually an Excalibur-esque test to determine if who could make it as a real life star pilot, and is recruited to defend an interstellar civilization.

It's amazing how much of this movie stands out in the memory. Grig, the starfighters' "gung ho iguana" sidekick, played by warm character actor Dan O'Herilhy (the main villain of Halloween III: Season of the Witch). Rylos, the planet where men and women alike have male pattern baldness. The silent, sober menace of the Ko-Dan barbarians contrasted against the Caligula-esque madness of Xur. The fact that it was set in a trailer park, where the palpable hopelessness and desperation (but also joy and community) were in contrast to the bucolic suburbia seen in most 80s movies. "Death Blossom." There are so-called "better" movies that nobody remembers as well as this.

Called a "Star Wars ripoff," there are actual Star Wars movies that weren't as good as this.

[nikkeisimmer]

I'm an Old-Ass Gamer

I can still remember my bugging my parents for quarters for the arcade at 9 years old wanting to play Galaxian and Asteroids. And I could play those games for hours if I had enough money. But we were the first generation of gamers that grew up on vector line games with minimal graphics and having to rely on mostly our imagination as far as getting any sort of fun out of a game that looked like a collection of squiggly lines.

Then along came a coin-operated Star Wars game in 1983 - which was my first foray into playing anything related to Star Wars.

This was my first chance to pilot an X-wing and even though those graphics were just squiggly lines and filling it in with my imagination, "I was Luke Skywalker" going after the Death Star".

Now we have games like the Sims 3...

...with mods...they look almost "human". This kind of game I couldn't picture back in 1983 as a 13yr old hanging out at the arcade in between algebra class and homework - that I would be able to play with characters that I've grown attached to and my literary creative side keeps seeking to write stories about.

The Star Wars game I play now is vastly different from the arcade game I played back in 1983.

Even though this game (Star Wars the Old Republic) is set in an era long before the Galactic Empire and Palpatine even were a thing - it is Star Wars, with lightsabers, Jedi, Sith and all sort of other characters and retain the feel of Lucas's Star Wars that we love and miss (at least I do. I don't find Disney's offerings worth watching). There's even space combat which I still find difficult. So I stay away from the "Starfighter" portion of SWTOR and play with my Jedi, Sith, Trooper, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent and Smuggler.

The Flight Simulator II that I remember flying in my youth on the Apco (Apple IIe clone) computer,

...has turned into...

or

These are games that I couldn't even conceive of in my youth playing vector line graphic games and it shows just how much computer graphics has changed in 45 years.

I don't have the ability to be able run inZoi on my current computer. But I'm eager to see how far the boundaries of computer gaming graphics gets pushed over the next twenty-five or hopefully thirty to to forty years I have left to walk on this earth. You kids are gonna have it so lucky.

[sempiternical]

WHEW, I thought I was never going to finish this! This is my OC Moonrunner, inspired by a synthwave song with the same name. He looks as your typical 23 y/o guy that works at the local arcade place and still struggles with acne, but he is secretly a space pilot in a game alternative reality! (take the plot of 'The Last Starfighter' and 'Code Lyoko' as a slight reference hehe). And yes, he wears Air Mags!! :DDDD

[smbhax]

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Flyer for Atari's last published arcade game--a 2D diagonal isometric shooter, curiously enough.

After this they were working on a 3D shooter for The Last Starfighter--but its Motorola 68000 processor was expensive at the time, and the movie didn't do as well as had been hoped, so the game was cancelled, and survives only as a prototype. [1]

[kosmos2999]

The Last Starfighter: 40 Years Later

“GREETINGS STARFIGHTER! YOU HAVE BEEN RECRUITED BY THE STAR LEAGUE TO DEFEND THE FRONTIER AGAINST XUR AND THE KO-DAN ARMADA.”

With those two sentences that came right from the speaker of the cabinet of the – fictional -- arcade game Starfighter, an incredible adventure will began for Alex Rogan!

A young man living in a trailer park, Rogan has great expectations but his chances of success are against all odds. Just when his dream of a higher education was shattered, he received a chance of a lifetime. The Starfighter game was also a test to find those with “the gift” to be real starfighters by breaking the record on it.

And as the poet said, the rest is history...

"Welcome to Rylos, my boy!"

In 1971, the first arcade videogame was released, Computer Space. A decade later, arcade videogames became a pop culture phenomenon.

They were in every place, not only in bars, game rooms, bowling allies and amusement parks. They were also supermarkets, theatre lobbies and also in odd places like laundromats and funeral homes opened places for gamers eager to play them.

Arcade games became an icon of the 80s!

In that decade, a technological development was also creating a revolution in the communications industry, particullry the visual media, computer generated imagery, commonly known as CGI.

In 1982, Walt Disney Pictures released the first movie with an extensive use of CGIs, Tron. Two years later, the formely known a Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Lorimar Productions decided to take the CGIs out of this world with The Last Starfigther.

About the production:

While writer Jonathan R. Betuel was on his lunch break from his then regular job, he went to an arcade and got the first idea for The Last Starfighter. It was also heavily influenced by his reading of T. H. White's The Once and Future King. Hence, in the script, Grig tells Centauri about “the Excalibur trick.”

In the first draft, Alex Rogan was suppossed to live in a suburban area. It was changed in favor of a trailer park. Director Nick Castle made the change in favor of giving his film its own identity.

The Canyon Country, a neighborhood in Santa Clarita, California was used for the Starlite Starbrite Trailer Park setting.

With exception of the makeup and explosions, all the other special effects for the movie were computer graphics done by Digital Productions using the -- then powerful -- the Cray X-MP supercomputer.

27 of the 101 minutes of the film's running time were rendered by DP.

The Star Car was built by the famous car designer and builder, Gene Winfield. He also designed and built the Galileo 7 shuttlecraft for Star Trek: The Original Series.

About the legacy...

The Last Starfighter made 29 millon Dollars at the box office in North America, recovering its budget of 15 million Dollar but not quite a smash hit. Its producers consider it as “the most expensive B movie ever made.” It became a cult film, with an extensive following.

A musical adaptation was produced at the Storm Theatre Off-Off Broadway in New York City in October 2004. A recording of the performance was published in November 2005.

A novelization of the film was written by Alan Dean Foster. A comic book was published in issue 31 of Marvel Super Special by Marvel Comics. It was adapted to the format by writer Bill Mantlo and artists Bret Blevins and Tony Salmons. It was also available as a three-issue miniseries.

In the same year of its debut, producer of tabletop miniature war games, FASA, published three game based on the movie: Combat Game, Duel In Space and Tunnel Chase.

Videogame manufacturer, Atari Games, had plans to publish and arcade game and its conversions for their consoles and personal computer but neither of them saw the daylight as games from The Last Starfighter.

Only one console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), saw an adaptation but it was only a renaming of a game Uriduim. Originally released in the Commodore 64 personal computer.

About the main cast:

Lance Guest: A graduate from a major in Theatre at UCLA. Guest made his debut in the movies with a supporting role in the 1981 film, Halloween II. His roles of Alex Rogan and the Beta Unit in The Last Starfigther were the most notable of his career. He later appeared in films like the 1987, Jaws: The Revenge, but later he becomes more involved in on ad off-Broadway theatrical productions.

Catherine Mary Stewart: She attended the Strathcona Composite High School in Canada and later moved to London to study dance and general performing arts. Stewart made her film debut in the musical science fiction cult movie, The Apple in 1980. Stewart was a well established actress on television before she landed for the role of Maggie Gordon on the feature film.

She had a vast career on both TV and film until mid-90s, when she made a brief retirement to raise her family. Later she returned to the show business as actress and director.

Robert Preston: He was a very acomplished stage and film actor. In 1957, the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in the stage play, The Music Man. His character in The Last Starfigther, Centauri, was modeled after his characterization of Professor Harold Hill. The one that made him worth of the award. He also won a nomination for the Academy Award for his performance in th 1982 film, Victor/Victoria. His role of Centauri in 1984 was his last appearance in a motion picture. He passed away in 1987 of a lung cancer.

Dan O'Herlihy: Although he was graduated in 1944 from a Degree in Architecture at University College Dublin, O'Herlihy pursuit a career in acting. He was successful on radio, TV and film. He won a nomiation for an Academy Award in 1954 for his performance in the lead character in the movie, Robinson Crusoe. Before his role of Grig at The Last Starfighter, he made a guest-appearance in the science fiction epic, Battlestar Galactica in the second part of the episode Gun on Ice Planet Zero as Dr. Ravishol. Another important appearances in sci-fi feature films for O'Herlihy were as The Old Man in Robocop (1988) and Robocop II (1990). His last performance in film was in the 1988 film The Rat Pack as Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. O'Herlihy passed away in 2005 due to natural cause.

Norman Snow: Graduated from a Bachellor of Fine Arts at Juilliard School, Snow was recognized by his fellows as an accomplished character actor. Most of his acting career was done on TV. One of his most reknowed performances on the small screen was in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation episode from season six, Rightful Heir, as a Klingon named Torin. On the big screen, his career was very sporadic. One of the most important moments was when he was cast for the role of the main villain in The Last Starfighter, Xur. Norman Snow passed away in November of 2022.

There is a cameo appearence by actor Wil Wheaton during the first minutes of the film.

About the (part of) production staff:

Nick Castle: Film director, and also he has been screenwriter and actor in many other projects. Many of them with his friend and classmate of University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, John Carpenter. The Last Starfighter was his second directional project. Castle's first film was Tag: Assassination Game in 1982.

Jonathan Betuel: Writer whose first novel, The Dogfighter was published whe he was 21. Betuel began to develop interest in screenplays while he was in NYU Film School. Then, decided to pursue a career in screenwriting.

Craig Safan: Composer for film and television. Since his early years, he developed an interest in and learned to play music. Graduated from Brandelis University from a major in Fine Arts. He won many ASCAP awards for his compositions. In addition to the music for The Last Starfighter, Safan wrote scores for many major movies such as Stand and Deliver, Major Payne, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, and music for the TV series, Cheers.

Ron Cobb: Film conceptual designer, and also Cobb was writer and cartoonist. Started his career working as an inbetweener/breakdown artist on the classic Walt Disney Pictures animated feature film, Sleeping Beauty. During his service with the U.S. Army, Cobb became a political cartoonist. His first job in a film was the design of a starship for John Carpenter's Dark Star. Eventually, Ron Cobb worked on the conceptual designs for films like Star Wars, Alien, Back to the Future, Aliens, The Abyss, Space Truckers, Titan A.E. among others. Cobb passed away on September 21, 2020.

40 years later...

I had the chance of watching The Last Starfigther when it made its debut in a double feature with Sixteen Candles. Not a contender to dethrone the Star Wars movie franchise. But indeed, it was more a motivational film for me.

It showed me that sometimes extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people, like me. When you came from places like a trailer park, or a public housing complex, you do not expect something wonderful to happen, but chances are.

Just listen to the words of advice from Otis – character played by actor Vernon Washington:

“Things change. Always do. You'll get your chance! Important thing is, when it comes, you gotta grab it with both hands and hold on tight!”

Enjoy the movie...

The Last Starfighter (1984 film)

Main cast:

Lance Guest as Alex Rogan

Dan O'Herlihy as Grig

Robert Preston as Centauri

Catherine Mary Stewart as Maggie Gordon

Production staff:

Directed by: Nick Castle

Written by: Jonathan R. Betuel

Produced by: Gary Adelson and Edward O. Denault

Cinematography by: King Baggot

Edited by: Carroll Timothy O' Meara

Music by: Craig Safan

Production company: Lorimar Productions

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

YouTube channel: Betelgeuse1209

[brokehorrorfan]

The Last Starfighter will be released on 4K Ultra HD on May 30 via Arrow Video. Matt Ferguson designed the cover art for the 1984 sci-fi action adventure film; the original poster is on the reverse side.

Nick Castle - best known for playing Michael Myers in the original Halloween and co-writing Escape from New York - directs from a script by Jonathan R. Betuel (My Science Project). Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, and Robert Preston star.

The Last Starfighter has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and uncompressed 2.0 stereo, 5.1 DTS-HD MA, and 4.1 audio. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by star Lance Guest and his son Jackson Guest

Audio commentary by director Nick Castle and production designer Ron Cobb

Audio commentary by Mike White of The Last Projection Booth podcast

Interview with actor Catherine Mary Stewart

Interview with composer Craig Safan

Interview with screenwriter Jonathan Betuel

Interview with special effects supervisor Kevin Pike

Interview with author Greg Bear on Digital Productions, the company responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter

Interview with arcade game collector Estil Vance on reconstructing the Starfighter game

Crossing the Frontier: The Making of The Last Starfighter - 4-part documentary with cast and crew members

Heroes of the Screen featurette

Image galleries

Theatrical trailer

Teaser trailer

Booklet with writing by film historian Amanda Reyes and author Greg Bear’s unpublished Omni article on Digital Productions (first pressing only)

Video game expert Alex Rogan finds himself transported to another planet after conquering The Last Starfighter video game only to find out it was just a test. He was recruited to join the team of best starfighters to defend their world from the attack.

Pre-order The Last Starfighter.

[duhragonball]

Super Dragon Ball Heroes 29

“What’s that? ‘Universe Creation Arc’?  ‘Apocrypha Liveblog’?  What are you talking about?  We’re kids competing for a video game championship.”

Last time... doesn’t really matter, because the web anime just abruptly shifts to a completely different subject matter for Episode 29.  It’s another special, but unlike Episode 20, which set up characters and backstory for the Universe Creation arc, this special just interrupts the arc for no apparent reason.

So to explain what’s going on here, I need to get into the conceit of the Dragon Ball Heroes video games.   You, the live person playing a video game, play as a character like Beat, who lives in the Dragon World some time after the events of Dragon Ball Z.  Beat, in turn, also plays a video game which is similar to the one you play, except for him Dragon Ball Heroes is some sort of Capsule Corp.-designed VR simulation, and characters like Goku and the others are historical figures.  Within the simulation, Beat can fight alongside his chosen characters, and he can do Saiyan transformations just like they do.

I’ve watched some of the cutscenes from the game before, and it turns out that Beat is actually a descendant of Goku’s, so Beat actually learns how to turn into a Super Saiyan Blue in “real” life.  It gets kind of confusing.  The web anime we’ve been covering up to now has depicted the sort of story modes featured in the games.  From our perspective, these are just side-stories invented for video game content, but from Beat’s perspective, the Universe Creation Arc is a thing that really happened, and he gets to re-enact that event in the game.

So in this special, we’re seeing Beat rushing to the shopping mall or wherever the game console is located.  They’re doing a 10th Anniversary championship tournament, and he’s one of the participants, and he’s running late. 

I think this is why I keep getting confused about how and where you can play Super Dragon Ball Heroes, because all the promotional materials show Beat going to these arcades and stepping up to some fancy-looking cabinet surrounded by onlookers.  In the real world, I think I’d just have to get a Nintendo Switch, but they never show Beat playing on one, which seems like a dumb way to promote the product. 

Anyway, that’s Note on the left.  As I understand it, Beat and Note were both recruited to aid the Time Patrol on special missions involving the game, in kind of a “Last Starfighter” situation. 

They both seem really startled when the gameplay begins, like they’re being sucked into the VR world in a way they weren’t expecting, but everything seems to be normal from here on out, so I don’t know what to make of it.

This is what they look like in the game, as they both have Saiyan avatars, and they’re both in Super Saiyan Blue form.  I’m not sure why Note’s hair doesn’t stand on end.   I’m also not sure how old these kids are supposed to be.  They looked maybe nine or ten in the arcade, but they’re a little taller here, and Note has a boob window that I really don’t like. 

Beat’s team is basic as hell.  He’s got Vegito Blue, because he’s a huge mark for Dragon Ball Super, he’s got Yamcha because he likes him ironically.  He’s got Super Saiyan God Trunks because he works for Trunks and he’s a kiss-ass.

He’s got Goku because he thinks you’re supposed to have a Goku on your team by default.  He’s got Bardock because he thinks Bardock is a cool badass.  And he’s got Jiren because the anime told him he’s the strongest guy.

By contrast, Note’s team is incredibly cheap.  She doesn’t worry about who the popular characters are, she just goes straight for the ones with the best stats.  She probably doesn’t even know this fugly version of Demigra, but he’s probably really strong, so she picked him.  The Grand Minister shouldn’t even be in the game, but he is, and he’s probably broken as all get out, so she went with it.  I don’t know who the mask guy is, but he’s probably someone special she unlocked, so you know he’s got some fancy stats.

And to round out Note’s team, we have Z-Broly for his bullshit super-armor, Masked Bardock to neutralize some Bardock glitch that Note doesn’t even know how to exploit, and Gogeta Blue because they may have nerfed Stardust Breaker in the V6.2.3 update, but it’s still got a crazy hitbox and she can use that to juggle Beat’s guys long enough to set up some other tricks. 

What I’m trying to say here is that this tournament probably forbids just picking six Gogetas, but if it was legal, Beat would do it to match the six Gogeta posters in his bedroom, and Note would do it to exploit some patch in the game code.

Finally, 29 episodes in, we get to see Gogeta vs. Vegito, which you’d think the web anime would have covered a few times by now.

Bardock fights Masked Bardock...

...And God Trunks has to fight Broly.  He’s got some trick where Chronoa pops in to freeze time, so it’s like a little Xenoverse thing going on here. 

We’re just ripping off Jojo then, I guess. 

“Uh, hi, everyone.  I think I may have gone to the wrong place.  Is this “Across the Spider-Verse?  Because I’m a Spider-Man with ki powers, but like they’re radioactive ki powers, because the spider who bit me was--”

The Grand Minister heals up Note’s group, but Yamcha heals Beats group, so there.  Good hustle, Yamcha. 

Then Beat targets Note herself and defeats her pretty easily.  I thought she was as good at this game as he is, but maybe she just left an opening for him.  Too busy trying to do precision inputs.

Then a new challenger arrives, although there are three player avatars, so I don’t understand how this works. 

Ha ha, get Beerus’ed, idiot.

Goku helps Beat up to try again, and this is presented like some heartwarming moment, except it’s just a simulation.  I don’t know.

Then they both go Ultra Instinct and start clobbering the other team. 

Big shot of Beat and his team.  They kind of screwed over Yamcha by sticking him in the back for this. 

And that’s the special.  I don’t understand what the point of this was.   The whole thing looked and felt like a commercial for the game, except... the whole show has been a commercial for the game.  This one is just more like those trailer ads they would run whenever a new feature is added. 

It’s almost like someone in charge got worried that the Universe Creation arc wasn’t selling the game properly, so they switched to this format instead, then switched right back, because Episode 30 continues the arc we were in.  I don’t get it. 

[foulfirerebel]

Controversial Star Wars opinion? I think?

So, I love Star Wars. Been a Star Wars fan since I was little and haven't stopped. Sure, I've had more than a few problems with the franchise here or there but who hasn't?

After having now watched Mando Season 3, I have but one question. It's a very simple one.

Where's my pilot movie or show about the pilots? I don't care if it's a Clone Wars era, Rebellion era, or New Republic era! I want my show or movie about the pilots.

Before anyone says anything, yes I'm aware of the X-Wing novels and game series. I have most of the X-Wing books, I had the Rogue Squadron series of games, I've gotten the Starfighter games, played the trilogy arcade and the battle pod in arcades...and still want a movie or series based on the pilots.

I've seen Star Wars go spy thriller (Andor), Western/Bounty Hunter/Crime drama (Mandolorian/Book of Boba Fett), straight up war flick/war drama (Clone Wars), fight for survival with a ragtag bunch (Rebels/Resistence), the point of view of ex-soldiers in a rapidly changing galaxy (Bad Batch) and we're getting a Jedi series (Ahsoka) and a Sith series (Acolyte) and another season of Visions.

What drew me to Star Wars were the dogfights, the ships, the pilots, etc. I'd like a series based off that if possible. Star Wars has proven it can expand itself beyond the Jedi vs. Sith and the Force multiple times.

I'm not asking for Star Wars' equivalent of Top Gun or anything, just something to whet my appetite for a good dogfight since Squadrons was abandoned by EA.

Maybe that's just me, since I grew up with the X-Wing novels and those games. But I'm sure there are others wanting that too. I hope we get something like that in the future.

For now, I'll stick to reading and trying to replay the games I have.