Comments on: Lesson number three: Always trust Centauri.

Lesson number three: Always trust Centauri.

curious nu — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:42:19 -0800

Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan Armada.

Not to be confused with the NES game, which is just a reskinned Uridium. You'll (probably) need to track down d3drm.dll and toss that in your install directory to get the game to run. Make sure to check the readme file for instructions. And here's a soundtrack for you; it's no musical (previously) but maybe it'll do.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:44:10 -0800

Given the mention of a .dll file, I'm guessing this is Windows only. It's a shame. The Last Starfighter is a truly great movie which I saw repeatedly in the theater when it came out and continue to enjoy on a regular basis. If it's a game which is truly based on the game in the movie, that would be a joyous thing.

By: curious nu

curious nu — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:46:47 -0800

I haven't tried running it in WINE yet, but I believe this was released in 2007-ish so unless it's doing some severely weird stuff, it's probably doable on any modern machine.

By: furiousxgeorge

furiousxgeorge — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:52:35 -0800

I had that NES game when I was a kid, it was the most stupid hard game I've ever played.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:55:49 -0800

As a dedicated Babylon 5 fan, I would NEVER trust a Centauri. (Except maybe Vir, but I'd still make sure I'd never catch him waving at me)

By: Huck500

Huck500 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:58:03 -0800

That doesn't look like a very good game, but as an idea it's way, way up there. When I was a kid I read a lot more than I saw movies, and I read the novelization of this a few times. I loved it. I still haven't seen the movie, because I don't think it can live up to what I saw in my head when I was 10.

By: namewithoutwords

namewithoutwords — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:02:37 -0800

Huck500: "I still haven't seen the movie, because I don't think it can live up to what I saw in my head when I was 10." I read the novelization at that age, before seeing the movie, and the movie does live up to what you saw in your head. At least, I thought it did when I was ten.

By: scruss

scruss — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:05:55 -0800

> I had that NES game when I was a kid, it was the most stupid hard game I've ever played. Uridium was like that, yes. It was the sort of game that you knew one kid in the neighbourhood, the one that kinda smelled bad and had weird parents, but you'd go round his house just to watch him play Uridium. Poetry.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:07:26 -0800

Yeah, the movie is pretty excellent. Robert Preston's presence truly pushes it to the levels you want it to be at.

By: k5.user

k5.user — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:11:44 -0800

Wait, all that work and for a win32 exe, rather than a MAME rom ? (Granted, I can see where a win32 exe is much easier to develop, but ... )

By: Huck500

Huck500 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:39:23 -0800

OK, it's on my queue.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:44:54 -0800

Back to sleep, Louis, or I'm telling Mom about your Playboys!

By: Nelson

Nelson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:45:21 -0800

Man, I was the perfect age and loved that movie. Why yes, my video game skills were going to get me selected by a group of friendly aliens, lifted out of my humdrum life, and elevated to be a hero! Yes, I am Harry Potter! Er, um, Alex Rogan! Remember, Death Blossom delivers only one massive volley at close range... theoretically.

By: Metro Gnome

Metro Gnome — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:52:02 -0800

The amusing thing about this, it's all a big mistake. That particular Starfighter game was supposed to be delivered to Vegas, not some fleaspeck trailer park in the middle of tumbleweeds and tarantulas.

By: adamdschneider

adamdschneider — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:56:36 -0800

When I was 10, the Last Starfighter was everything I wanted my life to be. That and Buckaroo Banzai. Man, Buckaroo Banzai in a Gunstar. Fucking A.

By: Chrysostom

Chrysostom — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:59:39 -0800

namewithoutwords: "I read the novelization at that age, before seeing the movie," Alan Dean Foster represent!

By: Guernsey Halleck

Guernsey Halleck — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:17:36 -0800

Who's Galoka?

By: 23skidoo

23skidoo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:22:28 -0800

Back to sleep, Louis, or I'm telling Mom about your Playboys! Diarrhea!

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:30:14 -0800

I'm old enough to have been awed by Robert Preston's "Chicken Fat" song and his presence in "Starfighter" singlehandedly made that movie.

By: Hypnotic Chick

Hypnotic Chick — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:32:12 -0800

Remember, Death Blossom delivers only one massive volley at close range... theoretically. Favorited so hard.

By: fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit

fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:16:36 -0800

Teriffic. I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax.

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:50:26 -0800

Don't be dissing Uridium! That's an Andrew Braybrook game! /Googles up Wikipedia link, reads down to what is perhaps the saddest sentence ever.

By: Cosine

Cosine — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:39:02 -0800

The list of movies left to show my wife is getting pretty short, for some reason TLS is still on it, must fix that this week!

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:54:40 -0800

CGI without texturing. Those were the days.

By: caliban

caliban — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:11:19 -0800

Also not to be confused with Namco's StarBlade which had a very Last Starfighter feel (and swallowed many many of my tokens when I was a kid)

By: nickthetourist

nickthetourist — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:16:50 -0800

I've thought for several years now that the movie was ripe for a remake. But then I think about how the likely result would be a Michael Bay money-shot POS and hope no one ever decides to do such a thing.

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:18:42 -0800

Anyone remember Warhead?

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:22:44 -0800

Aiiie! Meson torpedo!

By: Chunder

Chunder — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:08:16 -0800

I have half a recollection of a Last Starfighter game on the 8-bit Atari when I was much younger - I particularly remember an opening animation of the ship taking off... but Wikipedia suggests that I must have been playing a pirate copy of Star Raiders II, oops.

By: lumensimus

lumensimus — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:29:41 -0800

Pirated prototype, perhaps. Contrasting TLS with Star Raiders II is a pretty fascinating exercise -- seeing what was changed and what wasn't in order to bring it more in line with the (albeit somewhat thin) Star Raiders mythos. Has there been a Star Raiders post yet? No? For shame!

By: ActingTheGoat

ActingTheGoat — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:41:36 -0800

That particular Starfighter game was supposed to be delivered to Vegas, not some fleaspeck trailer park in the middle of tumbleweeds and tarantulas. A mobile cave that never went anywhere. Fascinating.

By: lumensimus

lumensimus — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:54:03 -0800

We're locked into the moon's gravitational pull! What do we do?

By: obiwanwasabi

obiwanwasabi — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:55:40 -0800

That doesn't look like a very good game o_O

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:42:56 -0800

Also not to be confused with Namco's StarBlade which had a very Last Starfighter feel See also Vectorbeam's "Tail Gunner" from the 70s.

By: euphorb

euphorb — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:10:25 -0800

When I was 10, the Last Starfighter was everything I wanted my life to be. That and Buckaroo Banzai. Man, Buckaroo Banzai in a Gunstar. Fucking A. Then you might like this semi-related post.

By: Fleebnork

Fleebnork — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:32:03 -0800

We're locked into the moon's gravitational pull! What do we do? *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-click* We die.

By: sharkitect

sharkitect — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:50:58 -0800

One starfighter against the entire armada?? It'll be a slaughter!

By: k5.user

k5.user — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:09:40 -0800

That's the spirit!

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:52:58 -0800

WARNING! WARNING! TOTAL DORK DETECTED! Hey, whaddya mean STARFIGHTER.EXE already exists? Sure, overwrite it!

By: Pogo_Fuzzybutt

Pogo_Fuzzybutt — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:17:00 -0800

Oh Metafilter. You're my Juliet. My Venus. All the other websites meant nothing to me. It was you. You. You.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:47:24 -0800

No, *my* slaughter!