Sinistar lives-in 3D-hardware-required glory! THQ's gorgeous Sinistar Unleashed is shaping up to be one of the most stunning space shooters ever put to a PC.

Your retinas will collapse under the brilliance of these lighting effects that range from a blazing sun and incoming fireballs to the sweeping green energy of the Sinistar! Want piercing stereo sound?

Well, the games are out now for DOS. You get Defender, Defender II, Roboton, Joust, Bubbles and Sinistar for about $35. The games use a 'Williams Emulator' to run the actual arcade game code, so they are very authentic. You can check out info here. Software ROM Switcher Built. Sinistar Play online. Emulators (You can try another emulator if current one doesn't work with game).

You got it-you can pinpoint your enemies' positions by the signature roar of their engines. Only Sinistar's 'I live' taunt was in this preview disc, but hopefully THQ will add more verbal debauchery before the final game is shipped.Sinistars fluid controls take full advantage of a flight stick, utilizing the rudder, throttle, and even the hat-button for strafing. You'll spin and dive while mining asteroids for crystals to arm yourself with the all-important sinibombs. Plus, Unleashed adds some twists to the basic Sinistar formula, enabling you to spend your crystals on shields or weaponry. The preview was a polished sample of an incomplete game, but the bottom line is: Sinistar lives, mortal-and hes coming to crush you! OverviewThe Distilled Evil along with their slaves, The Sporg, are creating the ultimate biomechanical weapon: the Sinistar.

If successful, the Sinistar will wreak havoc on the universe as we know it. It’s up to you, brave fighter, to put a stop to this before it starts. Fight waves of workers and fighters, mine Sinisite crystals to aid in your quest, and use the enemy’s jump gate to move a little closer to the center of the Sinistar universe and put an end to the Distilled Evil’s plans of conquest. Gameplay, Controls, Interfaceappears to be more of a sequel than a remake of the classic 1982 coin operated game, Sinistar. Both this version and the original have the same basic concept and goal: fly around destroying workers and fighters, mine crystals, and hope you have enough when the Sinistar is ready to come after you. That’s where the similarities end. Sinistar Unleashed has much more complicated gameplay than the original.

This game is played in a fully 3D rendered environment in outer space - your ship can pitch, roll, and yaw and also has a clutch function that allows you to continue moving in a direction while you freely rotate your ship. The clutch is quite useful when battling enemies that on your tail. The control itself is handled really well and is very responsive. This is one game for which you will really want to have a good 3D joystick. Your ship comes equipped with a mining laser that can be used for both fighting enemies and mining Sinisite crystals. It is also Sinibomb ready - just add crystals.

Obtaining crystals by mining certain types of asteroids is extremely important. Sinisite crystals are more or less your lifeline - quite literally in one sense as they will help repair your ship if you have enough to spare.

They also allow you to use certain weapons once you have obtained them. There are eight other weapons total which all have different ranges and effects. The only one that is capable of damaging the Sinistar, however, is the Sinibomb so be sure you have a lot of crystals to launch these when Sinistar comes through the jump gate otherwise you’ll find yourself in quite a bind. In addition to the extra weapons, you also have special items, such as speed boosters, cloaking, shields, and stationary turrets (among others) that can help you out.

Again, destroying certain types of asteroids or transport ships will reward you with new weapons or items. There are other features in the game that aren’t necessary to play, but can be helpful, such as being able to change your viewpoint, targeting, and zooming in and out with your radar. Each item and weapon shows up as an icon on screen. I found these icons to be somewhat annoying as they are small and sometimes difficult to differentiate. Fortunately, when an icon is selected on the screen, it shows the name too.

There are 24 levels total including five bonus levels. The regular levels consist of you, lots of enemies, asteroids, the jump gate, and eventually the Sinistar.

You can collect crystals, items, and weapons to get ready for the conflict. You can also use Sinibombs to bomb the jump gate and slow the progress of Sinistar arriving. After every third regular level is a bonus level.The interface is a little odd. You start a new game with a certain number of lives.

When you die, it takes you back out to the menu and asks you to save the game. You can then restart the level if you like, minus one life though. Likewise, you can also quit at any time and resume later. I found the way these 'features' are handled to be a bit confusing, but nothing that can’t be overcome. Here’s where the game gets some extra bonus points from this reviewer. The system I reviewed the game on technically does not meet the system requirements. After updating the drivers for my Voodoo 1 card, it ran beautifully.

The movies were a little choppy, but what do you expect when you don’t meet the requirements? Well, certainly not good game performance like I got. Kudos to THQ on this one. GraphicsThis game REQUIRES 3D acceleration and states this in nice big letters on the front of the box. Heed this warning, otherwise the game won’t work.

The graphics within the game are beautiful. Okay, so how can the black of space be beautiful? There is enough lighting around to see the glow of the jump game, the workers, fighters, asteroids, etc. Each item is rendered very nicely as well as the effects from glowing items, explosions, the crystals fluttering around.

Sinistar as well as all the fighters and workers are much more monstrous and menacing looking than in the original game. Audio'I am Sinistar!' Some of you may remember this line from the original.

It’s still there as well as some of the others and new ones. Sinistar’s voice is still just as menacing as it ever was. The sounds within the game are done well, but nothing appears to be utterly groundbreaking here. System RequirementsWindows 95/98 and 100% compatible computer, Pentium II 233 MHz, Sound Blaster 16 compatible sound card, Direct3D or 3dfx Glide compatible 3D hardware accelerator card, 32M RAM, 4X CD drive, and a mouse.Recommended: Pentium II 300MHz, AGP 3D hardware accelerator card, four-button joystick (with rudder control and throttle), PCI EAX or A3D compatible sound card, 12X CD-ROM, and 64MB RAM.Supports: Force FeedbackNote: The bottom of the box also shows a useful table of 3D hardware accelerator chipsets and examples of 3D cards that use these chips.

Make sure you have a card with one of these chips before trying to play this game. Bottom LineMost remakes of classic arcade games tend to appeal only to those who love that genre. I would classify this game as an exception to the rule. This is an overall fun game that will likely appeal to many people who don’t necessarily like classic games. This game is a pure action 3D shoot-em-up and it is relatively simple to get the initial feel of the game, but it is complicated enough to keep even the best players entertained for a while, which is why I give Sinistar Unleashed as score of 87.

Sinistar is a multi-directional shooter arcade game developed and manufactured by Williams Electronics.^[2] The game was released in 1983,^[1][3] though the in-game copyright notice reads 1982. Sinistar was created by Sam Dicker,^[4] Jack Haeger,^[4]Noah Falstein,^[5]RJ Mical, Python Anghelo,^[1] and Richard Witt.^[4] In addition to the game's roaring antagonist, Sinistar is known for its high difficulty level.^[6][7]

Gameplay[edit]

The player pilots a lone spacecraft, and must create 'Sinibombs' by shooting at drifting planetoids and catching the Sinisite crystals that are thereby released. Sinibombs are needed to defeat the game boss, Sinistar, an animated spacecraft with a demonic skull face. Sinistar does not exist at the start of the game, and is continuously under construction by enemy worker ships. Though time is crucial, attempting to mine too quickly will destroy a planetoid without releasing any crystals. Enemy worker ships are also gathering crystals (often stealing them from the player) which they use to construct the Sinistar. Enemy warrior ships can directly attack the player's ship, shoot planetoids to mine crystals, and guard the Sinistar while it is being built. It takes 20 crystals to create the 20 pieces necessary for a completely built Sinistar. The player is given a head start before the enemy ships have enough crystals to begin construction. Game ends when the player's ships are all destroyed.

Once the Sinistar is completely built, a digitized voice (recorded by radio personality John Doremus^[8] and played through an HC-55516 CVSD decoder^[9][10]) makes various threatening pronouncements: 'Beware, I live!', 'I hunger, coward!', 'I am Sinistar!', 'Run! Run! Run!', 'Beware, coward!', 'I hunger!', 'Run, coward!', and a loud roaring sound. The Sinistar has no weapon attacks, but if it contacts the player's ship while it darts about the playfield, the player's ship will be 'eaten' and destroyed. A total of 13 Sinibombs are required to destroy a fully built Sinistar, although an incomplete Sinistar can be damaged to slow construction. Each short-range Sinibomb automatically targets the Sinistar when fired, but can be intercepted by a collision with enemy Workers, enemy Warriors, or a planetoid.

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The player moves from one zone to the next each time they defeat the Sinistar. A sequence of four zones repeats continuously after the first zone. Each is named for the most numerous feature of that zone: Worker Zone, Warrior Zone, Planetoid Zone, and Void Zone (the Void Zone is especially difficult because it has very few planetoids). Beginning with the first Worker Zone, a completed but damaged Sinistar can be repaired/rebuilt by the enemy Workers by gathering more crystals, extending its 'lifespan' if the player is unable to kill it quickly.

255 lives bug[edit]

Sinistar contains a bug that grants the player many lives (ships). It happens only if the player is down to one life and the Sinistar is about to eat the player's ship. If a warrior ship shoots and destroys the ship at this moment, it immediately takes the player to zero lives, and the Sinistar eating the player subtracts another life. Since the number of lives is stored in the game as an 8-bitunsigned integer, the subtraction from zero will cause the integer to wrap around to the largest value representable with 8 bits, which is 255 in decimal.^[11]

During these challenging times, we guarantee we will work tirelessly to support you. Grand theft auto 5 online play.

Legacy[edit]

Sinistar was the first game to use stereo sound (in the sitdown version), with two independent front and back sound boards for this purpose. It was also the first to use the 49-way, custom-designed optical joystick that Williams had produced specifically for this game.^[4]

There were no contemporary ports of Sinistar. Versions for the Atari 2600^[12] and the Atari 8-bit family were in progress,^[13] but not completed. Sinistar was commercially available in the mid-1990s as part of Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits for the Super NES, Sega Genesis and Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Microsoft Windows. It is also available as part of Midway Arcade Treasures, which was released for the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2 in 2003, and for Windows in 2004; part of Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PlayStation Portable in late 2005; and part of Midway Arcade Origins for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.^[14]Sinistar is part of Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits on the Game Boy Advance.^[15]

A 3D sequel was released for Windows in 1999, Sinistar: Unleashed.^[16]

Clones[edit]

Deathstar is a Sinistar clone for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, published by Superior Software in 1984.^[17] It was originally developed as an official port to be released by Atarisoft, but they decided to abandon the BBC platform while a number of games were still in development. Sinistaar (1989) is a clone for the Tandy Color Computer 3.^[18]Xenostar (1994) is a public domain clone for the Amiga.^[19]

Popular culture[edit]

Some of Sinistar's quotations have been included in unrelated video games. In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos the Undead DreadLord hero says, 'I Hunger!' In the game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the neutral hero Firelord's birth sound is him saying 'Beware, I live.' World of Warcraft paid tribute to the same quote: The boss enemy Reliquary of Souls shouts it when freed. In Team Fortress 2, the Heavy class says the phrases 'I Live!' and 'Run, Cowards!' The phrase 'Run coward! I live!' occasionally appears as splash text on Minecraft. In League of Legends, Dark Star Thresh may say 'Beware, I live' upon respawning after a death, while Final Boss Veigar may say 'I hunger!' while moving around the map. The original Escape Velocity game also had rare guest appearances of the Sinistar, including some of its catchphrases.

Sinistar is also referred to in various non-video-game media. The Cage song 'Grand Ol' Party Crash' samples Sinistar. The film We Are the Strange uses 'Beware, I live', 'I hunger', 'Run, coward', and Sinistar's roar. Sinistar makes several appearances in the webcomicBob the Angry Flower, and also appears as the title of one of the print editions of the comic. Sinistar appears in the DVD version of the South Park episode trilogy 'Imaginationland'. The sound bite 'Beware, coward' was used in the theme tune to the British Channel 4 video-game TV show Bits.^[20] The audio version of podcast IGN Game Scoop uses the sound bite 'Beware, I live' in its theme tune.^[21]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcFalstein, Noah (Fall 2009). 'Reflections on the Birth of Sinistar'. gamesauce.
2. ^Burnham, Van (2003) 'Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984' ISBN0-262-52420-1
3. ^Sinistar Instruction Manual. Williams Electronics. 1983.
4. ^ ^abcd'Noah Falstein on the development of Sinistar'. www.sinistar.com.
5. ^Burnham (2003) p. 320
6. ^Sawyer, Steve. 'The Most Difficult Arcade Games – Ever!'. Liberty Games Blog.
7. ^Williams, G. Christopher. ''Beware, I Live': The Voice of Antagonism, The Voice of the Arcade'. Pop Matters.
8. ^Internet Movie Database^{[unreliable source?]}
9. ^'MAME 0.36b7 changelog'.
10. ^'System 16 - Williams/Midway Y Unit Hardware (Midway)'. www.system16.com.
11. ^Noah Falstein interview, Williams Arcade Classics CD-ROM for MSDOS and Microsoft Windows, Williams Entertainment, 1996
12. ^Reichert, Matt. 'Sinistar (Atari 2600)'. AtariProtos.com. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
13. ^Reichert, Matt. 'Sinistar (Atari 8-bit)'. AtariProtos.com. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
14. ^Claiborn, Samuel (13 November 2012). 'Midway Arcade Origins Review'.
15. ^https://uk.ign.com/articles/2003/01/01/midways-greatest-arcade-hits
16. ^Webcitation.org
17. ^'Acorn User Review Archive: DEATHSTAR'. www.acornelectron.co.uk.
18. ^Boyle, L. Curtis. 'Sinistaar'. Tandy Color Computer Games List.
19. ^http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/Xenostar
20. ^DKTronics70 (2008-06-19), Bits Series 1 Part 1, retrieved 2018-10-19
21. ^FM, Player. 'Game Scoop!'. Game Scoop!. Retrieved 2018-10-19.

External links[edit]

• Sinistar at the Killer List of Videogames
• Tyler's Sinistar Page, another Sinistar site