Williams Star Rider Thoughts....

Schusler

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Love or hate this game? I remember playing this game in my youth and thought it was so cool! Gotta love that sit down version. I hope one day acquiring one of these for my collection. Thoughts, acejedi you probably have one, chime in, does it translate well today?
 
Love or hate this game? I remember playing this game in my youth and thought it was so cool! Gotta love that sit down version. I hope one day acquiring one of these for my collection. Thoughts, acejedi you probably have one, chime in, does it translate well today?


It wasn't my favorite game to play, but it was a cool game to work on. The graphics were SOA for the day. Of course, you could probably do a real time version now on a PS3 without the laser disc.

ken
 
it's not bad. it's a decent bike race game on its own and that's why it works. the laserdisc just adds smooth visuals and blends well. when it works, star rider is a good example of a successful laser game.
 
Love or hate this game? I remember playing this game in my youth and thought it was so cool! Gotta love that sit down version. I hope one day acquiring one of these for my collection. Thoughts, acejedi you probably have one, chime in, does it translate well today?

Love it. Has the coolest way to use laserdisc hardware, IMO. Video footage is purposely stretched out to the sides and derezed to create the illusion of lane shifting and blend with the foreground graphics (sprites). Game doesn't end either (last few tracks repeat); racers gets harder though!
From what I was told, it could've been better - also it came out at a time that laserdiscs were becoming FUBAR'd in the arcades already.

Marcel
 
Love it. Has the coolest way to use laserdisc hardware, IMO. Video footage is purposely stretched out to the sides and derezed to create the illusion of lane shifting and blend with the foreground graphics (sprites). Game doesn't end either (last few tracks repeat); racers gets harder though!
From what I was told, it could've been better - also it came out at a time that laserdiscs were becoming FUBAR'd in the arcades already.

Marcel

I actually have the laserdisc for this game and yeah some of the backdrops are simply amazing! I really didn't know there was an ending or not, so it just keeps repeating? Do you own the upright or sitdown?
 
I actually have the laserdisc for this game and yeah some of the backdrops are simply amazing! I really didn't know there was an ending or not, so it just keeps repeating? Do you own the upright or sitdown?

Order might be wrong, but there are 7 tracks in total:

Cubitania
Hexagonia
Crystallia
Milky Way
Stalactia
Titania
Metropolia

After Metropolia, it loops back to Milky Way. I've gone around the "universe" 3 times. It gets almost impossible to catch up with the first racer after the first looparound (you have to be first to go to advance); you really have to know where the track hazards (rocks) are. Of course, it depends how you have your settings at. I have the upright.
 
Love or hate this game? I remember playing this game in my youth and thought it was so cool! Gotta love that sit down version. I hope one day acquiring one of these for my collection. Thoughts, acejedi you probably have one, chime in, does it translate well today?

I played it one time. I was bored with it in about 16.5 seconds. One of the worst, LD games IMO. (sorry Star Rider... I see you like this game). And before the peanut gallery chimes in on me, yes... there are a lot of bad laser disc games... most of them suck, in fact! ;)
 
I played it one time. I was bored with it in about 16.5 seconds. One of the worst, LD games IMO. (sorry Star Rider... I see you like this game). And before the peanut gallery chimes in on me, yes... there are a lot of bad laser disc games... most of them suck, in fact! ;)

16.5 seconds got you to the end of the first track, a very easy one. (just kidding) No need to apologize. :) To each his own. Dragons Lair to me was a flash in the pan. Space Ace was a cooler story, but same deal - I finished it and... that's it.
Again for what I was told by some of the developers, SR could have been better but there were many issues. I love the game mostly for what they tried to do.
 
I also have the laserdisc - tested it in a friend's player, and all tracks display perfectly, no bit rot.

I'd love to get a Star Rider machine to use the disk in... maybe one of these days.

Kyle :cool:



Love or hate this game? I remember playing this game in my youth and thought it was so cool! Gotta love that sit down version. I hope one day acquiring one of these for my collection. Thoughts, acejedi you probably have one, chime in, does it translate well today?
 
16.5 seconds got you to the end of the first track, a very easy one. (just kidding) No need to apologize. :) To each his own. Dragons Lair to me was a flash in the pan. Space Ace was a cooler story, but same deal - I finished it and... that's it.
Again for what I was told by some of the developers, SR could have been better but there were many issues. I love the game mostly for what they tried to do.

Yes... the effect of the stretched video is really neat. Not sure if you every played it, but Freedom Fighter did the same thing with the video. Interestingly, the prototype Freedom Fighter machines actually used Star Rider hardware. I'm assuming they chose Star Rider hardware becasue they wanted to do the stretching effect so they borrowed the technology from Star Rider to test it. Once Freedom Fighter went into production, they created new PCB's and stopped using the Star Rider hardware.
 
I played it one time. I was bored with it in about 16.5 seconds. One of the worst, LD games IMO. (sorry Star Rider... I see you like this game). And before the peanut gallery chimes in on me, yes... there are a lot of bad laser disc games... most of them suck, in fact! ;)

Geez Jeff 16 seconds, is that even enough time to get into any game? As far as worst laser I think my choice would be Mach 3; was never really into it. Comparing the beautiful background visuals, how bout Interstellar!
 
Geez Jeff 16 seconds, is that even enough time to get into any game? As far as worst laser I think my choice would be Mach 3; was never really into it. Comparing the beautiful background visuals, how bout Interstellar!

Yeah... I'm not a big fan of MACH 3 either. I do remember playing it a lot back in the day, though. It's funny how some games were awesome when you were a kid and are still awesome today, and others were awesome when you were a kid and suck really bad today. Hehe.
 
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