Star Wars : The Arcade Game Star Wars is an produced by Atari and released in 1983 . The game is a first - person , based around . More specifically the game ' s action covers the Battle of Yavin . The game is composed of color . Considered one of the most popular video games of all time , it was greatly successful in its day , particularly in the wake of the theatrical release of " " . It was later produced as Star Wars : The Arcade Game on the Atari 2600 , the Atari 5200 , the Atari XE , the ColecoVision , and the Commodore 64 . In 1991 , an updated version of the game was released for the NEC PC 98 - 01 and the Sharp X68000 systems under the title Star Wars : Attack on the Death Star . This version featured a long introductory cutscene at the beginning of the game . Gameplay . The player assumes the role of Luke Skywalker ( " Red Five " ) , as he pilots an X - Wing fighter from a first - person perspective . Unlike other arcade games of similar nature , the player does not have to destroy every enemy in order to advance through the game ; he must simply survive as his fighter flies through the level , which most often means he must avoid or destroy the shots that enemies fire . The player ' s ultimate goal is to destroy the Death Star through three attack phases . Each successive Death Star run greatly increases the difficulty ; TIE Fighters shoot more often , there are more Laser towers and batteries in the second round , and there are many more obstacles and laser fire during the trench run . Unlike the movie , where the units shoot laser cannons , the enemy units in this game shoot projectiles resembling fireballs , in order to give the player a chance to destroy the shots fired at him . Arcade details . The game featured several digitized samples of voices from the movie , including Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker , Alec Guinness as Obi - Wan Kenobi , James Earl Jones as Darth Vader , Harrison Ford as Han Solo , and the mechanized beeps of R2 - D2 . The game was the first to feature digitized voice capabilities , often considered a prime factor of the game ' s success . The game is available as a standard upright or an elaborately decorated sit - down version . The controls consist of a yoke control ( similar to a steering wheel ) with several buttons , all which fired the fighter ' s laser . In some gameplay , the first level utilized The Imperial March . This was because the Arcade Game was released shortly after the release of . Ports . The game was published for home computers in Europe by Domark in 1987 . That same year Broderbund acquired the rights to develop Star Wars games from Lucasfilm . Broderbund published the and Behind the scenes . The game was programmed for the Atari 2600 by Bob Smith , who was involved in programming many other games for Atari . In the films " " and " " ( both released 1984 ) , both were depicted . The trench sequence was seen in " Gremlins " when the Gremlins play the game and in the film " No Small Affair " , an upright cabinet is used . Players with attention to detail may notice that after the TIE Fighter waves , when you are flying towards the Death Star , the yellow grid lines on the Death Star spell out either " MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU " on odd - numbered waves . Assorted peoples ' names are spelled out on even numbered waves . When flying in the trench towards the vulnerable exhaust port , " USE THE FORCE " is spelled in green until you fire a shot . If you dodge the fireballs , do not fire any shots and use one shot to fire your torpedoes in to the exhaust port , you get a sizable " USE THE FORCE " bonus . This is encouraged by Obi Wan himself at the beginning of the trench sequence . Portions of the game , most notably the Meridian trench being loaded with obstacles instead of barren as in the original film , were later reused for the Battle of Yavin mission in the 2001 game " Star Wars : Rogue Squadron II : Rogue Leader " , as well as its co - op port in " Star Wars : Rogue Squadron III : Rebel Strike " , the latter game also included the arcade game as an unlockable bonus . According to the making of documentary for " Rebel Strike " , the arcade game acted as the inspiration of the " Rogue Squadron " series . Joe Booth is credited as one of the game ' s programmers while John Cassells was the one responsible for the graphics .