Star Wars Day

Today is a special day because international Star Wars Day is celebrated every year on the fourth of May by fans of the Star Wars series.

The origin of the date is an English pun. A recurring phrase in the movies, “May the force be with you.” originally, in English, reads “May the force be with you!”, which can easily be understood or said as “May the fourth be with you!”.

To celebrate, let’s look back at some of the best Star Wars titles from the Commodore 64’s games range.

Star Wars (1988, Domark)

Instead of choosing the Parker Brothers version from 1983 you should play this one which is much more better in gameplay and details.

The game consists of three main stages:

Space Battle – Players fight off TIE Fighters protecting the Death Star, avoiding Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter.
Death Star Surface – The goal is to destroy turbo laser batteries and get into the trench.
Trench Run – Players fly through the trench, dodging obstacles and turbo lasers, and must fire a torpedo into the Death Star’s exhaust port.

The Domark version features new graphics, enhanced effects, and audio, including a digitized voice clip: “The Force will be with you!”.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1988, Domark)

This is the second installment of the Star Wars trilogy where the gameplay is divided into four scenes, following key events from the movie:

Probe Droids – Luke Skywalker must stop enemy probe droids from transmitting data about the Rebel base.
Battle of Hoth – The player must fend off the attack of AT-AT and AT-ST walkers.
Space Battle – The Rebels flee while evading attacks from TIE Fighters.
Asteroid Field – Han Solo and Leia navigate the asteroid field to escape Imperial forces.

The game’s graphics are based on colourful but simple vector graphics, similar to the previous Star Wars (Domark).

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (2022, Megastyle)

The latest Star Wars themed game version on Commodore 64, made by fans to mark the anniversary of 4 May.

40 years after the Atari and Intellivision games were released, Megastyle is now proud to present to you: The Commodore 64 fan version of the original Parker Brothers game “Empire Strikes Back”.

The player controls Luke Skywalker in a Snowspeeder, battling AT-AT walkers on the planet Hoth. The goal is to delay the enemy for as long as possible before they destroy the power generator of Echo Base.

The game has beautiful graphics, which makes the old classic quite attractive.

Alongside the games, there are also a number of other ambitious creations, such as visual and musical demos:

Star Wars PETSCII (2017, Debris/Deetsay)