Out of the Past, the Star Raiders

Sean came by today to finish Below on Netflix (such a promising start, such a dreadful finish) and to help me move around some furniture and appliances. He presented me with a pristine copy of Star Raiders for the Atari 400/800. Sean and I played this game to death back in the 1980s; it would have been perhaps the fourth or fifth game we bought for the system, and it's been described as the "killer app" for the 400/800. 

It deserves the accolade. Star Raiders was a great space shooter/strategy game that made excellent use of the joystick and keyboard in combination to provide a depth of gameplay far beyond what could be accomplished on the Atari 2600, the Intellivision, and other game platforms of the era. 

Sadly, our Star Raiders cartridge went missing some time ago, and Sean decided that the Woods brothers simply could not be without the game. And here it is! Our 400 doesn't work anymore, but there's a new product coming out next year that will play this and our other cartridges, a recreation of the 800XL. The Star Raiders will fly again!