As one of the largest multimedia franchises in the world, Star Wars has been a popular title for video game production. Games span genres from shooters to role-playing games and date back to some of the earliest years of mass-market video game availability. Each of the original trilogy movies go their first video game in the early 1980s.

Though all three films in the original trilogy would see plenty of games each, it was Empire that saw the first licensed video game in the form of 1982’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600. Developed and published by Parker Brothers, the game made use of the limited hardware capabilities of the time in order to render a version of the Battle of Hoth. The goal of the game was to hold off AT-AT Walkers as they advanced on the Rebel base. The difficulty of the game eventually ramps up, with the Walkers becoming faster in their approach; the game ends when either the player is out of lives, or the AT-AT reaches the base.

Worth noting is that, while Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was the first licensed Star Wars game, it wasn’t the first Star Wars game ever produced. An unlicensed game was made and released for the Apple II computer in 1978, in which players are tasked with taking out TIE Fighters.

In 1983 the first game based on A New Hope released, with the arcade cabinet simply titled Star Wars. This game featured colorful vector graphics and, with regards to the cabinets themselves, was available in both standing and sit-down versions (though the game itself was the same). Players took control of Luke Skywalker as he piloted his X-Wing, and had to fight off Darth Vader and complete the Death Star trench run. This Star Wars game was ported to a number of home consoles after its release, with Parker Brothers handling many of these home versions.

Parker Brothers had another home console release with the 1983 release of Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle for the Atari 2600. In accordance with the title, players took on the second Death Star, destroying its reactor and then escaping from the explosion. Notable to this particular game is how the box art was done by artist John Berkey, who had previously done some of the key artwork used in Star Wars movie posters. The artwork for the game shows the Millennium Falcon being pursued by a number of TIE interceptors, with the second Death Star looming in the background.

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