Deathstar

DeathStar is a sci-fi action game that places the player in command of a spaceship navigating through space. The game is essentially a clone of the arcade classic Sinistar, sharing its core mechanics. Players control a ship that moves forward continuously and can be rotated left or right in 22.5-degree increments, offering sixteen directions total. The screen is filled with objects including workers, warriors, and planetoids. The main objective is to shoot planetoids to release glowing crystals that can be collected for points and converted into starbombs. Once workers successfully transport twenty pieces to the Deathstar, the massive enemy ship appears and pursues the player. Regular bullets have no effect on it, so players must use starbombs to destroy it piece by piece. Successfully destroying the Deathstar completes the level and triggers a warp drive to the next zone.

VIC-20

The VIC-20 version was published in 1985 by Argus Press Software as part of their VicTape Computing cassette magazine lineup. The game was originally conceived as an official port of Sinistar for Atarisoft, but when that brand was dropped in 1984, development continued as an unofficial port under the new name DeathStar by Superior Software. The VIC-20 conversion brought the intense space combat experience to the platform, adapting the complex arcade gameplay to the system's capabilities. The game featured a radar display showing objects as colored dots, helping players navigate the chaotic battles. As with many Argus Press releases of this era, Deathstar was distributed as a type-in program, requiring users to manually enter the code from the magazine into their VIC-20.