Starmaster

In the game, the player controls a starfighter with the aim of destroying a series of enemy ships before they destroy four friendly starbases. Most of the game is played from the cockpit in a first-person perspective, which is surprisingly well done considering the primitive graphics capabilities of the 2600. The starfighter is equipped with laser weapons, shields and a faster-than-light engine. The fighter also has a limited supply of energy, which is consumed by firing lasers, enemy fire, warping or simply flying around. When the ship's energy drops to zero, it is destroyed and the game ends. Enemy fire can disable the space fighter's subsystems (e.g. weapons), which also drains energy. The game's "universe" is a square galaxy divided into a grid of 36 sectors. Each sector can contain a few enemy ships, a starbase, both, or nothing at all. The player "warps" his fighter into a sector to attack enemy ships; once they are all destroyed, the player moves on to the next sector. The player can also warp to a sector with a starbase and dock there (a rather tricky process) to replenish energy and repair damaged subsystems. The enemy ships in turn maneuver through the galaxy and try to destroy the starbases. The game is won when all enemy ships have been destroyed, or lost when either your own fighter or all four starbases have been destroyed.