Star Hawk (Vectrex)

solar quest box art

Star Hawk title screen/overlay

Origins/gameplay

Star Hawk was a first person shooter arcade game. Up to two players could play simultaneously, destroying ships that flew over a planet by positioning their onscreen cursors on the ships while firing. The games were timed, which the player(s) had two minutes to score at least 10,000 points (or a multiple thereof), which would lead to an additional 20 seconds worth of gameplay added to the clock. However, the alien ships would become harder to hit as a difficulty increase.

One certain ship that flew past the center of the trench of the planet below (on this port; originally it would appear from a corner) would make a warning sound as it appeared, which, if destroyed quickly, would give the player 800 points, enlarge their cursor, give double points for every ship destroyed and increase the planet’s scrolling speed for several seconds. If the ship wasn’t destroyed, it would subtract 800 points from the player(s’) score.

Note: on this port, the game starts off with one minute on the clock, not two, and the planet did not speed up, nor the player’s cursor enlarge when they shot the Command Ship on the original. However, the starting time on the clock could be changed via the game’s dipswitches on the original, depending on what the individual arcade owner wanted.

This port was created and released by GCE in 1982.

Trivia

• The game seemed to be called "Starhawk" in the arcades, then became two words of "Star Hawk" with this port, as when it’s started up on a Vectrex or emulator, on the title screen it’s two words.
• Game two is geared towards the original Vectrex analog controller, where the player can move the cursor in one direction, but if they let go of the stick, the cursor will snap back to its original starting position. Control on this game variation will not work with modern day converted digital controllers.