Following on from last month’s announcement that Megastyle Productions were in the process of porting across the Atari 2600 game, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back over to the Commodore 64, RGN has been been in touch with Chris Stanley (the coder working with graphic artist Rune Spaans on the project) to obtain a brief update.
Early footage of the Megastyle’s port look spectacular and is no doubt stirring up the inner Luke Skywalker within us all as we get the opportunity to fly around in a snow speeder and take on those gigantic AT-ATs before they reach the Rebel base on the icy planet Hoth.
When asked as to whether any new elements were to be added to the game, Chris revealed: “Currently our plan is to add the AT-ST “Scout Walkers” as secondary enemies which have already been designed but not yet implemented, and also different times of day/night for the landscapes. Once we have those elements in and working well then we will probably have a discussion about any other features which might enhance the game more.”
Originally, Stanley and Spaans were hoping to have the game released before the end of 2020 as a 40th anniversary tribute the movie but in speaking to Chris he admitted: “I suspect the release will slip to early 2021 unfortunately. This game is effectively a hobby project for us, and something of a labour of love for Rune, so we’d rather take our time and get things right.”
So it seems unlikely the we’ll be spending our Christmas period bring down the evil Empire and saving the universe but I did ask Chris if there was any chance that the port could receive an official approved status, which would open up the possibility for the game to receive a physical release: “I doubt we’ll get an official endorsement from Lucasfilm, although we are putting out some feelers in that regard! Failing that then yes, a free release on Itch as an absolute minimum but in our hearts we’d absolutely love to follow that up with a physical release if possible.”
We’ll provide further updates on this great looking project as they come to hand. But in the meantime, below you will find an exclusive screen shot, featuring refined graphics, showing an AT-AT attacking the shield generator. When the leading AT-AT reaches the generator, its head lowers and it switches from homing missiles to a powerful laser in order to destroy the generator.
