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The Last Starfighter (1984)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 10:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Back in the late 1980s my kids and I were crazy about Solaris, and old dad was plum obsessed with it, because the game was dang near impossible to beat!






I never did, but I got close late one night when I made it to the very last of the star maps like the one shown below, which actually showed the planet Solaris! If I had been able to reach it, I'd have won the game.





During my hours of playing this game, actually drew up copies of the many star charts that appeared as I made my way through the game. The reason I did that was because the maze created by the exits from each chart to another chart were hellishly complex.

The jpeg of the sixteen different star maps below done by a player who drew them on paper when he was a kid, like I did. Years Later he used screen grabs to create this version. I added the green arrow to show the staring position, and the red arrow to show the location of Solaris, the final destination of the game.

Imagine playing this game without the maps and with no idea which exits lead to which star map! Shocked






My own drawings did allow me to figure out which exit on each star chart led to which of the OTHER charts, because I added the info at the exits on each map. They all were color coded on the game, and my charts were color coded the same way. Very Happy

But since I only managed to reach the star chart which contained Solaris one time (after hours of playing the game), I was never able to plot a route to it. And I never had a drawing of this last star map, so I wasn't able to relate it to the others.


If you'd like to try Solaris online free, here's the link! I spent about an hour playing it, and it was fun!

SOLARIS

And here's the manual so you can spend a few hours trying to figure out how to play this impossible-to-win.

Solaris Manual
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Tonight (March 22nd) I'm looking forward to watching this movie with Gord Green in All Sci-Fi's Chatzy room!

It's a movie that suits my personality to a tee — upbeat, imaginative, visually appealing, and heroic!

If anyone wants to join us, just click on the link above. We're starting at 6:30 pm EST. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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The box art for the Blu-ray is very impressive!

Here's a better version of the trailer which is sharper, and in widescreen.
________________________________


_______________ The Last Star Fighter Trailer


__________


The fan-made trailer below is visually impressive, but the overly tight editing and the annoying music spoils it (for me, at least).

What do you guys think?


_ The Last Starfighter (1984) - Modern Trailer [Fan Edit]


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This clever message at the beginning of the trailer —


]


— started me thinking about the claim that the 1980s was the "greatest age of sci-fi films", so I made a list of what I think are the best ones from the 1980s, using All Sci-Fi's exclusive Chronological Index of movies by release dates for movies from 1970 to 2000.

Here the list I made, with links to the threads for each movie so that you guys can add your comments (pro and con) about each one. Once I started making the list I began the realize that the 1980s did indeed produce a bumper crop of great science fiction movie!

As you can see from the list, there are movies which are humorous and movies that are deadly serious, with everything in between!

~ Please add your replies to the threads for each movie below, rather than here on The Last Starfighter thread. Very Happy
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Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Blade Runner (1982)

E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)

The Thing (1982)

Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn (1982)

Brainstorm (1983)

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

The Terminator (1984)

Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)

Cocoon (1985)

Aliens (1986)

The Fly (1986)

Short Circuit (1986)

* batteries not included (1987)

The Abyss (1989)

Batman (1989)

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:37 am; edited 2 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 12:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________


Starlog's issue 84 gave us a nice article about the gorgeous star of this movie.


______________


Click on each page here to see a large, easy-to-read version you can zoom in on. Click on the large version again, and then zoom in as close as you want!







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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________ ]


Starlog #80 also presented an article about this movie. The Archive.org scan is very sharp, but the magazine was not placed well on the scanner. I corrected the tilt of the the slightly images as much as I could, but the lower right corners of some pages have missing text because that part of the magazine was not on the scanner.

Click on each page here to see a large, easy-to-read version you can zoom in on. Click on the large version again, and then zoom in as close as you want!









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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

It’s fun to read articles that were written while a film is still in production. You get to find what the filmmaker hopes the movie will be like before it hits the screen. And we get to compare the finished product to the filmmaker’s intentions.

I enjoyed the description of the author’s tour (conducted by director Nick Castle) through Ron Cobb’s make-up department as he described all the masks we see in this enjoyable movie. He describes a few of them, and since I’ve seen the movie fairly often, I knew exactly which ones he was referring to.

The author mentions seeing a set that was built for “the cave Grig calls home”, but we didn’t get to see any scenes of that in the movie. Too bad.

In the article and in the movie, Grig (Dan O’Hearly) is described as resembling an iguana. Personally I’ve never gotten that impression. He’s obviously more like a turtle — complete with a skullcap that looks like a shell! Shocked






The comments by the director about the “new” technique of CGI FX are interesting in view of how well all that has worked out for Hollywood in the decades after the release of The Last Starfighter. It’s interesting to read the comments by the production staff who took a chance on something new, thereby pioneering the next step in filmmaking.

Concerning the physical props and sets, the discussion about the motorized chair that Lance Guest sits in while operating the Gunstar’s powerful weapons was interesting. I had never really thought about it, but I was glad to learn that Lance’s manipulation of the controls was actually causing the chair to whip around the way we see in the movie. The chair wasn’t just being twisted back and forth by stage hands on the set.






I still love this movie, and the early CGI has the look of stylized artwork, sort of like the concept art for the movie below.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Maurice
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

^^^Pretty sure that's concept art for a sequel.

I wonder if what they think are Grig's cave was part of the Starfighter Command set, which was built to be inside a mountain.

There's footage on YouTube of the actual Atari Coin-Op game which never got released. At 2:57 you can see the name of my friend Mike Albaugh scroll by as having done the "mathbox" for it.


LINK
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2018 8:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________

By gum, you're right! Thanks, Maurice!


The Last Starfighter Remake Art Revealed by Rogue One Writer




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
Atari was supposed to make games based on the film (as noted in the credits) but they were never commercially released.

According to a friend of mine who worked at Atari from near the beginning to the final end of the arcade group in 2000, a screening was arranged so the Atari people could see the film in workprint stage (few to no visual effects) and they all realized the film was not going to be a blockbuster, so Atari put the brakes on the games.

Thanks for sharing this sad tale of missed opportunities with us, Maurice. Confused

I know I'm not the only one who sees the reason for the Atari people bailing out of the deal. I mean, damn . . . what were the filmmakers thinking? The Atari people were shown "the film in workprint stage (few to no visual effects) and they all realized the film was not going to be a blockbuster."

I'm flabbergasted by the stupidity of this! What the hell did the filmmakers think the Atari folks came to see? The humble trailer park where the characters lived? The witty dialog of Lance Guest's horny little brother when he pulled out his hidden Playboy magazines?

Or were they expected to droll over this lovely lady's face?



_____________


Dammit, that was just as dumb as a real estate agent trying to talk a young couple into buying a house, and he pulls out the blueprints while he exclaims, "Wow, look at this beautiful floor plan! Heck, you don't need to see the house from the outside, right? Here, sign this contract!" Very Happy

Wholly mackerel. How dumb can people be? Rolling Eyes

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~ The Space Children (1958)
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Maurice
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Maurice wrote:
Atari was supposed to make games based on the film (as noted in the credits) but they were never commercially released.

According to a friend of mine who worked at Atari from near the beginning to the final end of the arcade group in 2000, a screening was arranged so the Atari people could see the film in workprint stage (few to no visual effects) and they all realized the film was not going to be a blockbuster, so Atari put the brakes on the games.

Thanks for sharing this sad tale of missed opportunities with us, Maurice. Confused

I know I'm not the only one who sees the reason for the Atari people bailing out of the deal. I mean, damn . . . what were the filmmakers thinking? The Atari people were shown "the film in workprint stage (few to no visual effects) and they all realized the film was not going to be a blockbuster."

I'm flabbergasted by the stupidity of this! What the hell did the filmmakers think the Atari folks came to see? The humble trailer park where the characters lived? The witty dialog of Lance Guest's horny little brother when he pulled out his hidden Playboy magazines?

Or were they expected to droll over this lovely lady's face?



_____________


Dammit, that was just as dumb as a real estate agent trying to talk a young couple into buying a house, and he pulls out the blueprints while he exclaims, "Wow, look at this beautiful floor plan! Heck, you don't need to see the house from the outside, right? Here, sign this contract!" Very Happy

Wholly mackerel. How dumb can people be? Rolling Eyes

Oh c'mon. That's pretty naïve. They had to show them SOMETHING, because the game had to be in the works long before the film was finished if they wanted to launch it any time near the film's release. Heck, the TRON arcade game shipped before the movie came out.

And, to be fair the movie was NOT a big success, so Atari was damned right to pull the plug on what promised to be most expensive arcade game ever (seriously, it would have been the first 3D solid rendered game with lighting), tied to a film which was no blockbuster. They'd never have made their money back.

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ralfy
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

1080p version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNllJc4gc1Y
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The Spike
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:32 pm    Post subject: More than just a film for nostalgists and gamer types. Reply with quote

You have been recruited by The Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.

The Last Starfighter is directed by Nick Castle and written by Jonathan R. Betuel. It stars Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Catherine Mary Stewart, Dan O'Herlihy and Norman Snow. Music is by Craig Safan and cinematography by King Baggot. Story sees Guest as Alex Rogan, an everyday teenage boy who upon breaking the high-score record on a trailer park arcade game, suddenly finds himself recruited by an alien defence unit to fight an evil army out in space.

The advancements of computers and all their devilish electronic off shoots have rendered many of the pioneering effects films of yesteryear as rudimentary antiques. Where once films like "Tron" and "The Last Starfighter" blazed the trail that many would follow over the years, now they seem, if you believe the multitude of new era reviews for them, to hold only nostalgia value to video game players who were still at school in the early 1980's. That's something of a disservice, for although they do indeed rely in the main on effects work and razz dazzle 80's credibility, the stories are enjoyably fantastical and not without thought and merit.

The Last Starfighter is one of the better ones because it manages to be both an exciting and sweet picture, one that is completely disarming. Certainly it marries Spielberg homespun values with George Lucas operatics, but in the form of its teen protagonist it also dots the fantasy canvas with angsty worth. So much so that now when one revisits the film with older eyes, we can appreciate more fully that young Alex is in a rut, the crossroads of his life, a life he's struggling to make sense of. Also more appreciation can now be made of the relationship Alex has with Grig (O'Herlihy), his flight navigator up in the galaxy, someone whom he calls a Gung-Ho iguana! This relationship is nicely drawn, here is where Alex finds not only his friend, but also his father figure, something he doesn't have the privilege of down on Earth.

Whilst up there fighting an intergalactic battle, Alex on Earth has been replaced by a Replicant Beta Model to ensure he is not missed. Here is where much of the film's fun is gleaned from. Interesting to note that originally this arc in the film wasn't to be that huge, but test screenings encouraged director Castle into a rethink. And the film is the better for it as the Beta tries to keep the flame going with the girlfriend (Stewart adorable girl next door type) and ensure he's not found out by any Ko-Dan spies! Here Guest earns his corn, it's a very good duel performance from the youngster and it's a shame his career never really took off post the film's release.

However, none of this means the film is full of depth, it still remains a very simple story full of fantastical incredulity. But the underlying message of improving oneself, not settling for second best, is rich and puts some potency in the narrative. Still, it's safe to say that most tuning into The Last Starfighter want whizz bang space adventure frolics, which thankfully we do get. The effects are of course variable, though not as cheap looking in High Definition as one expected, while the action is nicely constructed by Castle and his team. The villains led by a Po-faced Norman Snow make their mark, while Robert Preston, a legend to Western and film noir fans in the 40's and 50's, gives a wonderfully sweet and affecting turn as Centauri, the game inventor who whisks Alex away to the planet Rylos for his life changing challenge.

More than just a film for nostalgists and gamer types, Last Starfighter is pretty solid entertainment from its core to the outer layers. 7/10

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Eadie
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More concept art. (Sorry about the sizes. my computer refused to resize! Bud, they are in the album "Movies"):













They was a line of 4 inch (Star Wars scale) action figures planed:











I couldn't find out about any vehicles.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, My Lord! I just LOVED this movie!!!

I read the novelization of it before I got to see it...Much like STAR WARS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

I really felt an affinity with Alex and was drawn in to his complete adventure! It was one of those rare occurrences...Like when you found yourself along with Captain Adams in the deserts of Altair and Indy in the Valley of Petra looking for the Grail! This film was both very Human as well as Cosmic!

It very much deserved a sequel!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:
More concept art. (Sorry about the sizes. my computer refused to resize! Bud, they are in the album "Movies"):

Great images, Eadie! Cool

Thanks for letting me know where they're located in you Imgur album. I took care of the resizing. Please send me a PM which describes the problem you had, and we'll solve it together.
Very Happy
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