The 1987 PC MS-DOS version of Argonaut Software‘s classic 3D shooter, Starglider, was ported by Realtime Games Software, who did the excellent Amstrad and ZX Spectrum ports. Unfortunately, the game is available only with four-colour CGA graphics, which does diminish the look of the game significantly.

You can press ‘P’ on the main menu to cycle through a choice of colour palettes, although none look particularly great (some actually look pretty terrible). I’ve shown a selection of them here.

DOS Starglider plays well enough, though. You can use either the keyboard, a joystick, or the mouse, to control the AGAV craft, with the latter being most effective, IMHO. The wireframe 3D graphics are fast and smooth, and shooting stuff is satisfying enough. That said, I do have an issue with this port, that makes playing and surviving difficult, and that is the fact that it is very difficult to actually dock with a base, so you can re-fill your shields, replenish your lasers, and load more missiles. I lost count of the number of times I died, trying to enter the rotating base’s entrance. I either collided with the base itself, instead of going inside, or something stomped me while I was waiting for the entrance to align. I’d say that I only managed to successfully dock in maybe one in ten occasions, which is not the case in the Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad and Spectrum versions, and a 10% success rate is way too low for such a vital gameplay process. And this docking trouble, it could be argued, pretty much ruins the game.

Also: I noticed that I would also always get stomped when I was attempting to re-fill the AGAV’s energy levels at the energy towers. Either by missiles from a nearby tank, or by a nearby Stomper or Walker. This would often lead to me being knocked off-course and the energy refuelling stopping. My guess would be that Starglider in DOS maybe runs at too high a rate of cycles, which makes nearby enemies home in on you very quickly. I did try lowering the cycle rate in DOSBox, which kinda helped, but I still had issues docking with bases.

Another issue I had with this version of the game were the draw distances. I don’t know if the draw distance is less in this, than in the Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad or Spectrum versions, but it sure as heck felt like it. Distant Stargliders would disappear and reappear constantly, as they crossed in and out of the draw distance limit, which is something that isn’t a problem in other versions of the game, but was noticeable and annoying in this.

Overall, the MS-DOS version of Starglider isn’t great, and is not the best way to play the game. If you want a better experience overall, try the Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad or Spectrum versions – they’re all better than the hamstrung PC version.

More: Starglider on Wikipedia