[2] Star Fighter 3000 was first released for the Acorn Archimedes in November 1994 by Fednet Software, a company created by Tim Parry and Andrew Hutchings to publish the game.

[3] One element of the gameplay noted in the game's review was the ability for the player to fly the fighter out of the planet's atmosphere, with the sky darkening until "outer space begins to appear", also providing encounters with "hostile emplacements in orbit".

Development was done under the software label FlaYmz; headed by Nathan Atkinson (formerly of Visions of the Impossible) and coded by Lee Noar.

Star Fighter 3000 was also released for the PC, Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn in North America by Acclaim Entertainment[7] and in Europe by Telstar.

Electronic Gaming Monthly criticized the controls for being too loose but praised the huge number of missions, the addictive gameplay, and most of all the ability to fly freely in any direction.

However, he additionally commented that the ability to deform the landscape with weapons fire is fun, and that "enemy installations tend to be designed as if someone were really trying to defend themselves".

[12] Maximum panned it for its "dreadful control system", pronounced slowdown, and grating music, as well as the simplicity of the early missions.

They did praise the game's visuals, but concluded that "when inevitably compared to Air Combat, this ultimately fails to present a credible alternative.

"[11] Power Unlimited gave the 3DO version a score of 77% writing: "The sceneries are very nice and the handling of the ship is fine.

"[20] In 2011, Andrew Hutchings[21] entered a new game, inspired by Star Fighter, in the 2011 'Dream Build Play' contest.