There are three connected gameplay sequences: combat against TIE fighters in space, flying across the surface of the Death Star, and the final trench run.

It was followed by a lesser-known arcade sequel, sold as a conversion kit for the original, in 1985: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

In the third phase, the player must navigate the trench until finally firing a proton torpedo for a direct hit on the exhaust port target.

Each successive wave greatly increases the difficulty; TIE fighters shoot more often, artillery bunkers and laser towers spawn in the second phase, and obstacles appear in the trench during the third.

[6] Development on the game started in 1981 under the title Warp Speed and was initially headed up by Ed Rotberg (who also worked on the vector-based Battlezone).

All conversions were developed by UK-based Vektor Grafix (the Atari 8-bit version by Zeppelin Games being an exception) and were published in Europe by Domark.

In the United States and some European countries, anyone who pre-ordered the game received a special copy where Star Wars is immediately unlocked on startup.

[14] In Japan, Game Machine listed Star Wars on their November 1, 1983 issue as being the most successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month.

[16] The MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 versions by Broderbund were reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #145 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column.

[17] Macworld praised the Macintosh version's gameplay, stating it has "fast-paced action" and is "extremely challenging in higher levels".

Citing "Awesome vector graphics, multiple triggers, a deluxe cabinet with powerful speakers in the back, [and] digitized voices", they ventured that it was "Probably the best licensed game ever.

"[20] In 1999, Next Generation listed Star Wars as number 24 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "Besides giving you the opportunity to reenact what many of us consider to be the greatest cinematic experience of our youth, Star Wars delivered fast-shooting gameplay with all the subtleties, and the combination of tight control and vector graphics make it equally fun today.

[23] In June 1985, Flavio Tozzi, Dave Roberts and Mike Ohren played as a team in turns for five days, two hours and 26 minutes on a single credit to attain the world record score of 1,000,000,012 points.