The game was created by Damon Slye for the Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1983, then remade in the early 1990s for MS-DOS, Amiga, and Classic Mac OS.

The graphics are more advanced and rendered in a full range of colors, and has more complex world background paintings.

The hero of the story has a super-tank that he can use to defeat Draxon's forces, though it was called into service before being finished and thus is protected only by energy shields and has no armor.

From a game mechanics perspective, this explains why the tank simply is destroyed when its shields (hit points) run out.

The third game in the series, Nova 9, vastly expanded the in-game plot, added cut scenes, dialog, and more story-related tension.

Softline stated in 1983 that "combining first-rate graphics and sound effects with fast-paced, arcade-style excitement makes Stellar 7 hard to beat in every sense".

[3]: 29  Tom Clancy in 1988 named Stellar 7 one of his two favorite computer games, stating that "it is so unforgiving, it is just like life".