star wars cockpit display screens price
Just over a week and a half ago a Star Wars cockpit glass marquee sold on ebay for $182.50! Wow. Quite a bit of demand for an original piece of glass in great condition. With shipping that is over $200.00 for this one piece of artwork. Wonder if the winner saw my post about the Star Wars films and that eventually these pieces will be reproduced.
Here is a screen from the eBay auction for that Star Wars cockpit glass that QuarterArcade.com was selling. No doubt Anthony’s reputation and feedback bumped up the price on this one;
There are a number of Atari Star Wars cockpit owners out there. What is normally the problem with these backglasses? Are they usually faded? Flaking?
How much does that mean This Old Game should sell the repros for? If Phoenix Arcade was selling Mappy marquees, which are around the same size, for about $95 (if memory serves me), does that mean that the Star Wars backglasses should sell for around $135 a pop, even if they are plexi?
The marquees won’t be super easy to reproduce. They’re a little bit of a bigger size, but more importantly there are five screens for color (Thanks to Rich for supplying the photos);
Rich always does great work, if you aren’t familiar and want a contextually similar piece of artwork to compare, take a look at the Star Wars yoke overlays that he produced that had never been done correctly. They’re beautiful. Check out the video of the overlays getting diecut.
Don’t worry, be patient, these back glasses will be here sooner than later, probably a little bit later if not towards the end of the year (guess). Additionally, if you are looking to find other artwork, visit the Star Wars arcade game page for other resources on cabinet art, restoration, and repair.
When I picked up my factory converted Star Wars cockpit I watched eBay like a hawk for this piece of artwork. Prices were typically in the $45 to $75 range for a decent piece, 6 or 7 out of 10. I sold my crappy one for that much. I got lucky and picked up a solid 9/10 for just under $120 shipped. I think this particular auction is a little on the high end, but QA’s got a solid reputation and lets face it, the glass is not something you can live without on the game.
Im Silking these on Glass. But unlike most other projects where I reuse alot of the same screens for alot of different pieces. this one will have a set of dedicated screens that will be save JUST for screening this glass alone for all 6 colors (white art not shown).
I had this post wrong though, the Star Wars marquees will be screened on glass. Last I heard, Rich was picking up those cut to size glass pieces earlier this week.
Your email address is never displayed and cannot be spammed. If your comments are excessively self-promotional you will be banned from commenting. Read our comment privacy policy.
Not sure if this is the RIGHT place for this question but, I wanted to see if anyone knows. Many years ago, I picked up a Hydra Cockpit for $250... anyone who knows classics, knows it was a star wars. It even had all the original stick with the graphics inside it. I spent many months using a very light paint stripper to get the side art back out, most of it is in pretty good shape but, not all of it. After that, rewiring it with the original harness with all parts to make it all work, Still a holy grail type thing. It"s been a passion of love on this classic game. It all worked, even the coin slot.. but, I have it set on free play.
As most people should know, Star Wars used a Color XY monitor(that was know to have a very high failure rate in the arcades). The Hydra had a shelf put in and a 19" color monitor. I was able to find a 19" Color XY monitor(from a stand up star wars, I had one that was badly water damaged for a bit) for a good deal years ago, this got it up and running. Over the years, I was trying to find the parts to put the ORIGINAL 25" monitor in , I was able to find an original tube (had to drive almost 5 hours each way to get it), all the boards and should have everything I need to get it running BUT, the Flyback transformer is shot (big red as it"s called), for those who don"t know, it"s the high voltage part of a CRT with the suction cup. When I looked into years ago, I was talking $350-400 minimum to get it replaced/fixed, the project has sat in a box and nothing has been done besides it"s been working... till about a week ago.
Anyone have a star wars cockpit that can pull off the back cover and take a few pictures how the 25" tube is mounted so I can make sure I do it right ?
Ask any fan of Golden Age classic arcade machines what their fondest recollection of the era is, and it is likely that Atari’s seminal Star Wars game is going to be mentioned by most. Released in 1983, the game is indeed a true classic and is arguably one of the best uses of a licence ever in a video game. Based on the action seen in the film, this full colour vector game drops the player into the Star Wars Universe. And despite being ultimately not much more than an on-rails shooter, it is a great game, that puts the player inside an X-Wing Fighter craft as Luke Skywalker travelling through space to shoot down enemy Tie-Fighters.
Once the enemies are cleared the player arrives at the Death Star to shoot down Towers and turrets, all the while being encouraged to “use the force” by a digitized Alec Guinness. But it is perhaps the game’s final sequence that captures the imagination the most; the player is able to barrel down the Death Star’s “trench” to the game’s ultimate spectacular grand finale:
The actual game started life as something else entirely – Warp Speed. This was the game that engineer Jed Margolin had in his head to develop from his very first day at Atari:
The Star Wars game came about because I wanted to do a 3D space war game. I mean, I really wanted to do a 3D space war game. It is why I went to work for Atari.
I think that was the most excited I’ve ever been in my life! They could have picked people like Ed Logg or Ed Rotberg, who had superiority over me. I’d just come off the Gravitar and Akka Arrh games, but for some reason they choose me to run the project and design the game. I didn’t know how much work it was going to be but I wanted to make sure I got the best team and made the best game. Star Wars was such an important title. I just wanted to make sure it was top-notch.
….If the player hits it, he is treated to a colourful display or explosion and gets one free turn (free life) then continues to the next wave of normal game play….
At some point during the development of Warp Speed, Atari agreed a partnership with Lucasfilm, picking up the rights to develop new games under the Star Wars franchise. Sensing an opportunity to attach his game to this high-profile IP, Jed suggested to the powers that be at Atari that his vision for Warp Speed would be a sound platform on which to build a Star Wars themed game. Management duly agreed, perhaps with some relief that someone had proactively suggested a solution to a tricky project.
Like most games, several elements were considered and then dropped or adapted to improve the player experience during the development of Star Wars. Here are a couple of story boards developed by Atari when putting the game mechanics together. You can click each image for a larger version:
But it is the cockpit cabinet itself that defined Atari’s Star Wars arcade game. Subject matter and game play elements aside, it is this iconic looking cabinet that drew the quarters and secured its place in the arcade history books. In writing this article, I was able to track down and talk with Mike Jang, who was an industrial designer at Atari. Mike would work with his colleagues in mocking up and designing the physical and ergonomic side of Atari’s arcade machines.
Here, Jang’s colleague Barney Huang sits inside a very early cockpit prototype (made largely of cardboard pieces!). you can make out some similarities to the final Star Wars cockpit from these images:
I started the concepts for the Star Wars cabinet and later another designer did more detailed work on the plastic part in front of the monitor. One of the main elements I sketched up were the hydraulic ram shapes on the plastic parts. Those rams were often seen in the movie, especially the ramp to the Millennium Falcon.Also I wanted to continue the mechanical theme by adding that truss style design to the sides of the roof. I was concerned because that was a particle board part that was cut with an angled router bit. Then the bare particle board was just painted black. I was worried about the wood texture appearance but nobody noticed after everything else was put in place.
We knew it would be perfect for a sitdown cab as well as a standup. That’s why we made such cool mouldings around the monitor and used this see-through dark Perspex, so people could see what was going on. And we spent a long time working on the controller so [the whole cockpit experience] felt just right.
With the cabinet design approved by Lucasfilm, it was time to start sharing the actual game with them for approval and feedback. Memos went back and forth between Atari and Lucasfilm with ideas and questions about the proposed game. I’ve found an interesting document which details actual feedback from the Lucasfilm team on some of the suggested game play elements proposed by Atari. (I’m guessing the handwriting top right is from Mike Hally himself)
The key difference between the upright and sitdown cockpit cabinets aside from the seating position, was the larger monitor used in the cockpit version of the game. A 25″ Amplifone (vs a 19″ Wells Gardner in the upright) really does add to the impact of the visuals.
So with a thumbs up from the creator of Star Wars himself, the game was put into production and released in 1983. Here is a Projected Materials Cost Estimate document prepped by Mike Hally for the upright cabinet. Makes for interesting reading:
Getting the game out to market was arguably pretty easy – with the attachment of the Star Wars franchise to the game, and housing it inside Mike Jang’s glorious cockpit cabinet, players armed with coins ready to play were drawn in.
Atari sold just over 12,000 Star Wars cabinets in total, consisting of 10,245 uprights and 2,450 cockpits. With an assumed margin of around $1,000 per cabinet, this was a multi-million dollar earner for Atari’s coin-op division, and I would suggest was one of its greatest arcade games ever, despite being released during Atari’s arcade twilight years.
Atari’s Star Wars remains a classic slice of arcade history. It has everything going for it – great vector visuals, the Star Wars IP, fabulous artwork and an iconic design that holds up to this day. You can find cockpits out there in the wild still. Do try to seek one out and experience the ride.
1221. Original screen used X-Wing Fighter miniature from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. (TCF, 1977) This filming miniature comes directly from the collection of Grant McCun…
I"ve also contacted a local tech but am hoping to get as much info and insight before having someone start working on tried to find and fix the problem (if it"s fixable).
The day is finally here, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is now open in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the most ambitious, most epic attraction ever to come to a theme park. We’re going to share with you everything you need to know about this ground-breaking new ride!
If you want to see everything that happens on the ride, we have a Rise of the Resistance Full Ride POV Video showing the entire attraction from start to finish!
(UPDATE) – Rise of the Resistance has paused use of the virtual queuestarting September 23, 2021, and has moved to a standby queue. It is also available as a
Also, don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Weekly E-Mail Newsletter. There we bring you the latest updates on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance including riding strategies, as well as vacation planning tips. You can sign up here:
As part of this new system, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance now has a paid access option where guests are guaranteed a spot on the ride. This is done as an Individual Lightning Lane purchase.
In his original interview with D23, Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro commented on the new paid access for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
You’ve heard the excitement about this new “Star Wars Ride” everyone has been hyping up, but you’re probably wondering: What kind of a ride is Rise of the Resistance?
It’s the most ambitious and immersive ride that Disney has ever built, and is more like an experience rather than only a ride. It completely sucks you in for the entiremore than 15-minute long experience from start to finish!
The Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction in Galaxy’s Edge is the ride I’ve been looking forward to more than any other ride coming to the Disney parks in the next few years. Now after having ridden it, I am completely speechless!!
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is on a scale like nothing else you’ve ever seen in a theme park attraction. It has 18 show areas and 4 ride system types, all bringing guests through the biggest attraction show building they’ve ever created.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, is just one of the 2 attractions in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. The other is called Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run.
The ride vehicle for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has 2 rows of 4 people for a total of 8 passengers. It even has an R5 droid in the front who will be your guide throughout the adventure:
Keep in mind there are 4 ride systems in Rise of the Resistance, but this ride vehicle is the primary one you travel around the star destroyer with. It then also connects with two of the other ride systems, working hand in hand to deliver this realistic simulation.
Even though Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is fun for the whole family, keep in mind that not all will be able to experience at least one of the attractions. There is a minimum 40-inch height requirement for the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride in both Hollywood Studios and Disneyland.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a moderately scary ride, but not as scary as Expedition Everest or Tower of Terror. That said, you should be prepared for loud blasts, explosions, and intense battle scenes.
Something else to keep in mind is Star Wars Rise of the Resistance does have a “drop” in the escape pod that brings you back down to Batuu from the star destroyer. It isn’t anything too crazy, but it is just intense enough that not all guests will be able to handle it.
There is a height requirement of 40 inches, but Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is definitely kid-friendly. There are a lot of amazing animatronic figures, special effects, blasts, and vehicles to look at which children will love.
If you don’t want to ride the final part in the actual ride vehicle, it will at least give you an opportunity to see the pre-show, the space shuttle, and the Star Destroyer hangar bay. At that point just tell a Cast Member you don’t want to do the rest of the ride.
Right now an Individual Lightning Lane pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance costs $15-$22 per person. That means for a family of 4 it costs $60-$88 for one ride.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has one of the most interesting and detailed ride queues we’ve ever seen in a theme park and it will keep you busy for the entirety of your wait.
Just because you might ride around Disney in a wheelchair or scooter, doesn’t mean you can’t experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance like everybody else. Disney is more than happy to accommodate guests who have special needs.
The entire attraction queue is ECV-friendly and guests can stay in their wheelchairs, scooters, or other accessibility devices up until the actual ride vehicle portion of the attraction. This includes the pre-show, space shuttle, and Star Destroyer hanger portions of Rise of the Resistance.
One of the cool parts about Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride is that it’s full of your favorite characters from the actual Star Wars films. These are not voice doubles either, they got the actual same actors you see in the Star Wars films to reprise their roles for the ride.
If you’re wondering who Vi Moradi is, she’s the resistance spy hiding in Black Spire Outpost that the stormtroopers and Kylo Ren are always looking for. She has a role in the new Star Wars attraction and welcomes guests while warning them of the dangers that lie ahead.
While up in the First Order star destroyer in Rise of the Resistance you’ll run into Kylo Ren and dozens of stormtroopers who will be chasing you and trying to stop you from escaping.
The Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride is HUGE and it’s essentially 4 attractions built into 1 with guests boarding various ride vehicles, transports, and even walking the halls of a Star Destroyer as a prisoner.
Everything starts outside the giant show building on the planet of Batuu where Galaxy’s Edge is based and a Resistance outpost. Of course, the Resistance is going to have an encounter with the First Order and that’s where you step in.
The new Play Disney Parks app interacts with Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in both the Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers Run attraction queues. By playing you’ll learn more about the attractions which will help you to complete your mission and make the experience all the more interactive.
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance is a revolutionary ride and the next chapter in how queues and pre-shows are integrated into a ride. This is the highest form of immersion and the ride and story start from the pre-show.
Also in this room, you get a mission briefing from Lieutenant Bek and Nien Nunb who will be piloting the shuttle you will be taking for your secret mission. I liked the way they were transmitted through the screens in front and it felt like a real mission briefing.
I thought the simulation would be a bit stronger so I was worried that standing up wouldn’t be the best idea, but you immediately understand this is not a simulation on the level of Smugglers Run or Star Tours. Don’t expect something that shakes you around that much.
Of course, things go wrong and the shuttle gets intercepted by a First Order Star Destroyer, being sucked into its bay with a tractor beam. You even get General Hux on the video screen telling you to lower your shields and prepare to be boarded!
I was so excited by this part because it really imitates some of the great moments in the Star Wars films, and you get the same feeling those characters must have had during that time. I was also excited because I knew what was coming up next…the big payoff!
Disney Imagineers pull off one of the first “tricks” they play on guests during Star Wars Rise of the Resistance and has been likened to the Haunted Mansion’s “stretching room” scene. Of course, you entered the shuttle from the ground level and think the shuttle is moving and rising in height, but it never leaves the ground.
The shuttle is actually on a giant turntable and unknowingly to guests, it slowly rotates the pre-show space shuttle vehicle 180 degrees. When the doors to the shuttle open you find yourself in the middle of a gigantic, First Order star destroyer bay!
Once you enter the Star Destroyer hanger is where things really start to get crazy! The scale of everything in this room is INSANE and bigger than anything ever seen in a Disney ride. The room is filled with 50 stormtroopers, and even a TIE Fighter mounted on the wall ready for action.
I have personally stepped into this space, and I can attest to the fact that it’s bigger than any attraction room Disney has ever built before and makes you feel like you are right there. I was speechless when I stepped onto that Star Destroyer floor for the first time.
After the interrogation is over and it looks like you’re never getting out of there, rescue arrives! One panel of the wall lights up and is blasted away by Resistance troops on the other side of the wall who have infiltrated the Star Destroyer to get you out!
If you don’t mind spoilers and want to see this attraction in action, then watch our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Full Ride POV Video. In the video, we show each show scene and you can see all the surprises.
So this all sounds fantastic, but When does Rise of the Resistance open? Thankfully, you don’t have to wait anymore as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is NOW OPENin both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park.
Unfortunately, the epic ride did not open with the grand opening of either Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland on May 31 or Disney World on August 29. Those were “Phase 1” of Galaxy’s Edge.
Instead, Rise of the Resistance opened during the “Phase 2” part of Galaxy’s Edge. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened in Walt Disney World on December 5, 2019. It then opened in Disneyland park on January 17, 2020.
It is shocking and the fact that Star Wars: Rise of the resistance opened first in Walt Disney World was a big surprise to many, seeing as Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland has been open since May 31, and the Disney World only since August 29.
The phone call was already filled with bombs once we found out Galaxy’s Edge was opening earlier than previously thought, but finding out the epic Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction was delayed was certainly a huge pill to swallow.
Now that Rise of the Resistance is open, they have been slowly working out all the kinks in it and things will start to go more smoothly soon. However, even after years now, the ride regularly has issues and needs to shut down from time to time.
The opening for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has come and gone in both parks, and there wasn’t a soft opening for Annual Passholders in either of them. Will Disney do something special for them in the future?
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is an incredible attraction, but how long are those wait times and what type of touring strategy should you use to best see the ride?
Some Disney fans wanted to avoid Galaxy’s Edge when it first opened and will also want to avoid Rise of the Resistance at this time. We are adamant that if even if you don’t like Star Wars, this is a must-ride attraction and should NOT be skipped.
At most attractions, we see a big slowdown later in the day, but that is not the case with Rise of the Resistance. Long wait times start in the morning and continue throughout the entire day and up until late in the evening. You can go to thrill-data.com for the latest wait times as they are tracked daily.
Thankfully, since switching to the standby queue, those days are over, and there is no need to wake up that early anymore. However, you still should plan on getting an early start if you want to take advantage of rope drop.
Even though with Early Theme Park Entry Hollywood Studios should open 30 minutes before the official listed opening time, they start letting guests in the gate much earlier than that. From our experience, it’s more like 45 minutes earlier than the listed time.
The first thing you need to know is that Lightning Lane purchases for Rise of the Resistance open each day at 7:00 am, but only for guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel or partner hotels. Guests staying at an off-site hotel can start making reservations at the park opening (8:00 am or 9:00 am).
To ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance with an Individual Lightning Lane costs between $15-$22 per person. If you are a family of 4 it will cost you $60-$88 depending on the date you visit.
If you are in the Standby Queue when Rise breaks down, things get a bit trickier. As a general rule, I would recommend waiting for 10-15 minutes to see if the line starts moving again. If you have waited 2-3 hours already and are almost to the end of the line, I might wait longer.
This is because you can start booking both Rise and all the Genie+ attractions at exactly 7:00 am, which means if you are a one-person show, you have to choose which one to do first. This is especially true if you are trying to book Slinky Dog Dash with Genie+
I think it’s safe to say that the demise of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was greatly overestimated. It’s almost impossible for an attraction such as this to actually live up to the hype that it was given beforehand.
Disney needed a win to shut up the Star Wars Land haters, and boy are they silent now. Anyone who thought that Galaxy’s Edge was going to be a flop was on some strong stuff and they look pretty silly right now.
Pre-Show –The pre-show is pretty cool and we like having BB-8 in there, though he probably could have had a bigger role. The hologram of Rey however, was sharp and looked realistic, like the ones from the Star Wars films do.
Music – A huge part of the attraction is the killer soundtrack. This really made you get in the mood as you can hear some classic Star Wars music in each area, selling to you the idea that you are in a movie.
Size – The fact that Disney Imagineering was able to pull off something this big is almost unbelievable. I knew it was big going in, but until you step inside that Star Destroyer hangar bay, you have no idea the size and scope of this attraction.
The characters on screens and as animatronics were so realistic, that many in our group thought they were real people playing the roles and not fake. All of this puts you into the story and sells everything perfectly.
Long Wait Times – When Disney started using the Virtual Queue on opening day, it was a struggle for most people, and we have never seen so many frustrated guests before in a Disney park. The only good thing about it was that if you got a boarding pass, you didn’t have to wait in line.
On our first ride through, we were lucky enough to do the entire experience from start to finish without interruptions, and it was brilliant. On our second time through, however, there were two large pauses in the experience that would have drastically affected our thoughts if we hadn’t already gone through once before.
The truth is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is hard to put into words. You can compare it to a million other attractions (it is a mix of many), but until you experience it yourself, it’s impossible to quantify in words.
That being the case, we say yes. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is the best attraction currently in Walt Disney World, and is only rivaled by Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure in Shanghai Disneyland for the title of best theme park attraction in the world.
You don’t need to be a fan of the Star Wars franchise to enjoy the Rise of the Resistance ride. I fell asleep during Avatar, and Flight of Passage is one of my favorite theme park attractions of all time!
This ride is so immersive, there are so many cool effects and it’s all done on a scale that has never been seen before that even if you’ve never seen a Star Wars film, you will still like Rise of the Resistance.
Comparing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is inevitable because they are the only two attractions in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. However, it’s not much of a comparison, and Rise of the Resistance is the vastly superior attraction.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was always supposed to be the main E-Ticket attraction in Galaxy’s Edge. The only reason Smugglers Run has been thought of that way is because it was the only ride operational when Galaxy’s Edge opened. Rise was made to be the crown jewel all along.
Rise of the Resistance does have some screens, but the majority of the ride takes place in an actual set, with real props, audio-animatronics, and some live actors too.
The paths you take through the Star Destroyer are slightly different depending on which car you are sitting in, plus there are so many different details to look at inside the ride, it would take dozens of times to see them all.
No, Rise of the Resistance is not a 3D attraction. However, it does utilize screens in many scenes throughout the attraction. Don’t worry though if those 3D glasses make you motion-sick, there is no need for them here.
That does it for now, we hope you’ve learned everything you need to know about Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and we hope you are just as excited about it as we are. Make sure to keep checking back as we’ll update you with any new info we have!
Also for more info on Star Wars Land in general, read our Complete Guide to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for a detailed look at the attractions, dining, planning, and touring strategies.
My name is Ziggy and I love Disney, everything Disney! I grew up on Disney and it has and continues to be a huge part of my life. I started young when my parents took me to Disney World when I was 18 months old. Little did they know that would be the first of an uncountable number of trips we would take. I have so many amazing memories going to Disney with my family and friends and it has been interwoven into my DNA.
One of the very first vehicles seen on screen in Star Wars is at long last coming to the LEGO Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) with 75341 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder. This dilapidated two-seater civilian vehicle is nearly as iconic to Star Wars as the X-wing or Millennium Falcon and has appeared in minifigure scale numerous times, starting with a simple 49-piece version in the original LEGO Star Wars lineup in 1999. The new UCS version is considerably larger with 1,890 pieces and measuring nearly 20 inches long (50cm). It also includes a display stand and minifigures of Luke and C-3PO. The UCS Landspeeder will be available just in time for May the Fourth sales this year, with VIP access starting May 1 and general availability on May 4. It will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £174.99.
The canopy comes wrapped in a flat sheet of thick cling plastic rather than loose in a bag, which turns out to be an excellent way of ensuring it arrives in pristine condition. It’s not a method I’ve ever encountered from LEGO before, but I hope they employ it again. The sheet is reusable so I immediately set it aside to protect some other pieces in my collection that aren’t in use. The canopy, of course, is a brand new element. With a footprint of 14×14 studs and four bricks tall at the peak, it’s among the largest canopies LEGO has ever created. There’s really no way LEGO could have done justice to the bubbly landspeeder cockpit at this scale without this new element.
The body of the landspeeder is pretty straightforward, consisting mostly of simple studs-up construction. The bottom edges of the craft are lined with inverted slopes which only come in a 1-stud wide version, so you’ll line up 34 on each side. At this point, you’ll start to get a feel for the scale of the vehicle as the dark red interior seat bottoms go in.
Like all recent UCS sets, the landspeeder comes with a few relevant minifigures to display on the stand. Here you’ll get Luke Skywalker and C-3Po. I think the set really ought to have included R2-D2 as well, since after all it’s R2’s running away and Luke chasing him in the landspeeder that’s the catalyst for the whole plot. This version of Luke is the same design that’s been kicking around since 2016, which is a shame. It’s a nice version but there is room for updating; specifically it would look better with double-molded legs with tan boots. C-3PO is a new version, however, and does have a double-molded right leg with a light grey bottom.
C-3PO’s printing is identical to the new design that came in this year’s 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama, except that it adds printing on the sides of the legs, and of course, the double-molded leg itself makes it pretty distinct. While it’s true that C-3PO’s right leg is a different color from the rest of his body, on-screen it’s a very subtle difference and the light grey used here is far too jarring. So even though this figure is more “exclusive”, coming in a $200 set, I prefer the version from the $90 compactor.
The landspeeder is another excellent entry to the Ultimate Collector Series. It’s a delight getting a peaceful, civilian vehicle from Star Wars for a change, and the model does the original justice and looks great on your shelf. As I’ve mentioned, it’s not quite perfect, but all of my complaints about the landspeeder itself are very minor nitpicks (the lack of side screens in the cockpit, the need for more compartmented details, etc) and they’re easy to ignore. The minifigures, however, are a pretty distinct letdown. This version of Luke isn’t even remotely exclusive to this set and is due for an upgrade, especially as one of the two collectible figures in a $200 “Collector” set. C-3PO is exclusive, but feels like it misses the mark and falls short of the far cheaper version from the Diorama Collection. But unless you’re specifically a minifigure collector, you’re buying it for the landspeeder and the figures are just a bonus. And in that case, this set earns an easy recommendation.
During the final season of The Clone Wars that aired on Disney+ last year, one episode featured Clone Force 99, also known as the “Bad Batch.” Through that backdoor pilot, this group of misfit clone troopers got their own Disney+ series, with inevitable LEGO Star Wars tie-ins. The first (and so far only) LEGO set based on the TV show is 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle, which includes 969 pieces with five minifigures for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. The set is available for pre-order now, and will be released on August 1st.
LEGO Star Wars packaging for builders of all ages is highly standardized, with a “hero shot” showing the minifigs and vehicles in action, with key play features highlighted on the back. Appropriately, three of the clone troopers appear in the upper-right of the box’s front, rather than an unrelated character like Darth Vader.
The first bag includes the parts for two speeder bikes. These are very standard LEGO Star Wars speeders, and we’ll return to them later in the review.
The cockpit then attaches to the aft fuselage and crew compartment. Click-hinges provide angled connections and even some inversions, just behind the cockpit section. Technic joint disks with liftarms provide anchors for the folding wings.
The “Bad Batch shuttle” depicts the Havoc Marauder, a customized Omicron-class attack shuttle. Although similar to the many tri-wing shuttles that appear throughout the entirety of the Star Wars canon, this shuttle is unique to the Bad Batch and first appeared with them in their debut episode on the final season of The Clone Wars.
The “real” vehicle is large enough to feature a ramp that folds down from the cockpit section. By comparing the characters on the show entering and exiting through that hatch, it’s clear that the LEGO version is only about 1/3 minifig-scale.
Since it’s built from plates rather than bricks (as the upper wings on LEGO Star Wars Imperial Shuttle sets typically are), the upper wing on the Bad Batch shuttle is studded on one side, with an anti-stud texture on the other. It’s also easy to attach backwards by accident. In fact, you may notice that we did exactly that, and unfortunately didn’t realize until after we’d shot the pictures, though even positioned properly it’s still quite ugly. The sublight engines follow the angles of the nacelles. With the wings up, the underlying Technic structure that makes the folding wings and their connections to the fuselage sturdy are highly visible. The fact that the 1×2 plate with Technic pinholes isn’t available in black makes them stand out even more.
However, one of the most egregious differences between this LEGO version and its animated inspiration is the cockpit canopy. On the show, the cockpit certainly doesn’t open (with the hatch on the side), with the forward viewports inset into the angled nose and divided by a vertical section.
The viewports themselves are of course transparent, though the interior lighting that shines through is indeed a soft red, similar to the red light used on submarines to maintain the crew’s night vision. However, all of these details are smashed together with a single printed piece, which curves up from the straight, angular nose. As we can see on the real vehicle, the shuttle has a straight-line profile from the nose to the top of the cockpit and does not suddenly change to a curve.
LEGO Star Wars set designers have mastered the art of recreating the complex angles of rear engines, making the back end of the Bad Batch shuttle a lot prettier than its face.
My critique of the shuttle’s scale and lack of detail is compounded by the inclusion of two speeder bikes in the set. These undeniably add playability for younger builders, but like so many LEGO Star Wars speeder bikes, they’re absolutely huge, built from a significant proportion of the set’s overall part count. I really wonder how much better the shuttle itself might have been if the number of parts used to build these massive speeder bikes had been used to add detail or scale to the main vehicle.
From their first appearance in Attack of the Clones, utterly uniform clone troopers steadily became more and more unique, with wonderful characters like Captain Rex introduced in The Clone Wars, culminating in a truly singular group of individual clones we know as the Bad Batch. The set includes all five members of Clone Force 99 as the team was composed in The Clone Wars — Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, and Echo, plus a brick-built gonk droid.
Echo’s complex helmet is likely impossible in LEGO, so a print that reflects the helmet’s narrow visor with printing is a good start, but the lack of printing on the back of the helmet to show the cybernetics is a little disappointing.
In a rare packaging mistake that came as a wonderful surprise, our copy of the set (sent from LEGO HQ in Billund, Denmark) included an extra piece of pauldron armor. The armor doesn’t scream “Star Wars!”, so I expect to see this on cyberpunk warriors and post-apocalyptic brutes soon.
Crosshair wears all-black armor with a green visor. He looks a bit like a death trooper, providing another bridge from The Clone Wars to the Classic Trilogy era (which I argue now begins with Rogue One).
And … that’s all the minifigs. If you’re caught up on The Clone Wars enough to be watching The Bad Batch as it airs, a key character is clearly missing from the minifig assortment: Omega. Five minifigs make sense for the price point, and of course, we would want all members of the original Clone Force 99, but the set feels incomplete without this new character.
Obviously, the stars of this LEGO Star Wars set are the minifigures. Nevertheless, it’s fair to expect the main vehicle to reflect key exterior and interior details of the “real” vehicle, which this scaled-down version does not. The huge speeder bikes feel like they detract from the potential of the shuttle, rather than adding to the overall set.
LEGO Star Wars 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle includes 969 pieces with 5 minifigures and will be available beginning August 1st, 2021 from the LEGO Shop online (US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99) and elsewhere.
It’s a 55-inch OLED display that feels like a TV and a monitor at the same time. Also — yes, it’s a curved screen that can rotate vertically. I had the chance to try out the display at CES 2022, and it’s as wild as Samsung makes it out to be.
There has been a struggle brewing between TVs and monitors over the past few years. TVs are getting better, with displays like the LG C1 offering up variable refresh rate and Samsung’s newly announced QD-OLED TV bringing 144Hz to the living room.
Your eyes don’t deceive you. That is a 55-inch curved OLED monitor positioned vertically. This is cockpit view, where the display stretches far above your head, and it’s remarkable to see in person.
It’s a crazy display on its own, but the control dial is what makes the monitor tick. It’s wireless and it allows you quickly swap between different windows. It’s not final, but from what Samsung showed me, the dial looked great. None of the settings were buried in complex menus. Everything was a button press or two away.
It’s a question you could ask of a lotof CES products. ARK doesn’t look immediately useful, but the vertical orientation could have legs for specific applications in the future. It’s cockpit view, and my mind immediately went to gaming.
Microsoft Flight Simulatoris an obvious application, but I could imagine it in games like Star Wars: Squadronsand indie darling Cloudpunk, too. You wouldn’t normally game in cockpit view like you would with an ultrawide monitor. But for specific titles, ARK could be great.
The vertical orientation is impressive, but it’s important to remember that this is still a 55-inch, 16:9 display. Unlike the DualUp, you can just use it in the horizontal orientation, and the ARK is a great that way.
The cockpit or control podPilots operated their vessels from cockpits, managing a variety of instruments that controlled the vehicle"s speed, direction, and other operations. Anakin Skywalker was once ordered to stay in the cockpit of an N-1 starfighter during the Battle of Naboo in order to stay out of harm"s way. Skywalker inadvertently flew the craft into battle, however. Although cockpits were normally a part of a vessel"s main body, Podracer cockpits were tethered to the engines they controlled via cables. Some ground vehicles had an open cockpit, such as the All Terrain Reconnaissance Transport (AT-RT) walker.
Conceived by a panel of CEC shipbuilding experts with help from Narro Sienar,YT-series went on to become one of the most popular space transport hulls ever produced, revolutionizing the interstellar shipping industry with its unparalleled application of modular design. Whole sections could be mass-produced and arranged into new configurations as needed without extensive retooling. This saved CEC enormous amounts of credits by allowing the starships to be brought to market at extremely competitive prices.
Like the rest of the YT-series, it featured a saucer-shaped hull with external cockpit. The YT-1300 came in three different configurations: a port-mounted cockpit, a starboard-mounted cockpit, and a centrally mounted cockpit (the last of which became standard in the YT-1930 design).fuel cells powered by liquid metal fuel.
Almost every YT-1300 that was sold was later customized with a handful of extra components, from simple underfloor storage space to a new hyperdrive and added firepower. The features the YT-1300 was given on the production line were necessary but basic: the off-center cockpit; two escape pods, located on the port and starboard side of the freighter; a laser cannon mounted atop the craft; and about 100 tons of cargo space.
The freight configuration left the interior of the ship as an empty shell, leaving the crew with minimal comforts as more room was given to the cargo holds. Of significant note were the twin boarding ramps, port and starboard, for the access of treaded cargo loaders and droids. These ramps and the overhead clearance they required took up much of the space that housed the escape pods in the YT-1300p. Matching port and starboard docking rings were instead placed in the protrusions on either side of the external hull, again showing the versatility of the CEC designers in that this interior change barely altered the outward appearance of the YT-1300. This frequently led to misidentification by casual starship watchers.
The ship could also be fitted with optional external cargo pods. Mounted to the outside dorsal hull of the ship, around the central saucer section, the pods could add up to an additional 100 metric tons of cargo space. This configuration was popular with the Alliance to Restore the Republic"s Support Services. Such modified freighters were used to resupply Rebel bases and starships located behind enemy lines.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadronarcade-style flight action game co-developed by Factor 5 and LucasArts. The first of three games in the Rogue Squadron series, it was published by LucasArts and Nintendo and released for Microsoft Windows and Nintendo 64 in December 1998. The game"s story was influenced by the Luke Skywalker, commander of the elite X-wing pilots known as Rogue Squadron. As the game progresses, Skywalker and Rogue Squadron fight the Galactic Empire in 16 missions across various planets.
Rogue Squadron"s focus on flight combat was directly inspired by a level in snowspeeder. Working together during development, Factor 5 designed the game engine, the music, and worked closely with Nintendo, while LucasArts produced the game"s story and gameplay and ensured it was faithful to Star Wars canon. Before the game"s release, Factor 5 successfully appealed to Nintendo to release the Nintendo 64"s newly developed memory Expansion Pak commercially. Consequently, Rogue Squadron was one of the first games to take advantage of the Expansion Pak, which allows gameplay at a higher display resolution.
Unlike the Star Wars: X-Wing computer game series that emphasizes space combat simulation, Rogue Squadron is a fast-paced, arcade-style flight action game.TIE fighters. Ground defenses are more varied and include three different walkers, laser and missile turrets, tanks, probe droids, shuttles, stormtroopers and speeder bikes.
Gameplay is presented from the third-person perspective, however a view from a craft"s cockpit is also available. The heads-up display features a health meter, a radar, and an ammunition count for secondary weapons.X-wing, A-wing, Y-wing, snowspeeder and V-wing.power-ups are hidden in different levels throughout the game. These bonuses improve a craft"s weapons or durability and are applied to each eligible craft for the remainder of the game.
Rogue Squadron includes a number of unlockable secrets. The player can unlock three bonus levels: "Beggar"s Canyon", "The Death Star Trench Run", and "The Battle of Hoth". These levels are made available when the player obtains all bronze, silver, or gold medals, respectively, on each level. Alternatively, they can be unlocked via passcode. Unlike the game"s primary levels, the bonus levels are adaptions of events from the Rebel Alliance"s combat against Imperial troops, as depicted in
During Rogue Squadron"s development, Star Wars film in more than 15 years—was less than one year from its scheduled release date. To take advantage of this marketing opportunity, Factor 5 included content from the upcoming film in Rogue Squadron. Lucasfilm provided the developers with design art for the Naboo Starfighter, a ship prominently featured in the new film. These designs were used to create an in-game model. Because the game was scheduled to be released six months before the film, Factor 5 was required to keep the ship"s inclusion a secret. As a result, most of the game"s development team at Factor 5 and LucasArts were not informed of its inclusion.cheat cartridges such as GameShark or Action Replay. More than six months after the release of Rogue Squadron, LucasArts unveiled the code to unlock the Naboo Starfighter as a playable craft. The code has been named the Nintendo 64"s most well-hidden code because of the length of time before its discovery.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, where a war is fought between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. The game"s first fifteen levels occur six months after the Battle of Yavin—as depicted in A New Hope—and before the events of The Empire Strikes Back. As the Empire gathers strength for an all-out assault on the Rebel forces, Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles form Rogue Squadron, a group comprising twelve of the most skilled X-wing pilots from the Rebel Alliance.
The story is divided into four chapters, each of which starts with an opening crawl resembling those featured in the Star Wars films. Further story details are presented through the game"s instruction manual, pre-mission briefings, character conversations during the game and in-game cutscenes. The game begins with Rogue Squadron briefly encountering the Empire at the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine. The team then executes escort and rescue missions on Barkhesh and Chorax, respectively.
After the success of Fractalus sequel into a Star Wars game instead.Shadows of the Empire in which the player flies a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth. Rogue Squadron and LucasArts production manager Brett Tosti stated, "That whole scene was actually the genesis for Rogue Squadron because everybody said, "Why don"t you do a whole game like that?" So we did."game engine, the music, and worked closely with Nintendo, while LucasArts produced the game"s content and ensured it was faithful to Star Wars canon.
Factor 5 initially pitched a concept to allow gamers to play through missions similar to the fans" favorite action sequences from the Star Wars films. This proposal was rejected, however.Star Wars Expanded Universe.A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back as it was more commercially appealing.
LucasArts began developing the story and gameplayRescue on Fractalus with the on-rails gameplay of Atari"s Star Wars arcade game. Initially, designing and refining the individualized flight controls for the game"s various vehicles was difficult for programmer Mark Haigh-Hutchinson before breaking through to find the right balance for each.E3, but the game was so incomplete at the time that Tosti considered it a tech demo. It rendered a basic heightmap and an immobile AT-AT model, while TIE fighters lacking artificial intelligence flew and fired in a predetermined path. When "playing" the demo for audiences, Tosti followed a very specific flight path of his own to give the illusion that he was actually battling with the TIEs. Despite the demo"s barebones presentation, response from gamers was largely positive.
Late in development, the team realized that they were developing the game with a Nintendo 64 memory expansion in place at all times. Unable to run the game on a standard Nintendo 64, they began working on compression techniques to allow the game to run within the confines of the standard console.Iguana Entertainment also wanted to use the Expansion Pak to achieve a higher display resolution for Rogue Squadron was made to run on a standard Nintendo 64 but the Expansion Pak increases its resolution from 320 × 240 to 640 × 480.
Lucasfilm was hesitant to grant access to the Star Wars library of sound effects to Factor 5 sound designer Rudolph Stember. As a compromise, the company provided Stember with sounds sampled at the relatively low rate of 22 kHz, half the standard rate. Stember objected, claiming that the clips sounded worse than effects he had lifted from VHS tapes for a previous Star Wars project.voice work from several notable persons, including screen actors Olivia Hussey and Raphael Sbarge as well as voice actors Bob Bergen, Neil Ross and Terence McGovern.
In November 1998, a month before the game"s scheduled release, LucasArts announced the worldwide agreement with Nintendo concerning three new Star Wars video games. It granted Nintendo the rights to market the games and hold exclusive, worldwide distribution rights for five years following each release. Rogue Squadron was the first game released under this agreement.Mark Hamill, the actor who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, visited the Mattel Children"s Hospital in Los Angeles to play the game with patients in a Starlight Children"s Foundation"s Fun Center.
Many reviews compared Star Wars: Rogue Squadron to one of its inspirations, the Battle of Hoth flight combat level in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, considered one of that game"s best elements.Rogue Squadron "enhanced the flight model with true pitch, roll, and bank mechanics".IGN praised its inclusion of "upgrades, more enemies, better sound, and stunning second-generation graphics".GameRankings and Metacritic.GamePro named it one of the best games released in 1998.Star Wars license on consoles through well-paced gameplay, a story tied into the Star Wars canon, and visuals that made it "one of the generation"s top stunners".
The game"s technical aspects were singled out for acclaim. Its visuals were called "respectable"GameSpot remarked that in a higher resolution, "[the] textures of the landscapes, the ships, the lighting effects—everything looks so much better,"Peer Schneider said, "After playing the game in the optional high-resolution mode (640 × 480) once, it"s impossible to go back to the still respectable standard resolution." Citing details such as decals, Rebel markings, R2 units, cockpit views, and exhaust flames, Schneider described the game"s 3D ship models as "gorgeous". IGN"s Matt Casamassina said that the game was the best-looking Nintendo 64 game to date.
When Rogue Squadron was released in early December 1998, the title"s Nintendo 64 incarnation was the second-highest-selling video game for the first half of the month (behind Nintendo"s holiday season.PC Data, which tracked sales in the United States, reported that Rogue Squadron sold 584,337 units and earned $29.3 million in revenue by the end of 1998. This made it the country"s ninth-best-selling Nintendo 64 release of the year.Ocarina of Time.Player"s Choice collection,LucasArts Archive Series in May 2001.digital distribution in 2015.Rogue Squadron"s retail success was not anticipated by the game"s producer Julian Eggebrecht, who said that the game sold "about 100 times better than anybody expected".Star Wars films and only five months before the theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace helped contribute to the game"s success.GameCube—spiritual successor released for Windows and Nintendo 64.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: The Battle of Calamari. Chapter IV Dark Empire: Six years after the Battle of Endor, the fight for freedom continues. Even without the thousands of Jedi Knights who formed the backbone of the Old Republic, the Rebel Alliance has managed to control three-quarters of the galaxy. Darth Vader is dead, but a reborn Empire under a mysterious new leader strikes back at the struggling Rebel Alliance, hoping to crush the fledgling new Republic. Massive World Devastators, more powerful and unstoppable than the Death Star, ravage entire planets. Rogue Squadron, which is now commanded by Wedge Antilles, persists in mounting daring missions throughout the galaxy ...
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Defection at Corellia. General Rieekan: I have repeat word an Imperial officer—Crix Madine—wants to defect.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Defection at Corellia Briefing: Imperial officer Crix Madine wishes to join the Rebel Alliance, but the Empire will do anything to stop him.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Liberation of Gerrard V. General Rieekan: Gerrard V is attempting to gain its independence, but the Imperial governor is looting the city. Rogue Squadron, you must protect Crix Madine"s Y-wings while they disable the escaping ships.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Liberation of Gerrard V. Wedge Antilles: Luke, this is Wedge. I"m on the other side of the planet. We"ve got trouble. It"s the 125th TIE interceptor Squadron.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Liberation of Gerrard V. Kasan Moor: This is lieutenant Kasan Moor of the 128th Imperial to an unidentified Y-wing: Are you quite done? My vehicle has been disabled for a good two minutes now.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Liberation of Gerrard V. Rogue Squadron: Kasan Moor, consider yourself a prisoner of the Rebel Alliance. / Kasan Moor: Well, if you"d quit shooting at me, I have a proposal to make. One that would serve us all.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Assault on Kile II. Wedge Antilles: Luke, it"s an ambush! I don"t know where they came from. I don"t have nav-control anymore. Can"t ... steer ... straight ... Main computer offline, targeting computer offline. Ahh ... we just lost Rogue 7! I can"t ... / Luke Skywalker: Get out of there, Wedge! Hobbie, what happened? / Hobbie Klivian: Wedge made it, but he"s gonna be captured for sure. I"m under a lot of fire.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Rescue on Kessel. Kasan Moor: Kessel—it"s a mining colony, but the Imperials often keep political prisoners here too. There should be an armored hovertrain nearby transporting captured Rebels to a central station before moving on to the prison. I"m sure Wedge is with them.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Battle Above Taloraan. Chapter III The New Threat: With the rescue of Wedge Antilles, and Rogue Squadron at full strength, the Rebel Alliance turns its attention to a new Imperial threat—Moff Kohl Seerdon. Preparing to capture Thyferra, with its precious supply of healing bacta, Seerdon is now consolidating his power for a massive attack. His success could very well break the fledgling Rebellion, and surely doom the galaxy to Imperial rule. Luke Skywalker and Rogue Squadron are assigned to disrupt his operation with swift hit-and-run missions against key targets such as he Imperial mining operation on Taloraan ...
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Blockade on Chandrila Briefing: Moff Seerdon has chosen to hold Chandrila hostage in an attempt to make the Rebellion pay for its raid of Fest. You must help the innocent people of Chandrila protect the supply train and stop the Empire.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Raid on Sullust. Luke Skywalker: Alright, here"s our chance to hit them back for Chandrila. Kasan, did General Rieekan brief you? / Kasan Moor: Yes, the location of this Imperial base was supplied to us by Borsk Fey"lya. It"s a crucial link to the rest of the Sullust system, so it"s also well protected—hidden inside this volcano. They use the volcanic activity to power a geothermal generator, which is regulated by a shielded central capacitor. But inside the volcano, several transmitters are feeding thermal energy to the capacitor. Destroy the transmitters ... / Luke: ... and we take the shield down. Kasan, you lead the way.
Factor 5, LucasArts (December 7, 1998). Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64). LucasArts. Level/area: Raid on Sullust. General Rieekan: Rogue Squadron, I"m afraid you"ll have to cut your celebration short. Moff Seerdon has begun his attack on Thyferra.