Lesson plan

Starmaster

Starmaster is a space combat simulation video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game involves the player travelling through space attacking enemy starfighters who are invading starbases. The player traverses through a map called the galactic chart to destroy all the enemies and survive against oncoming enemy attacks and crashing with meteors. Miller had previously worked for Atari, Inc. developing games for the Atari 2600 before forming Activision with David Crane and making games Checkers (1980), Tennis (1981) and Ice Hockey (1981). Miller described Starmaster as being influenced by Cosmic Conflict (1978) for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 and Star Raiders (1980) for the Atari 8-bit computers. The game became Miller's most successful game at that point in his career and would receive positive reviews from publications such as Electronic Games, The Video Game Update and The Fresno Bee. In 1983, at the Fourth Annual Arcade Awards, along with Atlantis (1982) it won a "Certificate of Merit" in the "Videogame of the Year" category.

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Article summary

Starmaster is a space combat simulation video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game involves the player travelling through space attacking enemy starfighters who are invading starbases. The player traverses through a map called the galactic chart to destroy all the enemies and survive against oncoming enemy attacks and crashing with meteors. Miller had previously worked for Atari, Inc. developing games for the Atari 2600 before forming Activision with David Crane and making games Checkers (1980), Tennis (1981) and Ice Hockey (1981). Miller described Starmaster as being influenced by Cosmic Conflict (1978) for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 and Star Raiders (1980) for the Atari 8-bit computers. The game became Miller's most successful game at that point in his career and would receive positive reviews from publications such as Electronic Games, The Video Game Update and The Fresno Bee. In 1983, at the Fourth Annual Arcade Awards, along with Atlantis (1982) it won a "Certificate of Merit" in the "Videogame of the Year" category.

Key claims

  1. publication date: 1982 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
  2. release date: 1982 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the publication date is "1982". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. The record states that the release date is "1982". What evidence would count against this claim?
  4. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  5. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371638062

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.