All gamers who thought they'd go mad if forced to deal with one more videogame whose title begins with Star- ought to give a cheer for the folks at Broderbund. When Tony Suzuki set to work at programming an Atari version of his Apple II classic, Star Blazer, not only was a new Star- not born, the company actually renamed the program, Sky Blazer. Obviously, Broderbund didn't want this hot little number lost among the "stars".


For those familiar with the Apple II edition of this program, seeing the Atari version is like déjà vu. The action graphics so distinctive to games generated on an Apple have never before been so completely translated. The legendary hero, Sky Blazer, takes his west-to-east scrolling skycraft to obliterate hostile radar stations, ICBM's, two deadly tanks (one of which fires heat-seeking missiles) and, ultimately, enemy headquarters.


The multi-function bombs-and-phasers element is represented by the use of height-dictated triggering. When the craft is above a certain altitude blasts, the juggernaut drops bombs.


All in all, this is a fine translation, but it may take Atarians a while to adjust to the sparser Apple-style graphics. The addition of Atari audio, however, should be universally applauded.