FROM ITS INCEPTION IN 1982 UNTIL ITS CLOSURE IN 2018, FIRST STAR SOFTWARE WAS A BYWORD FOR INNOVATION. COFOUNDER RICHARD SPITALNY REVISITS THE FIRM’S BOULDER DASH AND SPY VS SPY SERIES, AND REVEALS HIDDEN GEMS
First Star Software got its start in late-1982 with its debut title Astro Chase, and the following year its author produced the similarly popular paint-’em-up Bristles. First Star’s early Eighties output was then bolstered by arcade-style submissions to the firm like Panic Button and Flip And Flop. Peter Liepa’s cavebased crystal hunt Boulder Dash followed, and it received three sequels during the mid-Eighties.
It was a similar story with the superlative action title Spy Vs Spy, a best-seller with two followups released by 1986. First Star also licensed Superman, firstly for 1986’s Superman: The Game and then 1989’s Superman: The Man Of Steel.
In the late-Eighties and early Nineties the company regularly licensed its IP to others, with highlights being Rockford The Arcade Game and Spy Vs Spy: Operation Boobytrap. First Star also published the adventure Omnicron Conspiracy, the crime caper Security Alert and the beat-’emup Millenium Warriors during this time.
Following an eight-year hiatus where First Star founder Richard Spitalny worked for the developer Imergy, a wealth of popular Boulder Dash releases appeared online and on mobile platforms, from 2003’s Boulder Dash ME to 2014’s Boulder
Dash 30th Anniversary. Spy Vs Spy was also reimagined, for consoles in 2005 and tablets in 2012. Boulder Dash was a draw on consoles too, with titles like 2007’s Boulder Dash Rocks! and 2011’s Boulder Dash-XL being of particular note.
Then as it had started out, First Star Software went out on a high, when in 2017 its name and assets were sold to BBG Entertainment. In 2021, BBG released the wellreceived Boulder Dash Deluxe, which bodes well for First Star’s legacy.
FLIP & FLOP VARIOUS • 1983
Like Q*bert, the objective of Flip & Flop is to change the colour of tiles on an isometric playfield while avoiding persistent enemies. Where it differentiates itself is with its two player characters: a kangaroo and a monkey, which you play one after another. The second twist is that its monkey stages are upside down, and have him hanging from the tiles.
RICHARD’S MEMORIES
Jim Nangano worked in a top-secret navy facility while he was making Flip & Flop. He would post us disks, and we insisted he stamped them confidential. He finally told us it was taking him ages to leave work, because he first had to prove these confidential disks just had a game on them!”
