Our moles in the trenches tell us that the old Atari vector-graphics-based Star Wars title looks to be one of the games that will be in the next batch of games destined for the Microsoft Game Room. According to our moles, Microsoft has plans already for four game pack offerings (four expected to be released before the end of this year, with two additional packs coming next year) with titles to sell within the Game Room. They will need these titles if they intend to reach their title offering targets.

Released originally by Atari to arcades back in 1983, the Atari adaptation of Star Wars (or Star Wars the arcade game as many call it) was a first person space simulator that used 3D colored vector graphics to allow players to pilot an X-Wing fighter, taking the role of Luke Skywalker who is trying to destroy the Death Star.

The start of the game is more dog fighting with TIE fighters than anything else. After this, the second part of the game challenges the player to skim the surface of the Death Star to destroy laser turrets and towers. Finally, the player will find themselves in the trench from the movie trying to maneuver to make their way to that exhaust port to file the shot which destroys the Death Star. Beyond these three acts in the game, there isn’t much, other than the difficulty getting more challenging each time.

The game itself was adapted for the home market a couple of times. Parker Brothers has the rights and brought out versions for a number of platforms, including the Atari 2600, 5200, and 8-bit family of computers, as well as versions for the ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, Apple II, and Apple Macintosh. The Amiga and Atari ST ports are closest to the arcade experience, as it includes the digitized voices and sounds from the original arcade game. The majority of the other conversions struggled to replicate the experience of the arcade version of the game and was received with various amounts of success.

The game itself holds a special spot for many players, and some claim that it is the fourth most popular arcade game of all time. A good playable conversion should be quite possible with the modern abilities of a modern console such as the Xbox 360 if an adaptation is attempted, rather than just a conversion of the original code from the arcade game itself. If Microsoft has been able to figure out how to bring this game to the Game Room and it is a good version, it could be quite successful and a big sales draw for the Game Room.