Stellar 7 is a futuristic tank simulation game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra, the first game they published by Dynamix after acquiring them. It was also their first game to support VGA graphics, beating out King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! by a few months.
Gir Draxon, Supreme Overlord of the evil Arcturan Empire, is preparing to launch an attack on Earth. As Commander of Terran forces assigned to protect the planet, your mission is to reach the Arcturan star system and destroy Draxon before he can assemble his forces and capture Earth.
To help combat the powerful Arcturan Armada, Terran High Command has placed you at the controls of the Raven, Earth's most sophisticated fighting machine. From the command seat of the Raven, you must face Arcturan forces in seven different star systems. If you successfully destroy enough of the enemy forces in one star system, a Guardian will appear. If the Guardian is battled and defeated, a Warp Link will appear. Drive into the Warp Link to transport yourself into the next star system. Upon reaching the seventh system, Arcturus, you must locate and destroy Gir Draxon's flagship. Should you succeed, Earth will be saved. Failure will leave your home planet defenseless against Draxon's assault and guarantee Earth's destruction!
Stellar 7, whose title is based on the seven planets the player must battle on, is an action-style tank simulation video game based on the arcade game Battlezone (1980), in which the player assumes the role of a futuristic tank pilot. The game was originally created by Damon Slye for the Apple ][ and Commodore 64 in 1983. An enhanced remake for the Amiga, Classic Mac OS and MS-DOS was released in 1990, with the CD-ROM version sporting voice acting and CD audio. The game was followed by three sequels, Arcticfox (1986), Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon, and Stellar 7: Draxon's Revenge (1993), the latter being a further enhanced conversion of the 1990 remake for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.
This Video Game contains examples of:
- Attack Its Weak Point: The first Guardian has a vulnerable head. You can kill it easily by hitting the head, but you'll need to use the Jump Thruster power to do so.
- Big Bad: Gir Draxon is the leader of the Arcturus Empire and wants to conquer the Sol system.
- Deflector Shields: The reason why the Raven is so tough is that it has a very powerful shield system, with the Eel Shield enhancement — the Raven temporarily gets a Nigh-Invulnerable Deadly Force Field
- Final Boss: Gir Draxon fights you in a tank similar but weaker than the Raven.
- Flawed Prototype: The first Raven wasn't complete when it was deployed, it had its shield systems but there wasn't time to install armour on it. This is why the tank has Critical Existence Failure for the next hit after its shields are gone.
- Giant Robot: In this version of Stellar 7, there are now giant robot bosses called Guardians. Their body types vary but each are several times larger than the Raven.
- Hover Tank: No treads for the Raven. It's fast and highly mobile, rising above ground with advanced anti-grav.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Zigzagged, your enemies use lasers and ballistic cannons. Lasers hit almost instaneously while cannon shells need lead time and anticipation. However cannon shells do more damage per hit and enemies using ballistic weapons are tougher than their laser-using counterparts. Additionally some enemies with ballistic cannons can use them with rapid-fire. The Raven itself only has ballistic weapons but in the sequel Nova 9, it can get laser weapons as an add-on.
- More Dakka: The Raven has the Bi-Phasal Thunder Cannon, making it the first video game with a double-cannoned tank. It can fire 2 shots in rapid succession before needing to reload. If you use the Super Cannon power, the Raven can unleash 5 shots in a row before reloading and each shot's damage is greatly increased.
- Power Copying: The Raven will get charges to Power Modules by taking them from enemies relevant to the power. So if you 3 of the following enemies in a row, you get the specific ability: EEL Shields - 3 Prowlers, MP Thruster - 3 Sandsleds, Super Cannon - 3 Assault Tanks, Jump Thruster - 3 Skimmers, Cat's Eye - 3 Stalkers and RC Bomb - 3 Seekers.
- The Remake: An enhanced remake of the game was released in 1990. Besides updating the graphics, there's a larger number of abilities for the Raven and bosses outside of Gir Draxon.
- Super Prototype: Humanity put its remaining available resources into the Raven and won't be able to make another one while they're still conquered. However nothing can match the Raven's technology, including the similar tank that Gir Draxon has brought in to counter the Raven.
- Superior Successor: The Raven II is definitely an improvement over the original Raven. With Gir Draxon defeated, Captain John Alex had plenty of time and resources to complete the Raven II. Now the tank has armour, improved engines, a heavier set of Biphasal Thunder Cannons, and a minelayer in addition to its previous abilities. The Raven II can also evolve after missions provided it doesn't take too much damage.
- Tank Goodness: The Raven is the most advanced tank ever built and in the Dynamix reboot, if the games is set at less than hard mode it starts off with charges on every power module. Regardless of difficulty level, the Raven will always start with 3 charges of Inviso Cloak.
- Useless Useful Stealth: Averted, the Raven's stealth features are amazing. Enemies will fire at the spot where you were last visible or where you last fired while invisible. The Inviso Cloak will uniquely recharge from finding a fuel bay.
- You Have Failed Me: Gir Draxon kills off The Dragon for his failure.
