The Blockade Runner

Star Wars Is Forever


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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Star Wars (NES, 1991)

Check out the first 30 minutes or so of Star Wars on the NES in our second (and last) Blockade Runner Plays video for our Power of the 90s series covering 1990/1991. I play from the start of the game up through the first part of the Death Star, so the video provides a pretty solid look at the first third or so of the game.

I’m also including Nintendo Power’s coverage from its September 1991 issue (Volume 28, the rest of which you can read here on archive.org). It’s a fun look at what games coverage, Star Wars or otherwise, was like in 1991 and it’s also super helpful if you want to play some NES Star Wars yourself!

The game’s manual also includes some helpful info as well as some fun graphics and character write ups (Star Wars’s manual can be found at Digital Press’s site which also includes a ton of other game manual scans for numerous consoles). You can also click on the image below to view the entire manual as a pdf.
NES Star Wars Manual
You can also find some information about the hint book mentioned in the video here, or check out this eBay listing for the hint book (which includes a couple of pictures).

I just recently learned that there is a totally sweet tv commercial for the game too. Check out a dastardly Darth Vader taking on a super-heroic mom in this fantastic ad for the game:

While you’re at it, why not check out comedian Mario Cantone (for some reason) shilling for the game on some sort of video game-related tv show:

Finally, check out the Moby Games page for NES Star Wars for more info on the games development and release as well as screenshots from this and other versions of the game if you’re interested in the differences between them that I briefly mentioned in the video.


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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Attack on the Death Star (Sharp X68000, 1991)

Power of the 90s Attack on Death Star Cover Art

Check out some video footage we put together of Attack on the Death Star for the Sharp X68000 as part of our Power of the 90s series. The game was released in Japan in December of 1991 and features an incredible wire-frame style look and some cutting edge (for the time) audio. It’s a super cool game that not many Star Wars fans in the west seem to have experienced, but it’s totally worth checking out either through this video or with your own play-through if you can track it down!


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Blockade Runner Podcast – April 27th, 2017 – Battlefront II Rundown

Battlefront II Cover ArtListen or watch below:

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Show Notes:

Ryan and John discuss the news coming out of Star Wars Celebration Orlando for the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront 2. We dive into the single-player campaign, updates to the multiplayer modes (and more) before taking a quick look at Rey’s just-announced Last Jedi dlc outfit.

Links:

Email=theblockaderunnerpodcast@gmail.com

Twitter=@blockaderun

Stitcher

YouTube

Instagram=theblockaderunner


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The Blockade Runner Podcast Episode 15.5 – Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

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Show Notes:

Download this episode (right-click and save)

In episode 15.5 of The Blockade Runner podcast, we revisit a recording Ryan and John did last year discussing the Nintendo Gamecube game Rogue Squadron III. If you’re a listener of our other podcast, Nintendo Fun Club, you may have heard this conversation there, but if not, we spend about 30 minutes discussing one of our favorite Star Wars games (with a brief Blockade Runner update beforehand).

Links:

Intro and outro music for The Blockade Runner is “Hedonism” by Ash.

Email=theblockaderunnerpodcast@gmail.com

Twitter=@blockaderun

YouTube

Instagram=theblockaderunner


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Introducing “The Blockade Runner Plays” Series with Famicom Star Wars

 

The Blockade Runner is launching a new video series today called “The Blockade Runner Plays” with our first installment featuring Star Wars for Nintendo’s Famicom console. Those of you familiar with my other podcast won’t be too surprised to see our interest in Star Wars and games intersecting here again (we also recorded a few episodes of our Nintendo Fun Club show covering various Star Wars games on Nintendo systems), but hopefully you’ll give it a look regardless of whether or not you’re as enamored with games as we are around here.

I thought the Famicom version of Star Wars would be a good place to start as it’s relatively unknown in the US, takes generous liberties with source material, and features the 8-bit aesthetic that is so well-loved by fans around my age. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, but it’s pretty tough, so this isn’t an edit-free run through the game. I chose to focus on just showing off the game and its qualities rather than providing a completely accurate recreation of my time with the game. That approach makes for a shorter video and less redundancy (sometimes I died PRETTY often); I’m also splitting the game up into two (or more) videos in the hopes that they’ll be a bit more digestible that way.

Let us know what you thought in the comments here, on YouTube, or through email. I’m looking forward to playing more games for the series going forward, and I’ll probably lean more toward classic and under-appreciated games, but I’d love to hear suggestions for what you may be interested in seeing us play for future “Blockade Runner Plays” videos.