My experience with William’s Sinistar
The jist of this page is that I ‘had’ never played a Sinistar in person before. But….as of 11/9/2008, I finally did play one in person and I think I am still interested in purchasing one.
Before I get into the long rambling story of why I am interested in Sinistar, if you are looking to contact me just visit the button above that says ‘Contact’, or jump to the end of this writeup for my email address and other details. As a frame of reference, I am located in Indianapolis, so I am looking for someone with a game within the 3-6 hour travel range.
This lame ‘Never been in an arcade’ excuse again?
Having never been to an arcade as a kid, I came into contact with Sinistar in 2006. I was having a party and was trying to have as many forms of entertainment as possible. A friend gave me a Playstation that didn’t have any cords and I thought, being my first console, it would be a great source of entertainment at the party. Granted, Playstation was already ancient at this point, but that also meant getting used games was affordable.
I picked up the Williams compilation Playstation discs, which had Bubbles, Joust, Defender, Defender II, Robotron and Sinistar. I knew I loved Joust, and actually hadn’t played any of the other Williams games before including Defender or Robotron! (This is where the arcade community beats down my door and stones me on the spot. Blasphemy!)
I like Robotron enough, it gets really hard really quick. I didn’t care all that much about Defender, but it was Sinistar that really stuck out in my mind. Sinistar was like no other game I had played to this point, and the only other context I had for the Williams game was that another local collector told me to keep an eye out for one for him. At that point, I knew Sinistar had some level of rarity and demand, but I knew nothing about it.
Sinistar on the Playstation is interesting
Challenging, but not impossible, I played Sinistar until my thumbs were numb. Trying to accurately steer the ship using the Playstation controller was hardly easy, and after one level my hand would throb. Didn’t matter, even when I didn’t know what I was doing I just loved the fact that you got chased around and taunted by this creepy cat looking planet that roared and chomped the ship to pieces.
It wasn’t until I went through the extras on the disc that I understood what I was supposed to do, shoot the Planetoids, gather the crystals which turned into Sinibombs, shoot the warriors when possible and then when Sinistar was fully formed and racing at you like a bat out of Hell, fly around like a mad man releasing the bombs as quickly as possible.
Sinistar was a source of amusement for the next couple of weeks. Whenever someone would come over, I had to show them this scary robotic chanting planet that reminded you of a funnier time in computer graphics. I got a lot of shocked reactions, but the general idea was that Sinistar was far from Pac-man, and most people never knew such a game existed.
I haven’t made it past the second level, and my intensity of playing Sinistar on the Playstation has waned naturally, like any game. But I have to believe that playing with a 49 way joystick makes the ship more maneuverable and the game play more addicting.
Looking for some more info on Sinistar?
There is a ton of good content on the internet that I don’t need to repeat here. I have made a couple of posts on my blog about Sinistar related information.
Do I want to own a Sinistar?
That is the ‘tooo dolla’ question. I want to play an upright Sinistar in person. I am trying to evaluate the game to see if I like it enough to eventually have one for my collection. I am very particular about arcade game artwork, and the fact that Sinistar is solid black on the sides with a fairly simplistic stenciled design on the side makes me a bit leary. Not a big fan of the huge black cabinet in the basement that seems to lack a little on the overall presentation. IMO only.
I would be interested in playing a Sinistar cockpit as well if I can’t find someone with an upright. I wouldn’t probably be in the market to buy a Sinistar cockpit so it would be nice to play what I think I may buy. I am hoping to find someone in a surrounding state to Indiana that has one for play, either in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan or Kentucky. If you have a Sinistar and would be open to having me over to try it out and totally destroy my only perception of the game translation to Playstation, I would be very grateful.
My Contact Info
Use my contact page above or shoot me an email at rothecreations at gmail dot com. I know of a couple of guys, one in Chicago with a cockpit and one in Wisconsin with an upright that I wasn’t able to finalize meeting details with on my trip to pick up my Mr. Do! If I can’t find someone else closer before I head up to Chicago again I will probably hit them up for a visit.
