Star Fighter 3000 was first released for the Acorn Archimedes, in November 1994, by Fednet Software. Fednet Software was a company created by Tim Parry and Andrew Hutchings to publish the game. Earlier games the pair developed were Chocks Away and Stunt Racer 2000, which were published by The Fourth Dimension.[3] One element of the gameplay noted in the game's review was the ability for the player to fly the fighter out of the planet's atmosphere, with the sky darkening until "outer space begins to appear", also providing encounters with "hostile emplacements in orbit".[4]
Version 3.20, of this branch of the game, was released in January 2016.[5] Later versions improve compatibility across RISC OS machines and are free to any owner of a previous release.[6]
Microdigital Omega[edit]
In 2002, a second branch for RISC OS was developed for newer machines. It was a back-port of the 3DO code. Development was done under the software label FlaYmz; headed by Nathan Atkinson (formerly of Visions of the Impossible) and coded by Lee Noar. Paul Thomson (VOTI and DFI) and Lee Johnston (VOTI) worked on the new introduction. The conversion was extremely difficult because little paperwork was available to explain how the 3DO handled some of the graphics routines. Lee Noar had the difficult task unpicking this code. This version featured the graphical and gameplay enhancements of the 3DO version.