Long before Star Wars reached the arcades, Kenner put it on the kitchen table: a tabletop “micro-computer” game of “Hyperspace Dogfights” for one to four players, played on a glowing grid of red lights.
The cream console looks like a starship’s command station. Its 16 lights map a patch of Hyperspace, coordinates A–D and 1–4, where players scan for enemies and for Magna, which the box calls “the FORCE giving star”. It is more strategy than reflexes: an electronic cousin of Battleship.
Interesting facts
First in a long line. Kenner’s Battle Command is widely cited as the first officially licensed Star Wars electronic game. Atari’s arcade Star Wars didn’t arrive until 1983, and a long line of video games has followed.
A brain from Texas. The ‘micro-computer’ inside is a Texas Instruments TMS1100 microcontroller, marked MP3438A, from the same family of chips that ran many of the era’s electronic toys and games.
Museum piece. London’s Young V&A holds a complete boxed example, booklet, score pad and red Teach Mode notice included. Its base reads “© CPG Products Corp 1979 … Made in Hong Kong”; CPG was General Mills’ toy arm.