Wow, the silent hyperspace mode followed by the red alert alarm sequence is pretty cinematic! Had to watch that a few times.
IMHO, that game sold a lot of Atari computers. Was written by the guy who designed the sound chip, and it was kind of a side project that turned out great enough to showcase the computers.
The particle calculations are not well optimized. While this is seen as a bug, and there is an effort to make the game run faster, many players appreciate the slowdown in battle. There is a feel associated with that which adds a lot to the overall impression of the game. It's oddly gratifying to feel it slow down as the enemy and their shots explode...
They add a lot to the game, though the author didn't intend for it to go that way.
Funny, for that time period, there are a lot of "effects" that were resource limits, or bugs that ended up making for a better experience. Little things, like getting an extra color to work with were a very big deal.
We have come so damn far...
This did cause me to pull my old 400 out of the closet. It has this cartridge in it. Turned it on, and it plays fine. My HDTV is a bit cranky about it all though.