StarBlade was released in arcades in 1991, developed and published by Namco. The game featured a pod, which was developed by Panasonic, in which the user played inside which had become a growing trend in arcade games. However, the inside of the pod is what StarBlade became famous for. StarBlade used a concave mirror to reflect the image from the screen to the top of the pod. This feature was meant to give a deep space feel and StarBlade was the first video game to ever implement the idea. The pod also featured surround sound with four speakers. The game was played with a large 2-axis 4-button controller that acted as a laser gun. The controller's built in LED lights flashed every time an enemy was destroyed. In contrast, when the player was hit by enemies, the seat would rumble and flashes would temporary blind the player. StarBlade was later ported to the Sega CD and 3DO, obviously without the pod. These versions used full motion video backgrounds with polygonal overlays to approximate the arcade graphics. The Sega CD version features wireframe enemies as opposed to shaded enemies. Two years later, the game was also ported to the PlayStation under the name, StarBlade Alpha. The Playstation version features an additional campaign, hence the changed title.
An emulated version of the arcade game is included in Tekken 5 on the Playstation 2 as the loading screen mini-game and as a bonus feature.
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