Remembering the 30-year-old computer game that introduced me to Star Wars

"For my then-fundamentalist Christian family, the so-called Eastern mysticism of Star Wars was a bridge too far, something that could apparently corrupt my impressionable young Evangelical mind irreversibly. Star Trek was OK, though, because my parents didn't feel it condoned witchcraft, or what have you, and they liked the original series from when they were younger."

"My parents were committed to controlling which movies, books, and music I could consume, but for whatever reason, there was almost no oversight on the video games I played. I couldn't watch Star Wars, but I could play Doom. I'd go to Software, Etc., grab a big box or a bag of shareware disks, and buy it with my allowance without the same kind of parental approval that applied to other media."

"In revisiting that classic game of the '90s, we get a glimpse at a very odd moment in pop culture history when Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries attempted to basically re-create the multimedia blitz of the original Star Wars movie releases, including a new story, books, new lines of toys, and all the rest—all in a lead up to the release of the Special Edition edits of the original films."

The author grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household that restricted Star Wars consumption due to perceived Eastern mysticism and witchcraft concerns, while permitting Star Trek. This parental oversight didn't extend to video games, allowing the author to experience Star Wars first through Shadows of the Empire at age 12. The game coincided with Lucasfilm's ambitious 1990s multimedia campaign that included new stories, books, toys, and Special Edition film releases. This unconventional entry point into the Star Wars universe occurred during a unique moment in pop culture history when the franchise attempted to recreate the multimedia impact of the original theatrical releases.

Read at arstechnica.com