Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game

Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game, subtitled Assault on the Death Star, was a board game released by Hasbro in 1996. The game is notable in that it contains a VHS tape that is played on a television screen as the players play the game. The tape contains scenes from the original trilogy mixed with footage shot specifically for the tape. The footage features David Prowse and James Earl Jones reprising their roles as the physical presence and voice of Darth Vader, who arrives onboard the second Death Star to take command of the station to destroy a Rebel Alliance supply base on the planet D'rinba IV. The player's characters are tasked with the mission to stop him.

Opening crawl
Following a failed attempt to destroy the second Death Star by the Rebel Alliance, Emperor Palpatine orders Darth Vader to take command of the battle station and move it to the forest moon of Endor to be completed in secret. Shortly thereafter, he learns of a major Rebel supply base on the planet D'rinba IV and diverts its course to the planet, intending to use the station's superlaser to destroy it. Intercepting this information, the Alliance assembles a team of Force-sensitive individuals to sneak onboard and disable the station. However, Vader soon learns of their presence and has the station put on alert. The situation becomes a race against time for the members of the infiltration party, as they must attempt to succeed in their mission while avoiding the station's stormtrooper contingent and, late in the mission, the fall of one of their party to the Dark side of the Force.

Cast

 * James Earl Jones - the Voice of Darth Vader
 * David Prowse - Darth Vader

Crew

 * Nelson Hall - Lucasfilm Archivist
 * Gilbert Taylor - Director of Photography
 * Frank Walsh - Production Designer
 * Brian Aherne - dubbing mixer
 * Christian Marnham - script
 * Lance Brinded - editor
 * Martin Collins - producer
 * Phil Attfield - director
 * John Williams - music composer
 * Produced by Communicated Limited for Hasbro
 * Thanks to the creator of the Star Wars trilogy - George Lucas - and to everyone at Lucasfilm Licensing
 * special thanks to Carol Wisely, Ben Rathbone and Alasdair Dewar
 * thanks to Richard Ireland and Complete Facilities

Contents

 * 1 60-Minute VHS videotape
 * 1 Game Board
 * 13 Star Wars Figures
 * 36 Cardboard Explosives
 * 6 Force Level Indicators
 * 2 Combat Disks
 * 1 Death Star Reactor Core
 * 80 Cards
 * Die and Instructions

The Vader Footage
The VHS tape included with the game featured a mixture of scenes from the original trilogy with specifically shot material for the game. For these new scenes, Hasbro hired David Prowse to wear the armor and James Earl Jones to dub his voice. Gil Taylor, cinematographer for A New Hope, was also hired to be involved in the filming of the footage.

Continuity
This game was referenced in The Dark Forces Saga, a series of online adventure scenarios for the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG line published on their website. Written by Abel G. Peña, it canonized four of the player characters as Kyle Katarn, (from Star Wars: Dark Forces), Shira Brie (from Marvel Comics Star Wars series), Corwin Shelvay (from West End Games' Star Wars RPG material) and Erling Tredway (also from West End Games' Star Wars RPG material.)