The graphics are quite stunning for a system that first came out when Pong was in it's heyday, and look better when seen in motion. (The way your ship leaps out to the horizon when leaving a planet is rather cool.) The audio is adequate, with decent engine and explosion sounds, as well as some noise from the enemies. Your fighter's guns make a satisfying "Thoom!" when fired.
What's really surprising about this game, though, is the depth.
The game is made up of a 4x4 grid of quadrants, each of which contains 8x6 sectors as seen on the map. Enemies bear an unusually strong resemblance to Klingon cruisers, Cylon base-stars, and TIE fighters, and each symbol on the map represents a squadron. These squadrons aren't passive, either, and will slowly move across the map to besiege that quadrant's colony. At that point, you'll have to destroy the invaders or risk losing one of your relatively few places to refuel.
There's a nice variety of enemies, the occasional ground-attack mission to change things up, stranded prisoners you can rescue, and the occasional bit of weirdness like a "corridor" or a wormhole. The game is fucking HARD, too. The first few squadrons of "Cylons" you wade through may not be any big deal, but you have a LOT of ground to cover, and it only gets harder.
If Atari had managed to get a post-2600 console off the ground, and supported it with games of this quality, things might have gone much differently.
