While criticizing the violent gameplay, after seeing a demonstration Ted Nelson wrote, "The Atari machine is the most extraordinary computer graphics box ever made, and "Star Raiders" is its virtuoso demonstration game". "Compute!" in 1980 wrote that "Star Raiders" is "incredibly exciting to play and just about as much fun to watch!" It praised the game's use of color and sound to alert the player, and warned that "THIS GAME IS ADDICTIVE!". "This game is absolutely guaranteed to put calluses on your trigger-finger", "InfoWorld" stated. The magazine reported that "Star Raiders" complexity encouraged cooperative gameplay, and that "over twenty hours of grueling tests by a battery of ingenious children" had proven that it was free of bugs.