In the top 10 list of my favourite-ever video game moments – a list that changes radically every year or so – there are two absolute immovables. And they both involve Star Wars. The first time I sat in the beautifully elaborate arcade cabinet of Atari's 1983 Star Wars game and experienced its thrilling depiction of the Death Star assault was a life-changing moment in an otherwise unremarkable holiday in Blackpool. To a boy who watched the film practically every week on video it was a dream come true. Much later, in 1996, I was a young writer for Edge magazine visiting Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for a feature on their Direct X graphics technology. After the interviews they took me to a new multiplayer gaming centre in the city; it was a roomful of pods, each housing a state of the art PC and flight controls.

A Canadian tinkerer who calls himself a'mad inventor' ditched his corporate job to follow his dream of'putting a little more joy into the world' with eye-catching vehicles and contraptions. Former advertising executive Allan Carver is still generating promotions for local businesses but they involve crazy creations -- like a 13-foot remote-control metal dinosaur, an electric witches' broom made from an old scooter, and a real-life Angry Birds video game -- rather than radio or TV spots. 'I want people to go'Wow!' and walk away with a smile,' Carver told DailyMail.com of his inventions. 'I want them to feel better about themselves, about others, and about humanity in general.' One of the most attention-garnering inventions to come from Carver's Mad Secret Labs is a rideable TIE fighter, the starship flown by Darth Vader and imperial troops in the Star Wars movies.

A long time ago – nearly four decades ago – in arcades near and far away, Star Wars fans climbed into a cockpit-shaped game cabinet, plunked in their quarters and experienced the virtual thrill of piloting an X-wing starfighter à la Luke Skywalker. With Star Wars: Squadrons, out today, players can get that Star Wars Arcade experience on steroids, right at home. The new video game ($39.99, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PCs, rated for ages 13-up) puts players in the cockpits of New Republic and Imperial fighters and other spacecrafts in the Star Wars universe after the Rebel Alliance's victory at the end of the movie, "Return of the Jedi." Upgrading to a new Xbox or PlayStation?:What to do with your old video game console Stay sharp as you play and you can eventually become a fighter ace on both sides of the coming-to-a-close Civil War. Switching back and forth between your two customized fighter pilots – one with the New Republic, the other with the Galactic Empire – you will fly eight different types of ships.