Once you have inserted your coin into the cabinet of Atari's 1984 isometric shooter arcade game Return of the Jedi, you shall have to press either thumb button on the handlebar to start; once you have done so, the game will proceed to the screen shown above and you will have fourteen seconds to select either "EASY" (0 points), "MEDIUM" (300000 points), or "HARD" (600000 points) difficulty level by turning the handlebar left or right, then pressing either thumb button to confirm your choice. Once you have done so, the game will proceed to its opening cutscene - and the text "LEVEL: 1" shall then appear.
In the first level, you must guide Princess Leia through the forest of Endor on a Speeder Bike while avoiding trees and destroying enemy Stormtroopers; she receives 10 points for each metre she travels, 100 points for every Stormtrooper she rams and either 500 or 1000 points for every one she destroys (either by shooting them, forcing them to crash or luring them into an Ewok trap, but she must try to be the first one through the traps herself). Once she reaches the Ewok Village and joins the Ewoks, C3-PO and R2-D2, the text "YOU MADE IT! BONUS FOR PHASE 1: 10000" shall appear on the screen.
In the second level (which, if you selected "EASY" difficulty level, will get skipped on the first cycle), you must guide Chewbacca through another part of the forest in a Scout Walker while avoiding or destroying rolling logs, catapulted rocks, and enemy Scout Walkers; he again receives 10 points for every metre he travels, 500 points for each rolling log he destroys and 2000 points for each Scout Walker he destroys. However, Lando Calrissian will also be flying towards the Death Star in the Millennium Falcon at the same time, so the game will switch over to him after a short period of time - and he too will receive 10 points for every metre he travels, and 500 points for every TIE Fighter he destroys. Once Chewbacca has reached the bunker, Han Solo will destroy it and deactivate the protective shield surrounding the Death Star so Calrissian can enter it, but no bonus will be awarded for clearing this level.
In the third level, you must guide Calrissian through the Death Star in the Millennium Falcon, while avoiding walls and destroying more TIE Fighters; on this one he will receive 100 points for every TIE Fighter he rams and either 500 or 1000 points for every one he destroys. Once he reaches the reactor, the text "DESTROY REACTOR!" will appear on the screen - and once you have fired a shot at it the text "BONUS FOR REACTOR: 10000" will appear at the bottom of the screen. Calrissian will then turn the Millennium Falcon around and you shall then have to get out of the Death Star as the reactor's explosion chases him from the top-right corner of the screen; once he has escaped, the text "DEATH STAR DESTROYED!" will appear on the screen. The Death Star will then explode as the text "BONUS FOR DEATH STAR: 10000" appears at the bottom of the screen - and the game will now restart with a higher level of difficulty (but for added variety, the levels will be randomised). Once the player has cleared all eight cycles, he or she will receive 100000 points as Yoda appears and says "You are a true Jedi Knight" from the TMS-5220 and a gold star is displayed next to his or her initials on the high-score table; the original Star Wars trilogy later went on to be concluded with The Empire Strikes Back (which is based on its second film) in 1985.