A must read is the short Halcyon Days interview with designer Doug Neubauer (you probably know it already):
http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/NEUBAUER.HTM

Some comments from me:

- It's unusual for a "hardware guy" to create a really amazing video game. It seems that in those early days the best people in the industry were like Leonardo Da Vinci who did pretty much anything - and were good at it. Like Steve Wozniak. And the less known but equally brilliant Doug Neubauer.

- According to AtariAge the VCS conversion was done by Carla Meninsky, not by Neubauer.
http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=491

- Neubauer did the "real" sequel "Solaris" on the VCS himself and it looks unbelievable on this machine!
http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=450
It had better graphics (with compromises), more colors and ran smoother - take a look at the screenshots and imagine them at 60 Hz.
Sadly it wasn't really pushed by Atari.

- I'm not sure if the official sequel "Star Raiders 2" was programmed by Atari US and the converted by Electric Dreams UK for other machines (C64, Amstrad/CPC, Sinclair Spectrum) or if they did the Atari 8-bit version, too, but most reviewers were not very favorable anyway.

take care,
Calibrator