Destroy Death Star was a battery operated game in which players moved fighter squadrons (shaped pieces of transparent brightly colored day-glo perspex) across a blue translucent plastic game board. Players had the chance to destroy enemy targets (and the Death Star itself) by estimating the target co-ordinates from their position using two rotational knobs (one for horizontal, one for vertical) and then pressing the firing button. This operated a small bulb underneath the game board, and if the light was directly on a target and illuminated by the bulb, the target was destroyed and removed from the playing board. If it was not directly on a target, it was considered a miss.
The game was entirely based on the Palitoy Parker games named Salvo! which was released in 1976. Cosmetic changes were made to Salvo! to transform it from a battleship-based game to a space arena.