I got this game on my Atari XEGS back in '88 (it came out for the XEGS in late '87). I played the hell out of this game, flying around the worlds, rescuing pilots and BBQing aliens. Sure, it was a bit choppy, but damn it, you were flying around in 3D space, shooting turrets and landing to find out if your were about to rescue a pilot or be attacked by an alien. I also got the occasional sadistic kick out of leaving the pilot outside, hearing their pounding on the ship's hull become less and less until it stopped. Still have my copy, and my Atari XEGS, to this day.
I remember playing the Atari 800 version. If you accidentally pick up an alien rather than a pilot the alien starts hammering on the windshield and I had to pick myself off the floor where I’d fallen after the shock. Amazing for its time. Almost as good as Encounter.
Yes, it was a scary experience the first time. The alien would smash the windshield if you didn't switch the shields on and kill it fairly quickly. But if you opened the ships door before it got to the ship, the alien would just climb inside and kill everyone. 🫣
For me, it'll always be the Atari 8-bit computer version. And you can load this game in the Atari 400 Mini using the SD card... And the Commodore 64 version is close second.
This was one of the few originals I had for the C64. I got it for Christmas the year it came out along with Ballblazer, The Eidolon, and The Koronis Rift. Yes, I was spoiled. :) I played this game the most. I loved that the landscapes weren't just random, they were actual maps that you could explore. There's a game for the Amiga called Master Blazer that is basically Ballblazer, but with a career mode. The interesting thing is that at the start, there's a little demo sequence of flying through fractal mountains, that looks just like this game, only faster and smoother. This got me excited for an Amiga version, but sadly, it never happened. There's a freeware remake for Windows though. Unfortunately, I can't run it on my old, outdated system.
Back in 1985, I had the TRS-80, an Atari 2600 and a TI-994a computer. I guess I must have missed this TRS-80 release. Closest thing I had to this game was Star Raiders on the 2600
This is one of the most visually impressive games I ever seen. This was 1985. You were seeing stuff like this in arcades, not on computer games and consoles. This game was way ahead of the curve.
I'd love to see what could be done with fractals on more modern hardware. The last game I saw featuring them was Captain Blood which is also dated by today's standards but also incredibly strange and interesting, well worth a look.
Excellent video, when I have time i am gonna go through any other comparisons you may have made and see what I think! Thanks for posting this! Opening the airlock like that before the pilot knocks on the door (especially if you can't see him.) is DAMN risky, there's a chance it's a Jaggi waiting to mess you up, If you let him on board he'll tear your ship up from the inside and you better pray you can boost up to the mothership fast enough to save you! I grew up on the C64 version, which I thought was the best but I see know it was significantly slower and lower framerate then the Atari original. Since they use the same CPU the Atari version must be using some tricks from Jay Miner's amazing custom video chip that would go on to make the Amiga so powerful in the next generation of 16 bit hardware. That scene with the mothership was impressive too, very cool to see how the launch and landing tubes really worked, I pictured the mothership in my mind working more like the Battlestar Galactica (original series of course, it was only 5 years old at the time of Fractalus!) so that's a big plus for the Atari version as well.
The Atari 8 bit version was the superior version, due to its faster CPU. The intro is great too, which you don’t get on the C64 version. The Atari 8 bit never really took off in the UK though, due to it being more expensive and poor marketing (where’s the C64, and the even cheaper Zx Spectrum especially did).
The Atari 8 bits were still quite popular here in the UK, certainly more so than the Apple 2. My aunt and uncle had a 400, their son had an 800. I was so blown away, I eventually got a 400, and then an 800XL. But the first generation Ataris were expensive, because at the time of release in 1979, they were the most graphically and sonically advanced home computers available. With relatively few manufacturers in the fledgling "home computer" market, competition hadn't brought prices down. Even the C64 wasn't cheap when launched. The fact that they predated the C64 by three years makes them all the more remarkable, bearing in mind how close they were in overall capabilities.
Oooh dude, THANKS for this video, you've awaken so many memories!!!! I used to play this game A LOT with my older brother back in 1988. He bought an Atari 800XL and he would borrow an Atari 1050 (diskette reader) from a neighborhood's friend who owned an Atari 130XE. That dude would also lend us a bunch of games. By the way, I think there are actually 3 games that share the same programming technology and were made by Lucas Films: Rescue On Fractalus, The Eidolon and Koronis Rift. I played them all I loved them. Oh, you should have shown us the part when the pilot to be rescued is actually a horrible lizard in disguise hahaha, seeing that onscreen was TERRIFYING back in the day!!!
Loved this game. I only ever played it on the C64 back in the day. Now that I have played the Atari 8-bit version I will give that version the nod as the smoothest and most colorful. Excellent comparison as always! I think there was a Tandy Coco version too I wonder how that compared?
I think some of the commenters below are missing the difference between impressive for the time and seeing something that had never been done before... it is a massive difference...
I had never heard of or seen this game before but for something done back in 1985 to have 3D landscapes with elevation and spacial flight controls is shocking. The few examples of 3D that you had back then were mostly wire frame like in the case of Elite or Microsoft Flight Simulator. The fluid animation of the people being rescued was super smooth too and I'm thinking was rotoscoped. I may need to try this next time I'm in an Atari 8-bit computer mood. 😃
I only know of it thanks to a Comic... It featured as the "Backdrop" for a Story called THE COMPUTER WARRIOR - Rough synopsis, Young Teenager buys a Cassette at a Car Boot sale that has a "Poke" written in it's inlay, He types it in and is drawn into the Computer where he must play Games in REAL LIFE to prevent Evil escaping into the world... RESCUE OF FRACTULUS was the first game he had to play... Not going to lie, The Comic Strip ended up being a bit of a Marketing vehicle... The Second issue he and 3 others had to play GAUNTLET, which very conveniently was just getting its home computer release that month... I mean, not like I wasn't hyped enough to want GAUNTLET anyway I loved that game in the arcades! Someone mentioned below that teh C-64 Version was teh Big Talking point here in the UK... And I think the clue is with the Main Character buying a Cassette... While it is never stated, I believe in the Comic the Main Character was a C-64 Owner!
That's because, for technical reasons I can't remember, the 6510 CPU (a variant of the 6502) in the C64 was running at a little over half the speed of the 6502 in the Atari. It simply couldn't calculate and push raw data to the graphics chips as fast. In a game like this, it nakes a big difference. Yet the Atari computers actually predated the C64 by 3 years. 😉
You have to admire the ambition of programmers back in the day, they truly believed they could do justice to some groundbreaking games. The problem was us Spectrum owners ended up with some absolutely horrific ports.
There a programmers who push the limits of available hardware in every generation. Granted, it is a much bigger task these days, but that's simply due to the power of modern hardware. Today, much like computers from the '80s, console games often require clever programming to play properly, as they have far more restrictive, fixed hardware limitations.
Why not? Pretty much every type of game genre you see today, was pioneered in the '70s and '80s in some form. Due to technological limitations they may be very crude in comparison, but pseudo "3D" and "First Person" games started back then. Flight simulators, ground, aerial and space combat and trading games appeared. Games like the original Elite on the 32Kb BBC Micro. Koronis Rift, The Eidelon, Ballblazer on the Atari. Battlezone, Encounter, Mercenary, F15 Strike Eagle, Tomahawk and Microsoft Flight Simulator too.
There's a message written in the Atari 7800 demo that I've found intriguing: "B'blazer sucks"... Well, I guess the programmer at Lucas Arts had delayed salaries to receive...
I used to play a lot the Amstrad CPC version. As we couldn't compare with other versions back in the days, I couldn't blame the lack of sounds or content differences with the original Atari 8-bits version or the near to pixel perfect port on C64. Some years ago, I bought a linker for my ATARI XE Video Game System, and it was nice to find this game in its original, more complete version. It is not so surprising the game has been converted on Atari 5200 as the joystick features a numeric keypad that permits to replace a complete keyboard for up to 12 functions in games. I'm involved in a project to convert Amstrad CPC games to GX4000. We patched Rescue on Fractalus. And using the second joypad supplied with the machine to map the function keys in the absence of the keyboard used on CPC is proving devilishly effective. I sometimes replay Rescue On Fractalus on CPC or GX4000. Of course, it's nostalgia that makes me prefer this version to the original. But it's also a conversion that remains quite enjoyable to play to let this nostalgia express itself 😁 Many thanks for this video full of memmories, back in the good old time western computer could provide each month one or two fabulous games now entered in the great video game history 🤩
A cracking battle thanks Mark, I've never played this to my shame but I think I'll find a way as that atari 800 version has so many nice touches I'd have been blown away by it in the day. In fact I'd have loved to have a Atari 800, some of the hardware tricks it can pull of for smooth 3d are really awesome, combined with great colour and a decent sound chip I wish I'd asked for one of those instead of a speecy.
Ah, they were very expensive back in the day. Then again, the XE was affordable from what I remember. Although that was looking dated by the time it was released in the UK.
I can't recall which formats it eventually was released on, but I loved the next Lucas game to use voxel/fractals The Eidolon. Its a maze game but thr monsters are awesome.
With the 8-bit series version being the original, the best ports here are the 5200, C64 and Apple II versions. The Spectrum version is, as expected, a bit of an atrocity. If I had to guess with the 5200, landing was likely assigned to one of the number pad keys. I'll never understand the point of those keypads, as it defeats the purpose of a controller: to be able to control the game without looking at the damn thing all the time.
I sadly never gave the C64 version the time it deserves, coming to it from the Atari 800 XL as I did Dropzone and Elktaglide etc, I found the slower framerate made for a far more tedious game experience.
Behind The Jaggi Lines was very popular in Poland, and one of first games my dad played :) Not even sure if pirates here ever got Fractalus in late 80's or early 90's?
I was 10 for the first three-quarters of 1985 and my family still only had a Commodore Vic-20 which nearly definitely wouldn't have been able play this one either (although, if talented programmers can get a rudimentary version of Doom to work on the old Vic, I suppose a fanmade Vic-20 version of Rescue on Fractalus might be possible).
A Lucas Arts game I wasn't familiar with! And it's kinda cool, considering the age of it. This would have had me sweating at my Tandy 1000 SL back in the day... waiting for the game to crash back to DOS...
There were repeated attempts to do a sequel on more powerful hardware. Starting with the Amiga, when LucasArts and Factor 5 began work on a sequel by the name of: Return to Fractalus in the late 1980s, but it was discovered that the hardware couldn't handle the concepts being put forward. Then in 1994, Factor 5 believed that the current generation of 3D consoles had the technology the Fractalus sequel required and again began work on the game, but the game development switched to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64 instead. The fan project by LSD is superb mind.. The Fractalus project , which is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and VR (Oculus/OpenVR)! There's also the excellent Fallen Angels on the Atari Jaguar by Dr Typo.
A quote from one of the development team at the time.. David Levine: Both Ballblazer and Rescue On Fractalus! were coded on the Atari 8-bit computers, under a directive where the company was not to create convertible games, thus in my opinion, the C64 versions were definitely inferior.
The spectrum absolutely could have handled this better. Starstrike Ii, Driller, Starglider, Carrier Command - it was generally much better at vector games than the commodore. It handed them faster due to the processor speed. Even if the reduced ram and poor sound were disadvantages. But you had to play to its strengths not just jam a Commodore approach in. Very sad to see the game in this state when we’ve categorically seen much better efforts on much bigger and more complicated games
The developer for the spectrum port was Dalali software. Also known for Yogi bear, a truly awful game. They don’t seem to have ever attempted another game of this ilk before or since on the spectrum. Given the barebones title screen this screams “cheap and rushed deadline port”.
What emulator were you trying for the TRS-80 Coco 3 version? I have it included (and you can run it from the Coco 3's GUI) with the NitrOS-9 / Ease of Use project, and that can run on real hardware as well as the VCC and MAME emulators. I can help you get that set up - it just requires mounting a single floppy image and a single hard drive image.
Dang, this almost seems like an arcade game more than something 8-bit micro computers could run. I'm impressed by all versions visually, though it's sad to hear that the Spectrum port was so poorly done. Man, imagine if Lucas Games could have used Sega's Super Scaler hardware for this, then we could have gotten something truly incredible!
Another great video. Pity Atari enthusiats can't attempt to finish the 7800 version and Spectrum fans need to make a port to the Spectrum Next which can do a better job
Lol I had the Speccy version Which was a bit of a let down having seen the atari one lol. You could get the hang of it but by the time I got it it was looking a bit old.
I had an Atari 800xl and wanted Rescue on Fractalus and thought it was star wars themed but bought Ballblazers a two player split screen first person air hockey type game.
You can tell this game was made for the Atari 8 Bit homecomputers. Runs perfect on them. The C64 port does a really good job too even thought its weaker processor or course leads to slower framerate. But the Speccy version really is an insult.. there's NO WAY this game should run this bad on that powerful Z80 processor :( Looks like a really botched port.
I was intrigued by Rescue on Fracyulus when it featured as a Storyline in a comic... I think it was SCREAM by Fleetway Publications here in the UK... It was one of the first games played by a character in a Series called "The Computer Warrior" I was an AMSTRAD Owner back then, and was never able to get a hold of the game... And seeing this - YIKES! I AM GLAD I DIDN'T! JESUS THATS BAD! The AMSTRAD was far better than that! Another Lazy Port!!! I still think this looks great even now... Honestly, I miss the days when games had Simple, quick to grasp and hard to master gameplay... I feel a remake of this woudl still do well today, Just slightly update teh graphics and dont do much else! Its simple premise is enough to get a whole lot of enjoyment!
@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 THANK YOU! I knew it was one of them! Back then, Every weekend, My Mother woudl buy us a massive collection of Comics... Eagle, Whizzer and Chips, Beezer, 2000AD and of course when it hits shelves the eponymous SCREAM... Now so many are long gone... And its hard to recall who appeared in what... LOL!
@@Phoenix2312from memory, they did Pastfinder, Gauntlet, 4th And Inches, Wizzard Warz, good few others plus they created some original games for the strip. Roadblasters had it's own strip, but based on the toys, not the game?
Apple II 1977, Atari 8bit 1979, C64 1982, ZX Spectrum 1982, Amstrad CPC 1984. The most disappointing in this list is the ZX Spectrum as it should have been the best, sporting the best CPU for doing this kind of math. I did a game using fractals similar on the Spectrum and it was vastly faster than any other version shown here. However this game was great.
Computer Gamer magazine, March 1986 ran a news story claiming there was to be a sequel appearing on the Atari 8-bit system: Mists Of Xenon:Which would see player returning to same planet they were sent to on Rescue On Fractulas, but this time your mission was to destroy the gun emplacements, so game was to a bit more strategic. An absolute rubbish claim, as David Fox kindly pointed out they stopped working on the A8 soon after Rescue, as sales on it were sadly so low.
This I've never played, so I'm sure I'd struggle with it maintaining my interest these days thinking I'll stick to No Mans Sky for my Space Adventures 😅✌️
All I want to know is, why are so many pilots crashed and if they were that bad, should we really be risking our neck to save them?... Think about it...
![Atari XL/XE - Rescue on Fractalus [Lucasfilm Games] 1985](/img/1.gif)
That jump scare the first time you ever get an alien! Then he bangs on the windscreen - it was well done for the time.
I have to admit "impressive for the time" graphics like these have a lasting charm to them.
It gives you a good idea how “modern” a retro game can look. Take note, indie game developers.
Making something like this, at the time...
Mind-blowing...
High Five, for the programmers!
I got this game on my Atari XEGS back in '88 (it came out for the XEGS in late '87). I played the hell out of this game, flying around the worlds, rescuing pilots and BBQing aliens. Sure, it was a bit choppy, but damn it, you were flying around in 3D space, shooting turrets and landing to find out if your were about to rescue a pilot or be attacked by an alien. I also got the occasional sadistic kick out of leaving the pilot outside, hearing their pounding on the ship's hull become less and less until it stopped.
Still have my copy, and my Atari XEGS, to this day.
A game that implements an algorithm of terrain generation in 1985 for the micro-computers of the time is beyond impressive.
I remember playing the Atari 800 version. If you accidentally pick up an alien rather than a pilot the alien starts hammering on the windshield and I had to pick myself off the floor where I’d fallen after the shock. Amazing for its time. Almost as good as Encounter.
Yes, it was a scary experience the first time. The alien would smash the windshield if you didn't switch the shields on and kill it fairly quickly. But if you opened the ships door before it got to the ship, the alien would just climb inside and kill everyone. 🫣
It's nice to see a "Battle of the Ports" with old computers.
Thank you ! 😉
You're welcome. They do show up from time to time.
"...back in 1985 this would have been very cool." 2:21 It was!
For me, it'll always be the Atari 8-bit computer version. And you can load this game in the Atari 400 Mini using the SD card...
And the Commodore 64 version is close second.
This was one of the few originals I had for the C64. I got it for Christmas the year it came out along with Ballblazer, The Eidolon, and The Koronis Rift. Yes, I was spoiled. :)
I played this game the most. I loved that the landscapes weren't just random, they were actual maps that you could explore.
There's a game for the Amiga called Master Blazer that is basically Ballblazer, but with a career mode. The interesting thing is that at the start, there's a little demo sequence of flying through fractal mountains, that looks just like this game, only faster and smoother. This got me excited for an Amiga version, but sadly, it never happened.
There's a freeware remake for Windows though. Unfortunately, I can't run it on my old, outdated system.
This video makes me feel really old. Thanks a lot Mark. Thanks a lot.
My pleasure! 😋
Back in 1985, I had the TRS-80, an Atari 2600 and a TI-994a computer. I guess I must have missed this TRS-80 release. Closest thing I had to this game was Star Raiders on the 2600
Yeah, I was right there with you in the "Didn't have a computer that ran this!" club back then, because I had a Color Computer 2.
This is one of the most visually impressive games I ever seen. This was 1985. You were seeing stuff like this in arcades, not on computer games and consoles. This game was way ahead of the curve.
Indeed. It is one of the few early examples of having free reign in a 3D environment. Very cool.
I'd love to see what could be done with fractals on more modern hardware. The last game I saw featuring them was Captain Blood which is also dated by today's standards but also incredibly strange and interesting, well worth a look.
Doesn't happen very often but, I had never heard of this game at all. Now I am on the hunt for it haha.
I remember playing this game as a kid with my brother on our C64 :)
Loving the song at the end!
Excellent video, when I have time i am gonna go through any other comparisons you may have made and see what I think! Thanks for posting this!
Opening the airlock like that before the pilot knocks on the door (especially if you can't see him.) is DAMN risky, there's a chance it's a Jaggi waiting to mess you up, If you let him on board he'll tear your ship up from the inside and you better pray you can boost up to the mothership fast enough to save you!
I grew up on the C64 version, which I thought was the best but I see know it was significantly slower and lower framerate then the Atari original. Since they use the same CPU the Atari version must be using some tricks from Jay Miner's amazing custom video chip that would go on to make the Amiga so powerful in the next generation of 16 bit hardware. That scene with the mothership was impressive too, very cool to see how the launch and landing tubes really worked, I pictured the mothership in my mind working more like the Battlestar Galactica (original series of course, it was only 5 years old at the time of Fractalus!) so that's a big plus for the Atari version as well.
Yeaahh, I've seen this on the Atari 7800 prototype:)
I was born in 93, but I still would have played this for hours if I owned it
Cool video. I did have the Atari 8-bit computer version. I do hope to see LucasArts the Eidolon next as well as Koronis Rift in Battle of the Ports.
Maybe sometime in the future.
When this was released it was all about the c64 version in the UK and all the mags were blown away
The Atari 8 bit version was the superior version, due to its faster CPU. The intro is great too, which you don’t get on the C64 version.
The Atari 8 bit never really took off in the UK though, due to it being more expensive and poor marketing (where’s the C64, and the even cheaper Zx Spectrum especially did).
The Atari 8 bits were still quite popular here in the UK, certainly more so than the Apple 2. My aunt and uncle had a 400, their son had an 800. I was so blown away, I eventually got a 400, and then an 800XL. But the first generation Ataris were expensive, because at the time of release in 1979, they were the most graphically and sonically advanced home computers available. With relatively few manufacturers in the fledgling "home computer" market, competition hadn't brought prices down. Even the C64 wasn't cheap when launched. The fact that they predated the C64 by three years makes them all the more remarkable, bearing in mind how close they were in overall capabilities.
@0:47 sound emulation appears messed up. the ships should have a swooshing sound as they fly past the screen.
And there's me thinking it was correct with CLASSIC Atari sounds.
heck yes this is a cool game for a port battle
Incredible stuff for the mid 80s. This one I had only heard about it though, nice to see it
Oooh dude, THANKS for this video, you've awaken so many memories!!!! I used to play this game A LOT with my older brother back in 1988. He bought an Atari 800XL and he would borrow an Atari 1050 (diskette reader) from a neighborhood's friend who owned an Atari 130XE. That dude would also lend us a bunch of games.
By the way, I think there are actually 3 games that share the same programming technology and were made by Lucas Films: Rescue On Fractalus, The Eidolon and Koronis Rift. I played them all I loved them.
Oh, you should have shown us the part when the pilot to be rescued is actually a horrible lizard in disguise hahaha, seeing that onscreen was TERRIFYING back in the day!!!
Loved this game. I only ever played it on the C64 back in the day. Now that I have played the Atari 8-bit version I will give that version the nod as the smoothest and most colorful. Excellent comparison as always! I think there was a Tandy Coco version too I wonder how that compared?
I think some of the commenters below are missing the difference between impressive for the time and seeing something that had never been done before... it is a massive difference...
Amazing that my poor Amstrad can run this game!
I had never heard of or seen this game before but for something done back in 1985 to have 3D landscapes with elevation and spacial flight controls is shocking. The few examples of 3D that you had back then were mostly wire frame like in the case of Elite or Microsoft Flight Simulator. The fluid animation of the people being rescued was super smooth too and I'm thinking was rotoscoped. I may need to try this next time I'm in an Atari 8-bit computer mood. 😃
I only know of it thanks to a Comic... It featured as the "Backdrop" for a Story called THE COMPUTER WARRIOR - Rough synopsis, Young Teenager buys a Cassette at a Car Boot sale that has a "Poke" written in it's inlay, He types it in and is drawn into the Computer where he must play Games in REAL LIFE to prevent Evil escaping into the world... RESCUE OF FRACTULUS was the first game he had to play...
Not going to lie, The Comic Strip ended up being a bit of a Marketing vehicle... The Second issue he and 3 others had to play GAUNTLET, which very conveniently was just getting its home computer release that month... I mean, not like I wasn't hyped enough to want GAUNTLET anyway I loved that game in the arcades!
Someone mentioned below that teh C-64 Version was teh Big Talking point here in the UK... And I think the clue is with the Main Character buying a Cassette... While it is never stated, I believe in the Comic the Main Character was a C-64 Owner!
My God this game scared the shit out if me as a kid when the Alien popped up and started banging on the screen. Great memories on my Atari XEGS.
I only really know of this game because of the easter egg in Maniac Mansion.
The C64 version is slower and more jerky than the Atari 8-bit version.
That's because, for technical reasons I can't remember, the 6510 CPU (a variant of the 6502) in the C64 was running at a little over half the speed of the 6502 in the Atari. It simply couldn't calculate and push raw data to the graphics chips as fast. In a game like this, it nakes a big difference. Yet the Atari computers actually predated the C64 by 3 years. 😉
Games like this on the 8 bit systems were so audacious. "it can't be done" was followed by "let me get on that"
For 1985 this was (visually) awesome. A peak capabilities of 8-bit computers. OK, the poor Speeky never stood a chance🥵
The poor speccy probably could have done better than what's shown here.
You have to admire the ambition of programmers back in the day, they truly believed they could do justice to some groundbreaking games. The problem was us Spectrum owners ended up with some absolutely horrific ports.
There a programmers who push the limits of available hardware in every generation. Granted, it is a much bigger task these days, but that's simply due to the power of modern hardware. Today, much like computers from the '80s, console games often require clever programming to play properly, as they have far more restrictive, fixed hardware limitations.
never expect the old VRs games like this in the 80s
Why not? Pretty much every type of game genre you see today, was pioneered in the '70s and '80s in some form. Due to technological limitations they may be very crude in comparison, but pseudo "3D" and "First Person" games started back then. Flight simulators, ground, aerial and space combat and trading games appeared. Games like the original Elite on the 32Kb BBC Micro. Koronis Rift, The Eidelon, Ballblazer on the Atari. Battlezone, Encounter, Mercenary, F15 Strike Eagle, Tomahawk and Microsoft Flight Simulator too.
@@another3997 oh i know about Microsoft Flight Simulator. thank god that game got remake so i would be happy for it
What an ambitious, impressive little game. I'll have to give it a go on an emulator.
Go with the Atari 8bit home computer port.
There's a message written in the Atari 7800 demo that I've found intriguing: "B'blazer sucks"... Well, I guess the programmer at Lucas Arts had delayed salaries to receive...
I used to play a lot the Amstrad CPC version. As we couldn't compare with other versions back in the days, I couldn't blame the lack of sounds or content differences with the original Atari 8-bits version or the near to pixel perfect port on C64. Some years ago, I bought a linker for my ATARI XE Video Game System, and it was nice to find this game in its original, more complete version.
It is not so surprising the game has been converted on Atari 5200 as the joystick features a numeric keypad that permits to replace a complete keyboard for up to 12 functions in games.
I'm involved in a project to convert Amstrad CPC games to GX4000. We patched Rescue on Fractalus. And using the second joypad supplied with the machine to map the function keys in the absence of the keyboard used on CPC is proving devilishly effective.
I sometimes replay Rescue On Fractalus on CPC or GX4000. Of course, it's nostalgia that makes me prefer this version to the original. But it's also a conversion that remains quite enjoyable to play to let this nostalgia express itself 😁
Many thanks for this video full of memmories, back in the good old time western computer could provide each month one or two fabulous games now entered in the great video game history 🤩
A cracking battle thanks Mark, I've never played this to my shame but I think I'll find a way as that atari 800 version has so many nice
touches I'd have been blown away by it in the day. In fact I'd have loved to have a Atari 800, some of the hardware tricks it can pull of for smooth 3d are really awesome, combined with great colour and a decent sound chip I wish I'd asked for one of those instead of a speecy.
Ah, they were very expensive back in the day. Then again, the XE was affordable from what I remember. Although that was looking dated by the time it was released in the UK.
Don't forget Fallen Angels for the Atari Jaguar.... ;)
I was also 10 in 1985 - we had a 48k spectrum. Never played this game though!
Ooh. I wonder how this would have run on the 48k? Probably as well as on my Commodore Plus 4 if there ever was a port considered.
I had a C64 back then, I just never saw this game back then...sure wish I did. Looks great! Guess I COULD try it out on my TheC64 Maxi :)
Go for it!
I can't recall which formats it eventually was released on, but I loved the next Lucas game to use voxel/fractals The Eidolon. Its a maze game but thr monsters are awesome.
A8 and C64
With the 8-bit series version being the original, the best ports here are the 5200, C64 and Apple II versions. The Spectrum version is, as expected, a bit of an atrocity.
If I had to guess with the 5200, landing was likely assigned to one of the number pad keys. I'll never understand the point of those keypads, as it defeats the purpose of a controller: to be able to control the game without looking at the damn thing all the time.
I sadly never gave the C64 version the time it deserves, coming to it from the Atari 800 XL as I did Dropzone and Elktaglide etc, I found the slower framerate made for a far more tedious game experience.
Behind The Jaggi Lines was very popular in Poland, and one of first games my dad played :) Not even sure if pirates here ever got Fractalus in late 80's or early 90's?
I was 10 for the first three-quarters of 1985 and my family still only had a Commodore Vic-20 which nearly definitely wouldn't have been able play this one either (although, if talented programmers can get a rudimentary version of Doom to work on the old Vic, I suppose a fanmade Vic-20 version of Rescue on Fractalus might be possible).
Had this been on cartridge, or using a decent size ram cart, this could have been possible. Graphics would look a little blocky but still do-able.
En PC existe un rescue on fractalus moderno hecho por un fan y es gratuito.
10:26: LOL "B'blazer [Ballblazer] Sucks" XD
If I remember right, you use the numpad to land in the 5200 version.
Ah, that's where I had an issue as I was using standard joystick controls.
@@RetroCoreyou press 1 in the numerical pad to land on the 5200.
Stunt car racer flies around shooty shooty things... kind of
A Lucas Arts game I wasn't familiar with! And it's kinda cool, considering the age of it. This would have had me sweating at my Tandy 1000 SL back in the day... waiting for the game to crash back to DOS...
There were repeated attempts to do a sequel on more powerful hardware.
Starting with the Amiga, when LucasArts and Factor 5 began work on a sequel by the name of: Return to Fractalus in the late 1980s, but it was discovered that the hardware couldn't handle the concepts being put forward.
Then in 1994, Factor 5 believed that the current generation of 3D consoles had the technology the Fractalus sequel required and again began work on the game, but the game development switched to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64 instead.
The fan project by LSD is superb mind..
The Fractalus project , which is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and VR (Oculus/OpenVR)!
There's also the excellent Fallen Angels on the Atari Jaguar by Dr Typo.
I think the only true officially released fractal game on consoles at the time (mid to late 90s) was AMOK on the Saturn.
The Alien animation is not as impressive in the C64 version, as it is in the Atari original. Such a shame it wasn't included in the game footage.
The first ever Lucasarts game!
First of two 👍
Loved this game many years ago! did you know that there is a Fan-Remake VR version of this too!
No, I didn't know that. I can imagine it being pretty cool.
A quote from one of the development team at the time..
David Levine:
Both Ballblazer and Rescue On Fractalus! were coded on the Atari 8-bit computers, under a directive where the company was not to create convertible games, thus in my opinion, the C64 versions were definitely inferior.
I can't believe people tried to get this tu run on the spectrum!
If the Apple ][ could...
The speccy should have been able to do something better than it did.
The Spectrum was usually very good at this sort of thing. See StarStrike or Mercenary.
The spectrum absolutely could have handled this better. Starstrike Ii, Driller, Starglider, Carrier Command - it was generally much better at vector games than the commodore. It handed them faster due to the processor speed. Even if the reduced ram and poor sound were disadvantages.
But you had to play to its strengths not just jam a Commodore approach in.
Very sad to see the game in this state when we’ve categorically seen much better efforts on much bigger and more complicated games
The developer for the spectrum port was Dalali software. Also known for Yogi bear, a truly awful game. They don’t seem to have ever attempted another game of this ilk before or since on the spectrum.
Given the barebones title screen this screams “cheap and rushed deadline port”.
Looks rad for a 1985 game.
What emulator were you trying for the TRS-80 Coco 3 version? I have it included (and you can run it from the Coco 3's GUI) with the NitrOS-9 / Ease of Use project, and that can run on real hardware as well as the VCC and MAME emulators. I can help you get that set up - it just requires mounting a single floppy image and a single hard drive image.
In 1985 i was 10...i also had commodore plus 4
Nice! For some reason I loved Tuttie Fruitti on it.
Dang, this almost seems like an arcade game more than something 8-bit micro computers could run. I'm impressed by all versions visually, though it's sad to hear that the Spectrum port was so poorly done. Man, imagine if Lucas Games could have used Sega's Super Scaler hardware for this, then we could have gotten something truly incredible!
Same thing that I was thinking. Only Sega were doing graphics like this back then. If Sega gave it to them, it would have been blazing fast to boot
Another great video. Pity Atari enthusiats can't attempt to finish the 7800 version and Spectrum fans need to make a port to the Spectrum Next which can do a better job
That would be cool!
Lol I had the Speccy version Which was a bit of a let down having seen the atari one lol. You could get the hang of it but by the time I got it it was looking a bit old.
Awesome! Maybe you can do The Eidolon next. :)
Maybe sometime in the future 👍
Name if tune at the comparison please sir...
Ah, it's some random track from the RUclips sound library.
I had an Atari 800xl and wanted Rescue on Fractalus and thought it was star wars themed but bought Ballblazers a two player split screen first person air hockey type game.
Ballblazer was a good game, so you still got success.
While Ballblazers is fun, I think Rescue would have been the most impressive but only as a 1 player experience.
Wow.... never heard of!
Glad to introduce you to a new game👍
It's shocking they tried to port it to Zed X at all.
I'm amazed too but I also think the speccy could have done better that what we got.
it looks cool and all but a more complicated choplifter ? i don't know if Id of play this for long on a computer.... now on the 7800 probably
You can tell this game was made for the Atari 8 Bit homecomputers. Runs perfect on them. The C64 port does a really good job too even thought its weaker processor or course leads to slower framerate. But the Speccy version really is an insult.. there's NO WAY this game should run this bad on that powerful Z80 processor :( Looks like a really botched port.
I agree. The speccy version should have bee n much better than the mess that was released.
I was intrigued by Rescue on Fracyulus when it featured as a Storyline in a comic... I think it was SCREAM by Fleetway Publications here in the UK... It was one of the first games played by a character in a Series called "The Computer Warrior"
I was an AMSTRAD Owner back then, and was never able to get a hold of the game... And seeing this - YIKES! I AM GLAD I DIDN'T! JESUS THATS BAD! The AMSTRAD was far better than that! Another Lazy Port!!!
I still think this looks great even now... Honestly, I miss the days when games had Simple, quick to grasp and hard to master gameplay... I feel a remake of this woudl still do well today, Just slightly update teh graphics and dont do much else! Its simple premise is enough to get a whole lot of enjoyment!
There's a PC remake from recent years which plays quite nicely.
Computer Warrior, Eagle Comics.
@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 THANK YOU! I knew it was one of them! Back then, Every weekend, My Mother woudl buy us a massive collection of Comics... Eagle, Whizzer and Chips, Beezer, 2000AD and of course when it hits shelves the eponymous SCREAM... Now so many are long gone... And its hard to recall who appeared in what... LOL!
@@PG-gs5vb I shall have to have a look for it! :)
@@Phoenix2312from memory, they did Pastfinder, Gauntlet, 4th And Inches, Wizzard Warz, good few others plus they created some original games for the strip.
Roadblasters had it's own strip, but based on the toys, not the game?
Apple II 1977, Atari 8bit 1979, C64 1982, ZX Spectrum 1982, Amstrad CPC 1984.
The most disappointing in this list is the ZX Spectrum as it should have been the best, sporting the best CPU for doing this kind of math. I did a game using fractals similar on the Spectrum and it was vastly faster than any other version shown here. However this game was great.
Like in most cases the Speccy just got a half arsed version. As you say, it should have been much better. Same with the CPC as well.
so you liked the speccy version, yeah?
Yeah, it is as the best 😋
Choplifter 3-D
Yeah, that's quite right 👍
Computer Gamer magazine, March 1986 ran a news story claiming there was to be a sequel appearing on the Atari 8-bit system:
Mists Of Xenon:Which would see player returning to same planet they were sent to on Rescue On Fractulas, but this time your mission was to destroy the gun emplacements, so game was to a bit more strategic.
An absolute rubbish claim, as David Fox kindly pointed out they stopped working on the A8 soon after Rescue, as sales on it were sadly so low.
I've heard about this over the years, but never seen it. Too bad the Coco version didn't work.
Yeah, I was looking forward to seeing that one.
This I've never played, so I'm sure I'd struggle with it maintaining my interest these days thinking I'll stick to No Mans Sky for my Space Adventures 😅✌️
This basically is the No Man's Sky of the mid 80s 👍
C'mon, you miss to show the alien. It was the second biggest point of the game.
Maybe he rescued them. ;)
All I want to know is, why are so many pilots crashed and if they were that bad, should we really be risking our neck to save them?... Think about it...
Lol, good point. 😁
@@RetroCoreThey had been shot down, rather than crashed I believe.