24 replies to this topic

[Heaven/TQA]

just in case you never saw it... i just watched for the 1st time...

http://www.electrice...com/rescue.html

its well done... i like how lucas produces this little "episode"... but to be honest...i never saw a complete "night" on fractalus... i just remember dawn but not a night cycle...

it would be time to get a new resue fractalus with voice overs and other nice stuff...

[Tempest]

Heaven/TQA, on Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:14 AM, said:

just in case you never saw it... i just watched for the 1st time...

http://www.electrice...com/rescue.html

its well done... i like how lucas produces this little "episode"... but to be honest...i never saw a complete "night" on fractalus... i just remember dawn but not a night cycle...

it would be time to get a new resue fractalus with voice overs and other nice stuff...

The night cycle doesn't happen until the later missions IIRC (like in the mid teens).

Tempest

[Heaven/TQA]

thanks! what a great game...

[Big_Mo]

I have a question...is there anything to STOP you from just landing and shutting down during the Fractalus "night", then taking off again at dawn? Given how fast the night and day cycles happen, it seems like a good strategy if you wanna avoid all instrument flying. Land. Power off. Go to the bathroom. Get drink. Sit down, start 'er up and dawn.

Or am I forgetting something?

[SteveW]

Wow. Just wow. I've never played Rescue on Fractalus before, so i've never seen the fractal graphics engine in motion before. Man, that looks amazing! I've got a copy for the 5200, but i've never fired the game up because of my severe dislike of the controllers. I'm going to have to break down and play it!

[Michael_]

Tempest, on Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:01 AM, said:

The night cycle doesn't happen until the later missions IIRC (like in the mid teens).

Tempest

Level 16 and onwards.

[Michael_]

Big_Mo, on Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:54 PM, said:

I have a question...is there anything to STOP you from just landing and shutting down during the Fractalus "night", then taking off again at dawn? Given how fast the night and day cycles happen, it seems like a good strategy if you wanna avoid all instrument flying. Land. Power off. Go to the bathroom. Get drink. Sit down, start 'er up and dawn.

Or am I forgetting something?

I´ll check it out tonight, but I actually believe it´s more a case of flying into the night Zone (not cycle) as a geographical area which stays dark. The manual states it otherwise though.

I could be wrong.

[Fröhn]

Hmm anyone has a MPEG version of the movie? Quicktime is just horrible and my internet connection is not very suitable for streaming video anyway.

[remowilliams]

That's pretty cool, but they gave away the surprise alien attack. Good for a press conference, not so good for gamers that never played.

ROF was the first game that actually literally made me jump out of my chair. Scared the sh*t out of me!

[krupkaj]

Fröhn, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:32 PM, said:

Hmm anyone has a MPEG version of the movie? Quicktime is just horrible and my internet connection is not very suitable for streaming video anyway.

I would like also mpeg. I was unable to watch it ok on my Linux box. The same for Ballblazer movie.

[Gunstar]

SteveW, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:46 AM, said:

Wow. Just wow. I've never played Rescue on Fractalus before, so i've never seen the fractal graphics engine in motion before. Man, that looks amazing! I've got a copy for the 5200, but i've never fired the game up because of my severe dislike of the controllers. I'm going to have to break down and play it!

Man! You've REALLY bin dis'n yourself, as the 5200 controllers are made just for this type of game (and STar Raiders&few others), It's much better on the 5200 DUE to the analog controllers for flight! You'll find it controls very well compared to other games that should be digital. IIRC, this game was originally developed on the 5200, with analog in mind, and then ported to the Atari 800 and changed to digital controls.

Edited by Gunstar, Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:12 PM.

[Gunstar]

remowilliams, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:36 PM, said:

That's pretty cool, but they gave away the surprise alien attack.  Good for a press conference, not so good for gamers that never played.  

ROF was the first game that actually literally made me jump out of my chair.  Scared the sh*t out of me! 

Me too. No game EVER did that to me again until AvP on the Jaguar.
The cool thing about it is that even IF you know it's coming, it still makes you jump. I still do to this day, just not as much. But it is better as a suprise.

Edited by Gunstar, Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:10 PM.

[Gunstar]

SteveW, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:46 AM, said:

Wow. Just wow. I've never played Rescue on Fractalus before, so i've never seen the fractal graphics engine in motion before. Man, that looks amazing! I've got a copy for the 5200, but i've never fired the game up because of my severe dislike of the controllers. I'm going to have to break down and play it!

How about Ballblazer? and The Eidelon and Koronis Rift? These are all LucasFilm games that were ahead of their time with their graphic engines, and all were developed FIRST on the Atari 8-bit&5200, so they're the best versions. If you think ROF is amazing, that's just the beginning...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Those fractal graphics where pretty new back then. IIRC only two years earlier (Star Trek 2, 1982) they where used for a movie for the first time. So I just had to buy Koronis Rift for my C64.

[pkblack]

didn't they all use the same kinda graphics?? except for the ballblaser one. I cant see those videos either is there someplace we can download them?

Edited by pkblack, Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:44 PM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

pkblack, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:43 PM, said:

didn't they all use the same kinda graphics?? except for the ballblaser one. 

Yup. Rescue on Fractalus came first, Koronis Rift and The Eidolon one year later (with a slightly improved fractal engine).

[Heaven/TQA]

i mean wasn't carpenter doing the fractals for star trek 2 - the genesis effect (you know...the bomb turning the asteroid into a nice paradise...where spock...well... ok...i saw the movie in cinema when i was a teenager... and it blew me away like the star wars movies... how is it called outside germany? revenge of khan? when the bird of prey and the enterprise are shooting each other flying parallel... ok... i have to watch it again on dvd... )

[Heaven/TQA]

thomas...koronis rift rocked but was very complicated compared to ROF... ROF was lightyears ahead of its time... the gfx, the sound of the engines, the "battle star galactica" flight sequenze, the alien suprise, the laser beams, the sound fx are really really good... the end msx the "attract" mode ("droid 01") the intro gfx, the day/night cycle... so much details spend into coding... a really masterpiece even nowadays...

i have to compare koronis / rof side by side with the c64 version just to see the difference as f.e. koronis used mode10 which is not available on c64... eidolon could be the most 99% version compared to c64 as it does not use any special atari feature?

re eidolon... as emkay mentioned months ago...it does have a custom SIO-loader playing music and loading... you must be very hard into atari hardware to do this without any nice documentation... or why the hell are you coding such a loader which would not be necessary in eidolon? btw... does not seven cities of gold have a sio streaming loader as well? why the hell do have 1984/85 games such nice stuff but they were never used again in games?

[krupkaj]

Heaven/TQA, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:03 PM, said:

i mean wasn't carpenter doing the fractals for star trek 2 - the genesis effect (you know...the bomb turning the asteroid into a nice paradise...where spock...well... ok...i saw the movie in cinema when i was a teenager... and it blew me away like the star wars movies... how is it called outside germany? revenge of khan? when the bird of prey and the enterprise are shooting each other flying parallel... ok... i have to watch it again on dvd... )

I think yes, It was even written in some article about ROF.

[pkblack]

do any of thsoe games have endings?? I also wondered if they did.

[krupkaj]

The Ballblazer is sport game so it ends naturally. From other LFG games I think only The Eidolon has end. Maybe Koronis rift has end also, but I am not sure.

Edited by krupkaj, Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:34 AM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Koronis Rift has an end.

[highendsystems]

remowilliams, on Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:36 PM, said:

That's pretty cool, but they gave away the surprise alien attack.  Good for a press conference, not so good for gamers that never played. 

ROF was the first game that actually literally made me jump out of my chair.  Scared the sh*t out of me! 

It scared the piss out of me too! I think I did fall out of my chair when it smashed through the cockpit. And the nightmarish sound when it jumped up on the ship made hairs stand on end! I downloaded it from another enthusiast on with my XM301 blazing at 300 baud. He didn't tell me about the Alien, and busted a gut when I told him. BTW, the alien doesn't appear till level 7, and if you land
right (in front of the downed pilots ship) you can see it's green head as it approches you.

[krupkaj]

highendsystems, on Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:20 PM, said:

BTW, the alien doesn't appear till level 7, and if you land
right (in front of the downed pilots ship) you can see it's green head as it approches you.

But I also remember that on later levels you can't recognize alien according to color of helmet. And it is even more thrilling. Is is it an alien or not...?

[Beetle]

Quote

how is it called outside germany? revenge of khan? when the bird of prey and the enterprise are shooting each other flying parallel... ok... i have to watch it again on dvd...

Yes, its original title is: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan


I invite you to watch ST: The wrath of khan in my theatre if you ever come near Osnabrück...






I like Rescue of Fractalus very much, too. I remember my neck-hairs standing immediately up as the alien showed on the windscreen first time...

Greets,
Beetle