In this episode we hop into our Valkyrie space fighters and shoot up some Jaggie saucers to review LucasFilm's, "Rescue on Fractalus!" and we'll go full tilt on one of Kieren's budget game, "Advanced Pinball Simulator".

Show Notes

News

• Kieren's "Atari 8-bit Vs. Arcade" videos
• Kieren's "A-Z of Atari 2600 Games: Volume 1" book, at Amazon US and Amazon UK
• Kieren's video tutorial on the AtariMax Max Flash Cart
• "Let's Go Dizzy! The Story of the Oliver Twins" book
• Jaguar Sector III & Lynx Sector groups on Facebook
• Sacramento Indie Arcade, April 8th, West Sacramento, CA
• pro(c) ATARI magazine, issue 11 (h/t The Real Bounty Bob)
• Tape Preservation Project, at atari.area
• "A8CAS" project at SourceForge
• "Keep those XL's/XE's humming" (home of "WAV2CAS", "CAS2WAV", and "XEX2CAS") at Ernest R. Schreurs' website

Rescue on Fractalus!

• Published by
  • Atari Corp (1987)
  • Epyx (1984, US) & Activision (1985, UK)
• Developed by
  • Lucasfilm Ltd.
    • David Fox (programmer)
    • Loren Carpenter (programmer)
    • Charlie Kellner (graphics)
    • Gary Winnick (graphics)
    • James St. Louis (graphics)
    • Douglas "Crock" Crockford (graphics)
    • Peter Langston (sound, and team lead)
    • Charlie "Dragon" Kellner (sound)

Info:

• Rescue on Fractalus!:
  • "Rescue on Fractalus!" entry at MobyGames
  • "Rescue on Fractalus!" (XE Cart) entry at AtariMania
  • "Rescue on Fractalus!" (Epyx (US) disk) entry at AtariMania
  • "Rescue on Fractalus!" (Activision (UK) disk & tape) entry at AtariMania
  • "Behind Jaggi Lines" entry at AtariMania
  • "BALLBLAZER and Rescue on Fractalus! The Lucasfilm Computer Division Games Project is born - A very brief personal history", at Peter Langston's website
  • Atari/Lucasfilm Games Press Kit, at Peter Langston's website
  • "Rescue on Fractalus! video from 1984 press conference", at David Fox's website
  • "Tomorrow’s Promise" article at ElectronDance website
  • "Changing Lives: David Fox" interview (part 1) & "Changing Lives: David Fox" interview (part 2), at ElectronDance website
  • "Atari Unveils Lucasfilm Games - Star Wars company touts 'edge of the art' sound, graphics" InfoWorld article (June 4, 1984), at Google Books
  • "The Making of Rescue on Fractalus!" Retro Gamer article (November 2007), at David Fox's website (PDF)
  • Review of "Rescue on Fractalus!" at Super Adventures in Gaming (2013)
• Fractals and fractal landscapes:
  • "Fractal landscape" at Wikipedia
  • "Fractal" at Wikipedia
  • "Benoît Mandelbrot, The Father of Fractals", a "Big Brains. Small Films." IBM documentary video
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Lucasfilm Computer Division, LucasFilm Games / LucasArts:
  • "Loren Carpenter" at Wikipedia
  • Loren's 1980 "Vol Libre" fractal landscape computer-generated film
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "Genesis Effect" scene (mountain split at 1m 49s)
  • "Genesis Effect" scene with Industrial Light & Magic commentary
• Miscellanea:
  • "Jump Scare" article at TV Tropes
  • "Rescue on Fractalus!" at TV Tropes
  • "The Influence of the UNIX Operating System on the Development of Two Video Games" Bell Communications Research paper, at Peter Langston's website (PDF)
• Legacy:
  • Unfinished 7800 "Rescue on Fractalus!" prototype, at AtariAge
  • "Koronis Rift" at Wikipedia
  • "The Eidolonn" at Wikipedia
  • "Fractalus" (currently alpha) for Windows
  • "Fallen Angels" for Jaguar, at AtariAge forums

Downloads:

• XE Cart
• Epyx (US) disk
• Activision (UK) disk & tape

Where to Buy:

• B & C ComputerVisions
• Best Electronics

Other Reviews and Info:

• ANTIC Podcast Interview #37: David Fox
• 7800 Game by Game podcast: "The Prototype Games!"

Advanced Pinball Simulator

• Published by
  • Codemasters (1989)
• Developed by
  • The Oliver Twins: Philip & Andrew Oliver (designers)
  • Hassan Mehmet (Atari code)
  • Terry Lloyd (Atari graphics)
  • David Dunn (Atari sound)

Info and Downloads:

• "Advanced Pinball Simulator" entry at AtariMania
• "Advanced Pinball Simulator" info & story at Oliver Twins' website

Other Reviews and Info:

• ChinnyVision review of various ports of "Advanced Pinball Simulator"
• "Advanced Pinball Simulator", Amstrad CPC reviews, at MobyGames
• "Advanced Pinball Simulator", ZX Spectrum reviews, at MobyGames
• "Advanced Pinball Simulator", Commodore 64 reviews, at MobyGames