Rebel Rescue - precursor to Rescue on Fractalus, still in existence?

[santoscork]

One of the amazing aspects of "Rebel Rescue" was that there was no fire button because the game design called for killing alien ships by having them crash into mountains as they chased you.

 

as per: http://www.droidmaker.com/Droidmaker.Ch18.pdf

Fox demonstrated the Rescue game, flying around, picking up pilots. Lucas was impressed with the graphics the tiny computer was able to generate. After a minute his face registered something amiss. Fox recalls their discussion:

“Where’s the fire button?”

“What?” replied Fox.

“Where’s the fire button?” repeated Lucas. Fox looked at the game and

back at George, and pursed his lips.

“Well, there is no fire button. To destroy the enemy, you have to get them

to follow close behind you, then you head toward a mountain and swerve at the last second. They’ll then crash into the mountain. In the game, all the guns were removed to make room for more pilots.”

“Is there no shooting because of game play reasons or philosophical reasons?” George asked, turning to David, who looked him in the eye and thought about how to reply.

“Well, um, I guess it’s more philosophical.”

“Great,” replied George. “Put in a fire button. I want to shoot at things.”

 

 

It would be nice if the game in this incarnation were found alive and well, still living in code somewhere. It must be very different game play. I fear it has been lost forever.

 

Does anyone believe this version of Rescue on Fractalus, aka Rebel Rescue, exist somewhere in an archive or might David Fox himself still have it?

 

By the way, you can get the book on iTunes, https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/droidmaker/id508409252?mt=11

Edited June 30, 2015 by santoscork

[fujidude]

Haven't heard of that, but I do (or did maybe) have a pre release version called "Behind Jaggi Lines"

[Keatah]

I recall my buddies showing me this back in the heyday of modems and warez. The gameplay was different, not necessarily more difficult. We learned to time how long we had to turn and pull out, starting from when lines would "res-up" or come into view. It is also possible they were trying to develop a different passive-agressive strategy and just used the regular game.

 

While I still have many of my C64 and Atari 8-bit disks. I no longer have the hardware to read them. I'm all Apple II these days. But this is what makes this hobby so interesting. Something always comes up to remind us of the good days of yore.

[Rybags]

I don't think anything other than Behind Jaggi Lines was ever seen in public.

 

BJL had much slower progression of difficulty, given there were 99 levels selectable at the menu and one was barely different from the next it was logical that they changed that.

 

It would be nice to see precursors but I doubt the gameplay would have been very good. Also I question how the hell are you supposed to know that an enemy is behind you? I guess they could have covered that base with another sensor. The radar display and array of sensors is another impressive part of the game, it's cool to be able to play the game on instruments only.

[bugbiter]

I think I read somewhere that they had incorporated a kind of small rear mirror view, but I wonder how they could render yet another frame - in frame and where they would have placed that on the screen...