Who´s afraid of the "Rescue on Fractalus" alien?

[Lord-Chaos]

I remember, back in the 80s, everyone who watched me playing "Rescue on Fractalus" was shocked by the alien appearing before your ship (of course, I didn´t warn them).My little brother was so shocked that he still hates the game today (after 15+ years).

 

I think the alien (Jaggi?) in Rescue on Fractalus is scarier than some creatures in these Resident Evil games and its clones.Very good for a almost 20 year old game, too bad that the sequel (rumored for AMIGA in the early 90s, 3D demo can be seen in AMIGA "Masterblazer", the Ballblazer remake) never came.

 

Anyone scared by the alien, too?

 

Thimo

[GrandviewCoin]

The first time we were playing, the guy came running down to get on the ship had a green head! We looked closer at the screen.

 

AND..

 

POW! Up the alien came..

 

I will admit to it actually causing me to fall out of my chair, and my friend to get up from his and back off.

 

Still an awesome game, and loads of fun to play.

 

Dan

[Tempest]

I will admit to it actually causing me to fall out of my chair, and my friend to get up from his and back off

 

Same here. I was playing in my dorm room late one night and POW! the alien jumps up. Scared the shit right out of me! I also screamed so loud that I woke up my neighbors on either side. Now THAT was embarassing...

 

Tempest

[bjk7382]

I have never seen the alien, and I just loaded up the game and I guess I don't understand how to play it or something.

 

What do you do with pilots? other than kill them.

 

And is the whole game just flying around and finding things on your LR radar and killing them?

[GrandviewCoin]

The whole point of the game is to fly around and pick up stranded pilots, meet your quota of enemies and piolts then hit the thrusters to go back to the mothership for more fuel, and then another assignment.

 

When the green alien comes out all you have to do is hit 'e' to turn your engines back on and fry him. I'd say they come out randomly from level 7-8 on up.

 

Daniel

 

P.S. We were the cool kids that played the stolen prototype from the ces? If I remeber the story right, Ballblazer AND Behind Jaggi Lines were both copied right at the booth on the main floor, then sent out to us via the multitude of pirate BBS's that exisited.

[SS]

That alien scared the willies out of me the first time I saw it! It’s well animated (for the time period) and the anticipation of the footsteps walking up to the ship and not knowing if it is a pilot or Jaggi is what really makes the game the classic that it is!

 

@ GrandviewCoin - I was one of those kids in the 80s that had a copy of the game early on from when it was still called "Behind Jaggi Lines". I always liked that name better than the release name, BTW.

 

@ bjk7382 - here is a link to a write up of the 5200 version of the manual. It's pretty much the same game but I scanned the specific 8Bit controls from the manual for you :

[bjk7382]

Thanks a lot SS. That adds a lot more depth to the game than just flying around shooting everything.

 

Hopefully I will see the alien now that I know what I am doing.

[SS]

Thanks a lot SS. That adds a lot more depth to the game than just flying around shooting everything.  

 

Hopefully I will see the alien now that I know what I am doing.

 

I can scan the whole manual for 'ya if you'd really like it. I was just being lazy!

[bjk7382]

Thanks a lot SS. That adds a lot more depth to the game than just flying around shooting everything.  

 

Hopefully I will see the alien now that I know what I am doing.

 

I can scan the whole manual for 'ya if you'd really like it. I was just being lazy!

 

I still don't know how to pick up pilots. I believe you have to land but the land button [start] doesn't do anything near the pilots.

[SS]

I still don't know how to pick up pilots. I believe you have to land but the land button [start] doesn't do anything near the pilots.

 

You have to open the airlock once they knock on the door. Don't open it as soon as you land though because the approaching figure could be an alien! Once the pilot is inside, close the airlock, turn the systems back on, and take off to find more stranded pilots.

[bjk7382]

I still don't know how to pick up pilots. I believe you have to land but the land button [start] doesn't do anything near the pilots.

 

You have to open the airlock once they knock on the door. Don't open it as soon as you land though because the approaching figure could be an alien! Once the pilot is inside, close the airlock, turn the systems back on, and take off to find more stranded pilots.

 

Okay, I have this game figured out and now I will probly spend the rest of the night playing it.

 

I am on level 6 right now and still haven't seen the alien.

[SS]

I am on level 6 right now and still haven't seen the alien.

 

You're gonna jump when you finally see it. I kid you not.

[bjk7382]

I am on level 6 right now and still haven't seen the alien.

 

You're gonna jump when you finally see it. I kid you not.

 

Well the alien got in my ship and jammed the airlock. I never saw him though, he just ended up taking all my life and I died.

[Tempest]

Incidentally I was told by David Fox (one of the programmers) that you can kill the alien if it gets into your airlock by leaving the planet (using your retro boosters). The theory is that the aliens can't wear helmets and they die in space.

 

Tempest

[Bryan]

My brother named the alien "Shitchabritches"

 

Well the alien got in my ship and jammed the airlock. I never saw him though, he just ended up taking all my life and I died.

 

Don't open the airlock until the pilot knocks. The alien won't knock.

 

-Bry

[Heaven/TQA]

hahahha.. bjk7382-... that's a killler... "shoot everything" in rescue of fractalus...maybe that's what lucas wanted when he forced the team to include a fire button...

 

awesome game... a real real classic... it's strange that no homebrewer ever touched it for PC or playstation rework... i mean on openGL and directX it might not be so difficult to have a "mountain" terrain...

 

lord chaos... did you know some sites where i can see at least screenshots reg. amiga ROTF? i once wrote julian reschke @ factor5 regarding source codes of ROTF and he told me that there is a version in masterblazer... but i am sure that he even ment the PSX version...

[bjk7382]

hahahha.. bjk7382-... that's a killler... "shoot everything" in rescue of fractalus...maybe that's what lucas wanted when he forced the team to include a fire button...

 

Well, tonight was the first time I ever actually played it. I have tried it in the past, but never knew that you had to use keyboard keys. So I did the next best thing and shot everything in sight Which got old pretty quick.

 

@bryede- thanks for the tip. And I still haven't "seen" the alien. Does he actually come on the screen at some time? And if so, what do I have to do to make it happen? I have gotten to level 12 so far and haven't actually seen what he looked like.

[doncleth]

@bjk7382

 

There's a screen shot of a green alient at http://vjetnam.hopto.org/atari/index.php?f...tt&dir=r&page=2

 

@SS

 

This thread is getting me interested about the game. Can you scan the whole manual please?

[bjk7382]

@bjk7382

 

There's a screen shot of a green alient at  http://vjetnam.hopto.org/atari/index.php?f...tt&dir=r&page=2

 

Thanks, I wonder why I haven't seen it yet in gameplay?

 

 

Edit- My life is complete now that I have been scared by the alien

[MaPa]

@bjk7382

 

There's a screen shot of a green alient at  http://vjetnam.hopto.org/atari/index.php?f...tt&dir=r&page=2

 

Thanks, I wonder why I haven't seen it yet in gameplay?

 

 

Edit- My life is complete now that I have been scared by the alien

 

So you finally saw him? The airlock must be closed if you want see the alien trying to break your front window. If it's open, he just enters your ship and kills you IIRC when the alien is onboard, the only chance is return to mothership (press B key I think) and you will return but it takes some time. Perhaps some fight with alien in cabin? And if you have closed airlock and the aproaching pilot IS pilot then he will knock on the door so you can safely open and let him in, alien will just jump in front you. And if you will not open to knocking pilot, the knocking will be slower and slower till the pilot dies...

[Nukey Shay]

And if you don't open the airlock when a pilot is knocking, it gets weaker until the pilot croaks

[Heaven/TQA]

really? the knocking of pilots getting weaker and weaker? i have to double check that...(but maybe as 30 something we might die on heart attack... )

[emkay]

I was never really frightened by the alien but kinda shocked for a moment ...And I thought "Wow, that was great ..."

especially the Soundeffekt ... this "hhhhhwwwwwwwooooo"

Well... You need a computer at least that is able to do so .-)

[bjk7382]

I guess the only reason why the alien may shock you for a second is because the game is pretty repetitive. Lots of flying around and saving people. Throwing in an alien to pound on your window doesn't mix up the gameplay that much. I personally think it gets kind of boring after a while.

 

Good game, not as indepth as others as far as gameplay. Great graphics though.

[Wrathchild]

I just got the cart version of this at the weekend after years of having the tape/disk versions. I dragged the XL down from the loft and hooked it up and my 2 year old daughter took a shine to this game straight away and loved flying & shooting the turrets (although that's all she did... being 2!)

As this was the first game she saw - she didn't want to play any others!

 

I showed her a pilot rescue - but kept the level # down so that the alien didn't appear :wink:

 

The shock factor is great though - the sound has a lot to do with it - its that little pause just after you've open the airlock!

 

Regards,

Mark