Atari 800 Ballblazer

[@Babania1]

Used to LOVE this game, listening to the music now still gives me goosebumps!!

[@RaizingStorm]

In my small kid head jawas drove those vehicles. I'm sticking to that.

[@Gatsurendo]

I have this still at my house its great. I used to have so much fun playing it.

[@JK47Tubing]

Daaaaammmmnnnnnn. This brings back memories. I had this game on the Atari XE. Haven't seen it since I was 10 years old. I use to listen to theme song forever!!! =>

[@LuisVelvet]

Nice video, RTFx. Thanx por posting it. Loved the music and the futuristic atmosphere.

[@MrSonicAdvance]

Brilliant game and technically impressive at the time. :-)

[@overtonecz]

Oh, *YEAH*, I admired the procedurally generated random MUSIC - that was really IMPRESSIVE for the time! Never heard that before :O ..... 💖💖💖

[@emilygrae]

I played this game wayyyy too much. I remember reading about it when it came out and if I'm remembering correctly, this was one of the first games to be able to show an intro animation while the game was still loading from disk. At the time this was something remarkable.

[@renderizer01]

We had the Lucasfilm games first on cassette even before they were officially released. The pirated version of Rescue On Fractalus was called Behind Jaggi Lines, which was, as I understand it, the code name during the development of the game. Long time ago. Must have been late 1984 or early '85, way before the official release.

[@renderizer01]

@Peter Langston Peter Langston. You wrote the music impro algorithm for Ballblazer, didn't you? That was some crazy stuff. Marvelous job. And starting Lucasfilm Games wasn't too shabby a job either.

[@willc2]

I loved that sound track. And the game speed was just spectacular at the time.

[@HHRich]

In my opinion one of the best games written for the Atari. Simple, but exciting. Loved all the background story to go with it..rotosnapping if I recall? - the sudden change of direction when you capture the ball.

[@DTM-Books]

I always loved the loading screen, it was terrific. Ballblazer is actually the second Lucasfilm Games (Lucasarts) game. Rescue on Fractalus was their first.

[@NotATube]

As emilygrae says, she was discussing the 5200, and not the 7800. They were totally different machines. The 5200 was internally based around the 400/800/XL computers; if it hadn't been for some minor but pointless changes in the 5200 OS and memory map they would have been compatible. The 7800 was a different machine altogether.

[@roderick.t]

This was such a cool game back in the day! The trick to beating the computer is to watch where the floating ball emerges from either side at the start of the game. The second you see it, move to the opposite side from which it emerged and vice versa. Don’t wait to see the goal posts, bank the ball off the side.

[@sehuz7957]

Yeah, I used to play this in my Atari 800XL. May be that's why I love Rocket League today !

[@IvnSoft]

I think this is just a smart way of moving the palette of colors in memory. The ball and players, are just sprites. I'll have to try to do something alike using that technique :)

[@dantoose8023]

I loved this game SO much on C64 - Used to create challenges for myself, like to only go for OTH shots on Level 9. The ultra-simplified mechanics resulted in a really good tangible conflict.

[@jrmb242]

@rmcdev No, it was not. It was just more successful and thus later primary 8 bit game platform. One thing where it was truly lacking was its pure computational power being 25%-80% behind Atari depending on resolution. Search KZbin for "Atari 8-bit - Project-M" or "atari xl/xe game crownland" to see what Atari can really do when pushed to the limit as C64 was. Those machines were pretty even hardware-wise, each having its strong and weak points.

[@mnemo70]

Enter "AUTHORS" on the Atari to see the credits of Langston and Levine. The European version released by Activision didn't have the great animated loader. I still have the box, but someone borrowed the disk 20 years ago and never gave it back. :-(

[@emilygrae]

From what I can remember, and wikipedia seems to back me up, the 5200 and the Atari 800 were basically using the same hardware.

[@emilygrae]

Yes they were. Internally I mean, obviously. Look up Atari 5200 on wikipedia. The 5200 was heavily based on the 400/800 8bit computers and the internals were nearly identical.

[@douro20]

Atari really outdid themselves designing the graphics system in the 8-bit computer series. At the time (1978) it was quite possibly the world's most advanced real-time raster graphics system. It was a full raster graphics processor in itself, supporting hardware draw, real-time scaling and per-pixel mapping. It could even allocate system memory to use as a framebuffer. The 130XE graphics demo really displays the capabilities of this system quite well.

[@00dahc]

Ohhhh MAN! I love this game!! Great memories playing this when I was 4.

[@R6502A]

@rmcdev It was the other way round. Most developers didn't program the Atari well because it wasn't as popular as the c64, so the effort wasn't worth the returns.

[@ejfex]

great tune!

[@ExtremeWreck]

First ever video with gameplay of Ballblazer.

[@Theobtusellama]

Ow wow...so many memories...i remember playing this game so much when i was about 4...

[@NotATube]

The PAL and NTSC machines ran at very similar clock speed. However, since most games used the VBI for timing and updates, and since PAL only shows 50 fields- and hence VBIs- per second instead of NTSC's 60, that's why most games run slower.

[@CthulhuMessiah]

Was Ball Blaster for the pirates.

[@SantiagoRevecoLepeReborn]

R.I.P. LucasArts

[@kappappa]

I used to play this on the Atari 7800 all the time. Loved it.

[@Lightcycle]

wow this brings back memeories. the version I had didn't have the intro.. and would be set by default 2 players although once I was able to set it to one player.. I don't know how I did it tho. Nice vid that is cool and I wish someone would make a new vers of this for PC/Mac It's nice when you can get three points And I love the music

[@marlinmaveric]

I had this on the 7800. I loved this game.

[@emilygrae]

Um, mistapaul? Can you read numbers? I didn't say a thing about the 7800. I said 5200. The 5200 had gtia, pokey and 4 sound channels. It was very very much the same as the Atari 800 computer. You can use all caps to shout if you like, but you're still wrong about the 5200.

[@RalfZille]

I like this intro for loading (same "Rescue on Fractalus") on computer Atari 800 XL with floppy drive Atari 1050.

[@ShamrockParticle]

Ballblazer - The first use of antialiasing in a game. Look at the checker pattern lines. Only Atari had a large enough palette to get away with that. All the Lucasfilm games were awesome. KORONIS RIFT was underrated. RESCUE ON FRACTALUS is an when more important gem. EIDELON was my least-favorite, but it too brought some neat tricks.

[@tschak909]

actually, the BallBlaster prototype DID have a single player mode, keys 1-4 specified difficulty for the top player, keys 5-8 specified difficulty for the right player.. 0 reset everything to 2 player mode. -Thom

[@blackmattes_]

nice introsound.. love this one

[@Adropacrich2]

The thing is, while it's clear the Atari 800 had what is undoubtedly a technically better version than the C64 version, the game is the same. I grew up with the C64 version and it was and still is an excellent game in the same way this version is. The C64 version In terms of performance is slightly less flash but really only in terms of framerate- colours being subjective frankly as is music The great thing is we all get to play these fantastic systems via their emulation

[@WileE21]

I LOVED this game!

[@frankmacs9379]

Why hasn't someone brought this out on the Switch?

[@fragmentalstew]

Why does the video suddenly change to another game halfway through? It might be Jumpman.

[@MysteriousFoxy87]

I guess it's a video corruption conflicting with another file

[@omnithrope]

Wow... just, wow. I remember this.

[@ejfex]

great tune!!

[@rmcdev]

@hoques1432 99% of the time, this isn't the case... The C64 Was generally superior in every way.. but this game was DEFINITELY better on the 800XL. I don't know if the C64 was a rushed port, or they just didn't know how to program well for it at the time.

[@almo2001]

Great game. PLayed the C64 and 800 versions. This video would be better if the sound were coordinated, and if it were between two humans. :)

[@MrAlienAssassin]

It took you an awfully long time to find the start button.

[@Tmhjr_Baskar]

...my game has slightly different graphics. The field is a different color, there was no lucasfilm intro on it and it's dated 1984. Furthermore, the music plays all the time. There's also 4 different demo rounds. Go fig

[@octoberdawn1087]

Daaaang I'm in mah happy place!!!!

[@mjp29]

Music is much better on the Atari 800 than the Commodore 64

[@m1omg]

it is not a console but an 8 bit home computer maybe you are confusing it with atari 2600

[@Anxel]

Ah! That soundtrack!

[@tom2659]

Amazing pseudo 3D for the time.

[@synbow]

When 'he' scored? Didn't you read the description? 'I get my tail kicked by a level 5 droid cause I'm out of practice.' lol ... yet, I didn't totaly understand the goal of this game ... :S

[@m1omg]

Or the ANTIC and GTIA were capable of it, they just needed more memory than usual 2D games?

[@SerAbiotico]

Inentendible pero la vibra que emana este juego a 8-bit puro lo hace gracioso.

[@Deyta]

Still love this, just installed it on my Android Phone... Joke! for sure I play this on my Atari 800 XL!! Who else is going to go to outline this weekend? :P

[@zaphodb777]

Not a tad fast, just the normal behavior due to playing on an NTSC setup (even in emulation). Alot of games played faster in the USA. And as far as USA games go, you should try them first in NTSC to get the proper effect. I always found playing in PAL to be "draggy"

[@eekeenoink]

Someone needs to make a networked Atari 8-bit emulator, just for this game.

[@keyboardbw]

I'm still confused how these guys at lucasfilm managed to get all this fast 3d split level action out of my simple 800XL. Either they where genious or the other game programmers were crap.

[@the1marauder2]

Great game!

[@Monodi91]

Those were impressive graphics for the system it was

[@hoques1432]

Awesome game. The original Atari 8bit version just kicks the C64's one's ASS. Many features used here just fell flat in the version for the commodore which makes this one just so much better. Stuff like the "virtual Anti-Aliasing", the smooth scrolling, all of this just wasn't realized on the C64. And the sound sucks too on the C64 because of Activision's missing SID talent. But whatever, every playable port of this is fun :D the ZX Spectrum got an OK version, too.

[@carcomp101]

Back before people really knew what pvp even was. Most games were turn based.

[@Nonhuman]

Lucasfilm games are good

[@HypnoToad72]

There was nobody like Lucasfilm back in the day, that's for sure!

[@jrmb242]

Sorry for posting twice (I hate this system). And my reaction was on hoques1432 actually.

[@kmattox7173]

Go blue!!

[@mnemo70]

Easter egg: Type AUTHOR for programmer's credits.

[@impala666]

Great game. I skunked the highest level droids easily when I was on.

[@sebadj7]

de aqui deben haber sacado el sonido para las espadas ajjaja saludos

[@scottishwildcat]

Great two-player game, shame about the AI flaws that made it easy to win in single player.

[@Levi-27]

These animations lol

[@scorchx3000]

Rocket league: the early years.

[@Baldoxxx4000]

wtf is going on???

[@maryzaldivar_]

I still don't understand this game lol

[@urfanorependra]

no sound ??? shame ...

[@rubenssalvador9885]

Turn your volume up

[@Sewix]

idk this game

[@shannonharrisytf7325]

Atari 5200 is this best

[@jetpaq]

Ironically, THIS is the ONLY game lucas arts made that was cutting edge and WAY ahead of its time. Every ( and I mean EVERY) successive game after this up to the latest jedi game has sucked ass. This man should never be allowed to make another video game in his life.they hype them up..we fall for it..it sux...and the cycle starts ALL over again..case in point.. HAVE WE EVER seen the star wars game from the arcade..ANY OF THEM and the tie fighter action in any of his home releases ever...? NO..Has there ever been a "STAR WARS" game that has to do with fighting..Within the stars..? EVER?? NOPE... I rest my case.

[@fragmentalstew]

I don't know what your smoking. And lucas arts is not a man.

[@nasty_niff]

7800 no gtia no pokey! it had 2 sound channels graphics were poor due to no gtia!! MAY OF USED THE SAME PROCESSOR, BUT SO DID MANY 8 BITS OF THE DAY!!

[@nasty_niff]

no they weren't!