Atari XL/XE - Rescue on Fractalus [Lucasfilm Games] 1985

[@mjp29]

Yea, I recall the first time that alien jumped up and smashed my windshield, it scared the holy crap out of me!

[@paulmclellan6550]

I know that feeling and they started to get sneaky after a while by wearing helmets

[@neilbeigie4045]

When me and my brother in law first played it, was in a monochrome monitor so hard to tell the helmet color. Shocked the hell out of us. My little nephew would play, and whenever he’d landed to pick up a pilot he’d run and hide behind a chair until he knew it wasn’t an alien. 😂

[@biffrapper]

These graphics are nuts for 1985. I'm surprised the Atari didn't melt.

[@vasco1983]

Man, I imagine kids playing that game back in the 80s. It must've been mindblowing considering how humble were the consoles back then. Lucasfilm really took full advantage of this technology and made a very original game. Even the cutscenes are really good. Some people said that when the alien attacks the ship it was sort of a jumpscare moment.

[@Geezerachi]

This game is way, way ahead of it's time. This is no man's sky and star field before they were ever conceived. Amazing game.

[@robertmatthews9650]

It’s been 35 years. That alien still scares the hell out of me.

[@fufkathebluetongueskink9572]

Robert Matthews same here!

[@Tmhjr_Baskar]

Every time I play this I remember my mother and I playing this.......first time IT happened, it had us all screaming. Scared the Dickens outta us. Now it makes me laugh. Good times, good times

[@ridiculous_gaming]

This was jaw dropping back in the day and still impressive regarding the hardware available.

[@AQuestionofCharacter]

You know I've never seen this in action and it's even more impressive than I imagined.

[@ComicToonProductions]

The pixelated audio and it's background animation is way impressive for the 80s

[@maximus7288]

I loved to play this for hours in my Atari XE back in the late 80's!

[@Peter_Morris]

Holy crap this the first time I’ve ever seen this. It must’ve been mind-blowing back in the day! I mean that’s incredible!

[@XXXXXXXXXO]

It was! ;)

[@DavidBFox_personal]

Nice seeing this posted here! The B&W launch sequence, animated by Jim St. Louis, was created for the disk version. We had to add Epyx's copy protected disk loader - it took so long to load that we wanted to offer something fun. Jim's specialty was doing shaded metal effects in lores. Check out the robot he did in Koronis Rift, our 2nd gen games that also used the fractal landscapes pioneered for Rescue (by Loren Carpenter, now of Pixar).

[@hoppkins]

This was one of the first games i played on my Atari when i was about 5 years old. Me and my brother had no idea the aliens were in the game and at the time there was no reason to believe games could even be scary. When that first alien appeared i fell out my chair crying. What a time :D

[@ancalites]

I liked how if you left the pilot outside for a while, their knocking gradually slowed as they ran out of air, and if you finally did let them inside, it sounded like they could barely make it in. It was a really nice touch.

[@supers54]

Or the thud as they keeled over when you left them too long!

[@paulnewell7722]

I really liked the game but the alien used to scare me so bad I couldn’t bring myself to play it regularly

[@crooker2]

You always knew it was going to be the alien because he had a green head as he was running up to you.

[@DavidFox1]

@@crooker2 Well, yes, but after a few levels, the aliens got smart and began camouflaging their heads, so they were no longer green. They "learned" after being fried so many times by you.

[@johnmc3862]

@@DavidFox1Pre-A.I.

[@ivuldivul]

I almost shat myself on first alien encounter.

[@isildurjb]

Me too. Didn't read the guide and ended up half way up the stairs.

[@iuaislamf]

Yes! I ran out my room down the hallway🤣

[@calebshockency2083]

A few details on the game's development from one of the programmers, David Fox (future lead programmer on Return to Monkey Island), revealed over Twitter: - The aliens masquerading as pilots was added to the game later in production at George Lucas's suggestion. They deliberately left out this mechanic in the instruction manual and in marketing so players would be taken completely off-guard. - The symbols on the alien's uniform are the initials of the programmers' names rotated on their sides. This was back when Atari didn't allow in-game credits, so this was the developers' workaround (LucasFilm was allowed to credit them in the manual, however.) - The box cover features several pilots, all played by Fox himself. For one of them, he made sure to show his wedding ring for dramatic effect.

[@kayla-Rey22]

It was actually developed under the working title of 'Behind Jaggi Lines'. My dad had a pirated copy of it on disk under this title. They changed the name when they finally released it.

[@retrosaturn202]

That alien is really well animated for a game in 1985

[@love_life_leafeon5955]

I have been working on optimizing a 3d engine for miniscule power hardware and I learn about this and realized I was retreading 40 year old computer science geniuses.

[@urloony]

The first time I played this I was about 9. The first time I accidently tried to rescue an alien and he banged on the window instead of the door I screamed. Good times.

[@TheJosep70]

My first big scare in gaming.

[@supers54]

Scared the &^%$ outta me the first time it happened! And later when I didn't fry him just to see what would happen

[@looplop]

My father would show me this game when i was a kid of 10, loved it.

[@bormisha]

I was always scared to death by that pesky alien pilot!

[@Miler97487]

To most people LucasFilm (by 1991 changed to LucasArts) is Monkey Island, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and later The Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max. For me it's Ballblazer, the Eidolon, Koronos Rift and this one. That's because in 1985 my father bought an Atari 800XL and I saw advertising in magazine like Compute! and Family Computing for these games. Too bad I never got those games because they featured great graphics for an Atari 8-bit. I never heard of Monkey Island, Loom and the likes because our family couldn't afford a PC so even then (1990) I still had the Atari, as well as an even older TI-99/4A my father bought at the end of 1981. It also happened that I stopped buying those magazines by 1988 when they stopped featuring BASIC programs for all platforms so I couldn't see advertisements for new games.

[@doktorzappergeck492]

In '86, when we were about 16 years old, I let a friend play this for the first time. When the Jaggi jumped up, my friend jumped out of the chair. Good times!

[@mozkolog]

I fell off the chair once when my father and my sister played and that alien jumped. Also used to cover my ears. Good times indeed!

[@jamesheyworth3566]

This is a great game........ As a kid I felt that I was actually doing somthing, saving lost pilots in a alien world. This game was excitement to me, I prepared myself before every game.

[@crooker2]

This was one of my favorites back in the day. I poured many hours into this. Very immersive.

[@youtschan]

I remember this great game, played it on my Atari 130XE ;)

[@DougMcDave]

Remember the footage when someone is playing a game, and something terrifies him, this was the first time back in the day!

[@jmp01a24]

Being a C64 fanboy I have no objection to admitting that the Atari version is the most superb version of this game. It's a remarkable programming feat + awesome design and concept.

[@MrSonicAdvance]

I played this on my 800XL. Happy days! :-)

[@kirk1968]

Same here, the 800XL was awesome!

[@gfamad]

Yeah... And "The Last V8", "Elektraglide", "Spy vs spy 2" and a ninja game I don't remember the name

@@kirk1968 and... still is!

[@DavidBFox_personal]

You've discovered one of the game's Easter Eggs - those are the initials of the creators of the game (Loren Carpenter, David Fox, Charlie Kellner, Peter Langston).

[@MD-Design]

I still remember as I played this game the first time. The music game me goose bumbs. And I was so scared as I saw the Alien the first time. Thank you for uploading.

[@TheRetroShed]

Never played this but what a great looking game! Amazing what the old 8-bits were capable of. Must go and look this up!

[@combatwombat71]

That alien banging on the windscreen brings back brilliant memories! Used to love playing this on my Atari 800, waiting for ages each time for the cassette tape to load.

[@simonxmathews]

Wow! The audio is just AMAZING!

[@digimikeh]

Audio and Graphics!!.. this is a true 3D stuff

[@woodmania]

4:40 - Count me in as one of those who literally fell out of their chair when that happened. Not a lot of games at that time could incite a reaction like that!

[@Teeb2023]

+Woody Myers LOL! Same here, and I've never been allowed to forget it. :D

[@martijnvanzanen4075]

For a " 85 game this is very impressive;)

[@martinbaum5354]

fond memories - had this on Atari 800 - called 'Behind Jaggid Lines@

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Jaggi Lines was the pre-release version. It was still released as Rescue on Fractalus.

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

You had a pirated version.

[@kayla-Rey22]

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 Correct. My dad had a pre-release (pirated version) on disk and it was called Behind Jaggi Lines. It's a much better name and I have no idea why they changed it.

[@wilm3864]

I would love to play this game again. I received it as a present on my Atari 800 XL.

[@TofuTuesdays]

Emulation baby

[@MrDalevich]

If you wait long enough to let the pilot in, his knocks get slower and slower as though his life support is giving out. There was so many little things in this game that made it super immersive.

[@westingtyler1]

this is crazy for 1985. it's nuts to think how the math of this world was there in the computer, and it was just a challenge of extracting it to show it within the limits. if that makes sense.

[@NickSBailey]

yep we'd not seen anything like this before, v.impressive for the time I played it quite a bit :)

[@westingtyler1]

@@NickSBailey there's a new game that has similar vibes coming out called Mekkablood_Quarry_Assault.

[@hieroglyph321]

Oh man, used to play this at my mates house ... Kevin, if you're out there! :-) Double Dragon arcade at the chip shop? lol

[@ShamrockParticle]

Real-time 3d landscape generation and at a playable framerate. Nothing like 30fps, but awesome at the time. Holds up well as it is playable.

[@kirk1968]

WOW this brings back memories. First Lucasfilm game I ever bought myself, back in the early 80's when it came out for the 800XL. Haven't seen that alien pilot in over 20 years, thanks for the memories :)

[@GeneralMayhem333]

It was originally called Behind the Jagi Lines.

[@papek79]

One of my favorite game oh sounds good and 👾

[@tjclarke4604]

I used to play the hell out of this game. Once I had the quota of rescued pilots, and the mothership was in range, I'd purposely let a Jaggi alien into the ship. He pounds the piss out of your ship from the inside, but won't destroy it unless you turn the systems on. BUT, you can hit the booster to return to mother ship. The Valkyrie has a hard time getting up there with the alien still slugging away in the back, but eventually gets killed. Not sure how, but someone back there must have kicked his ass inside out, lol.

[@zgralewski]

I used to go out of the room as a kid when the ship landed and i wasn't able to see the rescued pilot's head. One day a neighbour visited and my father was playing this game. When the alien appeared the neighbour get so scared that he slipped backwards from chair and spilled his cofee on the carpet.

[@Iloveyoutube11]

I played this when I was a kid. Used to scare the hell out of me. Haha

[@latengocomoburro]

I had it too. I ended up not playing it because of the same reason. It was just too scary.

[@100years2live2]

Ditto. Was even worse with the lights off and volume way up. XD

[@felipec.5777]

Brad W yep, I was very scared of this game.

[@HHRich]

Great game, used to play this one a lot on the 800XL. Load time from cassette was really long. Probably still have it too, but I wonder if the magnetic tape has survived after all these years.

[@DavidBFox_personal]

I have no doubt you're correct. The original cartridge we did for the 5200 didn't have the opening sequence. When we decided to deliver the 800 version through Epyx, we added the B&W launch sequence to cover the long disk load. So if it's also on the 800 cartridge, that must have been released afterwards.

[@MrHeli]

This game still really impresses me! There were so few other games that attempted 3D on the 800XL, and yet this did it so effortlessly.

[@ConfuSomu]

This game looks really amazing! Gameplay and graphics wise, it still holds up today

[@sym667]

Great memories. Being a kid is fantastic, best part of life.

[@tsheets]

Thanks for posting this, total 13 year old memories!!!

[@skipbreakfast]

I'm happy to see commentary from one of the developers!

[@gjeldrez]

Twenty years have passed and I still feel complete fear in those seconds before the pilot start banging the airlock. I don't care if I saw the pilot was on my side was legit: the horror I felt the first time that green monster jumped to the screen is imprinted forever in my memory and I'll always keep a finger over the shields button, just in case.

[@Lenixionthegreat]

gjeldrez I feel you're pain, lol I know this comment is 4 years old but watching this video now ..... even now I held my phone away with the sound down, even tho I play much scarier games to this day the fear from this game is still there

[@laszlokekkoi6020]

Same. This is scary as hell.

[@abruenin236]

OMG, I loved it. The thrill, when waiting if it is a pilot or an alien, has been unforgotten.

[@mhill88ify]

This must have been innovative as hell...Now we've got No Man's Sky.

[@chronas9]

And this is still better, and enjoyed by most. Fractal graphics on an 8-bit system! Who woulda thunk it? :)

[@ofdiscordia]

I fondly remember this game, the first time I played not knowing what to expect and that alien making me nearly jump out of my seat. Lucasfilm had a great track record back then for both Atari and Commodore. Who woulda ever guessed they'd create Guybrush Threepwood and keep us into their games well past the 800xl and c64 going out, but they did. More Threepwood please. And these old games, totally need some console ports :)

[@Al99NextGeneration]

I did the same thing with my sister :D The Alien was a great idea it scared us all ;D

[@YadonTheCat]

Wow!! This game looks AMAZING!! I can't believe a game like that works as well as it does on the Atari 800!

[@GeneralMayhem333]

You should always shoot the escape pods after collecting the pilots, so aliens don't take them over.

[@haqzombie]

THANK YOU! I have been wondering the name of this game for years now! It was my favorite when I was a kid, and I still think about the aliens jumping out occasionally. Favorited.

[@mmorrell2007]

Man - great to see this vid... I played this ENDLESSLY on my Atari ST.

[@luke79lucky]

It was a great game! My childhood... :)

[@3gdosrsfs]

The fact that they pulled off a voxel playfield at any frame rate back then in itself is amazing. Then actually put a good playable game on top of it? Bravo!

[@nyyterp]

One of my all-time favorite Atari games! I believe this was the very first game to use fractal technology; it was mentioned in a 1985 issue of Computer Games magazine where the programmers at Lucasfilm Games were interviewed. They also talked about George Lucas's input in its development.

[@komemiute]

Oh my! This version is so MUCH more fluid than C 64!

[@OdeeOz]

I cannot count the number of hours I played this game... And I remember vividly my former partner falling out of her chair the first time that alien punched a hole in the screen... Lucas Arts needs to update those old classics. Thanks for sharing

[@MediaFilter]

@3gdosrsfs Is it actually voxels though? I've heard others say that it's not. It's definitely a heightmap field though, using a vertical scanline renderer -- that was used in a lot of games, Comanche, Outcast, the Lords of Midnight 3D remake in the late 90's.

[@BloodyBay]

Moments in this game which sucked (even though the game itself was the furthest thing from "suck"): 1) Opening the airlock and letting the alien pilot inside. 2) Turning on the shield by accident and frying a friendly pilot. 3) Running off to grab a snack while there's a pilot running up to your ship, then coming back just in time to watch the alien pilot punch a hole through your windshield. 4) Turning into a mountainside while you're cruising around at full speed and burying your ship in one hit, all because you were too big of a dumbass to check your Wing Clearance Bars before turning. Good times, in a masochistic sort of way. Good times. :-D

[@KewlioMZX]

Wow, this is quite a spectacular game for its time. Kind of makes me wish I had more access to games of its time.

[@hippocrates72]

4:43 the infamous *alien pilot* knocking... ;-)

[@GreatLakesDrifta]

This alien scared the crap out of me when I was a kid playing this.

[@Lenixionthegreat]

GreatLakesDrifta me too mate, I was like...... five or six, yeah made me cry hahah ..... some family members still won't let me live it down, even tho I play much scarier games these days

[@8BitSplendor]

Same here mates - i still remember how panicked i was after this f****r had turned up ;-)

[@moezilla68]

awesome. my Radio Shack color computer never got this game...I missed out.

[@christschinwon]

Thanks for a genius post. My fave 80s atari game - wish I could play it now. Those aliens were scary in the dark but I'd let the odd one in on purpose to see if I could get back to base before it destroyed my ship!!!!

[@martijnvanzanen4075]

Wow so nice for its time. And I love the noise sound.

[@Diamondblade2008]

I have this game on my old Amstrad CPC computer! The alien scared me totally senseless when I saw it for the first time!

[@ancalites]

the topographical mapping in this game was ahead of its time I swear

[@RCAvhstape]

I remember playing this on our spiffy new Atari 5200 one night, all alone in the dark living room. I had been playing it for a while and was aware of the instructions' warning against aliens, but when that green bastard jumped onto the windshield that night I was so petrified I just sat there and watched him kill me. One of the greatest 80s games ever.

[@andrej926]

Man, I had totally forgotten about this game until today. Played this on my Atari XE. Spent hours flying around the canyons just having fun. And of course, halfway peeing myself when an alien popped up!

[@chronas9]

When I was really young the Aliens terrified me with that noise and everything...

[@bloodguzzler]

Yup...That was definitely a nerve wreaking experience seeing that alien for the first time, and I was about 5 or 6 then. I would LOVE to see a full run of this game though!

[@wilm3864]

Did anyone ever let the alien into the ship? After you take off he makes you crash.

[@chriscane3198]

Also, if you collected all stranded pilots for that level and then decided to let one in, he would die if you returned to the space station 😂

[@davidcope4527]

NO.. you need to enter orbit as soon as possible.. Alien dies then!

[@DEFkon001]

This was one of my favorites back in the day. I must've been 6 or 7 when i played this for the first time, and I'm sure my older brother got a kick out of my first experience with the green alien... AHHHhhhh!!!

[@dthejc]

I very vaguely remember this game, think I was 4 years old and at a relatives house who was playing it.

[@vapourmile]

Rescue on Fractalus / Eidolon / Koronis Rift. Still the most 'ahead of their time' games of all time. I never worked out how they did the graphics. We know it's fractals but how did they render them? It doesn't look like polygons. I've never seen the technique used before or since. Real time 3D from a 1Mhz 8bit!

[@tikvision]

got this on a diskette, no manuals, no info, spent hours trying to figure out what to do unti I realized it was about rescuing pilots and not only blasting UFOS and cannons. What a great day it was when I saved my first pilot, and returned to mother ship afterwards.. too bad I used a B/W TV and never could realize the aliens wore green helmets

[@airborne501]

Great games... good old days of gaming...

[@MaximumRD]

That looks good for 8bit! Never had ATARI computers as I happily grew up a Commodore boy but looking into collecting them now!

[@FaTeDev_com]

I'm currently developing my own physics/render engine as one and still have lots of respect for the developers back in the day :)

[@Drifyt]

I spent many many hours playing this when i was around 12 years old.

[@gfamad]

Same thing, same age !

[@KGMDMusic]

I used to bloody love this game!

[@trixylizard6970]

Wow. This is amazing! I was a C64 + Amiga kid, can't remember it being released for either

[@llamallama1509]

It was released for the C64 but because the C64 CPU ran much slower than the Atari's, it wasn't a good game on the Commodore.

[@SouthOCmixdown]

So you basically fly around and rescue guys wearing Devo plastic hats?

[@cosine303]

this game (the atari version) also featured on a BBC kids program about maths. think of a number etc.. (one of jonny ball's shows).. the first game to feature fractals, and they explained the maths behind it.

[@alex76gr]

A brilliant piece of software ! Excellent !

[@themagicboy6548]

apparently the idea for rogue squadron was this mixed with the atari star wars arcade game.

[@Shiznaft1]

I loved this game! So much fun. The alien always scared the crap out of me. I just remember all the detail they put into these games. like if you took too long to open the door the pilots knocking got slower and more deliberate and the fact that if you turned on the shields they got fried.

[@Lightcycle]

I still have the pamphlet the game came with somewhere (had awesome ship models in it). That game got hard in a hurry.

[@GameHopping]

4:50 - First time that happen to me, I jumped out of my chair and he just smashed his way in to the ship.

[@BloodyBay]

You know, one of the things I like about LucasArts games is how they throw in little references to other LucasArts games. Does anyone else here remember using the telescope in Maniac Mansion, specifically what would happen if you turned it to look at the moon instead of the other part of the mansion? :-D

[@ohernik]

first real time air combat simulator with mission... best game ever, loved it in that time.