Rescue on Fractalus! Gameplay

[@DTM-Books]

The graphics were cutting edge for its day, with fractal-generated landscapes, and all sorts of visual effects. The rescue missions are inventive and result in genuine scares when the monster jumps up. He's the Creeper of 1985. Overall, excellent title and terrific showcase for the Atari 8-bit.

[@Electrondance]

daniel thomas god that alien used to freak me out NO END

[@Agelis]

this used to scare the hell out of me as a child, used to jump when the Aliens popped up and smashed at the screen >_

[@bruceshark0]

Jumpscares: 7:56 You're welcome.

[@Lenixionthegreat]

Played this when I was like 5, ran out of the room crying back then, watching it now is odd, I could feel that same childhood fear until I saw the alien then I just laughed hahah, cannot believe this had me so scared

[@Electrondance]

You are not the only one. I was older, around 12-15 I think, but every time there was the threat of an alien popping up, I began turning my head away from the screen. That interminable delay between disappearing below your cockpit window and that knocking on the door... ...and today it doesn't really bother me.

[@Lenixionthegreat]

@@Electrondance glad I'm not the only one, not seen my cousin for over 20 years and saw him recently ( which is why I'm here) and he laughed and made fun of me by saying " remember when you ran out the room crying over that game" lol, I play worse stuff now like outlast hahah

[@LionsPhil]

3:32 - Frame by frame this laser shot, and notice how when the beam is on-screen, they darken the sky. Yep, HDR effects, on an 8-bit micro, in 1984.

[@Loenne555]

Despite looking pretty "archaic", I think for its time, the 3D effect is really nice. Reminds me a bit of the legendary "Comanche - Maximum Overkill" with its voxel graphics.

[@DougMcDave]

The screen capture of this was so clean, and just about perfect!

[@Electrondance]

I used an emulator to deliver the goods but sometimes I miss the scanlines and frayed edges though...

[@TomCatT_]

Oh, such good memories back in the day. My life long friend and I would play this for hours on end. We used to trade-off; I would fly and he manned the power to the shields after we'd land to rescue a pilot. Or so we thought. The higher levels you mistake a pilot for the alien sometimes because of the action. Not good. And you would have the one swing from the alien and it cracks your windscreen. So funny when you power up the shields and it fries them. Thanks for sharing that.

[@Electrondance]

My memories are pretty potent, but it doesn't seem to give me the same jump as it used to. That's what happens when you play too many modern horror games :)

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

As a kid the creature scared me like hell, although the Atari 800XL used only a 31cm B/W TV. They should make definitely a modern 3D remake of this game, with the alien monster breaking into the player's ship in many different surprising ways (through the glass, ripping the dashboard out etc.) and attacking him. So the player may get dragged out of his ship and plummet down onto the planet etc. if he fails to defend himself. I imagine that in later levels there could be even a storyline where the player can decide to change the side and fight for the Jaggi aliens (those e.g. had attacked the humans because they were destroying something that was vital for their survival - somewhat like in Star Trek "The Devil in the Dark").

[@DougMcDave]

Oh that scared me, back then! I swatted at the keyboard and turned off my monitor. Was shaking, afterwards. No one told me that was going to happen.

[@Electrondance]

Yeah, god damn, this always freaked me out. I showed it to my son recently... who didn't bat an eyelid. How times change!

[@Whatever493]

This scared me pretty good when I was a kid. I think I was seven when I played it. As I type, I have my five-year-old about to go to bed watching this. He doesn't seem bothered xD

[@thonaker1]

I remember having this on the Color Computer 3.

[@gochem3013]

0:06

[@ravenhill_night_visitor_1968]

this was/ is a great game.

[@rockamuse617]

7:56 is that a scary jumpscare in my opinion? No.

[@Electrondance]

At the time when I played, I was very scared of this. These days, not so much. You see much worse in your average contemporary horror game.

[@ilhanmohamed3495]

Remember that aliens disguised as downed pilots weren’t even mentioned in the game’s manual, so this probably caught some players back in the day off guard.

[@Durrpadil]

I'm scared