Rescue on Fractalus is an action flight game played from a first person cockpit point of view. It was originally developed for the Atari 800 and 5200 before seeing a wider release. Your mission is to rescue stranded pilots on the planet of Fractalus whilst avoiding alien intruders, UFO’s and enemy missile turrets before heading back to your mother ship.
Originally developed by Lucasfilm Games and released by Activision in 1984 for 8-bit Atari systems Rescue on Fractalus eventually came out in 1985 on the Commodore 64. This is the version that I am very familiar with.
Rescue on Fractalus was one of the first Lucasfilm games released before they came out with other such classics as Maniac Mansion and the Secret of Monkey Island.
My History with Rescue on Fractalus
Originally, I didn’t own the original release version of the game. I got the Masteronic budget release version and I can remember getting it just after I got my Commodore 64C. I can remember going to Woolworths with my mum and a friend tagged along too. The Mastertronic budget label version cost £2.99 and my friend got a copy too, it was great value for the game.
I was intrigued by the cover and the graphics on the back of the cassette case because it’s a sort of first-person cockpit view but we’ll go into a bit more detail of the actual game-play further into the article.
Related Posts:
- The Best Commodore 64 Games
- What Happened to Mastertronic Games
- Batman on the Commodore 64
- Ghostbusters 1984 on the Commodore 64
Rescue on Fractalus Boxart
The original black clamshell release which has got the famous picture of the pilot controlling the ship in the cockpit of his spaceship. You have the stranded pilot that you have to rescue running in front of you and one of the missile laser turrets up in the mountains firing at him. Take a proper look at it below.
Let’s have a read of the back of the case to give you a little bit more as to what the game is supposed to be about.
Your fellow pilots have been shot down on the very hostile planet of Fractalus. Flying your Valkyrie fighter you scour the planet in search of your comrades. While the enemy pursues you the mother ship is signalling you’re running out of time. You’ve never faced a challenge as tough as this before.
Game-play
let’s fire up the jet leave the mothership and let’s have a look at the gameplay for Rescue on Fractalus.
When you start the game you start off from the mother ship. As you launch out of the mothership you enter space and your ship gradually lowers and you enter the atmosphere of the plant Fractalus (you can sort of see the curve of the planet as you enter, which is a cool touch).
From there you enter the mountain range. Fractalus is a mountainous planet that is full of alien missile turrets, enemy UFO’s that will attack you and of course the crashed pilots that you need to rescue.
On each level you must rescue an amount of pilots before you can return to the mother ship.
You have a dashboard on your ship which has various indicators and screens to it. Also you have a bar to show how close you are to the ground. You can see how close you are to the left or right of the mountain range and you have an energy bar which if you get shot or hit the mountains will gradually decrease.
There’s also a target screen in the middle of the cockpit screen. If you come across any enemies they will appear on that screen and once within your crosshairs you can fire and destroy them.
You also have a radar which will beep as you find crashed spaceships that you need to rescue the pilots from.
Difficulty Levels
As you play through the levels it gets more and more difficult. You will come across more aliens, more missile turrets firing at you and there will be more UFO’s that will fly across the skyline in front of you. If you get to the later levels within the game, you have to start flying at night. Now you will really need your controls on the dash of your jet fighter cockpit. Being able to see how close you are to the ground and how far left and how far right really come into play in the game.
You can also select which level to play at the beginning of the game. This means if you’re quite good and you’re well practiced you don’t have to start off on a lower level. You can jump into some of the higher levels.
Rescue on Fractalus Controls
You’re not just controlling your ship with a joystick, as you need to use the keyboard too.
On the Commodore 64 version you have to press:
L to land.
S to shut off and turn on your systems.
A to open and your airlock.
The joystick controls your direction of flight and the fire button is for your cannon.
Once you find a pilot and your scanner starts beeping you hit L to land. You will sometimes you will see the crashed spaceship in front of you and as you land you will see the pilot run towards you.
What you need to do when you land is you need to shut your systems off. If the pilot you’re rescuing runs towards you they will get fried by your shields if you haven’t turned them off.
Then what will happen is you will hear them run towards you (you may see them if you’re facing them) and and you will hear a bang on your spaceship. You must then press A to open your air lock. The pilot will then enter, and they will automatically shut the air lock. You can then turn your systems back on and you can thrust off and go looking for further pilots.
Rescue on Fractalus Jump Scares!
What can also happen in the game as you move up the levels and this apparently was something that George Lucas wanted to add was that sometimes you’re not actually rescuing a pilot. You’ll come across a rogue alien disguised as a pilot! What will happen is you will hear somebody approach you and rather hear the bang on the airlock all of a sudden, an alien will appear very quickly on the screen in front of you.
If you don’t turn your shields on quickly the alien can smash your cockpit screen and do you damage or kill you. This is probably one of the earliest jump scares in video games. Well at least that I can remember.
Reception
On release the game was well received and it was reviewed in issue 5 of Zzap 64. And it got a very good overall rating of 91 percent.
Julian Rignall rated it highly stating:
‘the Atari legend has at last been converted to the 64 and it’s a perfect copy too. The sensation of flying through the canyons and over the mountain ranges is really exhilarating and although the colour is a rather drab brown the graphics work exceptionally well’.
The mountain range is very brown but it uses fractal graphics so it’s generating a mountain range all the time. That’s where the name Fractalus comes from. The fractal graphics work really well.
You can find my Top 10 Commodore 64 Games here.
Rescue on Fractalus
I still play the game today. I still very much enjoy loading it up and starting off on the lower levels. Playing through some of the levels, getting a chair out and sitting by my Commodore 64 keyboard like I would have done as a kid, having to control the ship with both keyboard and joystick.
It’s a very enjoyable experience for me and I actually find it quite relaxing. I would say do go and give the game a try. If you’ve never played it before go and rescue some stranded pilots from planet Fractalus.
More Retro Gaming Goodness
Thanks for reading this article on Rescue on Fractalus you can find more retro gaming related content below.
10 Extremely Addictive Retro games
80s Retro Games -10 Things Only 1980s Gamers Did
90s Retro Games – 15 Things Only 90s Gamers Did
Keep it Retro and why not take a look at my Twitter, and Instagram too.
Daz
About The Author
