Interesting story about Fractalus...

[Jess Ragan]

You know the game designer who created Majestic? He says that his experience with Rescue on Fractalus (when an alien popped out of nowhere and frightened him) inspired him to add the element of fear to his own software. There was an interview with him in an issue of the Detroit Free Press a while ago... it was pretty cool.

I'm thinking maybe I'll have to dig into the game and see for myself if it's really that startling. Fractalus, I mean, not Majestic. I don't like the idea of a game that torments you even when you're not playing it (Majestic players apparently get "mysterious" phone calls and faxes when that are tied in with the game's plot).

 

JR

[+Cafeman]

I remember that Jaggi scaring the crap out of me a few times, too, but on the 8bit version!

 

You sit there as he runs up to your ship's door, and you wait with bated breath for the knock-knock-knock which signals its a friendly pilot who needs help .. the second lasts an eternity ... and then AGHHHHHHHHH!! HE'S ON THE WINDOW! FRY HIM!! FRY HIM!!!

 

At least, that is how I recall it.

[Tempest]

I think I told everyone this story before, but I remember the first time that alien scared the shit out of me.

 

I had recently acquired a 5200 and a few games (Rescue on Fractalus being one of them) and was in the process of testing them out. It was about 2 am in the morning by the time I got around ROF and I was getting pretty sleepy so I didn't bother to read the instructions (who does?). After fudging with the controls for awhile I managed to land on the planet and pick up a few pilots, so feeling proud of myself I was about ready to go to bed when I went for one last pilot to complete the level (or so I thought).

 

Well you can guess what happened next, I landed, shut off my shields, and heard the footsteps approach (they're really creepy at 2 am), and suddenly WHAM! There's an aliend banging on my window! I screamed at the top of my lungs, jumped out of my chair, and fell on the floor. Apperently I screamed so loud I woke up half the dorm (I was in college at the time).

 

Let that be a lesson to ya to read the instructions first! That alien still gets me from time to time, but never like it did that first time. I think it was 2 weeks before I could touch that game again. It's still the best scare I've ever gotten out of a videogame.

 

Tempest

[Gunstar]

Something I noticed recently while playing the pre-release behind jaggie lines version is that it doesn't have the "errooo!" type of sound when the alien pops up, and doesn't scare me like the ROF version with they added sound. As a matter of fact, BJL has a LOT of little stuff missing from it that really make the game in ROF. If you've only ever tried BJL, you owe it to yourself to get ROF version. I'm comparing the 8-bit versions here, I've never played the 5200 version and don't know what it has or doesn't have compared to the 8-bit.

[AtariDude]

Oh yeah!

 

I remember that first time that the Jaggi started banging on the windshield. It scared the bejesus out of me. I was not expecting that. I later learned from a friend that you need to turn the engines back on when that happened to burn him before he smashed through the windshield.

 

My friend also told me to try to watch the pilot as he walks out of the crashed ship. If I remember correctly, a Jaggi would show up as a green pilot so that was a way to tell if the pilot you were rescuing was a Jaggi or not.

[+Cafeman]

Yes, that's all true Ataridude. However, due to the genius of the fractal landscape, sometimes you couldn't see the pilot run up, and then you had to just sit there and wait with your trigger finger ready!

 

Man, that WAS a good game for its day. Knowing what I know of 5200 coding (that is to say, a little), I have no clue as to how they made those visuals.

[someguy]

Damn! I haven't played Beyong Jaggi Lines since the mid-80s and all this talk of the alien popping up is hilarious.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first time I saw the alien pop up in the window I jumped out of my chair!