Padge Plays! Retro Edition: Blue Max (C64 - 1983 - Synapse Software/US Gold) Commodore 64 Gameplay
9Welcome to Padge Plays! Retro Edition
This time around we continue to look back at my gaming roots by taking to the skies in a game released the same year I was born called Blue Max developed by Synapse Software and published by US Gold!
After last weeks episode on Fantasy World Dizzy I have spent a week scouring through all the old C64 roms I have on my computer trying to pick out games I played, games I haven't played but are known as classics for the computer and games I had demos of through cover tapes from when I collected Commodore Format magazine as a child and this game fits in to the later in this instance. Blue Max was released a year after the Commodore 64 was released so you're not going to be blown away with amazing graphics and it would appear the programmers realised this and made it up with the gameplay... it's not going to blow you away but it's a fun game to pick up and play and one I believe gets overlooked when it comes to top game for the C64
So join me as we become a member of the 20 minuters, (or 20 seconders in some tries) in Blue Max!
- ABOUT THE GAME -
Blue Max is a scrolling shooter written by Bob Polin for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1983. It was released for the Commodore 64 the same year. U.S. Gold published the Commodore 64 version in the UK in 1984 and ported the game to the ZX Spectrum. In 1987. Atari Corporation published Blue Max in cartridge form for the then-new Atari XEGS. The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on diagonally scrolling terrain. The game is named after the medal Pour le Mรฉrite, informally known as Blue Max. Its theme song is "Rule, Britannia!".
- GAMEPLAY -
The game opens with the player's aircraft parked on a runway while the theme - a rendition of "Rule, Britannia!" - plays. After selecting from various control and difficulty options and pressing start, the screen shows the aircraft speeding up down the runway. The player is required to push the joystick in order to take off, but not before the plane reaches a certain minimum speed. From then on the screen scrolls diagonally in the fashion of Zaxxon, using oblique projection to simulate three-dimensionality. The player can move left and right, forward and backward, or raise or lower their altitude with the joystick. The fire button shoots the machine guns continually, while pressing and moving the stick down at the same time causes a bomb to drop.
The game is divided into several areas, each one ending with a runway on which the player should land. The first area consists of a large river on the left side of the screen and a grassy treed area on the right. In the second area the river eventually gives way to land and roads filled with tanks and enemy airbases. The third and final area is the city, composed of skyscrapers and bunkers, destruction of which is the main goal of the game.
Each area contains various targets to destroy, including warships in the river that fire flak, tanks, bridges, various buildings, and enemy biplanes that appear periodically in front or behind the player and shoot at the player's aircraft.
The ultimate goal is to reach the final area and bomb the three bunkers inside the heavily defended city, and then reach the airfield at the end of the stage. Upon finishing, either by succeeding or dying, the player is given a numerical rank based on their performance.
You can learn more about Blue Max from the Wikipedia page here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Max_(video_game)
You can play Blue Max yourself online here:
https://c64online.com/c64-games/blue-max/
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In this series I will be playing some well known and less well known games all the way from yesteryear through to the present, sometimes from consoles and sometimes from the thousands of PC games available either through websites such as Steam, Good Old Games (GOG), as abandonware, (Home of the Underdogs) or through emulation software. (Such as WinVice C64)
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Whilst you're here check out my other videos!
Check out the Padge Plays! The Ultimate Playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7kfilvf8XbNHiLBUlFOoc7Ga
Curious Expedition - Alpha & Beyond:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7ketGibm_1wLE8yy2ZR4D_lM
Curious Expedition 2 - Alpha & Beyond:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7keblRhFfovqwbYUu-1ygTPb
#BlueMax #Arcade #C64 #RetroGaming
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