RoadBlasters Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
44Developed and published by US Gold in 1988.
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Another coin-op conversion for today's video, this time of RoadBlasters by Atari Games.
The objective is to reach the end of 50 different race stages to win the game. There is no time limit, but you're car has a limited amount of fuel and this runs out very quickly; running out of fuel will end the game. Crashing into enemy cars, scenery or getting shot by road-side turrets will cause you to respawn at the cost of some fuel.
It's possible to gain extra fuel by driving over the green and red spheres in the road and there is always a checkpoint in each stage that will refill your tank when you drive through it. You also have a reserve tank that can be filled by performing well in each race stage.
There are several different enemies to watch out for:
* Yellow cars: can be destroyed with your car machine guns and sometimes drop extra fuel.
* Purple cars: bullet proof, so you must avoid these.
* Green cars: drop mines when destroyed.
* Bikes: Swerve into an adjacent lane as you approach; beware!
* Dirty buggy/quad bikes: nothing special; just blow them up
* Mines: must be avoided; if you drive in-between lanes you can avoid them with ease.
* Turrets: fire shells at you from the side of the road; deadly and extremely annoying!
Periodically, a jet will fly overhead and drop a power-up for you to collect.There are several different power-ups to collect:
* Nitro boost: large speed boost; can be more trouble than it's worth as you have less time to react to oncoming obstacles.
* UZ Cannon: faster firing gun with limited ammo.
* Cruz Missile: enemies and obstacles no longer damage you for a limited time (doesn't appear to blow them up; acts more like a shield...very strange).
* Electro Shield: invulnerability for a limited time.
The game is far from a classic and is down-right frustrating a lot of the time. Due to the very short draw distance, the game is less about reactions/timing and more about knowing what's coming.
Your car slips and slides about on the track as if someone had given the wheels a good coating of butter before the race began and your machine gun bullets don't always register hits correctly, not even with vehicles straight in front of you.
There's very little variation in the courses and it's not much fun to play; I regret deciding to play every single stage instead of skipping stages using the in-game stage select.
#retrogaming