Rescue on Fractalus!

CX-5254. Rarity 4 Scarce+ North America NTSC. 1 player.
Ethercorps pilots are down on the planet Fractalus, you are attempting rescue before the Jaggies find them. Destroy the Jaggies' gun turrets and land so the pilots can board. The muzzle flash of the turrets will give away their positions at long range. Pilots have a homing beacon. Your long range scanner will hear the beep then a short range scanner will show a blip when the pilot is in range. The pilot will signal a series of beeps when you are directly overhead. You need to land right there and shutdown while he runs to the back of the ship and knocks on the airlock door. He can't do this while you are powered up.[[spoiler:If the Jaggies have found the pilot first they will wear the pilots suit and lure you in for an ambush. Jaggies never knock. Activate your shields to zap them off the ship and activate your engines to burn them to a crisp. If you opened the airlock for them then you need to quickly head into space without closing it. They will seal the airlock themselves and break into the interior of your ship if you are not fast enough. Eventually, they will break open the cockpit door and strangle you.]]Open the airlock for your pilot. You'll hear him come in. Switch on and fly away. On each mission you will be given a quota of pilots to rescue, you can not return to the mothership with less than half your quota and will be sent back until you fill the quota in full. But if you are damaged an low on fuel the mothership may make a low orbit pass to help you out. If you are good enough the Jaggies will send kamikaze pilots after you. They can be gunned down or destroyed with missiles. They can also collide with other things besides your ship. Fractilus has four minute days and four minute nights. At higher levels, you will be sent out at night, enjoy the sunrise. When its dark, you must fly on instruments alone! Muzzle flash and tracers provide some light, but only if your being fired upon.

For the ultimate challenge, try the unarmed hack.

Featues:
There's lots of fully functional gizmos, gadgets, and gauges on that cockpit. Thrust meter, low altitude meter, artificial horizon, altimeter, wing balance/horizontal distance indicator (shows clearance in tight spaces), targeting scope, radar lock warning, fuel gauge, long range scanner, shield status, mothership proximity, airlock seal, range indicator, guns destroyed, and pilots rescued.
Nearly everything in the game, the mountains, the valleys, the planet seen from every distance, the missiles, even the interior of the mothership, is part of a fully 3D environment. Only the cockpit is 2D.

Controls:
On the keypad: 1 lands, 2 switches engines and shields on & off, 3 opens your airlock, 6 and 9 adjust your thrust, and 7 initiates orbit and rendezvous with the mothership. The analog stick controls pitch and roll. The buttons fire missiles and guns.

Trivia:
Originally the player's ship was unarmed and they only way to defeat Jaggi ships was to avoid them, dodging them, and lure them into collisions.
This game was ready for release in February of 1984 but various factors delayed it. You can read about it at the [[gameid:10882 page for the Atari 8-bit version]] which was delayed for the same reasons.
This game showcases LucasFilm's fractal geometry algorithms. The same ones used to create the Genesis animation in Star Trek II.
Jaggies are the way lines on a computer screen look like stair steps. Read about the joke on the [[gameid:10882 page for the Atari 8-bit version]]

Rescue on Fractalus!, Fractalus, Ethercorps, Etheric Navigation System, Etherwave, Jaggi, Jaggies, J'hagga Ri Katchatki, Tepdi Vad Neroleil Rahcre, Modified Valkyrie Class Fighter, V-Wing, Firedrake, Droid, Droidcraft, ARD/VARC, Dirac Mirror Shield, Anti-Matter Bubble (AMB) Torpedo, Kalamar and the names of all characters and game elements are trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. Atari, Corp. authorized user.
That's all?

Zerothis - # 2002-06-20 11:00:46

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version of
Rescue on Fractalus! (Atari 400/800)
Rescue on Fractalus! (Apple II E)
Rescue on Fractalus! (Atari 7800)
Rescue on Fractalus! (Tandy Coco)
Rescue on Fractalus! (Amstrad CPC)
Rescue on Fractalus! (ZX Spectrum)
Rescue on Fractalus! (C64)