It’s a testament to the legacy of Rescue on Fractalus!
Together with Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus!
formed the first pair of titles developed by Lucasfilm’s Games Group.
“I was really committed to using computers in the arts,” Langston tells me.
And besides, he jokes, “None of Ed’s friends would do it!”
Though, experienced game developers weren’t necessarily a priority.
and the Games Group’s third employee after Langston and Rob Poor.
That feeling solidified on a family trip to Eugene, Oregon.
As he did so, however, he was aware of a profound sadness washing over him.
Despite this, an intense desire to be a part of Lucas' world gripped him.
“I’d always wanted to work for the company,” he says.
“I wanted to somehow get as close as I could to being in a Star Wars movie.”
Fox postponed the move to Oregon and soon word reached him of the founding of the Games Group.
“I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is my in!'”
When Fox asked if the same effect could be replicated on the Atari, Carpenter was initially incredulous.
The resulting game, soon dubbed simply Rescue!, would be built in its own world.
needed a fire button.
Its omission, he suggested, being a philosophical rather than gameplay decision.
“I think he felt his role was to keep us from being too idealistic,” Langston says.
“George’s sense was right; anybody playing [Rescue!]
was going to want to have a more active response.”
“We had free rein initially,” Langston says.
I think we probably should have."
If anything, there was a touch of derision from their colleagues.
“They were doing grown-up film-level graphics and we’re ‘just doing toy stuff’,” Fox says.
If it was just “toy stuff”, it remains a startling technological achievement to this day.
“Rescue on Fractalus!
is the greatest technological achievement for the Atari 8-Bit Computers.”
It’s something the team was certainly aware of at the time.
“It was kind of eye-opening,” Langston says.
“With the fractal stuff in Rescue on Fractalus!
and the ability to create a world that’s endless nobody had seen that before.”
“Like most Atari owners, I first encountered Rescue on Fractalus!
as Behind Jaggi Lines due to the rampant piracy back in the day,” Eggebrecht says.
“Without Rescue on Fractalus!, Rogue Squadron wouldn’t have existed,” he adds.
The source of the piracy remains uncertain.
The Games Group delivered Ballblaster and Rescue Mission (before their final name change) to Atari in 1983.
Atari, however, was not a healthy company.
“We were devastated,” Fox says.
“It wasn’t a release version; it was pretty far along beta.
For some games of the time, the story might end there.
Luke Arnold was introduced to Rescue on Fractalus!
by his father on the Commodore 64.
“What really captivated me about Rescue on Fractalus!
was the 3D aspect of it,” he says.
For Fox and Carpenter, both of whom had sought to re-release Rescue on Fractalus!
“We figured these games would have a life of about two or three years,” Fox says.
The catalyst for that timelessness?
Yet, it remains hard to pin all that on luck.
As we celebrate 40 years of Rescue on Fractalus!
