The History of Road Blasters - Arcade console documentary

foreign happy little games fast cars and video games seem to go hand in hand there was nothing better than pretending to get behind the wheel of a souped-up muscle car ripping down the roads at 90 miles an hour with your sweet sweet honey by your side ever since the early 1970s you could find various racing games and arcades all across the world at every shape and size we had the funds night driver [Music] Super Sprint [Music] and final lap among others they were definitely a proven commodity in the arcades and games such as pole position and outrun would help teach a young Pac-Man QC how to drive any 12 year old boy who played this game for the first time would stand up and beg for buttermilk as he grabbed the wheel slammed his foot down on the accelerator and took off down the road like a bat out of hell today we are going to take a look at a mashup of racing genres from the masterminds at Atari the name of the game is Road blasters and it was released in 1987. was this game inspired by a popular 1980s movie what merchandise was released for this game let's find out as we learn about the history of Road blasters in 1986 the higher-up said Atari were looking to capitalize on the ever popular racing genre the company would always have a couple of different racing games in development and using their tried and trued and especially cheap system one Hardware they knew they could develop something that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg and still look good the system one Hardware was used on such games as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [Music] and Marble Madness [Music] the game was conceived by Lyle Reigns who wrote up the design document rumors have persisted for a number of years that this game was inspired by the 1981 futuristic movie Mad Max but that wasn't the case the document was a single page and at the top was the name of the game which was futurevet which obviously meant a future Corvette according to Mr Reigns the concept was a simple shoot the obstacles collect the Treasure's driving game a context-free match-up of other games the games in question that would be matched up would be two of the most successful racing games from the early 1980s pole position and Spy Hunter he quickly assembled his team which eventually included Bonnie Smithson Mark Pierce and Robert wetherby among others the team had a pole position cabinet for reference and the system one Hardware Bonnie was able to get a moving Road up and running on the hardware showing that it was possible on the system on board she included a horizon and also a rudimentary card that could turn just a bit at this point things moved along rather quickly so they added traffic shooting scoring and the design of the levels Bonnie was using real-time programming so she could tweak the gameplay immediately after play testers were complaining about something to see if it would actually improve it after several months in development it was deemed too easy to blow up the other cars on the road so they ended up putting armor on certain vehicles Mr Weatherby had designed Super Sprint and especially the car's attribute power up so he wanted to do something similar for this game which was now going by the new and improved name of road blasters the power-ups came in the form of weapons such as an electroshield and an Uzi Cannon initially the weapon transport was going to use a van similar to Spy Hunter but they ended up changing it to an airplane Mr Reigns hated the idea of racing against the clock so instead your fuel will slowly deplete but there are green Globes along the way to help you make it across the finish line some were even hidden in enemy cars which have to be shot to be revealed Road blasters was released by Atari in 1987. the game takes place across 50 levels in which you have to drive really fast and shoot everything that moves the arcade game came in two distinct flavors and a bright version and a sit-down cockpit style which was really cool to play back in the day as The Story Goes there really isn't any so I will improvise just a bit in an apocalyptic world near you you take control of your futuristic car which is equipped with the laser cannon as you try to destroy all the enemy vehicles and make it to the end of the winding road before your fuel Runs Out at the beginning of each game you were given a choice of where to start level one 4 or 11 with level 1 being the absolute easiest you have a primary tank of fuel and a reserve tank speaking of green fuel orbs are floating along the track but there are also red orbs which provide much more fuel than the standard green these are hidden inside other vehicles and you need to shoot them to expose them and later levels these orange globes are a necessity to complete the levels since you start off with such a low fuel tank your handy and dandy machine gun allows you to take out most of the vehicles with only one shot and you are rewarded with a bonus multiplier for each consecutive card that you destroy with only one shot the multiplier maxes out at 10. a missed shot will reduce the multiplier by one this means that you not only have to be a fantastic driver but also a good shot as well at the end of the level you are given a point bonus and the higher the bonus the more fuel is added to your reserve tank it's another one hit wonder type of world so you definitely need to be on your toes thankfully there is a Midway checkpoint at various points during the game a voice will give you hints and tips for upcoming levels these will usually occur in between each level but they can also be heard after using the Nitro injector or when you shoot multiple enemies in a short period of time [Music] [Applause] [Music] Reserve fuel award is based on store [Music] that special button to increase performance there are plenty of enemies on screen to take you down including Stingers which are the most common enemies you will see and are easily destroyed the command car which can't be destroyed with their machine gun but certain weapons can take them out motorcycles which are similar to The Stingers that are smaller and harder to hit the rat Jeeps which will get in front of you when slam on their brakes and the green stinger that drop Spike mines that have to be avoided various obstacles will also litter the roadway including turrets mines which sometimes warnings are given on screen so be on the lookout toxic spills which will make your car spend 360 degrees and boulders on the side of the road at random points a plane will fly along and give you a helping hand by dropping power-ups these include an Uzi Cannon which is a rapid fire gun Nitro injects which gives you a fast burst of speed which can be used three times a cruise missile which obliterates everything on the screen and can also be used three times and an electro Shield which makes your car invisible for about five seconds be advised though if you crash you lose your power ups some of the sections you will encounter are Bubble City four section [Applause] desert region [Applause] weapons Factory [Music] [Music] levels one through 49 will allow you to continue but once you reach level 50 you are given only one shot if you are fortunate enough to complete the level there is no ending sequence as technically there wasn't any opening story however you were given a code after inputting your initials and birth date you could use this code to mail in for a free t-shirt from Atari arcade vendors love this aspect because kids were dropping massive quarters since they wanted to try for that shirt this game is a blast to play and I have been a big fan ever since the first time I tried it back in the day the graphics are nice and although the roadside objects are a bit Barren due to the limited ROM size they do get the job done special Kudos should be given to Brad Fuller for his excellent soundtrack the game was a huge success for Atari and even before the game was released a couple of Licensing agreements were made the first one was with Matchbox to produce a number of a wife-sized cars based on the game [Music] Road blasters road machines with power to race the ultimate race with shields and weapons you attack despite the ultimate fight tomorrow your support team is ready for action [Music] Ghostbusters vehicles with Snap-On accessories new from Matchbox Road blasters even appeared in the comic Eagle that was released in the UK this was a black and white story that ran over 24 issues and featured a great race between two different teams Turbo Force and the motor Lords a final Story featuring the road blasters ran and eagle issues 345-353 Road blasters made its way to the big screen in the background at the arcade in the movie Wreck-It Ralph although Road blasters didn't directly rip off Mad Max the box art for the Genesis version appears to have been inspired by the Japanese movie poster a number of Home conversions were produced with varying levels of quality the NES version is up first and the first thing you notice is that it looks like the car has gone on the Slim Fast diet because it's thin to win baby the colors are drab and dreary with the backgrounds using only a few colors even the title screen uses the most limited color palette I have ever seen and I'm colorblind with that being said the scrolling is very smooth and the gameplay is solid unfortunately you have to press up to accelerate but it really didn't bother me too bad since I grew up with racing games on the Commodore 64. overall it's a pretty good conversion for an 8-bit machine [Music] the Amiga version is up next and presentation wise it looks and sounds really good until you actually start the game once you do it Peters out like a horny hound dog from Mississippi the graphics are colorful with large and fairly detailed Sprites but the scrolling is very choppy making it a bit of a chore to play they did include mouse support which does help just a bit the title screen has some nice music and the sound effects aren't too bad although all of the speech is missing we do get music and sound effects while we play which does help the gameplay experience speaking of the speech the only version that is not emulated to include it is the Atari Lynx version speaking of the Atari Lynx version Don't let the small size fool you that's what he said because this is a very well done conversion the Atari Links proved to be a more than capable system especially for racing games just don't look at hard driving as an example the scaling effects are put to good use and although most people would play this on an emulator making everything pixelated on a real Atari Links on the small screen it looked fantastic I don't know if this is an emulation problem or not but the speed of the game seems incredibly fast I don't recall it being this fast on an actual link so if someone knows let me know down below the sound effects are good with excellent use of digitized voices from the arcade game the music is only average but at least it's only played in short bursts the gameplay is nice and tight with smooth control over your car another excellent arcade conversion for the little system that could count foreign blasters appears to take place in the middle of Iceland because all you see is green on a real Spectrum machine back in the day the predominant storage medium were tape drives and this game took a whopping seven minutes to load the game moves along fairly quickly although not quite as fast as the arcade original that is as long as you don't attempt to go around any Corners as the frame rate will drop to about three to four frames per second we get basic sound effects with some static and buzzing sounds thrown in to be fair the Sprites are large and detailed but it's hard to enjoy the game when everything runs this slow good foreign [Music] the Atari St version looks very similar to the Amiga with a slight loss of color everything also moves just a little bit slower the sound effects and in particular the music have taken a pretty big hit supposedly you can have music while you play but I couldn't get it to work this also supports the mouse as well the amstrad version is up next and thankfully it's not just a port of the spectrum the Sprites are large and detailed with plenty of color the issue comes with the speed which is slower than the arcade game there is also that pesky curve that you have to maneuver but it isn't as bad as found on the Spectrum the sound effects are decent and I don't think they should be classified as queef Worthy control wise it's not too bad and if the speed had been up just a bit this could have been one of the better 8-bit home ports thank you the Commodore 64 version looks very similar to outrun and with good reason they were both programmed by Martin Webb in fact Mr Webb just reused assets from outrun and tweaked them to look like Road blasters this is not as bad as outrun though was at least this game is playable that's not to say it's spectacular as after just a few minutes boredom tends to set in for some odd reason your car Bobs up and down like a prize fighter as it rolls down the road the music and sound effects are decent but so much more could have been done with the Sid chip it controls okay but it would have been nice if the programmer would have put just a bit more effort into it foreign [Music] [Music] version that is not running under emulation is the Sega Genesis version this looks very close to the arcade game with large detailed Sprites plenty of color and silky smooth scrolling the sound effects and music are also really good and are very reminiscent of the arcade original everything from the arcade game has been brought over except for the option to win a free t-shirt it controls great thanks to having three buttons on your controller one for the gas one for your primary weapon and one for the secondary this is fantastic and if you are a fan of roadblasters you should check it out foreign [Music] the game also appeared in the compilation arcade's greatest hits the Atari collection 2 in 1998. it was also released as part of Midway Arcade Treasures for the PlayStation 2 Xbox GameCube and PC it's also one of the arcade games available to play in Lego dimensions Road blasters is a fantastic futuristic racing game that shouldn't be missed it's another one of those pickup and play type of games where you are always telling yourself just one more try if you've never had a chance to collect green orbs all the while shooting everything in sight and driving like a maniac be sure and give this game a shot you'll be glad you did if you enjoyed this video be sure to like comment share and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below if you would like to contribute but not sign up for my patreon you could always use the Donate button up above thanks everybody for watching

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 29,532

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Atari, shooter, racing, future, apocalyptic, Bonnie Smithson, Mark Pierce, Robert Weatherby, Lyle Raines, Brad Miller, Eagle, matchbox, cars, mad Max

Id: Jle4_RIcCB8

Length: 23min 34sec (1414 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022