How to play Ballblazer online
- Steer your rotofoil: arrow keys
- Shoot the ball (or knock it away from your rival): Z
- Start a match: Z on the title screen starts the standard three-minute game
- Change the options: F2 (Select), then use the arrow keys to pick a human or computer player for each side and a match length
- Restart with the same options: F3 (Reset)
- Pause: F4
Player 1 sees the action in the top half of the screen and player 2 (or the computer) in the bottom half. If you leave the game alone at the title screen, it plays demo matches between computer opponents.
Gameplay
Each player drives a rotofoil, a small hovercraft, across a large checkered field called the Grid. A glowing ball, the Plasmorb, floats somewhere on the field. Get close to it and your rotofoil grabs it automatically. Then you have to carry or shoot it between your opponent’s two goal posts, which move from side to side and slowly close in as the match goes on.
The view always faces the ball, or the goal once you have the ball, and turns in sharp 90-degree steps. That takes a little getting used to. Your rival can steal the ball by pulling up beside you and blasting it loose.
| Goal | Points |
|---|---|
| Close-range goal | 1 |
| Medium-range goal | 2 |
| Long shot, with the goal out of sight over the horizon | 3 |
The scoring has a twist: the two players can hold no more than 10 points between them. Once all ten are taken, every new goal takes points away from the other side. Score ten in a row and you win at once. Otherwise the higher score wins when time runs out, and a tie goes to sudden-death overtime. Matches last from one to nine minutes, and the computer opponents come in nine skill levels, from Droid1 (easiest) to Droid9.
Tips
- Score early. The goal posts are widest at the start of a match.
- Shoot just before the goal vanishes over the horizon. That is the three-point shot, and it is easiest to line up at that moment.
- Block. Parking your rotofoil between the ball and your goal stops most shots.
- Listen. The buzz grows louder as you close in on your rival, and a click sounds when your view turns, which helps you keep your bearings.
- Start against Droid1. Work your way up the levels once the controls feel natural.
The story behind Ballblazer
Ballblazer was one of the first two games from Lucasfilm Games, the game division of George Lucas’s company, together with Rescue on Fractalus!. David Levine led the project and did much of the design and programming, with Peter Langston also designing and programming. It first appeared in 1985 on the Atari 8-bit computers, published by Epyx, and was later ported to the Commodore 64, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX.
Langston also built the music system. Its theme, “Song of the Grid”, is not a fixed tune: the game strings short musical phrases together at random, so it keeps changing as you play.
Both Lucasfilm games were planned for the then-new Atari 7800. Ballblazer finally came out on the console in 1988. It is one of the few 7800 cartridges with Atari’s POKEY sound chip built in, which gives it far richer sound than most games on the system. Computer and Video Games magazine gave the 7800 version 97% in 1989.
