Blaster by Eugene Jarvis
Mikko H. Hypponen
I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
This doesn't seem to be a common game - does anybody know more about it?
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>>I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
is a sequel to Robotron:2084. <<
You can see some of the original design materials, drawings etc. on
display in the Videotopia exhibit.
Chris.Hanks
>herm...@wavu.DataFellows.com (Mikko H. Hypponen) wrote:
>I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
>Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
>is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
>
Blaster is not really a sequel to Robotron : 2084. It was designed
by Eugene Jarvis' Vid Kidz, the same team that did Robotron, and at one
point the screen reads "The year is 2085 and the robots have taken over"
(or something to that effect), so I think that's where the sequel
rumours come from, but the gameplay is nothing like Robotron.
Blaster' gameplay is basically first-person perspective space shooter.
Using a 49-way optical joystick/flight controller and a thrust and fire
button, you fly through various levels shooting bad guys, picking up good
guys and trying to avoid obstacles. The object of the game is to get to
"Paradise" at Level 20, at which point you get a million points and start
back at Level 1.
The graphics are somewhat 3-Dish and are quite good. It's a very colorful
game. Not quite the classic that Robotron was, but still a very fun game.
Blaster was available in four formats: a conversion kit, a black plastic
duramold cabinet (imagine a fat water heater), a wood Stargate-like
cabinet, and a sit-down cockpit (sort of a modified Sinistar cockpit). All
versions are rare, with the cockpit being the rarest. I've never seen
a cockpit Blaster, but I'd sure like to have one :)
E Conserv
>>Blaster was available in four formats: a conversion kit, a black plastic
duramold cabinet (imagine a fat water heater), a wood Stargate-like
cabinet, and a sit-down cockpit (sort of a modified Sinistar cockpit). All
versions are rare, with the cockpit being the rarest. I've never seen
a cockpit Blaster, but I'd sure like to have one :)<<
Actually, the sit-down Blaster cabinet was the basis for the sit-down
Sinistar, not the other way around.
Patrick Peters
herm...@wavu.DataFellows.com (Mikko H. Hypponen) wrote:
>I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
>Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
>is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
>This doesn't seem to be a common game - does anybody know more about it?
>--
> Mikko Hermanni Hyppönen - Mikko.H...@DataFellows.com
> Data Fellows Ltd's F-PROT Pro Support: F-PROT-...@DataFellows.com
> Computer virus information available via web: http://www.DataFellows.com/
>Paivantaite 8, 02210 Espoo, Finland. Tel +358-9-478444, Fax +358-9-47844599
Congratulations... you've managed to shake loose some old memories of
the bad old days when I got started in the industry...
I've never seen a *working* BLASTER, but I believe that it was based
on the same hardware platform as JOUST 2, if that helps you out any...
==============================================================
VIDEO CONNECTION serving the arcade game industry since 1982
1-800-444-6854 (voice) 1-916-678-1313 (24hr FAX)
http://www.videoconnect.com (Online catalog / orders)
video...@videoconnect.com (Service / tech support)
v...@videoconnect.com (Sales / inquiries / etc)
=============================================================
David Shoemaker
Mikko H. Hypponen (herm...@wavu.DataFellows.com) wrote:
: I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
: Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
: is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
I was moving some files on my hard drive today (just got another 2.7G so I
needed to clean house) and I noticed that I had Blaster images. So what
hardware platform was Blaster on? And why hasn't anyone started working
on the hack to get it out to the rest of us?
David
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
David Shoemaker | Author of the Laser Head FAQ.
Too many games not enough space! | (See web page for details)
|
dav...@wolfenet.com (home) |
Currently on Sabatical (work) | Always looking for laser disk
http://www.wolfenet.com/~davids | based arcade game parts.
Cheryl Bender
David Shoemaker wrote:
>
> Mikko H. Hypponen (herm...@wavu.DataFellows.com) wrote:
> : I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
> : Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
> : is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
Believe Me! You aren't missing a thing. I used to help out some people
who had an arcade/pool hall several years back and they had one of these
things. It was absolutely terrible. I can't believe that Jarvis had
anything to do with it. Yes, it was a complete game, yes it was
working, and yes I could probably put my hands on it if anyone is REALLY
interested. Which brings up the question... Do you want one because it
is rare/supposedly never really released, or do you want it because you
really like it and find it fun to play.
I don't know who thinks that blaster is ANYTHING like Robotron, because
it's not... But I'll gladly trade that really nice blaster for a 2084
any day.
The game shared many of the sounds from Defender and Robotron, and it
was a first person perspective attempt at flying through space (straight
ahead, kind of like on rails) and shooting anything that gets in your
way. Hope this sheds some light on it for you guys.
Lee
Homer J. Simpson
So has anyone yet knocked up a patch so ths can be played on WAC ?
--
Homer J. Simpson
P.C. Kilinskas
In article <hLbxeEAj$cfy...@snpp.demon.co.uk>,
Homer J. Simpson <ho...@snpp.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>So has anyone yet knocked up a patch so ths can be played on WAC ?
Pardon me for my ignorance, but what kind of work is involved in creating
such a patch? I absolutely love Blaster, and would be willing to dedicate
the time neceessary to creating one.
Thanks for any info,
Phil
--
p...@cs.buffalo.edu
have clue--will travel
In article <327D32...@mail.hiwaay.net>,
Cheryl Bender <cbe...@mail.HiWAAY.net> wrote:
>David Shoemaker wrote:
>>
>> Mikko H. Hypponen (herm...@wavu.DataFellows.com) wrote:
>> : I'm curious about a game called Blaster, developed by Eugene Jarvis and
>> : Larry DeMar and published by Williams in 1983. According to KLOV, this
>> : is a sequel to Robotron:2084.
>
>Believe Me! You aren't missing a thing. I used to help out some people
>who had an arcade/pool hall several years back and they had one of these
>things. It was absolutely terrible. I can't believe that Jarvis had
>anything to do with it. Yes, it was a complete game, yes it was
Each to their own, I suppose. Blaster was an intense, addictive shooter,
and I shudder to think how many hours I spent in its clutches. (We were
lucky enough to have one at a local arcade AND one at the Shop 'n' Bag
down the street.)
>I don't know who thinks that blaster is ANYTHING like Robotron, because
>it's not...
As I recall, it was a sequel in storyline only. In attract mode, it states
that the war between the Robotrons and the humans has ended, and the
robots have won. This game was your escape attempt, possibly with the
last human refugees.
>The game shared many of the sounds from Defender and Robotron, and it
>was a first person perspective attempt at flying through space (straight
>ahead, kind of like on rails) and shooting anything that gets in your
>way. Hope this sheds some light on it for you guys.
There were twenty levels. Each level contained a particular type of enemy;
I seem to remember the Space Cats being Wave 8, and there were arches you
could fly through on early stages for major bonus points. Fifteen was
Enduro, an extra-long stage; nineteen was Armageddon, with every enemy
type thrown at you at once. Twenty was Paradise; dancing girls would
surround your ship, give you 1,000,000 points and warp you back to square one.
I think I got there twice on one quarter once, but I don't recall if it
changed the second time around.
It was a very graphically "busy" game, with a lot going on at once.
jeff. sometimes found in a round black "bullet can"
cabinet casing.
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Jeff Vavasour
In <55qh36$8...@prometheus.acsu.buffalo.edu> p...@cs.buffalo.edu (P.C. Kilinskas) writes:
>In article <hLbxeEAj$cfy...@snpp.demon.co.uk>,
>Homer J. Simpson <ho...@snpp.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>So has anyone yet knocked up a patch so ths can be played on WAC ?
>Pardon me for my ignorance, but what kind of work is involved in creating
>such a patch? I absolutely love Blaster, and would be willing to dedicate
>the time neceessary to creating one.
The hardware architecture is too distinct to be a patch. In fact, the video
is not strictly VGA-spec anymore. I do have it emulated, however. We'll
see what happens to it.
- Jeff
Jess Askey
Marathon??
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have clue--will travel
>Jeff Vavasour wrote:
>>
>> In <55qh36$8...@prometheus.acsu.buffalo.edu> p...@cs.buffalo.edu (P.C. Kilinskas) writes:
>> >In article <hLbxeEAj$cfy...@snpp.demon.co.uk>,
>> >Homer J. Simpson <ho...@snpp.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> >>So has anyone yet knocked up a patch so ths can be played on WAC ?
>>
>> >Pardon me for my ignorance, but what kind of work is involved in creating
>> >such a patch? I absolutely love Blaster, and would be willing to dedicate
>> >the time neceessary to creating one.
>>
>> The hardware architecture is too distinct to be a patch. In fact, the video
>> is not strictly VGA-spec anymore. I do have it emulated, however. We'll
>> see what happens to it.
>>
>> - Jeff
Now, I know that there's a million little corporate things that'd have
to go on before this could be offered, under any circumstances. I know
that it's not your personal decision to make. I know that I'm hardly
a major market force.
But, Jeff, as far as a WAC-style Blaster emulator goes --
NAME
YOUR
PRICE.
jeff. If I could make the letters flash, I would.
Jeff Lodoen
In article <55re9l$f...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, je...@physics.ubc.ca (Jeff Vavasour) wrote:
> In <55qh36$8...@prometheus.acsu.buffalo.edu> p...@cs.buffalo.edu (P.C.
> Kilinskas) writes:
> >In article <hLbxeEAj$cfy...@snpp.demon.co.uk>,
> >Homer J. Simpson <ho...@snpp.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >>So has anyone yet knocked up a patch so ths can be played on WAC ?
>
> >Pardon me for my ignorance, but what kind of work is involved in creating
> >such a patch? I absolutely love Blaster, and would be willing to dedicate
> >the time neceessary to creating one.
>
>The hardware architecture is too distinct to be a patch. In fact, the video
>is not strictly VGA-spec anymore. I do have it emulated, however. We'll
>see what happens to it.
>
>- Jeff
(in best Sinistar voice)
ARRGGGGHHH!!!!
:)
P.C. Kilinskas
In article <55tjpr$q...@netaxs.com>,
have clue--will travel <v...@unix3.netaxs.com> wrote:
>>Jeff Vavasour wrote:
>>>
>>> The hardware architecture is too distinct to be a patch. In fact, the video
>>> is not strictly VGA-spec anymore. I do have it emulated, however. We'll
>>> see what happens to it.
>>>
>>> - Jeff
>
>to go on before this could be offered, under any circumstances. I know
>that it's not your personal decision to make. I know that I'm hardly
>a major market force.
>
>But, Jeff, as far as a WAC-style Blaster emulator goes --
>
> NAME
>
> YOUR
>
> PRICE.
>
> jeff. If I could make the letters flash, I would.
>
I second that statement! A home version of Blaster on the level of WAC
is an absolute must have!!!!
Phil
--
p...@cs.buffalo.edu