Trailblazer (game review...)

franco

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Dear friends,

Weeks ago, Annachiara had opened a topic in this section regarding the "Eliminator" game produced by the Hewson for the Commodore 64, and in the discussion, I said that I considered Eliminator as a sort of spin-off of Trailblazer, another famous game produced for various consoles and computers in the late 80's and still produced nowadays for the modern ones... well, finally I have found some spare time to write a short review of this game that I think all of you already know... first, I insert the video of the game... for affective reasons, I would like to post the version produced for the Commodore Plus/4... for the "poor brother" of the Commodore 64, Trailblazer was released in 1986 and programmed by Shaun Southern aka Sout... here, you will see also the loading of the game... as you can see, the loading procedure is very very very very similar to the Commodore 64... the fastload that was added to the games, and not only for Trailblazer, was the common Novaload... this game was copyrighted by Mr. Chip Software in 1986... here is everything...

Without doubt, Trailblazer is one of the hardest games ever produced for every type of computer... in this game, the player represents a soccer ball that has to complete a specific path... aim of the game is to avoid the holes (there is a time limit for every path) and to find the just combination of the coloured zones that made the ball go faster, slower, jump and so on... The sound in this version is limited to a short melody every time that a level is completed, and the noises of the jumps or when the ball falls into a hole... but there is no need to be surprised, almost all of the Plus/4 games, instead of the Commodore 64 ones, had a very very very reduced sound, because on the +4 there was no dedicated sound chip, and the TED chip was the only one who provided to control both the graphic and the sound part... In Italy, for curiosity, the Plus/4 version of Trailblazer was cracked and redistributed under the name of "Magic Ball 2" on the magazine "GO GAMES" published by Edizioni Fermont of Milan... the exact number of the magazine was the number 18 of approximately March 1986...

See you all !!!!

Frank
 
Τελευταία επεξεργασία από έναν συντονιστή:
Wow Fra, I can see that you really are interested in Commodore machines!!!!!!!!!!

Very well mio amigo!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot!!!!!!
 
An exceptional and very original game(at least in 1986).

I liked Amstrad version the best (one of the few games that CPC had an edge)

Excelent review Franco with a lot of "backstage" info!
 
Wally είπε:
I liked Amstrad version the best (one of the few games that CPC had an edge)
Things like these should never be mentioned in public! :p :p

The words "like" and "Amstrad" are incompatible.

OMG Wally has a fever..... MEDIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D
 
I found a clip of Trailblazer played also on a Commodore 64! :) Here we goooooooooooooooo! :)

 






 
Again, thanks to the people who have stopped here and saw the clip liking the review... furthermore, I' m pleased to make everybody know a "hidden" and underestimated Commodore computer like the Plus/4...

Thanks once again !!!!
 
I didn't know anything about the Plus/4 Fra! :) You were the first that made me know it! :)
 
Plus 4 was a machine intriduced in black. I was so envious when I first saw it. But when I've learned that it's incombatible with the C-64 model, things changed.

It was a good machine but Commodore's mistake was that they, mainly,introduced it as a professional computer. Bahhhhhhh.... I like video games........
 
both versions (C64 & Commodore plus/4) run blazzingly fast. I couldn`t discern the gaps from the tiles easily.

thx, for reminding us of these games!!!
 
The speed of the game, indeed, is more or less the same both on the Plus/4 and on the C64 version... I find only a little difference in the handling of the game, because the movements on the C64 version are more fluid (the VIC II sprite handling is unreachable) while on the Plus/4 the TED had not this feature...

Annachiara είπε:
There is also in Italian! :) I think someone we know had written this! :p  


http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Plus/4


Anna, you have found me !!!! :D

I have written some pieces in the Plus/4 Wikipedia Italian page, but only something, in particular the section about the patterns and the program examples...

(ho scritto alcuni pezzi nella pagina italiana di Wikipedia sul Plus/4, ma solo qualcosa, in particolar modo la sezione sui pattern e sugli esempi di programmazione...)
 
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