Ballblazer

Did You Know?

• A remake and follow-up called Masterblazer was released in 1990 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.
• A PlayStation remake titled Ballblazer Champions was released in 1997.
• Some pirated versions of the game bear the development name Ballblaster.

Development

Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus! marked the debut titles from the Lucasfilm Computer Division Games Group, which launched in 1982 after Atari, Inc. provided $1 million in funding in return for first refusal on publishing. Both games were built for Atari’s 8-bit computers and the 5200 console. They were finished by March 1984 and shown to the public for the first time at a Lucasfilm press conference on May 8. Cartridge editions for Atari machines and the 5200 were slated to hit shelves in the third quarter of 1984, while disk versions for the Commodore 64, IBM PC, and Apple IIc and IIe were planned for the fourth quarter under the Atarisoft label. The games were also intended for the forthcoming Atari 7800. On July 3, 1984, Warner Communications sold Atari’s Consumer Division to Jack Tramiel, causing the Lucasfilm deal to collapse. At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in early January 1985, with neither game yet on the market, Epyx stepped in as distributor for disk releases on the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. The Atari 5200 cartridges were excluded from this arrangement. Epyx put out the Atari 8-bit versions by May 1985 and the Commodore 64 edition of Ballblazer by September 1985. K-Byte handled the Apple II port, while Activision brought the game to the Amstrad CPC, MSX, and ZX Spectrum in Europe. The planned IBM PC port never appeared. Atari Corporation later issued the Atari 5200 cartridge in limited numbers in late 1986, using stock from the 1984 buyout, followed by the Atari 8-bit cartridge in December 1987 for the XE Game System, and the Atari 7800 version in March 1988. In Japan, Pony Canyon released a Famicom port in 1988.

Soundtrack

The theme music of Ballblazer, titled 'Song of the Grid', is heard between matches and was algorithmically generated using a technique called riffology, designed by team leader Peter Langston. The lead melody is assembled from a predefined set of 32 eight-note melody fragments, or riffs, combined randomly by an algorithm that also controls speed, volume, note omission, and rhythmic breaks. A bassline, drums, and chords are generated on the fly by a simplified version of the same approach. The music plays indefinitely without repeating itself while staying close to the original theme. Langston, an experienced jazz, rock, and folk musician, noted that jazz player Pat Metheny compared the music to John Coltrane. The Atari 7800 version was one of the few releases for that system to use the POKEY additional sound chip.

Reception

Ballblazer earned high marks from several critics. Computer Gaming World praised its speed and visuals, claiming it pushed the Atari 400/800 further than any other title. Info gave it four out of five stars, declaring it the fastest game available for the Commodore 64 and a must for players with lightning reflexes. Zzap!64 awarded the Commodore 64 version a 98% rating, calling it the best sports simulation for the system, though they noted weak sound effects. Commodore User was less enthusiastic, finding little satisfaction in computer-controlled matches, though two-player games offered a slight improvement; they rated it three out of five for value. The Atari 7800 version received a 97% score from Computer and Video Games in 1989, while a later retrospective from Atari 7800 Forever gave it 3.5 out of 5, highlighting its superior audio among 7800 titles. Looking back in 2007, Eurogamer's Kristan Reed gave the Commodore 64 version a 6 out of 10, remarking that its graphics had aged terribly but calling it a fascinating look at gaming history.