Fantastic Voyage (video game)
A miniature submarine navigates a patient's bloodstream.
Fantastic Voyage, a 1982 scrolling shooter, was created by Sirius Software and published by Fox Video Games. It hit the Atari 2600 in December 1982 and later appeared on Atari 8-bit computers. Based on the 1966 film, players pilot a mini-sub through a bloodstream to dissolve a blood clot. David Lubar programmed it as his second Atari 2600 game.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Sirius Software; Taito (arcade)
- Publisher
- Fox Video Games; Taito (arcade)
- Platforms
- Atari 2600
- Atari 8-bit computers
- arcade
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
- Programmer
- David Lubar
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
In Fantastic Voyage, a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up, you pilot a tiny submarine armed with a laser through a patient's bloodstream to destroy a dangerous blood clot. The screen shows a time limit in the lower-left corner, a heart monitor tracking the patient's pulse at the bottom, and a count of saved patients. You must shoot or avoid various objects: enzymes release healing properties when hit, while antibodies appear if you touch an artery wall and drain the patient's strength if not destroyed. Blood cells and clotlets are indestructible and must be dodged. The final challenge requires firing fifteen shots into the clot before crashing into it, which kills the patient.
Development
David Lubar programmed Fantastic Voyage. After college, he pursued writing and had a story accepted by Creative Computing magazine in the late 1970s. He bought an Apple II in 1978 and learned assembly language, becoming an associate editor at Creative Computing by 1980. While there, he met Mark Pelczarski of Penguin Software and contributed code to The Complete Graphics System. Pelczarski recommended him to Sirius Software when they sought Atari 2600 programmers. Sirius had a joint venture with Fox Video Games, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, starting in April 1982, to develop 12 games for the Atari 2600. Fox Video Games president Frank O'Connell stated that brand awareness from film properties was key. Lubar chose Fantastic Voyage, calling it a no-brainer as a science fiction fan. He recalled that 20th Century Fox sometimes let them watch upcoming films to consider adaptations, but he passed on The Entity (1982).
Release and reception
Fantastic Voyage was released for the Atari 2600 in December 1982, as the eighth Fox Video Games title and the third film tie-in after Megaforce (1982) and Alien (1982). A version later appeared for Atari's 8-bit computers. Taito developed an arcade version titled Bio-Attack, released only in Japan in April 1983 under license from Fox Video Games, using the Taito SJ System hardware with more advanced graphics and an exclusive boss fight at each level's end. Game Machine listed Bio-Attack as the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit in its June 1, 1983 issue. Reviews were mixed: Mark Trost of Electronic Fun with Computers & Games praised the screen as aglow with eye-grabbing images, but The Video Game Update and E.C. Meade of Videogaming Illustrated found the graphics mediocre. Meade compared it unfavorably to River Raid (1982). Jim Clarke of the same publication noted sparse graphics but appreciated the heart monitor and sound effects. A reviewer in The Video Game Update commended the scenario but found the game boring after repeated play. Dawn Gordon and Dan Persons of Video Games, reviewing the home computer version, said it had enough original elements to stand on its own.
Aftermath
After Fantastic Voyage, Lubar released another film tie-in, Flash Gordon (1983), and original games including SpaceMaster X-7 (1983). Fox Video Games closed the year after Fantastic Voyage was released due to the video game crash of 1983. Lubar later said Sirius's end seemed inevitable given how they handled finances. Quicksilva obtained rights for Fantastic Voyage adaptations and renamed their previously released title Blood 'N' Guts as Fantastic Voyage for the ZX Spectrum. Lubar worked for Activision and Absolute Entertainment, then left the industry, returning to writing full-time in 1995. He briefly returned to programming to make a Frogger port for Game Boy and Frogger 2 for Game Boy Color.
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