RoadBlasters
From Sega Retro
- Not to be confused with Data East's Road Blaster.
RoadBlasters (ロードブラスターズ), alternatively titled Road Blasters, is an arcade game developed by Atari Games. It was brought to the Sega Mega Drive in 1991. It was not released in Europe.
Contents
Gameplay
RoadBlasters is a combat racing game in which the player drives a car armed with a cannon that can be used to destroy enemy vehicles and roadside gun turrets for extra points. The objective is to complete all 50 rallies without running out of fuel. Players can crash as often as they like, but this leads to a loss of fuel, so excessive crashing may make the race unfinishable. Occasionally, a jet flies overhead and drops a special item, which the player can collect by moving under it as it falls. These items have a limited number of uses.
Pressing START at the title screen starts the game, while pressing 
, 
, or 
opens an options screen. There are two control schemes. In either scheme, 
and 
steer, 
slows the car, and shoots the main weapon (and can be held for continuous fire). With control option A (the default), the car accelerates automatically and or uses the special weapon. With control option B, the car accelerates with 
or and uses the special item. There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Med, and Hard) and two modes (Normal, where the car can be destroyed by collisions, and Practice, where the car is invulnerable).
The car has two fuel tanks: a main tank and a smaller reserve. If the main tank runs empty, the car switches to the reserve tank. Red (dropped by enemies destroyed from a distance) and green (appearing at specific milestones) globes on the road add small amounts of fuel to the main tank when picked up. Reaching the halfway point of a rally (marked by a checkered strip on the road) resets the main tank to the level it had at the start of that rally (but does not affect the reserve). At the end of each rally, the main tank is refilled and fuel is added to the reserve based on the number of points scored in the rally.
Contact with any enemy, projectile, or obstacle (other than an oil slick) destroys the car, removes any acquired special item, and resets the scoring multiplier to one. Some enemies and obstacles are indestructible (such as mines and roadside turrets). The car loses a small amount of fuel while a replacement car is put on the road. There is no limit to the number of times that the car can be destroyed and replaced, but the game ends if both the main and reserve fuel tanks are exhausted. The player can continue as many times as desired during the first 49 rallies but only has one chance to complete the 50th and final one. Completing this rally awards a bonus of one million points and ends the game.
Special items
Special items are dropped from jets that appear occasionally during a rally. Collecting another item replaces the currently equipped item. Items have limited uses and can be carried over to the next rally.
| U.Z. Cannon | |
|---|---|
| A faster-firing gun. Its ammunition is limited and shown by a bar in the bottom center of the screen. | |
| Electro Shield | |
| A barrier that temporarily renders the car invulnerable and able to drive harmlessly through enemies and obstacles after it is activated. It can be used three times. | |
| Nitro Injector | |
| A speed boost that temporarily increases the max speed of the car from 213 to 298 mph. It can be used three times. | |
| Cruise Missile | |
| A missile that explodes in a large area, disabling all enemies and hazards in a stretch of road. It does not need to be aimed. It can be used three times. |
Regions
Each region contains three rallies. At the beginning of the game, the player can choose to start from Bubble City (rally 1), Forest Sector (rally 4), or Desert Region (rally 11). Starting at a later rally awards bonus points. The player is again given an opportunity to skip ahead after completing rally 14 and every subsequent region until Molten Zone.
Versions
On the Mega Drive, RoadBlasters is very similar to its arcade counterpart; however, some palettes are different for unknown reasons, and all digitised speech is missing. The graphics were also altered for the lower resolution display of the Mega Drive console (320x224 versus the arcade's 336x240), but the core gameplay remains intact, and it is generally considered to be amongst the most accurate home conversions of the game.
'July' and 'October' builds of the final retail release exist; differences and release information are unknown.
Production credits
- Programmed by: Sterling Silver Software
- Sound by: Earl Vickers
- Programming: Sterling Silver Software
- Audio: Earl Vickers
- Thanks to: Doug Coward, Jim Hernandez, Mike Klug, Bill Hindorff
- Special thanks to the original coin-op team at Atari Games.
- Illustration, Graphic, & Package Design: Louis Saekow Design
Magazine articles
- Main article: RoadBlasters/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: RoadBlasters/Promotional material.
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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56 |
|---|---|
| Based on 16 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, JP |
|---|
 Cover
|
  Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US (cardboard) |
|---|
   Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
Technical information
- Main article: RoadBlasters/Technical information.
References
- ↑ http://vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=LSD_(GEN_Driver)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-08), page 148
- ↑ GamePro, "June 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 42
- ↑ File:RoadBlasters MD credits.png
- ↑ File:RoadBlasters MD US manual.pdf, page 5
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 190
- ↑ ACE, "March 1992" (UK; 1992-02-08), page 86
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-08), page 37
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 171
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "December 1991" (US; 1991-1x-xx), page 22
- ↑ Famitsu, "1992-03-06" (JP; 1992-02-21), page 39
- ↑ Hippon Super, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-04), page 82
- ↑ Joypad, "Janvier 1992" (FR; 1991-12-1x), page 77
- ↑ Joystick, "Janvier 1992" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 128
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "May 1992" (JP; 1992-04-xx), page 115
- ↑ Mega, "June 1994" (UK; 1994-05-19), page 65
- ↑ MegaTech, "June 1992" (UK; 1992-05-20), page 49
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 67
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 86
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 144
- ↑ Video Games, "2/92" (DE; 1992-04-06), page 30
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