THE MAKING OF… Rescue On FRActAlus! To commemorate this year’s 25th anniversary of Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts), original Games Group members David Fox, Charlie Kellner, Peter Langston and Gary Winnick reveal the fascinating history of their famous fractal debut. Mike Bevan ventures behind Jaggi lines to tell the story

long time ago, in an mountain ranges, and the technique was pursue some ‘extra-curricular’ research. In tHe KnOW unassuming office far, so striking it was reprised in a further “He borrowed an Atari 800 from us, took far away, two Lucasfilm two Star Trek films. it home, and in a few days had taught employees were engaged On one of David’s first few days at the himself 6502 assembly language, how inA a deeply engrossing conversation. company he’d been brainstorming ideas the Atari handled graphics, and came It was September 1982, and the with Loren when the topic of the Star back with a functioning demo,” recalls location was the company’s computer Trek effect had come up. “I asked Loren David. Loren had achieved a real-time graphics research department based in if he thought there was any chance that fractal-generated mountain range within Marin County, California. Newly hired fractally generated mountains could be the confines of the Atari’s primitive »Publisher:ATARI-LUCASFILM/EPYX Games Group designer David Fox had done on a microcomputer,” remembers resolution and 48K of memory. It was »DeveloPer:LUCASFILM GAMES found himself temporarily sharing a David. “He thought about it for a few a revelatory moment for the newly »releaseD:1984 (5200), work space with Loren Carpenter of minutes, and said he thought it might be formed Games Group team. David (later 1985 (ATARI 800 & OTHERS) Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division. possible. I think he came back the next project leader on Fractalus!) remembers »Genre:RESCUE-’EM-UP Loren, a graphics expert, had been day and had clear ideas of how to do it.” gathering around a small monitor with »eXPeCTToPaY: £10 largely responsible for creating the Although not directly involved with the Games Group manager Peter Langston ‘Genesis Effect’ visuals seen in the then- Games Group, his discussion with David to view Loren’s work. “We were blown recent Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. inspired Loren, who loved a challenge, to away,” David says. “It was running at This remarkable computer-generated sequence was provided for Paramount’s movie by ILM (Industrial Light & Magic). The ground-breaking piece featured a dramatic orbital sweep of a planet surface in flux, its geographic features morphing before the viewer’s eyes. The driving force behind this effect was a fractal algorithm implemented by Loren. This gave the amazingly naturalistic ‘feel’ of blossoming seas, valleys and » The ‘Genesis Effect’ sequence from Star Trek II, with the fractal mountains that inspired Rescue On Fractalus! © Paramount Pictures.

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» The ‘launch-tube’ effect when the Valkyrie blasts into space was inspired by the launch sequence from Battlestar Galactica. » The transition downwards to the planet’s surface was David’s homage to the opening of Star Wars: Episode IV. blockbusters. “Seeing Star Wars was market in the same manner it had done Developer a transforming experience for me. I with cinema, and with the agreement wanted to get inside that universe,” says that Atari had right of first refusal on all HigHligHts David. With the tentative title ‘Rebel products. There were high expectations BALLBLAZER Rescue’, David’s concept was a flight- all round. The Games Group members SyStemS: AtARI 5200/800/7800, simulator-styled first-person-perspective were inexperienced, however, and C64, APPLe II & OtHeRS yeAR: 1983 game where the player operated a wanted time to hone their programming “high-speed X-Wing-like craft” locating and design skills. “When we started THE EIDOLON (pIcTuRED) downed pilots on a hostile mountainous work on the games, we were calling SyStem: AtARI 5200/800, C64, APPLe II & OtHeRS planet. Ironically, as the rights to use Star them an experiment, one that we could yeAR: 1985 Wars characters in home and arcade use to get our feet wet and test our THE SEcRET OF videogames had been awarded to Parker ability to create games,” David reveals. MONKEY ISLAND Brothers and Atari in a hugely profitable “We called them ‘throwaways’, meaning SyStem: PC, AmIGA, deal, it didn’t make financial sense for that if we weren’t happy with the results AtARI St, mAC Lucasfilm to use its movie licences for we’d chuck them, and not show them yeAR: 1990 in-house products, so the Games Group to Atari or anyone else, and then start could only use original concepts at the on the ‘keeper games’, which we would time. “I know we can’t use Star Wars show to Atari.” This translated into a » Detail from the game’s cover, with David Fox in full flight-gear characters, but can we use Star Wars fairly relaxed atmosphere for the team. awaiting rescue, and a hostile Jaggi saucer in the background. places, vehicles, weapons?” David “We had no deadlines, so we had some speculated in his pitch. “Any similarities space to screw up,” he laughs. about 8-10 frames per second, and was between this game and the rescue David, as project leader and lead one of the coolest things we had ever scene on the ice planet Hoth are purely designer, was responsible for many seen on a microcomputer.” coincidental,” he added humorously. aspects of development. One important Based on the success of the demo Away from Marin, 1982 hadn’t been a role was designing the cockpit David started putting together a year of smooth sailing for the videogame environment and instrumentation. “I ‘white paper’ on his ideas for how industry. Atari had lost millions of dollars spent a lot of time working on the HUD,” Loren’s fractal landscape could be with its poor 2600 Pac-Man conversion, he recalls. “For inspiration, I went back utilised in a videogame. A Star Wars and its famously appalling ET licence. to Star Wars, wanting the feel of the fan before working at Lucasfilm, he Lucasfilm’s Games Group had been was keen to produce an immersive set up with $1 million of funding from experience worthy of standing up to Atari, in the hope that the company’s scrutiny alongside George Lucas’s epic involvement might inspire the games INDUSTRIAL FLIGHT AND MAGIC

» David’s original sketch for the Valkyrie’s cockpit is near identical to the final version, and was inspired by an X-Wing cockpit. Lucasfilm’s famed ILM was heavily involved with designing promotional material and packaging for Rescue On Fractalus!, and it also helped to produce models of the Valkyrie fighter, its cockpit and the alien saucer seen in the game. It even allowed the development team to feature in a photoshoot for the game’s manual, which gave the cover art a wonderfully atmospheric feel. “When we first heard that ILM was going to be doing all the images for the manual we » (Left to Right) Gary Winnick, Charlie were all really excited,” says David. “And when Kellner, David Levine, Peter Langston, they allowed me to be the pilot on the front and Noah Falstein and Loren Carpenter. back cover, getting photographed by the same geniuses that filmed Star Wars, wow.” The pilot’s helmets worn by David and the team were actually motorcycle helmets modified for the shoot by ILM. “The helmet was spray-painted beige, and covered with parts from a model kit of a tank. It was pretty uncomfortable, but the experience was a lot of fun,” he reminisces. “Even more fun than the time that I got to be one of the screaming voices of dying bad guys for Indiana Jones And » (Left to right) Charlie, Loren and Peter, The Temple Of Doom.” And who ever said that as featured in the Atari 5200 manual, making videogames was boring? with ILM’s model of the Valkyrie.

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LONG ROAD instrument panel of an X-Wing. I figured if I could see the ‘real thing’, I’d get to TO RELEASE.. see all sorts of extra details and have In autumn 1983 demos of Rescue On Fractalus! and even more inspiration. So I set up a tour Ballblazer were sent to Atari’s for myself of the storage area where old marketing department for props were kept. I got to see an actual evaluation. Unfortunately, X-Wing cockpit.” He also managed to unprotected floppies were sneak in a further Star Wars reference in used, and the two games soon appeared on bulletin boards the game’s launch sequence. “Entering across the US. No one at Atari the atmosphere of Fractalus was ever owned up to the leak, but definitely a homage to the first scene in it was a blow for the Lucasfilm Episode IV, when we pan down and see team. “We went from being ecstatic about the games Tatooine below,” he reveals. to extremely depressed,” “After a few months, when we could says David. “We comforted actually fly around with a joystick and ourselves by saying that these pick up pilots we knew it was a very weren’t the final games, but cool game,” continues David. “But we in reality, they were close enough that most people who were still close to it, so we brought in played them probably wouldn’t other people to show it to. As far as I can have seen the difference.” remember, everyone seemed to love it, » Loren Carpenter’s fractal mountains perfectly captured the feel of a hostile alien world, and are still remarkably effective. Copies of the game with the and we began to indulge in dreams of titles ‘Rescue Mission’ and having a big hit.” ‘Behind Jaggi Lines’ come from The game’s working title had now flight manoeuvring.” A weapon system these pirated beta versions. Charlie Kellner was originally brought become ‘Behind Jaggi Lines’, an in joke was duly added, along with enemy Another setback was the long in by David to code the game’s flight by the team on the non-anti-aliased gun emplacements on the mountain delay between the end of dynamics and to optimise the fractal graphics, most noticeably the uneven, tops and suicidal alien UFOs. “The development and the actual engine. “I was the fourth or fifth person jagged ‘struts’ of the ship’s cockpit. other thing George suggested was that release. After the takeover of Atari by Jack Tramiel, the to be invited to join the Lucasfilm Games An added bonus for the team was maybe sometimes the pilot running licensing deal between the Group, depending on whether you count getting to work with George Lucas, albeit towards the ship might actually be an two companies collapsed and Loren as part of it,” he recalls. “The only briefly. “George met with us only alien in disguise. He wanted to know only the Atari 5200 version idea was already pretty well established, once, and that was after the games were if it could jump up in front of you. We was ever released by the Atari-Lucasfilm partnership. It would be 1985 before the “He Flew aROund FOR a Few secOnds, tRied pusHing tHe Red home computer versions were released, at which point FiRe buttOn, and wHen nOtHing Happened asked, ‘wHeRe’s the Atari’s popularity had waned. Luckily, conversions tHe FiRe buttOn?” david On geORge lucas’s FiRst ReactiOn tO tHe game for machines like the C64 and Apple II still sold fairly well. but the hardest parts of the 6502 code fairly far into development,” remembers thought that was a great idea and Gary had yet to be written. My forte was my David. “I demonstrated Rescue On Winnick created the ‘Jaggi’ monster for familiarity with high-speed drawing, Fractalus! to him, then handed him us, Charlie got it to animate fast enough math and audio on the 6502. I started the joystick. He flew around for a few so the effect worked, and Peter created with the micro code math routines that seconds, tried pushing the red fire the scary sound when it popped up.” would let Loren’s fractal mountains run button, and when nothing happened Gary remembers the creation of at a reasonable speed. I also did some asked, ‘Where’s the fire button?’ I was the Jaggi monster well, as it was his of the audio driver and low-level system basically trying to create a non-violent first commissioned task for the Games » The C64 version of Rescue On Fractalus! control code, and finally wound up doing game and didn’t like the idea of shoot- Group. “The group was looking to was released by Activision here in the UK. the high-speed 2D-animation drivers.” ’em-ups. The only way to destroy one of add an artist to the team,” he explains. That’s David again, on the back cover, in However, Charlie is keen to stress the the enemy ships was to lure them into “David wanted an instance where the ILM’s cockpit mock-up. true team spirit in those pioneering early the side of a mountain through tricky enemy aliens could disguise themselves days at Lucasfilm. “Since there were no » The Jaggi gun turrets lurking on the mountain tops were added towards the end of development. FRACTAL reference books to look in, we were all FACTUALS helping each other solve the problems Loren Carpenter’s fractal the best we could,” he says. engine was a radical and During this period Peter was busy unique solution to the problem of creating the real-time 3D hiring staff for the Games Group, and landscape in Rescue On was also involved in the second of Fractalus!. Fractals are irregular Lucasfilm’s two titles in development, geometric shapes composed of David Levine’s Ballblazer. However, he indefinitely repeating patterns, still found time to help the Fractalus! occurring in nature in such forms as snowflakes, coastlines team, composing the introductory music and, indeed, mountain and designing some of the atmospheric ranges. If you zoom out on a sound effects. “When we were looking coastline, for example, you’ll for a sound to use for the ship’s hangar see the same repeated jagged complexity as you would at doors opening, something clicked for a much more localised scale. me and I went home and recorded my The fractal geometry used in girlfriend’s electric can opener opening a the game gives the landscape a can of peas,” says Peter. “When I played very realistic appearance with it back for David and Charlie without computer-generated valleys and peaks created similarly to telling them what it was, they looked at those of a real mountain range. me and said “hangar doors.”

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» Land the Valkyrie to rescue a pilot and he’ll come running and knock on your rear airlock door. Don’t forget to open it. » Woops… Accidentally turning your ship’s shields back on when a pilot approaches is a big no-no in Fractalus!.

as downed pilots as a surprise attack first time, players were generally pretty engine,” he admits. “I learned a lot from while you were parked on the ground. complacent about playing the game.” Loren, including at least six fundamental I worked on it for about a week, after All this subterfuge led to some rather ways of approaching 3D graphics that which I drove up to Marin County amusing anecdotes from David. “I still I’m sure I would never have thought of with my completed animation on a get emails from people recalling their by myself. I was able to use those ideas five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disk to first experience with the Jaggi monster,” to develop engines for several more deliver the files. I guess they must have he chuckles. “People have fallen off games at Lucasfilm, and the knowledge been happy with the results, because chairs, let out an involuntary scream that has served me well ever since.” Charlie’s they offered me a full-time position as brought college dorm-mates running to revised graphics engines would also the division’s first artist/animator soon see if they were okay, and kids have run be used for the excellent ‘second- after that.” The team decided that the out of the room crying to their mothers generation’ fractal titles Koronis Rift, and existence of the Jaggi monster should (I don’t feel too good about that one). The Eidolon, on which he was the project be deliberately kept a secret to surprise Often they were just too freaked out to leader. “It was an honour to be working with such great talents, and a strong start for a career in the game industry,” “PeoPle have fallen off chairs, let he remembers. out screams, and kids have run crying “I actually got to redo the game to some degree in 1991 while working on » The Games Group sporting spiffy LFL jackets for a 1984 US Atari magazine cover. to their mothers” david on the jaggi monster’s effect a location-based entertainment project (Mirage) at Lucasfilm,” reveals David. Special Thanks to everyone from players. “We convinced Atari not to tell play the game again for an hour or so. “It was a joint venture with Hughes the Lucasfilm Games Group who anyone that the alien was in the game,” Many people remember the game just Simulation, and we got to implement it contributed to this article, especially says David. “It didn’t appear in their because of this, and that it was the only using state-of-the-art image generators David Fox, who also provided many of press material, and was only hinted at in game that ever truly scared them.” used in flight simulators. It was a blast. the images. For further information see his website, which includes exclusive the manual. During the first few levels Looking back on the Fractalus! project I could stay in there for hours flying video footage from the game’s launch: of gameplay, the monster never showed Charlie has no doubts about his personal around, shooting things.” Respect then, www.ElectricEggplant.com/rescue.html up. So, by the time it happened for the highlight. “I’d have to say the fractal to George and his ‘missing’ fire button.

» Many Jaggi died to bring you this feature. » “The weird symbols on the Jaggi monster’s shirt are the team’s initials if you turn the image sideways,” reveals David.

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