Cab-friendly Ballblazer?

[JCKnife]

One of my all-time favorite games is Ballblazer from Lucasarts, for Atari computers and 5200.

Any of you running it on a cab? What's a good cab-friendly emulator that'll run it?

[captainpotato]

I'm not, but you could always try an Amiga emulator, as the Amiga version was pretty good. From memory, wasn't the arcade version Amiga-based anyway?

[JoyMonkey]

I remember an Amstrad port of Ballblazer called Trailblazer, so I Googled for "Trailblazer game" and came up with Chromadrome.

It looks pretty good and they have a demo available. I haven't played it, hopefully it's cabinet friendly.

[JoyMonkey]

I just gave the Chromadrome demo a quick go. All menu's and game control would rewuire a trackball, so it won't suit every cab. The gameplay isn't bad (I just played the first 'easy' level, which is pretty slow). One annoying thing is that the your ball character isn't animated- it's like it's hovering over the play-field rather than rolling over it.
It lets you use your own MP3's as background music, which is a nice touch.

Maybe there's more games like this out there?

Edit: There is a Ballblazer remake for PS1, so you could use a PSX emulator in your cab to play that.
There's a java based game called Trail Rider here.
I found another shareware game called RetroSphere which has "Fully configurable video, audio, controls", so it sounds like it would work well in a cab. I'll have to give the demo a try.

[JoyMonkey]

I just played RetroSphere and it's great! It's more true to the original, and it's got a two player split-screen mode 
In-game controls are keyboard mapped, so that shouldn't be a problem. The only thing is, the menu is mouse controlled only. Bummer.

[JCKnife]

Nobody has the original on their cabinet? Damn, that's a classic. Esp. the music (not in-game, I realize, but good nonetheless).

[Mario]

There was a PC remake of Ballblazer called "3D Ballblaster" that was made, I think, in the early VGA days. It was a lot of fun. It had different "rooms" in which to play, powerups that can be purchased, and different types of obstacles in the gamefield. But I often had technical problems with it (especially the sound). I did a search for it and found it here:

http://www.naspa.com/cgi/library.cgi?library=Games&file_index=50

I think I have the full version around somewhere.

Mario

[JCKnife]

<--scratches head.

The same community that is concerned that the Galaga starfield is not authentic, is coming up with remakes and alternatives to an original classic?

[TOK]

Amazing coincidence this came up now. I had the original for my old Atari computer.
I was just going though some NES rom's to see what I wanted on my cab, and saw there was a Japanese release of Ballblaster on the 8 bit Nintendo.
It plays nice, and has the originals catchy theme song.

PM me if you need help. 

[Mario]

<--scratches head.

The same community that is concerned that the Galaga starfield is not authentic, is coming up with remakes and alternatives to an original classic?

This doesn't apply to me. I definitely am not tied to the originals, and I often prefer souped-up versions of the classics. Though I did love the original Ballblazer (originally named Ballblaster, which I had, too

[youki]

Sorry JoyMonkey , but you did a mistake.

BallBlazer and TrailBlazer are two totally different games.

BallBlazer was a kind of sport game with robots , very funny when you play against a friend!

Here a description of the game :

One of several classic LucasFilm Games released for 8-bit home computers, Ballblazer is a futuristic take on one-on-one soccer. Players jump into the cockpit of a hovering craft used for playing the sport. Set on a flat 3D checkerboard the size of a football stadium, the two opposing crafts try to chase down an energy ball known as a Plasmorb, attach it to their craft and drive or shoot it into the goal. Crafts can also knock into each other to make the other player drop the Plasmorb. The game offers matches against an AI-controlled drone or two-player versus in split-screen mode.

[Todd H]

There's always the Atari 7800 version through MESS. 

[JoyMonkey]

Sorry JoyMonkey , but you did a mistake.

BallBlazer and TrailBlazer are two totally different games.

BallBlazer was a kind of sport game with robots , very funny when you play against a friend!

I was thinking of this Trailblazer:
http://www.ufoot.org/babal/trailblazer


On another note, RetroSphere was recently updated so it's now a little more cab-friendly!
Demo: http://www.boiledsweets.com/RetroSphere/index.php

[PetitMorte]

Oregon Trail Blazer...


You have died of Dysentery.