Rocketball

Rocketball
Cover art of Rocketball
Developer(s)	IJK Software
Publisher(s)	IJK Software
Platform(s)	Commodore 64
Release date(s)	1985
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single player, Two player^[1]

Rocketball is a sports-action Commodore 64 computer game released by IJK Software in 1985.^[2] Rocketball was coded by John Sinclair and has music by L Pilling.^[3]

Summary

Rocketball is based on the futuristic sports movie Rollerball, released in 1975, starring James Caan. Rocketball's taglines were, "The rules are, there are no rules", and "This was never meant to be a game." As in the movie, the computer game is similar to Roller Derby in that two teams on roller skates travel counter-clockwise around a banked, circular track. The object of the game is to score points by throwing a softball-sized metal ball into a cone-shaped goal target inset into the wall of the arena. Balls are fired into play, in the same direction players skate, by cannons when play begins and to restart play after the ball rolls out of play or a goal is scored.

Each Rocketball team has five active players on roller skates. The four Rocketball teams are Houston (wearing blue), Tokyo (yellow), Moscow (burgundy) and Madrid (Green), which correspond to futuristic city states.^[4] (The teams Houston, Tokyo and Madrid also featured in the Rollerball film, albeit Houston wore orange colors.)

Rocketball is a full-contact sport in which players have considerable leeway to attack opposing players in order to take or maintain possession of the ball and to score points. Players can use fists, elbows and knees to disable their opponents.

Games have a duration of ten minutes. A typical game will see no more than 15 goals scored in aggregate. Unlike the movie, there are no players riding motorcycles in the computer game.

Plot

Rocketball was set in the year 2010 AD, where worldwide disputes were no longer settled through wars, but through a circular Rocket Ball arena. It was an epic struggle between the corporate forces in Houston, Tokyo, Moscow, and Madrid.

Packaging

Rocketball came in a Single Cassette Case.^[5] It boasted super-smooth scrolling, being written in 100% Machine code, and a shadow on the ball.^[6]

References

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