''Rocketball'' is a sports-action

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

computer game released by IJK Software in 1985. Rocketball was coded by John Sinclair and has music by L Pilling. ''Rocketball'' is based on the futuristic sports movie '' Rollerball'', released in 1975, starring

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

. ''Rocketballs taglines were, "The rules are, there are no rules", and "This was never meant to be a game."

Gameplay

''Rocketball'' is set in the year 2010 AD, where worldwide disputes are no longer settled through wars, but through a circular Rocket Ball arena. The game is similar to

Roller Derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jam ...

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. Players can use fists, elbows and knees to disable their opponents. Each Rocketball team has five active players on roller skates. Unlike the film, there are no players riding

motorcycles A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising, ...

. The four Rocketball teams are

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

(wearing blue),

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

(yellow),

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(burgundy) and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

(Green), which correspond to futuristic city states. (The teams Houston, Tokyo and Madrid also featured in the ''Rollerball'' film.) Games have a duration of ten minutes.

Packaging

''Rocketball'' came in a Single Cassette Case. It boasted super-smooth scrolling, being written in 100%

machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a very ...

, and a shadow on the ball.STADIUM 64 – Game Infos: Rocket Ball
/ref>

References

{{reflist 1985 video games Commodore 64 games Commodore 64-only games Fantasy sports video games Roller derby mass media Video games set in 2010 Alternate history video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games

Gameplay

Packaging

See also

References