Jupiter Fracture Title Screen
In case you haven’t heard, the classic Commodore has undergone a rebirth. Retro computer YouTuber Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson managed to gather the support and financing to purchase the bits and pieces of Commodore held by other companies and bring them together into the new Commodore International Corporation. The first major product from the company was the Commodore 64 Ultimate (C64U), a reimagining of the classic 8-bit powerhouse, functionally similar to the original with many modern quality-of-life improvements under the hood.
Bundled with the new systems was a USB drive (housed in a classic data cassette) loaded with games, apps, scene demos, and SID music files to play with. In addition, owners gained access to CommoServe, an online repository of software and media. This serves as a new distribution method for new software, as evidenced by the first game published by the new Commodore, Jupiter Fracture (stylized “Fract/ure”). The game is exclusive to C64U owners and users of the CommodoreOS Linux-based operating system.
Jupiter Fracture is a sequel to the classic Jupiter Lander game, originally released on the VIC-20 and later the Commodore 64 in the early 80s. In fact, the game was one of the earliest releases for the original Commodore 64. The game was part of the broader “lunar lander” genre, which ranged from text-only simulations to a popular vector-based arcade game. The concept was loosely based on the 1969 Apollo Lunar Module landing on the Moon. As your lander falls to the surface, you would use thrusters to overcome gravity and inertia to touch down safely at specified locations. As you used your thrusters, you would consume fuel, which made it more difficult as the game went on. Jupiter Lander changed the location from the Moon to the planet Jupiter, giving you three different landing pads on the lone level to bring your ship down on. While the game remained very simple, it was incredibly popular, and is still looked upon fondly by those who played it as new C64 owners back in the day.
Jupiter Fracture Levels
Fast-forward to 2025, and Jupiter Fracture picks up where the original left off. The story goes that on April 29, 1994, the planet Jupiter experienced a mysterious event called The Blip, which fractured the planet into a number of floating fragments. As the last surviving lander pilot, it is up to you to explore each of these fragments, land, and discover the secret behind the mystery of The Blip.
Each of the planetary fragments is composed of different material, contains different hazards, and is affected by gravity differently. You will need to navigate the narrow underground corridors of each level, avoiding obstacles such as lasers, force fields, and even mines. If you hit a wall, run into a hazard, come down too hard, or miss a platform, you will lose a ship. Just like in the original, successfully landing on a pad will earn you bonus fuel, which will be important, as the multiscreen levels are much more complex than in the original game. The slower and more accurate your landing, the more points and bonus fuel you receive.
One notable change, aside from the expanded gameplay levels, is the method of controlling your ship. In the original Jupiter Lander, you had three thrusters that you used to control your ship: a downward-facing thruster that controlled descent and ascent, and two lateral thrusters that controlled horizontal movement. In the sequel, the control has shifted back to the method used in the original Lunar Lander arcade game. Lateral movement now requires rotating in the opposite direction and thrusting, making landing that much harder.
Jupiter Fracture Level 1
This game is a great sequel to a classic title. The vastly expanded gameplay helps to elevate this game beyond the simplistic goals of the original. The addition of hazards on each of the nine levels keeps the gameplay loop from becoming stale. Even though there are only nine levels, the later ones are quite tricky, and once completed, there is still the challenge of improving your score on the next run through the game.
The sound effects are standard thruster fare, but the music is vastly expanded over the original. The compositions use the familiar themes from Jupiter Lander, but do an excellent job of making them modern and interesting. As a release intended for the C64U’s expanded audio capabilities, the game also supports dual SIDs for an even more expansive aural experience.
If there is one criticism I can level at Jupiter Fracture, it is the transition from the zoomed-out level to the zoomed-in landing view. The original game had very simplistic level graphics, so zooming in during landing didn’t seem so jarring. But here, the change from what you see around you in the full-level view to the landing view can be very different, forcing you to make sometimes split-second decisions about your descent that you didn’t initially see. Also, the sense of inertia does not always carry over well from one view to another, with slower momentum while zoomed in translating to much faster momentum in the full-level view. It is not insurmountable and doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the game, but it could certainly be addressed in future versions.
If you own a C64U, you have no excuse not to download Jupiter Facture and give it a try. It’s a great experience, and the game’s overall story is a fun analog of the death and rebirth of Commodore itself. Happy landing!
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