The Hubbard soundtrack made this well worth the £1.99 asking price... the fact that you got a great (if really difficult) game as well made it a must-have title. I don't know any C64 owners who didn't have this classic.
I also had the BBC version as that was our family computer up until I finally got my own Commodore 64 at the rather late stage of 1990. I used to watch my brother play Thrust and it eventually got to the point where he could beat all the normal levels then the game would wrap around again with invisible walls! I'm really enjoying this series, working my way through the entire playlist now. I haven't played most of them but I love discovering "new" games for my favourite system ever.
Absolute classic on the C64 of course. Not just the great Rob Hubbard soundtrack (good as it is) but also despite being keyboard only, it was really spot on with the controls and playable because of it. The tricky thing is that people got the thrust and fire keys confused so you'd hit the target you were instead aiming at.
Yes, the controls are excellent and really couldn't have been done with a joystick, though I imagine a lot of C64 gamers were shocked at that decision.
Pressing SPACE activates your shield as well as the tractor beam, it can protect you against the cannon fire but drains fuel. There are six levels, then you play them again with REVERSE gravity, then with invisible walls (become visible when you shoot) and finally reverse gravity AND invisible walls to give 24 missions. Check out the “Thrust Concert” demo as well, with animated musicians playing along to the ace Rob Hubbard tune
Great review! I loved this game but I don't think I get ever got past the second level. I'm impressed with how well you could play it while talking, better than I can for sure. For £1.99 you couldn't go wrong with this one back in the day in my opinion. Couple of similar games on steam worth checking out: Pilots Of Darsalon store.steampowered.com/app/1291050/Pilots_Of_Darsalon/ is fairly similar in a way and has a cool aesthetic, but I'm really into Power Gunner store.steampowered.com/app/900490/Power_Gunner/ which keeps the inertia shooting but without having to ferry items around, good for a 20 minute blast and it's 79p.
Oh so cool, haven't seen this game in year. Almost forgot about it. Had it on c64 (mainly for the RH music), but also the physics in the game are amazing. OK, enough waffle, I'll actually watch the vid now 😂 Oh and subbed too, not sure how I missed your channel before. EDIT: that's interesting, it specifies (c) ROB HUBBARD for the music, so does that mean he retains ownership of it
Thanks for the sub, hope you enjoy my other videos. Not sure about the Rob Hubbard copyright - not seen it on any of the other tape inlays so maybe there is something different about it. Perhaps because the Hubbard music was not featured on other versions it needed a separate credit?
Yeah - I've enjoyed your reviews, but a few points to make here. You include packaging in the overall score for game reviews. Whilst I enjoy your overview of the packaging, it doesn't really effect the was the game plays, but a low packaging score drags the overall result down. These games were just cheapos after all. Also Graphics, whilst the screen shots would back up your low score of 6, super smooth eight way scrolling would have bumped that up to 7 for me. Also - the sound. Fair enough the SFX are poor, but that Hubbard tune rocks. An 8 for me. Playability on this title is high, I'd say 8 or 9. First review I've disagreed with, but keep up the good work.
Well firstly, if we all agreed on everything life wouldn't be much fun would it? ;) The packaging score only counts half to the total compared to the graphics and sound, and only a quarter of playability, so it doesn't have much of an effect really. In retrospect it probably should have got an 8 for playability (though the dificulty curve is ridiculous) but regarding the sound, I don't really rate this Hubbard tune that highly compared to some of his others. The other issue is that the music is only on the title screen and I'm not loading the game up to sit and watch the title screen, so I don't really listen to the music that much! If it was in-game it probably would have scored higher. If I could go back and restart this series then I would definitely change the overall score formula because it definitely has issues, which you'll see particualrly in my next review... But hey, the likes of ZZap gave plenty of baffling scores to games so I'm just following that tradition :)
@@witchfinder1976 Yeah I'm not having a go, I like the channel and the content and we're all gonna like different things...just wanted to give a bit support to all those who love this game and hear your views regarding packaging counting towards the game score. Thanks for the reply and keep up the good work.
Lol 7.2 seems a bit harsh! The graphics are very minimal but make the game more memorable, the sequel looked nicer but IIRC it wasn't very good on the C64 - the Spectrum (spit) version was better! If you fancy more inertia based fun, then give Fly Harder or Solar Jetman a try. The CD32 version of Fly Harder was great - make sure you get the hack that used a separate button to thrust - the C64 version was quite good th-cam.com/video/4GrICQRWwps/w-d-xo.html There's also Solar Jetman which was developed by Rare as a part of the Jet Man/Jet Pac series of games, it was only officially released for the NES and was due a conversion to the C64 and Spectrum which were never released. The C64 version has been leaked and it's a great little game, so you should be able to find it.
Yes in retrospect I have probably underrated it a little. I stand by the ratings for graphics and sound but playability should have been an 8 really. I think I was just frustrated at it whilst playing and to be fair the difficulty will put a lot of people off. I've played Solar Jetman on the NES and Gravity Crash on the PS3 which clearly owes a lot to this game and Gravitar of course 🙂
The Hubbard soundtrack made this well worth the £1.99 asking price... the fact that you got a great (if really difficult) game as well made it a must-have title. I don't know any C64 owners who didn't have this classic.
Enjoyed your review. Deserved a Zzap gold medal. The BBC version is the only Version I’ve played that gives you a congratulatory message at the end
I also had the BBC version as that was our family computer up until I finally got my own Commodore 64 at the rather late stage of 1990. I used to watch my brother play Thrust and it eventually got to the point where he could beat all the normal levels then the game would wrap around again with invisible walls! I'm really enjoying this series, working my way through the entire playlist now. I haven't played most of them but I love discovering "new" games for my favourite system ever.
Sounds like a similar story to me. Our family had a Beeb from 1983 and I didn't get a C64 until '88 🙂
9 out of 10 for me. I remember these firebird games taking ages to load, even on the Spectrum.
They're not too bad on the C64 - most load in under 10 minutes on average I'd say.
Absolute classic on the C64 of course. Not just the great Rob Hubbard soundtrack (good as it is) but also despite being keyboard only, it was really spot on with the controls and playable because of it. The tricky thing is that people got the thrust and fire keys confused so you'd hit the target you were instead aiming at.
Yes, the controls are excellent and really couldn't have been done with a joystick, though I imagine a lot of C64 gamers were shocked at that decision.
I liked this game. Frustrating, but there was always something very immersive about it's physics.
I never knew how much Solar Jetman (one of my favourites for NES) owes to this! One hit death seems tough though.
Loved this game but yes it was difficult
Pressing SPACE activates your shield as well as the tractor beam, it can protect you against the cannon fire but drains fuel.
There are six levels, then you play them again with REVERSE gravity, then with invisible walls (become visible when you shoot) and finally reverse gravity AND invisible walls to give 24 missions.
Check out the “Thrust Concert” demo as well, with animated musicians playing along to the ace Rob Hubbard tune
Great game and physics but rock hard difficulty , loved this one back in the day
Great review! I loved this game but I don't think I get ever got past the second level. I'm impressed with how well you could play it while talking, better than I can for sure. For £1.99 you couldn't go wrong with this one back in the day in my opinion. Couple of similar games on steam worth checking out: Pilots Of Darsalon store.steampowered.com/app/1291050/Pilots_Of_Darsalon/ is fairly similar in a way and has a cool aesthetic, but I'm really into Power Gunner store.steampowered.com/app/900490/Power_Gunner/ which keeps the inertia shooting but without having to ferry items around, good for a 20 minute blast and it's 79p.
Thanks for the recommendations 🙂
Oh so cool, haven't seen this game in year. Almost forgot about it. Had it on c64 (mainly for the RH music), but also the physics in the game are amazing. OK, enough waffle, I'll actually watch the vid now 😂 Oh and subbed too, not sure how I missed your channel before. EDIT: that's interesting, it specifies (c) ROB HUBBARD for the music, so does that mean he retains ownership of it
Thanks for the sub, hope you enjoy my other videos. Not sure about the Rob Hubbard copyright - not seen it on any of the other tape inlays so maybe there is something different about it. Perhaps because the Hubbard music was not featured on other versions it needed a separate credit?
Yeah - I've enjoyed your reviews, but a few points to make here. You include packaging in the overall score for game reviews. Whilst I enjoy your overview of the packaging, it doesn't really effect the was the game plays, but a low packaging score drags the overall result down. These games were just cheapos after all. Also Graphics, whilst the screen shots would back up your low score of 6, super smooth eight way scrolling would have bumped that up to 7 for me. Also - the sound. Fair enough the SFX are poor, but that Hubbard tune rocks. An 8 for me. Playability on this title is high, I'd say 8 or 9. First review I've disagreed with, but keep up the good work.
Well firstly, if we all agreed on everything life wouldn't be much fun would it? ;) The packaging score only counts half to the total compared to the graphics and sound, and only a quarter of playability, so it doesn't have much of an effect really. In retrospect it probably should have got an 8 for playability (though the dificulty curve is ridiculous) but regarding the sound, I don't really rate this Hubbard tune that highly compared to some of his others. The other issue is that the music is only on the title screen and I'm not loading the game up to sit and watch the title screen, so I don't really listen to the music that much! If it was in-game it probably would have scored higher.
If I could go back and restart this series then I would definitely change the overall score formula because it definitely has issues, which you'll see particualrly in my next review... But hey, the likes of ZZap gave plenty of baffling scores to games so I'm just following that tradition :)
@@witchfinder1976 Yeah I'm not having a go, I like the channel and the content and we're all gonna like different things...just wanted to give a bit support to all those who love this game and hear your views regarding packaging counting towards the game score. Thanks for the reply and keep up the good work.
Lol 7.2 seems a bit harsh! The graphics are very minimal but make the game more memorable, the sequel looked nicer but IIRC it wasn't very good on the C64 - the Spectrum (spit) version was better! If you fancy more inertia based fun, then give Fly Harder or Solar Jetman a try. The CD32 version of Fly Harder was great - make sure you get the hack that used a separate button to thrust - the C64 version was quite good th-cam.com/video/4GrICQRWwps/w-d-xo.html There's also Solar Jetman which was developed by Rare as a part of the Jet Man/Jet Pac series of games, it was only officially released for the NES and was due a conversion to the C64 and Spectrum which were never released. The C64 version has been leaked and it's a great little game, so you should be able to find it.
Yes in retrospect I have probably underrated it a little. I stand by the ratings for graphics and sound but playability should have been an 8 really. I think I was just frustrated at it whilst playing and to be fair the difficulty will put a lot of people off. I've played Solar Jetman on the NES and Gravity Crash on the PS3 which clearly owes a lot to this game and Gravitar of course 🙂
Looks too frustrating, I'd rather play Space Invaders or Asteroids.
never liked it, overrated and not a classic. good tune however
I think it's mildly overrated but I do still like it.