About
Blasto is a 1978 Gremlin Industries arcade game in which the player steers through a minefield and destroys all the mines before time runs out; it was also released for the TI-99/4A. Oblast is a Commodore 64 action game by Cameron Kaiser, based on Blasto for the TI-99/4A and Gremlin's arcade Blasto. The player drives a tank, shooting bombs that set off chain reactions, and tries to clear as many screens as possible before the fuel runs out. It runs on PAL and NTSC machines, and the author considers it feature-complete.
How it differs from the original
Unlike the original, the tank can fire several times and in several directions. Oblast adds four preset modes (including one closer to classic Blasto), a custom configuration screen, up to 384 procedurally generated but repeatable levels, and secret bonus conditions on each screen.
Getting started
You need a real Commodore 64 or 128 in 64 mode, or an accurate emulator such as VICE, plus a joystick in port 2. Download the compressed or uncompressed .prg from the releases page, then LOAD and RUN it like a BASIC program, and press F1 on the title screen to choose a mode.
History
The author wrote it because Blasto was one of their favourite games on the TI-99/4A and they wanted to make it better; it was released in 2025 along with a blog article on how it was developed.
Media
Additional notes
- License
- Freeware under the Floodgap Free Software License; modified or ported versions must use a different name.
- Controls
- Pressing Control, Shift and Commodore together ends a game early and tallies the score.
- External link
- Development write-up: https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2025/12/oblast-better-blasto-game-for-commodore.html