Raster Blaster
1981 video game
title: "Raster Blaster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1981-video-games", "apple-ii-games", "atari-8-bit-computer-games", "pinball-video-games", "video-games-developed-in-the-united-states", "single-player-video-games"] description: "1981 video game" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_Blaster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary 1981 video game ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox video game"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| image | Raster Blaster cover.jpg |
| developer | Bill Budge |
| publisher | BudgeCo |
| released | 1981 |
| genre | Pinball |
| modes | Single-player |
| platforms | Apple II, Atari 8-bit |
| :: |
|image = Raster Blaster cover.jpg |caption = |developer = Bill Budge |publisher = BudgeCo |programmer = |released = 1981 |genre = Pinball |modes = Single-player |platforms = Apple II, Atari 8-bit
Bill Budge's Raster Blaster (or Rasterblaster on the disk label) is a home computer pinball simulation written by Bill Budge for the Apple II and published in 1981 by Budge's company, BudgeCo. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers. Raster Blaster closely resembles the Williams Firepower table from 1980.
While not the first pinball game for home computers, Raster Blaster set a higher bar for visual fidelity, and the next several years saw a flurry of Apple II pinball titles: David's Midnight Magic (1982), Night Mission Pinball (1982), and Budge's own Pinball Construction Set (1983).
Reception
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Rasterblaster.png" caption="Gameplay screenshot"] ::
Debuting in April 1981, the game sold 25,000 copies by June 1982, tied for fourth on Computer Gaming Worlds list of top sellers. BYTE praised the game's realistic physics, writing that "most microcomputer games that are versions of existing board or equipment games aren't worth the disks they're printed on, but Raster Blaster does not fall into that category!"
Raster Blaster was voted Softalk magazine's Most Popular Program of 1981.
Softline stated when reviewing David's Midnight Magic that it "ratifies Bill Budge's extraordinary program as a programming tour de force" and "proof of Budge's technical lead over his rivals", as Midnight was merely equal to Raster Blaster despite being nine months ("an eternity in the Apple II world") newer.
Compute! called the Atari version "addictive", although it noted some bugs.
References
References
- "Raster Blaster".
- (March 2017). "Pinball Wizard - Bill Budge on the Apple II and Raster Blaster".
- (September–October 1982). "Inside the Industry".
- (December 1981). "The Coinless Arcade". BYTE.
- "Most Popular Program of 1981: Raster Blaster!" Softalk. April 1982.
- Tommervik, Al. (January 1982). "David's Midnight Magic". Softline.
- Kopp, G. L.. (October 1982). "Raster Blaster". Compute!.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::