The defective version of Rastan for the Commodore 64
Rastan Saga (also known simply as Rastan in the United States and Europe) is an arcade video game developed and published in 1987 by Taito. The game was highly appreciated for the graphic quality and the not too frenetic playability, as well as for the fantasy atmosphere and the protagonist inspired by Conan the barbarian.
It was converted for Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, Game Gear, Sega Master System, TRS-80 Color Computer and ZX Spectrum.
The Commodore 64 version of the game was released on the market with a bug that made it impossible to finish, as in level 4 one of the deadly holes between the platforms was too large to be skipped. Strangely, this bug was not corrected even in the budget versions of the game that came out later. Both the cassette and floppy versions had the exact same problem.
The game overall had 6 very large levels, but in fact it was not possible to complete the level 4.
This is the famous level 4 bug that kept you from continuing
The impossible jump made you touch the water killing you instantly
Do you think the reviews of the time highlighted this huge problem that prevented you from continuing beyond that point of level 4? The answer is no! In fact in all the reviews of that period there is no indication of the bug, the game is criticised only for the graphics and the difficulty.
Even the magazine Computer and Video Games (CVG) describes all the 6 levels, as if to imply that they have completed the whole game, but this is impossible given the presence of the blocking bug.
As a result, it is assumed that the review was made by none other than the game's manufacturer, and that the magazine did not test the game.
There was no version available without the serious bug, and therefore could not be in the possession of those who made the reviews.
Both Zzap! 64
and Zzap!
completely demolish the game, however without mentioning the blocking bug. If in this case we are sure that they were not paid to promote the game, there is also the certainty that the review was made without going too deep in the game, otherwise they would certainly have encountered the serious programming error.
The game was republished in the version of The Hit Squad. Also this version contains the bug
To date there is no version of the game with the bug fixed, and the only way to overcome the problem is to use a pirated version with built-in tricks that allow the level jump or disable the collision between the sprites.
The conversion for Commodore 64 was also very difficult due to some inaccuracies that affected the gameplay, but in 2004 a version was released which in addition to having the tricks incorporated has also corrected minor bugs that affected the game (but not the blocking game).
The arcade version also had a problem in the final level, of which it is not yet clear whether it was a mistake or voluntary created (probably the second).
The game itself was very difficult and unusually long for the time, and to get to the final level you had to spend several coins. But if you die in the final level, the game ends and you cannot continue. This means that the entire final level must be completed with a single credit.
To make the complete of the game even remotely possible, you should die on purpose at the end of the fifth level fighting the boss (a multi-head hydra). You should therefore use another credit to continue and defeat the dragon with your first life (taking as little damage as possible). If you can't beat him with your first life and little damage, you should lose the other life and start with a new credit.
In short, in addition to making you spend money and making you give huge efforts to reach the final level, in the end there was the high possibility of not being able to finish the game because of the impossibility of being able to continue.
Two famous games of the time also prevented the player from continuing in the last level: Shinobi and Wonder Boy in Monster Land .
