The Atari 800 version of Rescue On Fractalus was released in 1984 and was the first version available. It was a critical success and drew quite a lot of attention to Atari 8-bit home computers (jealous Commodore 64 owners had to wait almost a year before they got a conversion).

Rescue On Fractalus is a cockpit shooter set in a fractal-generated environment (the surface of an alien planet, with whom you are at war). The aim is to find stranded human pilots and to rescue them, as well as blasting as many of the enemy as possible. The only catch is: sometimes the alien enemy will send one of their infiltrators to pretend to be a human pilot, and if you let one of those in by mistake, it will mean curtains for you. So you have to be careful and try to recognise friend or foe during missions. When you’ve filled your quota of rescued pilots you can then boost back to the mother ship for bonus points and repair.

For a game over thirty years old, it is still fun to play Rescue On Fractalus now, which is testament to its greatness.

More: Rescue On Fractalus on Wikipedia

Note
Rescue On Fractalus Atari keys:
Left and Right cursor keys = Speed up or down
L = Land
S = Shields On/Off
A = Airlock
B = Boosters [Return to Mother Ship]