December 6, 2025
From Russia with Boom
Oblast: A better Blasto game for the Commodore 64
Retro boom: C64 revives Blasto with a cheeky Russian pun and cries for an Android version
TLDR: Oblast is a free, souped-up take on classic Blasto for the Commodore 64, with faster play and tons of levels. Commenters clocked the cheeky Russian name and are already pushing for an Android version, pitting hardware purists against phone-first players in a friendly platform tug-of-war.
Old-school explosion fans, assemble: a new Commodore 64 passion project called Oblast just dropped, turning the 1978 arcade relic Blasto into faster, flashier chaos with endless, auto-made levels and tweakable rules. But the comments? They immediately zoomed in on the name. One reader clocked the joke that “Oblast” is a Russian term for a region — and pointed out the title screen literally flashes Cyrillic. Cue the memes: “From Russia with Boom,” and tank emojis everywhere.
Another vibe bubbling up: the “put it on my phone” brigade. A top comment straight-up says it “makes me want to make a modern version for Android,” which sparked a gentle split between retro romantics who want it on real hardware and convenience seekers who want tap-to-blast on the couch. No flame wars, just playful jabs about thumbs versus joysticks.
Behind the puns and platform dreams, fans are impressed this love letter outpaces the old TI‑99/4A port — more speed, more screens, more kaboom — while staying true to the mine-chain-reaction mayhem. Translation for non-nerds: it’s Minesweeper meets bumper cars, but louder. The big takeaway: free game, vintage vibes, modern ambition — and a community already debating where it should explode next.
Key Points
- •Oblast is a new, free homebrew game for the Commodore 64, inspired by the TI-99/4A port of the 1978 arcade game Blasto.
- •The original Blasto ran on Hustle hardware derived from Gremlin’s Blockade, with programmer Bill Blewitt fitting the code into 2K of ROM.
- •Milton Bradley licensed Blasto from Sega and ported it to the TI-99/4A, keeping core gameplay while adding color, music, and configurable options.
- •The TI-99/4A port offered settings for speed, maze drawing (including trails), and mine density, but audio was limited by the TMS9919/SN76489 chip.
- •Oblast features faster action and animation, numerous procedurally generated screens, and fully configurable gameplay compared to the original.