Along with Rescue on Fractalus!, it was one of the initial pair of releases from Lucasfilm Games, Ballblazer was developed and first published for the Atari 8-bit computers.

[5] Each side is represented by a craft called a "rotofoil",[5] which can be controlled by either a human player or a computer-controlled "droid" with ten levels of difficulty.

The basic objective of the game is to score points by either firing or carrying a floating ball into the opponent's goal.

The game takes place on a flat, checkerboard playfield, and each player's half of the screen is presented from a first-person perspective.

[5] A player can gain possession of the ball by running into it, at which point it is held in a force field in front of the craft.

[14] On July 3, Warner Communications sold all assets of the Consumer Division of Atari, Inc. to Jack Tramiel, and the agreement with Lucasfilm fell through.

The lead melody is assembled from a predefined set of 32 eight-note melody fragments, or riffs, which are put together randomly by an algorithm that also makes choices on several parameters including "how fast to play the riff, how loud to play it, when to omit or elide notes, when to insert a rhythmic break".

[25] Info rated Ballblazer four stars out of five, stating that "it is undoubtedly the FASTEST game available for the 64" and recommending it to "gamers with strobe-like reflexes".

[26] Zzap!64 gave an enthusiastic review of the Commodore 64 version of the game, their only criticism being weak sound effects.

[30] In a retrospective review of the Commodore 64 version from 2007, Eurogamer's Kristan Reed said "its visual approach has dated hideously" but it remained "a fascinating period piece".

[31] In 1990, LucasArts and Rainbow Arts released a remake and follow-up called Masterblazer for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.