About
Road Blaster is Data East's 1985 LaserDisc interactive-movie arcade game, with animation by Toei Animation, in which a vigilante hunts the biker gang responsible for his wife's death by steering a souped-up sports car through hand-drawn anime cutscenes via timed directional and action inputs. It was released in the West on Sega CD and other formats as Road Avenger. This recipe targets the obscure Japan-only 2009 Windows port (a DirectX 9 era conversion derived from the Sharp X68030 version), which never had a wide commercial release and remains a sought-after collector title among FMV-game fans.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- RoadBlaster.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- proton_experimental
- Winetricks
- —
⚙ Setup notes
About: Data East's 1985 interactive-movie (FMV) arcade racer — known in the West as Road Avenger — in its Japan-only 2009 Windows port (GMODE/EXEED, pub. Jitensha Sougyou; an upscaled X68000 conversion). Timed directional + action inputs over hand-drawn anime FMV.
Binary: The Windows build needs no installation — copy the win/RBWin folder anywhere and run it (portable). The launcher exe is Japanese-named 「ゲームを起動」; rename it to RoadBlaster.exe so the recipe can target it. The settings tool is 「設定変更」 (rename to RoadBlasterConfig.exe). A roadblaster.ini holds display options — set forced-window-mode and match your resolution to avoid a forced mode switch.
Proton: DirectX 9 era title. Community reports say it "works perfectly fine on Windows 10 with no compatibility modes," so proton_experimental should run it cleanly; if the FMV video stutters, try GE-Proton.
Controller: The port has native controller support with button remapping in its main menu, so the Deck's gamepad should work without a custom Steam Input layout.
Display: No confirmed Steam Deck / ProtonDB reports yet for this obscure JP release — left needs-test.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Import/delisted title — never sold on Steam (pulled from JP retailers after Oct 2012). No DRM blocker reported; the Windows build is portable.
Run it: No installer needed — copy the win/RBWin folder into the Steam library and add it as a non-Steam game. The launcher is the JP-named 「ゲームを起動」 exe (rename to RoadBlaster.exe); the 「設定変更」 tool (rename to RoadBlasterConfig.exe) and roadblaster.ini set display mode — enable forced-window mode and match your resolution to stop it forcing a mode switch.
Proton: Reported to run cleanly on Windows 10 with no compat shims, so proton_experimental should be fine; switch to GE-Proton only if the FMV video stutters.
Controller: Native controller support with in-menu remapping — Steam Input keyboard binds are not required (keyboard fallback: arrows = steer, Z = brake, X = accelerate).
Locale: Japanese-language game; menu/UI text may mojibake without a JP locale, but gameplay is FMV-driven.
Status: No Steam Deck community reports found yet — left needs-test pending a real hardware run.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.