HSC02, Round 4: Sneaky Snake / Caterpillar

[ballyalley]

Season 2, Round 4 of the Astrocade High Score Club will last about three weeks. This round ends on Sunday, April 30'th at 8pm MST. The main game is Sneaky Snake. The BASIC bonus game is Caterpillar.

Sneaky Snake

Sneaky Snake is a 4K machine language cartridge released by New Image. It was programmed on the Astrocade by Dave Ibach and assembled using the General Video Assembler. This game tried to be true to the original arcade game by keeping Centipede's original vertical monitor setup, as in this screenshot:



Sneaky Snake may be the hardest to find cartridge on the Astrocade system. Luckily, it is included on (I think) all of the various releases of the multicarts for the Astrocade. Plus, it plays just fine under the Astrocade emulation in MAME.

ABC Hobbycraft's November 1983 issue of The Astrocade Underground newsletter said, "It's slipperier than a centipede, and faster than anything you've ever seen before-- it's Sneaky Snake, on cartridge for Astrocade from New Image Software! This hot version of an all-time arcade classic sends the Snake slithering among the mushrooms toward you. Shoot quick, and watch out for the Spider. Only $32.95."

Here is an ad for the game from page 4 of the November 1983 AstroBUGS Newsletter:



In the Bally/Astrocade Game Cartridge and Hardware FAQ, Michael White says that Sneaky Snake was released on September 24, 1983 at the Astrobash. Some versions of this cartridge have the label glued or taped over an original Bally MFG. CORP. label because Sneaky Snake used salvaged cartridge cases. You can see this here:



Peggy Gladden drew the label's artwork, which you can see better here:



The Sneaky Snake cartridge ROM image (called "sneaky.bin") is part of this archive:

http://www.ballyalley.com/emulation/cart_images/cart_images.html#AstrocadeROMCollection

You can read more about the development of Sneaky Snake in an interview with Dave Ibach that Paul Thacker conducted on February 27, 2006. In this interview, Dave placed Sneaky Snake into the public domain (thanks, Dave!).

http://www.ballyalley.com/ballyalley/interviews/interview_with_david_ibach.txt

As far as I'm aware, there is no manual for this game, but if you've played Centipede, then you'll take to this game quite naturally.

 

 

Sneaky Snake (Options):

Other than the number of players, Sneaky Snake has no options to enter before the game begins. There are no skill levels to select.

 

 

Sneaker Snake (Scoring):

Up to ten points are awarded for playing Sneaky Snake. For available bonus points, see "Bonus Points" section below.

 

 

Sneaky Snake Game Review

Sneaky Snake was reviewed in The Game Player column #16 by Michael Prosise in Arcadian 6, no. 4 (Feb. 23, 1984): 37. Here is the full review:

SNEAKY SNAKE New Image

This month, we take a look at yet another new cartridge, and a fine one, too. For all of you fans of the coin-operated Arcade game CENTIPEDE, this cartridge game by New Image is just the one for you!

SNEAKY SNAKE is a very colorful, enjoyable family game for one to four players. Each player starts with five "shooters," utilized one at a time. The T.V. screen will present the player(s) with a field of multi-colored mushrooms. At the top of the screen will appear the Snake, who will begin his decent downward, meandering over, under and around the mushrooms as he moves closer to you! At the bottom of the playfield is your shooter, which you can maneuver left or right, and slightly up or down. Using the trigger, you must shoot the Snake before he makes contact with your shooter. You may fire one shot at a time, or fire rapidly (machine gun-like) by holding the trigger in.

Each hit on any segment of the Snake awards you 50 points, and turns that segment of the Snake into a mushroom. Any mushroom or part of one that you shoot is good for one point. A single hit on the Snake will not kill him, however. The player must hit each circular segment that comprises the Snake in order to kill him. Be forewarned that a hit on any part of the Snake may cut him into two separate Snakes!

Upon elimination of the Snake, a new screen will appear. Each screen is different, both in color and intensity of play. The different background color for each screen adds visual variety to the game. The higher your score gets, the harder each new screen will be. The Snake will move faster each time, and the mushrooms will almost fill the whole screen.

Things can get rather hectic if you do not get the Snake before he reaches the bottom of the playfield. Once down, he will move left and right until you get him, or he gets you. If you take too long, new Snake segments will enter from the left and right, moving over, under and around your shooter!

There is no escape now. In your panic, be careful not to bump into a mushroom; you will be destroyed if you do.

If this is not enough to keep you occupied, there is another creature you must contend with: the Spider! That's right, folks: It's the old, pesky Spider trick. Periodically, a Spider will appear and try his best to pounce on you. He is good for 100, 200 or 300 points a shot, depending on how close you are to him when you shoot him. As your points get higher, each Spider will move faster and come at you continuously [more often].

SNEAKY SNAKE is an excellent cartridge game. Not only is the player presented with good graphics and full color, but his ears are treated to a fanciful and light-hearted tune throughout the game. And just as the action speeds up, so does the music, further adding to the enjoyment of playing.

Our players here really like SNEAKY SNAKE, and they're additionally pleased that a bonus shooter is awarded (at each 10,000 points). The game-play itself, along with the sounds and music, make this cartridge a real winner!


Caterpillar

The BASIC bonus game is 1983's Caterpillar, by Thadd*Pro (Kevin O'Neill). It originally appeared as a type-in program in the newsletter Niagara B.U.G. Bulletin, 1.7 (September 6, 1983): 8-10. It was later reprinted in Arcadian, 6.10 (Aug. 24, 1984): 95. There is a 1986 revised version Caterpillar by Klaus Doerge. It's more colorful and adds a potentially higher score for multiple players. I played both games and I prefer the original version.

Caterpillar is an "AstroBASIC" variant on the classic videogame, Snake. In this case, you move a caterpillar around the screen, growing ever longer while you pick up items for points. Unlike other versions of Snake, you grow continuously, not only when you eat snacks. In my eyes, Caterpillar mixes Checkmate with Snake and comes up with an interesting variant.

 

Here are some screenshots from the game:

 

 

The brief directions from the newsletters are:

 

Caterpillar is a game of luck and skill. You control the direction of travel of your caterpillar and try to eat the floppy disks that appear on the screen. Be careful-- if you touch any walls or the trail that you leave, your head gets crushed and you die. You also die if the timer at the bottom of the screen runs out. There are an undisclosed amount of different screens and each one gets harder. Scoring works by the more time you have left the more points you score.

You can download the "AstroBASIC" version of Caterpillar here:

http://www.ballyalley.com/program_downloads/2000_baud_programs/arcadian/programs_a-h/caterpillar_[thadd_x_pro].zip

I noticed that in Caterpillar you'll encounter some issues with the gameplay due to the completely random distribution of the floppy disks that you must collect. This includes the disks appearing on your own trail! Just start another game and see if you can make it a little further on your next game.

Bonus Points

 

Up to six bonus points are available this round for both games:

 

1. Sneaky Snake (1 points) - Two-Player Game.
2. Sneaky Snake (1 Point) - Beating Joe Adams' score of 56,457 posted on page 77 of the Scoreboard in the June 30, 1984 Arcadian issue.
3. Sneaky Snake (1 Point) - Video Review - There is no quality video of Sneaky Snake on YouTube. Anyone who makes a video review of this game will get a bonus point.
4. Caterpillar (1 Point) - Playing the bonus game.
5. Caterpillar (1 Point) - Highest Score.
6. Caterpillar (1 - 2 Points) - Video Review - Anyone who makes a video review of Caterpillar will get a bonus point. If, in the video, you compare it to various other Astrocade Snake-type games (which also have video), than you'll get two bonus points.

Summary

As we make our way through the Astrocade's small library of games, there are bound to be some games I don't like. For instance, the sports titles are, well, not my cup of tea. So, I'm glad that I like both of these games. Neither is graphically impressive, but both are fun.

 

Sneaky Snake is one of the few homebrew cartridge games that was created on its host console (i.e. not a computer system-- unless the Astrocade is a computer-- is it?!?). Caterpillar is pretty basic, but it's fun for a bit-- and unlike so many other BASIC games, I don't consider it too slow. In fact, if it was faster than it might be a bit too hard.

Adam

[nd2003grad]

Sneaky snake is interesting. There are A couple of subtle differences between it and send it. Caterpillar bugs me because it's a good and fast game for basic, but the collision detection is so bad and the disks Appear so randomly that I found it on playable.

[nd2003grad]

Sneaky snake is interesting. There are A couple of subtle differences between it and send it. Caterpillar bugs me because it's a good and fast game for basic, but the collision detection is so bad and the disks Appear so randomly that I found it on playable. IMG_4161.JPGIMG_4163.JPG

I used talk to text above...should say "Centipede" and "unplayable" haha!

[roadrunner]

Sneaky Snake


16,985

[ballyalley]

Caterpillar bugs me because it's a good and fast game for basic, but the collision detection is so bad and the disks Appear so randomly that I found it on unplayable.

 

The collision detection for Caterpillar isn't completely broken-- it works predictably, but you can't hit the disks straight-on (that is, right through the center). I think that this has to do with your Caterpillar's shape can sort of squeeze right through the disk without hitting it! If you always make sure to hit the disks right or left of center, then you'll pick up the floppy disks every time.

 

I know what you mean about the disks appearing too randomly; they can appear in places that you can't reach... although that is really due to our own fault when creating our trails. If we keep a tight trail (not making any empty areas that we can't reach), then it would be okay... except for the small can't-be-overlooked fact that the floppy disk placement is so random, that a floppy can appear right on top of your own trail, which makes it rather impossible to pickup.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I played a couple of Sneaky Snake today before sort of giving up due to frustration (see my comment below). Here's my current high score:

 

Sneaky Snake - 11,612 (Astrocade, Real Hardware)

 

I noticed that at 10,000 points I got a free guy and a short musical tune played. That's nice, but not if there is a...

 

Possible Sneaky Snake Bug...?

Oftentimes, I would get killed by running into a mushroom if I was at the bottom of the playfield and the Sneaky Snake's segments were in one or two pieces going back and forth at the bottom. This didn't just happen once or twice. Out of two or three games I lost about six guys this way. In other words, this is how I died nearly every time.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue of dying by running into small bits of mushrooms?

 

Adam

[roadrunner]

I played a couple of Sneaky Snake today before sort of giving up due to frustration (see my comment below). Here's my current high score:

 

Sneaky Snake - 11,612 (Astrocade, Real Hardware)

 

Sneaky Snake (Astrocade)(11612)(Cropped).jpg

 

I noticed that at 10,000 points I got a free guy and a short musical tune played. That's nice, but not if there is a...

 

Possible Sneaky Snake Bug...?

Oftentimes, I would get killed by running into a mushroom if I was at the bottom of the playfield and the Sneaky Snake's segments were in one or two pieces going back and forth at the bottom. This didn't just happen once or twice. Out of two or three games I lost about six guys this way. In other words, this is how I died nearly every time.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue of dying by running into small bits of mushrooms?

 

Adam

 

 

 

Yeah, i died from mushroom bits too.

[ranger_lennier]

Are you calling simply dying from running into a mushroom a bug, or is there something more to it? That definitely seems intentional. It's even mentioned in the review. "There is no escape now. In your panic, be careful not to bump into a mushroom; you will be destroyed if you do."

 

Whether it's a good design is debatable. It does produce extra obstacles if you wait too long to destroy the snake, and it is possible to clear them out. So, I guess I'm OK with it. I did find it frustrating that if two segments were moving very close together, I might shoot one, then have the other quickly change direction on the new mushroom and run into me. But even that could probably be avoided with practice.

 

I tried Caterpillar as well, and again my score display is messed up. If someone plays it and gets a chance, could you give me a couple examples of what the score is at specific points? Something like getting just one disk before dying, or finishing the first level then immediately dying. I could probably figure out how to convert my score into the real number. Hopefully that's consistent for any BASIC game. Hopefully they aren't doing something complicated like giving you more points if you reach a disk quickly.

[ballyalley]

Are you calling simply dying from running into a mushroom a bug, or is there something more to it? That definitely seems intentional. It's even mentioned in the review. "There is no escape now. In your panic, be careful not to bump into a mushroom; you will be destroyed if you do."

I didn't catch that dying from running into mushrooms is intentional. Very strange. That sounds like a bug disguised as a "feature." I wonder if any instructions were made for this game.

 

I've been updating Dave Ibach's "AstroBASIC" section on BallyAlley.com (although I've not yet uploaded the updates). This has gotten me to take a closer look at his software. After the Astrocade, Dave moved on to the PC and programmed a trilogy of PC games based on a character called Also in the 1980s. These games seem to have a sort of cult following. I found a video that shows them all. I didn't watch the whole video (which is 71 minutes long), but I did skim it. After programming Sneaky Snake, it would have been cool if Dave had programmed a platform game on the Astrocade like Aldo for DOS:

 

 

 

Hopefully they aren't doing something complicated like giving you more points if you reach a disk quickly.

Yes, I believe it is time based. It occurs to me, that if you can figure-out the valuable for the score, then you could HALT the program and PRINT the variable to see your score. What a pain that would be... but it might work!

 

Adam

[ranger_lennier]

There are brief instructions, which do say that running into anything will kill you.

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/cart_manuals/pdf_manuals/Sneaky_Snake.pdf

[ballyalley]

There are brief instructions

 

Thanks for linking me to the instructions, Paul! I totally forgot about this documentation. I just OCRed/re-typed and edited that pdf. Here are the instructions for Sneaky Snake:

 

New Image presents...

 

Sneaky Snake!

© 1983

 

You're sitting comfortably at the bottom of your mushroom patch, when suddenly you see you're being invaded at the north end by that old Sneaky Snake! You better shoot that sucker before he gets to you and smacks you smartly.

 

You may use separate hand controls for multiplayer games, or you may all share hand control number one.

 

Functions:

 

Knob: No function

Trigger: Fires your shooter

Joystick: Controls movement left, right, up and down of shooter.

 

Every segment of his body that you hit turns into a mushroom.

 

Anything your shooter touches immediately kills you.

 

Scoring:

 

1 point for hitting any part of a mushroom.

50 points for shooting a segment of old Sneaky Snake.

100, 200, or 300 points for shooting that pesky Spider, depending on how close he is to you.

 

Your score is not updated on the screen when hitting a mushroom, but don't worry, you do get points.

 

Each 10,000 points gets you an additional shoot (maximum 9).

 

Hold the trigger down and the shooter repeats automatically (rapid fire).

 

Thanks, and have fun!!!

[ballyalley]

I played several games of Caterpillar with the intention of giving Paul some hints on how to figure-out his garbled score. The player's current score is not displayed on the screen during gameplay; it isn't displayed until the game is over. Since points are based on the time it takes to pick up each disk, I can't really estimate how much each disk is worth. However, I did look at the program's BASIC listing in the Arcadian. The variable W holds the current score. If you want to know your score, then you can HALT the program and then type PRINT W. Here is an example:

 

 

In the above case, after my game was over, I HALTed the program and typed PRINT W and there you have it: 296 points. You can see my score displayed both after the PRINT and also on the screen. I tried typing RUN again, and the game played as normal. Hooray! This obtuse method should allow Paul to know his score. Keeping track of your score this way, Paul, is only slightly more mysterious than the rest of us: for, we don't know our score while we're playing either.

 

I also set my own personal high score while I was playing Caterpillar

 

Caterpillar - 1,608 points (Astrocade, Real hardware)

 

 

Now that I've played this game a little bit, and I'm getting used to how to pick up the disks and move around the screen, this game is rather more playable than I expected. I wouldn't call it a hidden gem, but it certainly stands tall on its own merits as a fun game. If someone asked me if I'd play it again, then I'd say, "Sure!"

 

Since Paul pointed out that the mushrooms are supposed to kill you in Sneaky Snake, I'll play that game some more. I don't like that idea, but at least it's not a bug. Perhaps these deadly mushrooms are related to the poison mushrooms in the Japanese version Super Mario Bros. 2.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I made a video review of Caterpillar for the Bally Arcade. You can watch the video here:

Check out the "cheap" way that I die on my second game!

While I was making the video, I set a new personal best for this game:

Caterpillar - 2,097 (Astrocade, Real hardware)



(What's the deal with my screenshots looking so large in the forums now?)

I hope you enjoy the video. Maybe I'll make one for Sneaky Snake too.

Adam

[ballyalley]

I just set my new high score on Sneaky Snake. It's about 21,000 points. I took a picture, but there was no SD card in my camera. I didn't notice until after I finished playing the game. Doh! Hopefully I'll be able to beat this personal best and actually get a picture of the screen.

 

The "trick" to Sneaky Snake is to take into account that mushrooms can kill you. You have to keep that bottom area, where your ship is, completely clear of mushrooms. At least, you have to try to keep it clear; it's not easy to do.

 

I've been playing my last four or five games of Sneaky Snake with my new controller. Yesterday, I got the Edladdin Atari 7800 Supreme 78: All-Play 4/8 joystick. It looks like this:

 

 

Cool, right?!?

 

This controller, which uses arcade parts, is meant to be used with the Atari 7800 system, but it works just fine with my Astrocade and my homemade Atari-to-Astrocade joystick adapter. If you're interested in purchasing this joystick, then you can pick it up here:

 

http://edladdin.com/Supreme-78-All-Play-4-8-ec-1-003.htm

 

I've tried experimenting using the controller with both my left and right hand. Either way, I do about the same with it.

 

Adam

[ranger_lennier]

I got 36,776 on Sneaky Snake. I was definitely an expert at sniping those spiders close up by the end. It has a few quirks, but on the whole I think I like it.

 

[ballyalley]

I got 36,776 on Sneaky Snake. I was definitely an expert at sniping those spiders close up by the end.

 

Great score, Paul!

 

I did notice that I could really pump up my score if I point scabbed on the early levels and just pick off spiders. If the area at the bottom is free of mushrooms, then you can just leave one snake segment on-screen and wait around for spiders to show up.

 

It looks like you're playing the game under emulation; What kind of controller are you using?

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

New personal high for Sneaky Snake:

 

Sneaky Snake - 26,441

 

 

I tried point scabbing-- and while it does work to a certain extent, it gets kind of boring. I'd rather have a lower score and have more fun!

 

Adam

[ranger_lennier]

I use an XBox 360 controller. I wouldn't recommend it for a paddle game, but otherwise, it works great.

[nd2003grad]

I tried my hand at this again, but alas! I was unable to achieve my previous glory. I still got into the 160s, but I didn't try point spamming the spiders. I'm sure that could rack it up fast with those 300's.

 

I really like the mushroom death element of this game--it makes it unique among all Centipede clones! Did anyone catch the music at 10000? I knew I knew it--it's identical to the bridge in "Classical Gas!"

[ranger_lennier]

Thanks for the Caterpillar advice. Unfortunately, whatever the Home Library Computer does when running these programs, there's no going back (well, aside from resetting). You can LIST the program, and it appears in the same garbled font. However, that did let me experiment with the font. It's a consistent character substitution. Basically, numbers are one too low, and also also shifted vertically a little so they look kind of strange. 0 appears as a front slash.

 

So, I could figure out that my best score was 2636. I did start to get used to the limitations of the game, trying to leave space to keep myself from getting trapped. Also, if a disk appears on top of the caterpillar, you can approach it perpendicularly, and it will leave a gap in the caterpillar once you collect it.

 

[ballyalley]

Unfortunately, whatever the Home Library Computer does when running these programs, there's no going back (well, aside from resetting). You can LIST the program, and it appears in the same garbled font.

Thanks for sending that odd screenshot. I'm awarding a one-time bonus point to Paul for always having the weirdest Astrocade screenshots. Man, I'll tell ya... us Astrocade users put up with a lot, don't we?!?

 

When you play Caterpillar, it does look normal, right? You're not putting up with any strange glitches during gameplay, I hope.

 

Adam

[ranger_lennier]

Yeah, the game's perfectly normal, it's just the text. This one looks especially strange because there are a lot of spaces that get turned into something weird.

[ballyalley]

I made a video review for Sneaky Snake:

 

 

Fun!

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

Round 4 of the HSC ended yesterday (Sunday, April 30, 2017) at 8pm MST. Four people played the main game, and three people played the Bally BASIC bonus game.

Final Tables

Sneaky Snake

ranger_lennier 36,776 10 pts
BallyAlley 26,441 9 pts
nd2003grad 19,969 8 pts
roadrunner 16,985 7 pts

Three people each earn an extra point for playing the BASIC bonus game on the Astrocade. Ranger_lennier gets the bonus point for scoring highest on the bonus game.

Caterpillar

ranger_lennier 2,636
BallyAlley 2,097
nd2003grad 1,810

Total points awarded this round:

ranger_lennier 10 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 = 13 pts $%&
BallyAlley 9 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 12 pts #$^
nd2003grad 8 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 9 pts $
roadrunner 7 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 7 pts

Bonus Points Key:

! - Sneaky Snake - Two-Player Game (No point awarded)
@ - Sneaky Snake - Beating Joe Adams' score of 56,457 (No point awarded)
# - Sneaky Snake - Video Review
$ - Caterpillar - Playing the bonus game
% - Caterpillar - Highest Score
^ - Caterpillar - Video Review
& - Caterpillar - Weirdest Astrocade screenshots (Special Bonus Point)

Please, check your scores.

Season 2, Round 4's winner is ranger_lennier. You got a great score on Sneaky Snake, Paul!

I liked Sneaky Snake. The fact that you can be killed by running into mushrooms really changes this game compared to Centipede! Overall, I enjoyed this game quite a bit after I got used to this twist in gameplay. Also, playing this game with my new Edladdin controller was awesome!

Once I got used to the way that Caterpillar controls, the game was better than I expected. Maybe in some future round, we'll play the modified version of this game, which was meant for competition play.

Next Round Games

The main game for Round 5 of the Astrocade HSC is... I don't know yet. Would you other Astrocade players please help me to choose the next main game (and possibly the bonus game)? I started a thread with the cartridges that have not yet been played in the Astrocade High Score Club. You can read that thread here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265111-cartridges-still-left-to-play-in-astrocade-hsc/

Please feel free to make suggestions for next round's game in the above thread. If anyone has a BASIC bonus game that they would like to play, then please post it there too. If no one makes any suggestions, then I'll choose the game on my own.

I'll post the main game and bonus game, plus the full rules and links for Round 5 of the Astrocade HSC in the next few days. I'll give people, say three days to make a game choice for the next round.

Thanks to everyone who played in Round 4 of the Astrocade High Score Club. You all make owning an Astrocade fun and interesting! I really thought that Paul was going to break Joe Adam's 57K Sneaky Snake high score!

Adam

[ballyalley]

On April 30, 2016 Ken Lill wrote to the Bally Alley Yahoo group with some additional information about the creation of Sneaky Snake:

"What you don't have here [in the Sneaky Snake video review] is the assembly process that took place in Don Gladdens house trailer. Rusty and Dale from R&L, George Moses, Don Gladden, Mike White, Leroy Flamm and I had an assembly line the day before the the Astrobash in Michigan and put together the cartridges. R&L were programming, Don & someone else were assembling the parts on the PCB's, Someone was helping he solder the parts in, Goerge was assembling the cartridges and applying the labels. I think Peggy Gladden was putting the carts in boxes and packing them for the trip to the show. From start to finnish, each one took about 10-15 minutes. There were 2 programmers working, one was R&L's and the other was Leroy Flamm's, so that part, though the slowest , was moving along quite quickly."