Sewer Sam

[+thegoldenband]

I spent a little while this afternoon playing Sewer Sam. I'd always thought it was kind of dull and plodding, but I didn't know until today that the "skill level" settings change the game's speed. On skill level 4, Sam is super-fast, and climbs the walls quicker than a frightened monkey!

 

This improves the pace of the game a lot, and has other advantages too. At one point a snake trapped me on the wall, which is usually certain death, but I managed to escape it -- I've never done that on skill level 1.

 

This post was originally "Has anyone ever seen a submarine in this game?" because I hadn't found one yet, but I've just now edited it because I finally found one.

 

Earlier today I played through eight or nine tunnels and wasn't getting anywhere, because I was always taking the first exit that I happened upon (always a left exit). Once I realized that I could walk past that, and take a different exit, I found my first submarine at last! Tricky little thing, but after a few attempts I managed to blow it up.

 

It seems to be semi-random, but 75% of the time I was able to get to it by taking the first right-hand exit in the first tunnel, then walking all the way to the end of the second (water) tunnel. Actually I think the second part is really the key, i.e. exploring the water tunnels until they end with either a submarine or two doors.

 

Has anyone made it any further into this game than I have? The manual says that there are "three submarines in the fleet to destroy". What happens after you blow up the third one -- does the game end, or just loop?

 

Also, Gamefaqs claims that there's a "shirtless Sam" code, accessible by putting in the code 6-4-5-5-1 when you're at the "Press Start" screen. But it sounds like hogwash to me -- there really isn't a "Press Start" screen as far as I can tell -- and I couldn't get it to work.

 

It's kind of refreshing that -- besides the code above -- there's almost no information about either of the Interphase games on the web. I think there's some stuff yet to be discovered in this game, and in Blockade Runner.

Edited February 13, 2011 by thegoldenband

[+thegoldenband]

OK, I just played Sewer Sam for a couple more hours, and I think I've nearly got this game figured out. There are eight mazes with the following characteristics, listed by type (wet/dry) and the color scheme of the walls.

 

Maze #1 (starting maze): Dry, Dark Green/Light Green

Maze #2: Wet, Dark Green/Light Green

Maze #3: Dry, Dark Green/Blue

Maze #4: Wet, Light Green/Yellow

Maze #5: Dry, Light Green/Blue

Maze #6: Wet, Dark Green/Yellow

Maze #7: Dry, Red/Blue

Maze #8: Wet, Red/Yellow

 

Obviously, all of the odd mazes are dry, and the even ones are wet. Submarines only appear in wet levels.

 

All of the mazes are in the following shape:

 

(5)-----(6)
    |
  (sub)
    |
    |
    ---(4)
    |
    |
(2)-----(3)
    |
    |
(1)---
    |
    |
    |
(level start)

 

To see where the exit leads, simply add the number to your current level, mod 8. So the first left in Level 1 leads to Level 2; the last left in Level 2 leads to Level 7; and the second right in Level 7 leads back to level 2. Thus, each level can reach all of the other levels except one.

 

You have to walk all the way to the end of the level to fight the submarine, so the optimal path would appear to be something like this:

 

Level 1: take first left to Level 2

Level 2: walk to end, fight sub if it appears, take final right to go to Level 8

Level 8: as Level 2, take final right to Level 6

Level 6: ditto, final right to Level 4

Level 4: ditto, final right to Level 2

 

However, I've done this and the sub only appeared once over the course of the four wet levels (or maybe it was twice?). Since there are three subs, but four wet levels to find them in, this means either that (a) the appearance or non-appearance of the subs is randomly assigned when you enter each wet level, or (b) the player needs to do something extra, like visiting a dry level or taking a particular exit, in order to trigger a fresh sub.

 

More as I discover it!

[+thegoldenband]

OK, I found and defeated the third submarine! I guess it's just random, then, since I don't remember making any pit stops in dry levels on my winning playthrough. Unfortunately there's no celebratory screen, the game just loops back to Stage 1 without any fanfare (you don't even go through a door).

 

BTW, a couple more bits about the game:

 

- The standard Intellivision pause method doesn't seem to work! Pressing 1 and 9 (or 3 and 7) just makes Sewer Sam fire his gun.

 

- The rats can actually be helpful, since as long as you've got one onscreen, it takes the place of a potentially more dangerous enemy (the spiders are probably the biggest hassles in the game). If you're lucky enough to get three rats at the start of a water level, you can actually keep the crocodile from ever appearing.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Cool, been years since I played this, I have only experienced the Colecovision version but I recall liking it, ah those were the days.

[+thegoldenband]

Right after my last post I fired up the CV version (in emulation), which I'd played a tiny bit before. Definitely some similarities and some differences. The Inty version doesn't have the oxygen meter, the bridges, or the sharks, and the rats in the CV version are deadly! And the storyline is different too -- in the CV version you're trying to get to your girlfriend (there's a cutscene at the start), and the submarines appear to be firing missiles out of manholes (and shooting at you with a different weapon), so maybe there's some world-in-danger subplot.

 

I'll have to play the CV version some more to get a feel for it, and maybe try to find a manual scan.

Edited February 14, 2011 by thegoldenband

[JacobZu7zu7]

Cool sounds like you found the right setting and had a lot better gaming experience with Sewer Sam.

 

I never played it, maybe if I get emulator rolling I can try it out.