Kurt_Woloch

OK, here's my first score... 12250. Here are some tips... - You can anticipate where the tentacles of the octopus move. They all move at once, and basically, after each move, each block of a tentacle will be on the column where the block above it was in the previous move. - You only can shoot the tentacles at the bottom, that is, at the lowest block of each tentacle. However, you don't have to shoow the tentacle that reaches the furthest down. - I found it useful doing autofire by keeping the button depressed. Even if you don't reach a tentale every time, you might just hit the shark instead (it's a 10% chance you will hit it with each shot). Release the fire button when the shark comes below the lowest tentacle in order to give of a timed shot to kill of the shark. - Always keep an eye on what your most imminent danger is... the oxygen, the shark or the tentacles coming down, and react accordingly - The small bar above the oxygen bar shows how much of the level is left. If there's not much of it left, chances are you won't need to take in any more oxygen before the level ends, or that the octoups won't be able to stretch out any tentacle fully, or that the shark won't be able to come down again (but that chance probably is the slimmest because the shark is the fastest). - It seems like the levels are timed, i.e. they always have the same duration regardless how much hits you make. And here's my suggestion for a name: SHARK INVADERS (because the shark moves much like the enemies in Space Invaders, and you also lose a life if it comes completely down)

OK, here's another one from me... 487400. I've got some tips now too: - Bouncing around the "balls" isn't exactly like in Pool. It seems like the ball takes on the trajectory of the shot it gets hit by. Note that it can also get hit by the enemies' shots, which also causes it to start bouncing around. - Rolling the ball by bumping into it always causes a horizontal or vertical motion (depending on how the player moves). Shooting it may result in horizontal, vertical or diagonal motion. However, shooting it with diagonal shots always results in diagonal motion, because when shooting diagonally, no horizontally moving shots are created. - Shooting the ball diagonally should be preferred, since by bouncing around diagonally, the ball covers much more ground and thus makes the playfield much more open. - The highest priority for the player should be to avoid the enemies' shots, because that's the only thing that's deadly. - Running out of time actually doesn't seem to result in losing a life, rather you warp up to the next level, but with the letters you already had remaining. However, in the level you warped to, each letter you collect in this level is worth 1000 points less than it originally was.

OK, here's my first attempt... 344350. I needed a bit over 11 minutes for that game, so the game time of this game is getting rather long...

Here's mine... 80. And I think that's it for this week... I don't feel any motivation to play this game any more.

OK, here's another... 134330. I've managed to carve out some tips and tricks by now: 1. Round layout: Each level (consisting of four rounds) has the following: 1. Round: two white enemies 2. Round: one white and one blue enemy 3. Round: two blue enemies 4. Round: two blue enemies, AND the playfield is cleared instead of filled from the start (except for the "force field"). After a level, the enemy shots speed up. They seem to move 1 pixel per frame (or double-frame?) in rounds 1-4, 2 pixels in rounds 5-8, 3 pixels in rounds 9-12 and four pixels in round 13-16. After that, however, they go down again to 2 pixels per frame on round 17. From round 13 to 14 and 14 to 15, the paths created in the playfield (except for the force field) won't be filled up again. From round 17 on, the tanks are able to see backwards, that means if you sneak behind them, they'll instantly turn around and shoot at you. A strategy to let the blue tank take out the force field would be to stay on top (if possible) until the blue tank has reached the left or right edge of the screen, at which point it will go upwards and then go in your direction. Don't worry, it's impossible for a tank in the top row with the force field between it and you to shoot you! You can also use the fact that debris (and also living enemy tanks) can't be shot through to your advantage. If you shoot a tank, and the other one is on the right of it, for instance, you can safely move (and take out a base or force field) on the left of the disintegrating tank until it's gone, because it will catch all shots by the other tank. New tanks coming in from the left or right alternate in sides, that is, if one came in on the left, the next one will come in on the right and vice-versa. You can also use that to your advantage... if you know that the next tank will come from the right, for instance, and only one tank currently is on screen, you can safely take out the left tank and move to the left of it, because the instantly incoming tank from the right won't be able to shoot through the disintegrating tank you just shot, so you have a few seconds for taking out a base or part of the force field. The rules of tanks reappearing are: - If two enemy tanks are on the screen, no third one will appear. - If one enemy has been killed and one is still alive, the shot one will be replaced after some time (which seems to get shorter in higher rounds). - If both enemies have been killed, usually both will be replaced. If the second one has been shot after the first one is fully disintegrated, the first one will instantly be replaced as soon as the second one gets hit (while it is still disintegrating). As for tank behavior, some blue tanks will deviate from their course as soon as you're in a line with them, and some won't. If a tank didn't deviate when it was on your line, it will probably stay on its course until the edge of the screen and then go along that edge in your direction until it reaches your level, then (maybe) come towards you. However, it may miss you if you're going the opposite direction, in which case it will stay on course until the edge of the screen again. An exeption to that is if the two tanks bump into each other, at which point one or both will change direction regardless of where they are on screen. Your own shots wil alternately come out at the left and right side of your tank. That is, if the force field below a base only is half gone, you can still shoot through the hole if you stand on the correct place, and even if one shot missed, the next one may hit because it has got a slightly different trajectory. This applies if the line of fire in front of your tank is half covered and half uncovered by dirt.

OK, I'll add mine here... 68840.

OK, here's my best effort so far... 50507.

OK, I've improved my score a bit too... 23400.

OK, seems like I've got the hang of it now... more or less. This is my best so far... 15600.

I think I made a pretty good score already... 187950. Basically, I got killed at the pderoadyctil round where only blue enemies come out... the problem was, even the blue ones were pretty easily catchable when I stayed on the top and let them come up one after another... but after I got killed, I started from the bottom, and it wasn't as easy getting those enemies from down below.

OK, here's mine... 43130. Sorry, but I didn't get to play this game much this week. Anyway, I don't have the feeling that playing longer would have vastly improved my score...

OK, here's mine... 57130. Actually, I'm surprised I made it to the 4th labyrinth... seems I've learned something by playing Jr. Pac Man some weeks ago.

OK, here's my best effort so far... 1748. I don't think I'll be playing this game much longer since I don't like it so much, so don't be surprised if I don't post another score this week.

OK, I also managed to improve my score dramatically... 103090.

Well, I know for sure that in pre-crash times (before 1984), many cartridges for the C-64 were produced by Commodore and also some third party companies like Sega, Atarisoft, Activision, Sierra and Parker Bros. They only had the little problem that the cartridge space only was supposed to go from $8000-$BFFF, that's 16K, so you could make bigger games loading from cassette or disk than from cartridge. Some games were initially designed to run from cartridge, but then sold as tapes (such as "River Raid" by Activision), which you can see by the fact that they are still exactly 16K in size. Interestingly, there exist mis-rips from "Pitfall!" which are 16K in size although the game actually is only 8K. It may be true, however, that not all the cartridges were sold everywhere. I've got images of cartridges I've never seen "for real" here in Austria and which also were never advertised or reviewed, like for instance "Mario Bros." by Atarisoft. But that's true for disk- and tape-based games as well.

Huh??? Why is there so much room between your score line and the 2nd display line? Are you playing a different version? That's the PAL version. Hmmm... but the PAL version is slower than the NTSC one, isn't it? So that's not really fair to compare...

Huh??? Why is there so much room between your score line and the 2nd display line? Are you playing a different version?

OK, so this is my first try for this week... 19990. (Yes, I know, 10 points more and I would have gained another extra life)

OK, this is probably my last entry for this week... 31790.

OK, here's another, better score from me... 29020. Here are some tips I managed to work out... The timing of the bricks runs roughly as follows: if a brick disappears from the screen, or you start a new life, about 8 time units pass before a new brick appears. In one time unit: - you can hear the enemies go "Wee dew" once - you can hear yourself go "Tic Toc Tic Toc" - you can get from one point to the next (up or sideways) At that time, it's better to move horizontally than to climb upwards, because then the brick will surely miss you. Before you go up a level, especially if the enemy above you is a fast-moving one, always make sure it's at least 2 units to the left or right of you. If it's right above you and doesn't seem to want to go away, it's probably better for you to climb to the other side of the screen (squishing the monster on your level) and go up there.

OK, finally the game I selected is coming up... :-) Here's my first attempt for this week... 11360.

Me... almost. Actually, mine's a bit different, it's got the "grip" on top. I suppose you didn't mean that one?

OK, here's my first submission... 4250. I also figured out the scoring, which goes like this... Shooting an enemy plane... 10 x Level no. Docking with black plane... 100 x Level no. Shooting the 3 refueling depots... 200 x Level no. (only gets applied after shooting the last one) A "Level", as stated in the manual, consists of enemy plane stage with docking possibility at the end, shooting the enemy refueling depots, passing the mine field and landing for refueling. If you die while doing a level, you get reset to the start of the level with the next ship, and your fuel amount doesn't increase (!!!). If you run out of fuel, you don't die immediately, but you can't shoot anymore, so running out of fuel at night will still lead to your death since you can't see the enemy anmore. This game seems to have a few bugs... there are anomalies in the movement of enemy planes and bullets (seems like they screwed up the horizontal positioning routine a bit), and the refueling tank doesn't move smoothly at all. In addition to that, the minefield sometimes is impossible to pass, the number of scanlines the screen consists of is inconsistent, and there also seem to be errors from time to time in displaying your ship making it look a bit funky at times. And the game already gets hard at level 3, which probably means I won't play it any more than that.

OK, here's my first entry... 46130. Oh, and I didn't have any problem finding this game using Google.

OK, here's my first entry for this week... 65660.