Berzerk - Game 9

[Hank Rearden]

I've been playing this all afternoon. I love this version other than the occasional spawn with a bot right on you where you can't even move or it's at least nearly impossible. Other than that, without having any extra lives it's a good way to test your skills without having to play for multiple hours.

 

But every so often when you spawn on the left side, you can't shoot the bot without dying nor can you walk straight down as that seems to hit the wall. I think you can move down ever so slightly but then need to go right but I haven't been able to time that just right. Seems a bit unfair having no chance and only 3 lives to work with.

 

Are there just instances where you have no chance at all and just have live with it? Just curious if others have figured it out.

[StanJr]

Obvious solution: stop exiting on the right.

 

More Nuanced: There are some unwinnable spawns, I have run into that. I just chalk it up to playing on the hardest game variation, and, as above, I typically do not exit on the sides. I always try to exit at the bottom since Otto spawns wherever you did and it takes him longer to reach the bottom than it does the top.

[sloth-machine]

Yep, game 9 is a great test of skill. I play lots of my games with only a 1 life challenge. Makes even easy games like Dug Dug much more rewarding.

[BassGuitari]

Yep, game 9 is a great test of skill. I play lots of my games with only a 1 life challenge. Makes even easy games like Dug Dug much more rewarding.

The Odyssey 2 is the system for you.

[+kisrael]

How old were you when you realized that you start a Berzerk level opposite of where you exited the last room? I was today years old! (Thanks StanJr)

I've been trying to get more into actually playing my dear old Atari, and Berzerk is a good one.

 

It's kind of amazing the things I didn't notice as a kid- back then I hardly ever mustered up the courage to switch to an Evil Otto version, and that really changes things - like the strategy of the way the robots "share" a single bullet, so you should try to provoke a long shot and then you have time to run.

 

I guess the way the room draws in place and the door you "entered" is always a wall meant I didn't catch the connection.

[Flojomojo]

Kirk -- I think I first noticed fact with the help from a pulpy "How To Win at the Video Games" paperbacks from the era. I'll see if I can find it in the digitalpress archive.

 

Nowadays, it seems just as obvious as "why not just run the other direction?" in Pitfall.

 

I sure do love me some Berzerk. I guess modern action rogue likes such as Death Road To Canada and Wayward Souls are the heirs to this game.

[Flojomojo]

How old were you when you realized that you start a Berzerk level opposite of where you exited the last room? I was today years old! (Thanks StanJr)

 

I've been trying to get more into actually playing my dear old Atari, and Berzerk is a good one.

 

It's kind of amazing the things I didn't notice as a kid- back then I hardly ever mustered up the courage to switch to an Evil Otto version, and that really changes things - like the strategy of the way the robots "share" a single bullet, so you should try to provoke a long shot and then you have time to run.

 

I guess the way the room draws in place and the door you "entered" is always a wall meant I didn't catch the connection.

 

 

Found it!

 

This is from here

 

 

and this is from here, which is the one I remember reading as a child

 

[+kisrael]

Cool book - i sccanned in the same company's guide to arcade games - i write about it here: https://kirk.is/2013/10/08

(that page a link to annarchive that has a .cbz version of the stuff)