HSC02, Round 6: Ms. Candyman / The Mummy's Treasure

[ballyalley]

Season 2, Round 6 of the Astrocade High Score Club will last about two weeks. This round ends on Sunday, June 18'th Tuesday, June 20 at 10pm MST. The main game is Ms. Candyman. The BASIC bonus game is The Mummy's Treasure.

 

Ms. Candyman

 

Ms. Candyman is a 4K cartridge released by L&M Software in 1983. It was programmed by Andy Guevara. Ms. Candyman is the sequel to Candy Man, which was released on tape.

 

 

This is the description of the game from an advertisement:

 

"Real arcade action with joysticks, 1 or 2 players and 3 levels of difficulty. More than 20 screens, each faster than the one before. Full screen display in exquisite detail. Ms. Candyman must pick up all of the lifesavers as quickly as possible while avoiding contact with the Ghosts & Goblins. During the first half of a screen the Ghosts or Goblins will try to catch you. During the 2nd half of a screen the Ghosts or Goblins will take up protective positions to keep you away from the life savers. Each contact costs Ms. Candyman one life and she will nose-dive head first off the bottom of the play field. A wrecker or ambulance will carry her off."

 

The full instructions for Ms. Candyman can be read here:

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/cart_manuals/pdf_manuals/ms.%20candyman%20(instructions)(a1)(grayscale)(300%20dpi).pdf

 

I have OCRed the complete instructions for the game:

 

The game starts with 3 lives.

 

Use joysticks to control the Ms. Candyman left, right, up and down (no diagonals). Pressing any key in the left-hand row will allow you to take an intermission. To resume play, press again.

 

You must eat the "life savers" (99 calorie points each) as quickly as possible while avoiding contact with the Ghosts & Goblins. During the first half of the screen, the Ghosts or Goblins will try to catch you. At this time you must be evasive. During the 2nd half of a screen, the Ghosts or Goblins will take up protective positions to keep you away from the life savers. Each contact costs Ms. Candyman one life and she will nose-dive head first off the bottom of the play-field. A wrecker or ambulance will carry her off. If one or more lives remain she will take up her normal starting position at the top, then the game resumes.

 

Periodically you become eligible for a bonus life and a chance to earn extra score. This happens every two screens as you finish clearing the screen you are on. The screen will turn blue and sound will intensify. This is your chance to get those pesky Ghosts. Move quickly to run over as many as possible in the allotted time. Each Ghost is worth 990 extra calorie points. No life savers can be eaten during the blue bonus round.

 

For each screen that is cleared a new one will appear and the game speed will increase. Periodically the Goblin that has been jumping up and down in the cage will be let loose to help the Ghosts. On difficulty #1 this is every 2 screens and on difficulties #2 & #3 this is every screen. This continues until a total of 6 animated characters are on the screen trying to catch you and protect the life savers. At this point, additional screens will continue with added playing speed only. On difficulties #2 and #3, this is where the radar screen appears. The last 2 Goblins will begin to disappear and re-appear with a pop periodically on difficulty #2 and at random on difficulty #3 (no pop).

 

Play will continue until you have zero lives left. When this occurs, the screen will flash different colors and the sounds will change rapidly.

 

For a replay, squeeze trigger #1.

 

You may bypass the music by squeezing trigger #1.

 

Playing Tips

 

Start by getting as many of the unprotected life savers as possible, quickly.

 

Then watch carefully the positions of your opponents and try to stay at least one jump away. WAIT until they have made a move, then quickly run right past them, grabbing a life saver.

 

Be especially aware of the first two ghosts, as they move very fast. However, when these first two move on top of each other they will disappear (only for a moment until one of them moves off). At this instant you may move Ms. Candyman right across the square they have disappeared on.

 

When the radar screen comes on you can watch the last two goblins. When they disappear from the playfield you can track them on the radar. This gives you a chance to go into the area where they were and grab the life savers. Watch the radar and don't be there when they reappear a moment later.

 

 

The Ms. Candyman cartridge ROM image (called "mscandy.bin") is part of this archive:

 

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

 

Ms. Candyman Review

The Game Player, #13 - Arcadian 6, no. 1 (Nov. 29, 1983): 6-7.

By Michael Prosise

 

Hoping to capitalize on the huge success of their cassette tape Candy Man (see Arcadian Vol. 5, #3), L&M has released its very first cartridge, Ms. Candyman. From all indications, it appears that this debut cartridge is going to be quite popular, for the graphics, sound effects and game-play are of exceptional quality.

 

The cartridge, once inserted into the computer and reset, will begin immediately. A complete, 25-second rendition of the tune "Good Ship Lollipop" plays while the title screen unfolds, featuring some very attractive artwork that illustrates the game's title, two giant red and white candy canes tied together with a decorative bow, and the game's authors.

 

At this point, the candy canes will disappear, and on the screen will come the request to select one or two players via the joystick. The players may then choose from three skill levels: Normal, Abnormal or Insane. They will each receive three "lives," with a bonus life awarded every two screens.

 

The playing field will instantly appear. Unlike the Candy Man tape, which was restricted to a two-color screen due to the computer's limitations, the variety of colors in the Ms. Candyman cartridge is one of the finest we have seen in any cartridge. There are many, and they are brilliant. It appears that the designers, L&M and Bit Fiddlers, have successfully utilized screen resolution to its fullest. For example, the character Ms. Candyman is yellow, with a lavender ribbon in her hair, red lips and two blue eyes. (Colors may vary from T.V. to T.V.). The ghosts and goblins are also multi-colored, as is the playing field.

 

Perhaps most impressive of all, however, is the fact that there can be up to seven multicolored, moving characters on the screen at one time! They wave their arms, smile, jump up and down, kick their feet and turn their heads, too! The animation and detail are so well done that they almost look like real cartoon characters on your television.

 

As for the game itself, you, the player, will have your Ms. Candyman positioned at the top-center of the screen. The playfield is essentially the same as the one in Candy Man, but it looks so much better. Your goal is to eat all the Lifesavers on the screen, worth 99 "calorie" points each, while trying to avoid the ghosts and goblins, who want to eat you. During the first half of the level, they will be after you. But during the second half, they will be guarding the last Lifesavers closely. All Lifesavers must be devoured before a new screen appears. If a ghost or goblin nabs Ms. C, she will plummet head-first to the bottom of the screen, where an orange tow truck will drive up and take her away. Sometimes she will get hurt, in which case a Red Cross ambulance, complete with siren, will pull up and transport her off the screen.

 

On screens one and two, it's you against two ghosts. In three and four, a goblin is added. This continues until a total of six of these creatures are on the screen with you. Believe me, it gets crowded, as we found out by the time we made it to the 11th screen, losing at this point with a score of 111,177.

The number of ghosts and goblins in Skill Levels 2 and 3 are the same, except that they are added to the game sooner. The level of difficulty increases slightly with each new screen, as does the speed of play-action. After every two screens will come the "blue" screen, during which the player has a brief allotment of time to eat ghosts, earning 990 points for each ghost devoured. An additional life is also awarded at this point. We were able to devour 13 ghosts during one particular blue screen.

 

At the base of the T.V. screen are displayed your number of lives, the score and a cage, in which one can see the goblin who is next to appear on the playfield. He just sort of waits there, jumping up and down anxiously and waving his arms wildly. This cage also doubles as a "radar" screen, for on the higher levels of play, some ghosts may disappear briefly. You can spot their relative positions on the "radar" screen.

 

Overall, Ms. Candyman is an exceptional game, both in uniqueness and game play. We are enjoying it very much. One other nice fact concerning this cartridge is that it is priced at a reasonable $29.95, even though it is better than several of the other new cartridges that cost more.

 

Ms. Candyman (Options):

 

There aren't many options for this game, just make sure to play on normal level of difficulty.

 

Ms. Candyman (Scoring):

 

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

 

The Mummy's Treasure

 

The BASIC bonus game is The Mummy's Treasure, by L&M Software. This BASIC game was released on tape for Bally BASIC in 1980 and on tape for "AstroBASIC" in 1981.

 

 

Here is a link to a pdf instructions for The Mummy's Treasure and Exitor's Revenge (which appeared on the same tape):

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/tape_manuals/l-m/pdf%20-%20color/The%20Mummy's%20Treasure%20and%20Exitor's%20Revenge%20(instructions)(color)(300%20dpi).pdf

 

The new Mummy's Treasure can now be played by 1 to 4 players, each using his or her own hand control. As usual, the mummy is roaming about the castle's three floors looking for intruders. If you or any of your friends are caught in the same room with the mummy, that ends the game for that player, but for the rest of you the game will continue until all players have been captured or someone finds the treasure. Sound easy?? We shall see...

 

The treasure is somewhere in the dungeon, which is the bottom floor. To get there you must either find a secret passage to the cellar (which is the second floor), then find a secret passage from there to the dungeon. Or if you are lucky, you will find a secret passage which will take you from the main floor (first floor), straight to the dungeon. But if you aren't that lucky, you may find a room which has the capability to transport you one or two levels up.

 

The player whose turn it is can select the room he wishes to check by pushing or pulling his knob control until the desired room number appears. At this point, he should squeeze his trigger until he hears the tone. The computer will tell him what is in that room. After he has made a mental note of that information, he then squeezes his trigger again and the turn will move to the next player.

 

Remember:

• There are three levels, with 60 rooms on each level, a total of 180 rooms.
• The treasure, the secret passages, and the vacuum force rooms all change location with each new game.[/url]
• Keep track of what was in all the rooms entered, this will come in very handy during the game.[/url]
• The treasure is somewhere in the dungeon (bottom floor), Just getting there, let alone finding the treasure is hard.[/url]
• Hmm... four to one: the mummy hasn't a chance... or has he?

You can download the "AstroBASIC" version of The Mummy's Treasure here:

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/program_downloads/2000_baud_programs/l&m_software/l&m_software.html#MummysTreasureTheLandMSoftwareAB

 

Bonus Points

 

There are eight bonus points available this round for both games. One point can be earned for any of the extras: that's a lot of points up for grabs!

 

Three high scores for each of the three selectable skill levels for Ms. Candyman were reported in the "Scoreboard" for The Game Player #19. This was published in Arcadian 6, no. 8 (Jun. 30, 1984): 77. If anyone can beat these scores, which might prove difficult, then you'll earn a bonus point.

• Ms. Candyman - Video Review - There is no quality video of Ms. Candyman on YouTube. Anyone who makes a video review of this game will get a bonus point.
• Ms. Candyman - Two Player Game - Both players will earn a bonus point for playing a two-player game.
• Ms. Candyman - Skill 1 New High Score - Beat Craig Conner's Skill 1 score of 265,122.
• Ms. Candyman - Skill 2 New High Score - Beat Fred Rodney's Skill 2 score of 181,170.
• Ms. Candyman - Skill 3 New High Score - Beat Craig Conner's Skill 3 score of 61,578.
• The Mummy's Treasure - Playing the bonus game.
• The Mummy's Treasure - Finding the Mummy's treasure.
• The Mummy's Treasure - Video Review - Anyone who makes a video review of The Mummy's Treasure will get a bonus point.

In the above list, I presumed that we can find the Mummy's treasure. If I'm wrong about that, then maybe we can come up with another way to earn a bonus point for the bonus game.

 

Summary

 

Ms. Candyman is a pretty fun game; I like it! I'm especially fond of it because it's a sequel and it's a third-party game cartridge, both of which are extremely rare for the Astrocade system. While it's title may conjure up images and comparisons to Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, the game is quite different from these other maze gobbler-the-dots games.

 

I have no experience with The Mummy's Treasure, but from what I've seen of it before now, it looks like a very traditional 1970s/early 1980s BASIC game. It may not be to our modern tastes, but sometimes it's worth dipping our toes into vintage games so that we can appreciate what we have available to us now.

 

Post your scores as you play these two games over the next couple of weeks. If anyone finds any helpful tips while playing Ms. Candyman, then please share them. Enjoy this round's two games!

 

Adam

Edited June 17, 2017 by ballyalley

[roadrunner]

Ms Candyman


40,095

[nd2003grad]

Is an extension possible on this one? I've had some stuff going on and would like a shot.

[ballyalley]

Is an extension possible on this one? I've had some stuff going on and would like a shot.

 

Sure, I'll extend this round by a couple of days. This round now ends on Tuesday evening at 10pm (MST).

 

Hopefully, that will allow you to get in a few rounds.

 

Note: I edited the first post, to change the end-day and time of the round. This completely screwed up the formatting of the entire post. I fixed it as best I could, but it's not quite right yet. Every time I edit it and save the changes it's making it worse, so I got it the best I could and I'm leaving it alone now.

 

Adam

Edited June 17, 2017 by ballyalley

[ballyalley]

Last night, when Chris came over, we played Ms. Candyman on my Astrocade using my Edladdin Supreme 7800 controller in 4-way mode. Using this excellent joystick makes this Ms. Candyman feel so much like an arcade game to me. Thanks for making this controller, Ed; you rock!

 

Chris really gave me a score to aim for last night when he managed about 90K. My best score last night was about 48K. This morning though, I managed to beat Chris. Sorry about that, buddy (just kidding, I'm not sorry at all... he, he!) Here are our scores:

 

Adam: 95,139

 

 

Chris++: 90,684

 

 

I think that we both managed to reach board 7, which has five baddies on it. The game is quite tough by this point, and you also move really fast. Rather than constantly pressing the joystick in one direction, you almost have to move one or two spaces at a time, constantly adjusting your movements based on where the ghosts and goblins have repositioned themselves.

 

When the game ends, the screen flashes continuously (sort like color cycling, but maybe a bit more random). It makes it really difficult to take a descent picture of the game's score. Also, the game doesn't keep track of the high score, as when the game is over the system resets-- which is quite common for Astrocade games.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I played a few rounds of Ms. Candyman yesterday and managed to beat 100K points! Here is my new high score:

 

Ms. Candyman - 105,534 (Reached screen 9)

 

 

As this game progresses, and more baddies appear on the screen, you must move very carefully to avoid running into the ghosts and goblins. I find that moving one space at a time works best. Starting at about level 5 or 6, you'll find that staying still and moving strategically around the board works very well.

 

I began a Z80 assembly language disassembly of Ms. Candyman about a month ago, but I didn't make much progress in the few hours that I spent on it. This past Saturday, I took a look at the binary dump again. This time, I found most of the graphics and disassembled most of the Z80 code. The big missing pieces are disassembling the large portions of the code that contain the mnemonics for the 8K ROMs interrupt-driven music processor BMUSIC (Begin Playing Music). The music in Ms. Candyman is great, but it does take up quite a bit of the ROM.

 

Something that I "discovered," which is pretty cool, is that the game makes heavy usage of the Astrocade's Magic Register's Flop function. This seems to save a lot of ROM memory. For example, the title screen is horizontally symmetrical. Only the left side is stored in ROM. From what I can tell (so far) the right side is "flopped" onto the screen.

 

If you haven't played Ms. Candyman yet, then I urge you to do so, as it's quickly becoming one of my favorite Astrocade games. I think the game starts too slow, but by level 2 or level 3, it speeds-up enough that the game gives a really good challenge.

 

I wish that I could say the same for The Mummy's Treasure. I expected the bonus game is be quite random, but the way the room number must be entered using the hand controller is very time consuming: instead of using the knob to select a room, you must press up on the controller. If you want to select room 30, then you must press up thirty times. Ugh; that's terrible!

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I played The Mummy's Treasure and won the game by finding the treasure. I'd love to say that I had fun playing this game, but... alas, I did not. Here are a few pictures of the game in action for those unwilling to put yourself through this dreary little game. I'll pick a better bonus game next round, I promise!

 

Here is me getting caught by the Mummy:

 

 

Here is me reaching the third level (the Dungeon), where the treasure is hidden:

 

 

Here is me finding the treasure (it was in room 55, I think):

 

 

My Mini-Review of The Mummy's Treasure

 

I don't care for The Mummy's Treasure; there is absolutely no skill involved when "playing" this game-- it's completely based on luck. This game could have been improved by providing the player with hints. Maybe the game could have used some variation of you're getting warmer or colder depending on how close you are to the treasure or the mummy. As the game is, you basically pick a room and hope that the mummy isn't present in it. If it is in the room, then you're game is over. If the mummy isn't in the room, then you try another room and continue to hope that the mummy isn't there.

 

One thing that I didn't notice when I played it last week is that you can press down to go down from room 60 - 1, rather than only being able to press up to go from rooms 1 - 60. Still, if you want to choose room 30, then you have to press up or down thirty times. It would have been much nicer if the rooms could have been picked using the knob, or even the keyboard.

 

Adam

[nd2003grad]

I barely got to play, but I managed to play both games quickly. I did not care for the basic game too much, but I was pleasantly surprised mrs candy man which I had heard it was not very good. I disagree with that, I liked it a lot! I will be doing the catch-up around without one

[ballyalley]

I barely got to play, but I managed to play both games quickly. I did not care for the basic game too much, but I was pleasantly surprised mrs candy man which I had heard it was not very good. I disagree with that, I liked it a lot!

 

I'm glad that you got to play Ms. Candyman. This one has certainly moved up several notches in my view; it's now one of my favorite Astrocade games. That's cool that you played the BASIC bonus game. I agree that it's not very good.

 

I made video reviews of both of these games, but I have not edited them yet. The Ms. Candyman review is nearly an hour of raw footage, while the The Mummy's Treasure is much shorter, just fifteen minutes or so. While I was at it, I also shot footage for an overview of "AstroBASIC" and how to load programs with it. I have a feeling that I won't have time to get these videos up on YouTube before the HSC round ends tonight, but I'm going to try to finish them both.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I made a 50 minute video review of Ms. Candyman. You can watch it here:



I mention in the video that the manual is wrong because the game has no radar in it. It turns out that I was wrong. While the video was uploading to YouTube (which took a long time), I played a few games of Ms. Candyman on skill level 2 ("Abnormal") and skill level 3 ("Insane") On these levels, the goblins come out sooner. Instead of seeing new baddies on every other level, you get a new goblin on every level. This means that by level 5 or 6, you have all the baddies on the screen.

 

Once all the baddies have appeared on the screen, the jail at the bottom of the screen, which shows the upcoming goblins, is replaced by a radar. What do you need the radar for? Some of the baddies can now turn invisible, and you need to track them using the radar. What an unexpected feature!

 

I hope you enjoy the video.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I have made a 13-minute video of L&M's software The Mummy's Treasure. You can watch it here:



While this BASIC bonus game wasn't very fun, making the video more than made up for that shortcoming. In the review I make some suggestions that might have made the game a little more fun to play.

 

I hope you like the video.

 

Adam

[ranger_lennier]

billnewsome and I played some Ms. Candyman multi-player when he visited last week. He managed to get 29,304.

 

 

I got in some additional practice and finally managed to cross the 100K threshold yesterday, with 106,128.

 

 

I enjoyed the game. It definitely gets pretty crowded on the later levels. It's not as fast paced as most maze games. The enemies tend to guard the lifesavers as much as they chase you, so you sometimes have to wait a little while before you see an opportunity to dash in and out. It's a more unique take on the maze genre than you'd initially anticipate.

 

 

[ranger_lennier]

I ended up playing the Bally BASIC version of The Mummy's Treasure, so I could actually read the text. It's largely the same game as on AstroBASIC, but there are some minor differences, so I figured it might be interesting to make a quick video review.

 

 

I didn't get the treasure there, but I did eventually get lucky.

 

[ballyalley]

I ended up playing the Bally BASIC version of The Mummy's Treasure, [...] I figured it might be interesting to make a quick video review.

 

That's cool that you made a video of the Bally BASIC version of The Mummy's Treasure, Paul. It was really neat to see the small changes in the earlier version of the program. The "AstroBASIC" version seems to run noticeably faster.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

I'm not sure how I managed it, but I originally posted this in round 5 thread. Let me try again...

Round 6 of the Astrocade High Score Club ended (after a two day extension) on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10pm MST. Six people played Ms. Candyman. Three people played the bonus game, The Mummy's Treasure.

Final Tables

Ms. Candyman

ranger_lennier 106,128 10 pts
BallyAlley 105,534 9 pts
Chris++ 90,684 8 pts
Roadrunner 40,095 7 pts
nd2003grad 33,363 6 pts
billnewsome 29,304 5 pts

Three people each earn a point for playing the bonus game, The Mummy's Treasure, on the Astrocade. BallyAlley and ranger_lennier get another bonus point for winning this completely random game.

The Mummy's Treasure

BallyAlley Played and won game
nd2003grad Played game
ranger_lennier Played and won game

Total points awarded this round:

1st ranger_lennier 10 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 14 pts @^&*
2nd BallyAlley 9 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 13 pts !^&*
3rd Chris++ 8 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 8 pts
nd2003grad 6 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 = 7 pts ^
Roadrunner 7 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 7 pts
billnewsome 5 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 6 pts @

Bonus Points Key:

! - Ms. Candyman - Video Review
@ - Ms. Candyman - Two Player Game
# - Ms. Candyman - Skill 1 New High Score, Beating 265,122 (No bonus awarded)
$ - Ms. Candyman - Skill 2 New High Score, Beating 181,170 (No bonus awarded)
% - Ms. Candyman - Skill 3 New High Score, Beating 61,578 (No bonus awarded)
^ - The Mummy's Treasure - Playing the bonus game
& - The Mummy's Treasure - Finding the Mummy's treasure
* - The Mummy's Treasure - Video Review

Please, check your scores.

Season 2, Round 6's winners is ranger_lennier, who won with 14 points! Paul is my arch-nemesis!

As I've already mentioned, I really enjoyed playing Ms. Candyman this round. I have a new respect for this game. It was also quite a surprise to see that there is actually a radar that tracks the goblins once they start to become invisible.

Next Round Games

The main game for Round 7 of the Astrocade HSC is the prototype cartridge Conan The Barbarian, also known as Quest for the Orb. This game requires both the joystick and the knob to play the game, so it may be difficult for people to play using the emulator. The BASIC bonus game is one that I have not played before called The Crown of Zeus, which seems like a rudimentary dungeon crawler that was published in the Arcadian in 1982.

I'll post the main game and bonus game, plus the full rules and links for Round 7 of the Astrocade HSC in the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who played in Round 6 of the Astrocade High Score Club. Conan the Barbarian isn't finished, but it is playable-- hopefully it can keep us occupied for the next couple of weeks.

Adam

[ballyalley]

Round 7 of the Astrocade High Score Club has begun. You can join the current round, here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267047-hsc02-round-7-conan-the-barbarian-the-crown-of-zeus/

 

Adam