A little PENGO play-tip (since Pengo is awesome).

[Giles N]

Again, I may be like 30+ years after other people here as to classic atari-console game-mastery, but found out:

 

In Pengo, the standard way of taking down a Snow-bee is to push an ice-block on it.

 

The second way is to push the wall of the gamefield when Snow-bees are close to it. It knocks them out for 4 seconds or so, so you can just walk over them to take them.

 

The third way is to push 3 diamond-blocks in a vertical or horizontal line, which give a huge bonus and knocks out all Snow-bees on screen for 4-5 seconds. Walk over as many as possible to take them out.

 

Now I discovered a fourth way.

To complete a level (called bird), you must take out a set number of Snow-bees.

There are limits as to how many are on screen at-once.

 

And here is the trick: as soon as one Snow-bee is out, several ice-blocks begins to blink in the color of the Snow-bees on that level.

If you are quick and destroys the flashig ice-block before the Snow-bee spawns, you actually get one more on the counter of how many are taken out.

 

So you can take out Snow-bees (before they come out to chase you), by destroying the flashing ice-block when they are about to emerge from these.

 

In two of images provided you’ll see a destroyed color-flashing ice-block and in the next image the Snow-bee-count decreased from 4 to 3.

 

Good gaming!

Edited August 26, 2019 by Giles N

[rayik]

Yes.  Good way to easily take them out. With practice you should be able to play one game for as long as you want.

[jaybird3rd]

The blinking blocks contain the Snow-Bee eggs, which is something I didn't realize until I finally RTFM after years of playing a (pirated) copy of Pengo on the Atari 800.  Pengo is one of my favorites on the 5200 today.

[Giles N]

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

The blinking blocks contain the Snow-Bee eggs, which is something I didn't realize until I finally RTFM after years of playing a (pirated) copy of Pengo on the Atari 800.  Pengo is one of my favorites on the 5200 today.

I love it.

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Giles N

[Giles N]

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

The blinking blocks contain the Snow-Bee eggs, which is something I didn't realize until I finally RTFM after years of playing a (pirated) copy of Pengo on the Atari 800.  Pengo is one of my favorites on the 5200 today.

It may take some time.

 

I think I just stumbled across by coming by accident to crush a blinking ice-block and saw the Snow-bee numbers on top of screen decreased.

[Omega-TI]

... I might have to fire up the 5200 tonight.  Nice thread.

[Giles N]

22 minutes ago, --- Ω --- said:

... I might have to fire up the 5200 tonight.  Nice thread.

Sure do!

[Giles N]

23 minutes ago, --- Ω --- said:

... I might have to fire up the 5200 tonight.  Nice thread.

And if you have gaming-experiences with Pengo that may help players, here is the place to share them!

[NE146]

heh breaking a block with the snowbee egg inside to kill them before they hatch isn't exactly a secret, so it kind of blows my mind that anyone who likes the game wouldn't know that.. but hey, the more players the merrier.  

 

re: 5200 Pengo, the one thing that always bugged me ever since I first put in the cart in the 80's, was the music! The Pengo I knew had the "popcorn" music, so it was kind of a surprise to hear totally different music in the 5200 version. 'Course I later learned (by watching Starcade on TV) that the Pengos in the states actually had that alternate music, so it made sense. Still though, I always thought it'd be nice if someone ever got the gumption to hack the Atari version and put in the original Popcorn music.

[Giles N]

35 minutes ago, NE146 said:

heh breaking a block with the snowbee egg inside to kill them before they hatch isn't exactly a secret, so it kind of blows my mind that anyone who likes the game wouldn't know that.. but hey, the more players the merrier.  

 

re: 5200 Pengo, the one thing that always bugged me ever since I first put in the cart in the 80's, was the music! The Pengo I knew had the "popcorn" music, so it was kind of a surprise to hear totally different music in the 5200 version. 'Course I later learned (by watching Starcade on TV) that the Pengos in the states actually had that alternate music, so it made sense. Still though, I always thought it'd be nice if someone ever got the gumption to hack the Atari version and put in the original Popcorn music.

Different tastes and thats ok!

 

I’m glad Pengo 5200 have original music, not popcorn as I just don’t  feel it fits and I don’t like the tune very much.

 

So as to my 30+ year-late ‘discovery’; my story is; I bought an Atari 5200 about a year ago, had to spend 5 months collecting and importing the necessary bits and pieces to have it up and running, and have played games for the 5200 and 7800 for ca 8 months now.

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Giles N

[Giles N]

3 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Different tastes and thats ok!

 

I’m glad Pengo 5200 have original music, not popcorn as I just don’t  feel it fits and I don’t like the tune very much.

 

So as to my 30+ year-late ‘discovery’; my story is; I bought an Atari 5200 about a year ago, had to spend 5 months collecting and importing the necessary bits and pieces to have it up and running, and have played games for the 5200 and 7800 for ca 8 months now.

 

As you can see:

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Giles N

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, --- Ω --- said:

... I might have to fire up the 5200 tonight.  Nice thread.

You might want to express your opinions on favourites on the thread about which 5200 games means most to you and why...

 

Could be interesting to hear your top 10 or top 15.

[NE146]

7 hours ago, Giles N said:

I’m glad Pengo 5200 have original music, not popcorn as I just don’t  feel it fits and I don’t like the tune very much.

 

"Popcorn" was the original music for Pengo.. I think the running theory is that they had to change it due to potential copyright issues since they probably used it without permission

 

[Giles N]

8 hours ago, NE146 said:

 

"Popcorn" was the original music for Pengo.. I think the running theory is that they had to change it due to potential copyright issues since they probably used it without permission

 

I know popcorn was the music used in the Arcade. I just happen to like the 5200-music better.

[ASalvaro]

the 5200 version of Pengo is light years better than the arcade...i find the arcade unplayable because it's way too fast 

[Giles N]

BTW: all Pengo play-tips are welcome here on the thread.

[Giles N]

On 8/29/2019 at 10:36 PM, ASalvaro said:

the 5200 version of Pengo is light years better than the arcade...i find the arcade unplayable because it's way too fast 

Its a very long time since I played the Arcade...

 

And I was just this young kid hardly understanding the concepts...

 

...still, remember it... and love the cartoon style of it all...

 

Think the 5200 version is as it is, a very, very good game.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Giles N

[Tempest]

Speaking of Pengo music, the Atari 8-bit and 5200 versions have slightly different music.  The 5200 has another voice that the 8-bit version is missing.  I wonder if this was an oversight or an enhancement?