Contributions > Descriptions by tcooke182 (6550)

Round-Up is a maze game with puzzle elements. The labyrinth contains a 3x3 square area that is populated with white circles at the start of a level. Some of the entrances to this area are blocked, and this changes throughout the game. Your goal is to change all of the circles red. You can do this by first capturing one of the red knights that populates the maze, which turns your character red. Then you enter the central area by one of the entrances. The square where you enter will become red, the others will move up/across one, and you will appear on the other side. This process will also modify which of the central squares are accessible.

The maze is populated with several creatures. There are red knights, which you must collect and will run slowly away from you. There are also white knights, which run towards you and will turn you white again if you touch them. And there are four enemies (the "gly" boys), who will cost a life if they catch you. They start each level asleep on the right side of the screen, and eventually wake up and chase you.

Each knight you capture causes another to spawn from a queue, displayed at the top of the screen. In addition to red and white knights, there is also King Rompus who moves about more quickly than the knights. If caught, he will put the gly boys to sleep for a certain period of time, and turn the white knights red. There is also "Ugly", who is one of the gly boys that is much smaller than the others, and not fatal but still annoying.

Completing one of the levels will take you to a bonus round where you have to arrange a certain pattern on an electronic coloured square by manipulating the rows and columns. The game then loops at a higher level of difficulty.

The game was initially released as Fitter by Taito in Japan. The US release had a new title and renamed characters.

Enigma II is a fixed screen space shoot-em-up with four waves of enemies. You control a ship that can move back and forwards across the bottom of the screen, and fire vertically. You also have a limited amount of fuel which will allow you to launch yourself up in the air to escape enemy attacks, or to refuel.

The first enemy wave is a set of Space Invaders inspired aliens which bounce around the screen, and plant bombs every time they reach the ground. The bombs explode after a short delay. The second wave features bird like aliens resembling those from Phoenix . When hit, these aliens release a bomb that falls to the ground and explodes on impact. It also turns into a smaller bird that fires darts at you. The third wave consists of flying saucers, which loop around before swooping along the planet's surface in an effort to collide with your ship. The final wave consists of a large UFO on the other side of a moving star-field. You need to hit the vulnerable centre section of this UFO four times, while avoiding its return fire.

After the four waves have been defeated, a refuel ship appears at the top of the screen. You must successfully traverse the star-field and dock with the ship before it leaves. Failure to do this means that your fuel will not be replenished for the next four enemy waves, which will be at a higher level of difficulty.

Demoneye-X is a fixed screen shoot-em-up which pits your spaceship against an army of supernatural demons. The first wave consists of a large demon (the Demoneye-X) and a horde of its offspring Demoneye-Jrs. Shooting smaller demons will turn them into Octopluses, and then Octobombs which will sometimes try to ram your ship at high speed. After destroying the sub-demons, you must shoot the Demoneye-X once in a vulnerable spot while it pelts you with missiles. Finally, the demon king may appear, which you must shoot in the heart three times. Completing this will take you back to the first wave, but with an increased level of difficulty.

3-D Golf Simulation is a golf game over 9 holes, which displays both a top-down view of the course, as well as a 3D view. The 3D view of the fairway is from your ball position and always looking directly North, regardless of the relative position of the hole. When the ball is on the putting green, the 3D view is always from the same fixed point directly South of the hole.

Each drive requires three steps. First you must select the golf club (ranging from various irons and woods to sand wedges and putters). Then you select the angle, which may need to be adjusted to account for the wind direction and speed. Finally, you select the range by stopping a power bar at the appropriate point in its movement from the bottom to the top of the screen. The path of the ball is then simulated and displayed in the 3D and overhead views.

Dark Warrior is a fixed screen space themed shoot-em-up with elements of Missile Command . You are under attack from the Imperial Federation, whose dark warriors are attampting to destroy you and the last remaining fuel depots that supply your planetoid's life support systems with energy. The dark warriors attack as ground-troops and appear from over the horizon. These are supported by various waves of aerial attackers including Vulcan assault craft and the Hellspot battalion, and are followed by a deadly Neutron attack. You, with your lone laser gun, must hold out against the forces of darkness for as long as possible.

Your gun moves left and right along the ground in front of the planetoid's fuel depots, and can fire straight up. The enemy air forces fire missiles which are a threat to you, but not the fuel. While they attack you, the dark warriors approach along the ground. When they get close enough, they transform into mortar bombs and hurl themselves at your fuel. As the bombs are falling, they are vulnerable to a precisely placed shot, which cause them to break into shards. The shards will destroy your gun if they hit you. Losing all of your lives, or all of the fuel tanks, will end the game.

Super Tank is a 2D fixed screen top-down shooter where you control a tank in one of two alternating stages. The first stage is Pac-man like, and requires you to clear all of the mines (dots) on screen, while avoiding enemy tanks and their shots. You can shoot back at your opponents and, after collecting special red glowing diamonds, you become clad with super armor which makes you temporarily invincible and allows you to ram your opponent without losing a life. The second stage pits you against a large and almost completely indestructable super-tank. You must shoot it through its vulerable point (the turret) while avoiding being shot by both the super-tank and its smaller minions. Later stages vary only in the number of enemy tanks present on screen.

Piranha is a 2D fixed screen maze game very similar to Pac-man. You play as a feisty fish that is trying to gobble all of the bait on the screen. Meanwhile, there are four octopi that are trying to make a meal of you. If things get too desperate, you can take one of the warp escapes that take you to the other side of the screen. There are also four power-bait pellets that allow you to turn the tables on the octopi for a short period of time. There is only one maze layout thoughout the game, and it has a lot more open area than the maze from Pac-man.

Megatack is a space-themed fixed screen shooter with a lot of similarities to Centuri's later game Challenger . You control an armed space-pod that can move left and right along the bottom of the screen. There are two stages that alternate. In the first, monsters appear from the top of the screen while dropping bombs. You have a three-way shot, and need to take out the wave of 25 aliens before they devour you. The second stage contains space rings, that wobble about the screen slowly growing in size. Some of the rings will break into smaller rings if you shoot them. In this stage you only have a single-way shot but have a higher rate of fire. You have to destroy all of the rings before they get too large and engulf your space pod.

Flash Boy seems to have originally been released in Japan as a vertically scrolling science-fiction themed punch-em-up for the Data East Cassette System. It was later released as two variants: The Deco Kid which was vertically scrolling, and again as Flash Boy which was tipped on its side to became horizontally scrolling.

You control the title character, who greatly resembles the robotic manga/anime character Astroboy. You are flying through what looks like a space station, littered with boulders and other hazards, while under attack by aliens. The aliens will fly into screen, fire a weapon and then drift away. If you are hit by enemy fire, you will lose a life. Flying into one of the hazards will also lose a life. Avoiding hazards becomes more difficult to avoid when the walls start to narrow.

Aliens that come within your reach may be destroyed by a punch, or knocked out of the sky if you only hit them a glancing blow. Flash Boy may also activate a special attack which launches him at high speed towards his enemies and detonates a fire flash that will take out a group of enemies.

As you fly, your energy continually depletes. The special attack also uses a lot of energy. Destroying glowing enemies will give you more energy. You can also reach the end of level earlier, saving energy, by moving up towards the centre of the screen to fly through the terrain faster. Once you have reached the end of the level, you have an opportunity to completely replenish your energy by destroying all of the white holes within a certain amount of time. After this is achieved, the level repeats with slightly increased difficulty.

Submarine Shooter is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up set under the sea. Your craft moves in a channel with varying height and whose extents, above and below, are marked by sea-mines. The mines must be avoided as even a glancing blow will massively damage your shields. Enemy Atlantean craft and laser barriers block the channel. These will cause smaller amounts of damage on collision. Or you can blast them out of your way with your missiles. As you progress, your fuel gauge runs down. Destroying a fuel cannister will replenish your fuel, as well as repairing all of your shield damage.

The game starts at a relatively slow speed, but as you travel further your horizontal speed increases, as do the number of enemies. You only have a single life, which will expire when your shield damage is too great, or your fuel runs out.

Lonesome Tank Shingeki is a top-down arcade 2D scrolling maze game in the style of Namco's Rally X. You play as a tank in a maze of paved roads, which you can drive over, and buildings and other impassable terrain. Enemy tanks are swarming the area, and some of the roads are mined. You need to pick up a certain number of the enemy's flags while avoiding the tanks... or you could shoot all of the tanks

There is only one map, with levels differing only in the number and speed of enemy tanks, and the position of mines. The flags locations appear on the map one as a time as dots in a radar display, and can only be distinguished from enemy tanks because they do not move. There is a time limit to collect all of the flags, which is incremented each time you complete a level. Completely running out of time, or losing all of your lives from tank collisions will result in a "Game Over".

Pyramid Warp is a top-down fixed screen arcade maze game taking place in an ancient Egyptian pyramid. Every chamber of the tomb contains a variety of walls forming a maze, a monster portal, a pair of warp zones that teleports you from one spot to another, and three green mystery boxes. Each box may either contain a gun, a diamond, or a mummy. Your task is to find the treasure in each maze, and then reach the exit that opens up in the centre of the maze taking you to the next room.

Every pyramid contains 15 rooms having specific configurations, but may appear in random order. The items are also not always in the same boxes. Four marauding monsters (two vampire bats and two scorpions) leave the portal, and wander the maze haphazardly, causing death on contact. These monsters can be shot, after collecting the gun on that level, after which they will return to the portal to re-spawn. If you find the mummy, it will pause a while before starting to track you down, which it does relentlessly. It is invulnerable to your weapon, but you can escape it by using one of the warps. There is also a timer, corresponding to your air remaining in the tomb. You must leave the room before your air supply is exhausted.

Fruit Search is a variant of the board game Mastermind. Three to five girls, depending on settings, go to the shop and buy a different fruit. You have to guess which of the 8 types of fruit each girl bought within a certain number of guesses. After each guess, you are provided with a number of hints in the form of red or blue butterflies. A red insect means that you guessed a correct fruit/girl combination. A blue insect means that you guessed a fruit correctly, but assigned it to the wrong girl. On the lowest level of difficulty, each butterfly will fly over the particular fruit it is referring to so there is no ambiguity.

Pai Panic is a Mahjong themed single screen action game. You play as Jankiki-kun, who is a creature with a hammer. A row of Mahjong tiles starts to appear from the left of the screen. By hitting the ground above a tile, you can knock it onto your rack. If the tile lands on-top of an already placed tile, then it replaces the previous one. Your goal is to collect a full Mahjong hand before the tiles run out. This typically consists of four melds (three of one type, or a run of three consecutive numbers of the same suit) plus a pair.

While you are playing, obstacles bounce around overhead. Depending on the level of difficulty, there may be one or two bouncing dice, or spinning point sticks that can only be avoided by jumping over them. If you are hit by anything, you are temporarily stunned. Hammering a button on the right of the screen will sort all of your tiles, allowing you to more easily assess your hand. Pressing the "ron" button on the left will complete the level if you have a valid hand. Otherwise you lose a life.

Biotek is a top-down arcade shooter set in a biological laboratory. You are making pro-biotic drinks using good bacteria known as "Super X". The lab contains a variety of bacterial colonies, some of which are neutral while others are deadly. You can convert the bacteria by spraying them with a short-ranged ray beam that you carry. Purple colonies are harmless and require one spray to be turned into Super X (White) but if sprayed again turn blue and become dangerous. Blue bacteria become purple when sprayed. Red creatures become stationary and will eventually divide by binary fission, but may be sprayed to become white. The level ends when you have converted all of the bacterial colonies into Super X, and added them to the drink bottle on the right of the screen. The levels become progressively more difficult with extra and faster moving bacteria.

Heavy Boxing is an arcade sports game for one or two players. You control a boxer, and can move around the ring and try to punch your opponent. Landing a successful punch will give you energy, as indicated by a bar at the bottom of the screen. Being hit by your opponent, or ducking a punch will cost you energy. A successful punch will have a chance of knocking down your opponent, after which a timer starts. At any time, there is some likelihood that the boxer gets to their feet and the round continues. But if the boxer does not get back up after 10 seconds, then they lose the game by knock out (KO). A KO will also occur if one of the players loses all of their energy.

Absent a KO, the game will continue for 12 rounds of 90 seconds each. The players regain some of their energy at the end of each round. After all rounds are completed, the game will be adjudicated by the number of hits landed.

Marine Date is an arcade puzzle game with 99 levels. You play as an octopus who has a date with an attractive female octopus on the other side of the screen. Reaching her will complete the level and take you to the next.

The game is controlled by trackball, and you can propel yourself using a jet of water from place to place by spinning it in the appropriate direction. You have only a limited number of jet squirts available to complete a level. You must also deal with obstacles. There are walls of seaweed that form a sort of maze, and cause you to ricochet if you run into them. A variety of sea-creatures (fish, seahorses, crabs and turtles) may obstruct your path. Getting caught in bubbles will raise you towards the surface. And if you wait too long, a deadly shark will appear, which you can evade using a well timed spray of ink.

In addition, there are a number of dots spaced around the level which will give you points if collected. Picking up all of the dots on the level will give you a large bonus.

Alice in Adventureland is a graphical adventure game inspired by "Alice in Wonderland". You play as Alice, who is trapped in a cubical maze of size 6x6x6 cells. The rooms of the maze within a level are connected by corridors which may be blocked by doors of various colour. There are also flights of stairs between levels, and an elevator which connects all of them. Your only chance of escape is to scour the labyrinth and eventually find the white rabbit.

The doors and the elevator may only be used if you have collected the appropriately coloured key. Hints to the locations of these keys are given by Cheshire cats that inhabit some of the rooms. Keys can also be bought with gold. If you collect 10 of the gold pieces that are scattered on each level, you will be given the next key. Keys can also be stolen, if you happen to pass through a room patrolled by a gryphon.

Gold can be lost if you pass by the Mad Hatter's tea shop or the ubiquitous MacDuchess fast-food franchise, as you do not have the will-power to resist purchasing something. Some of the rooms contain pits that drop you to the lower level, or a magical looking-glass that will randomly teleport you unless you possess the proper key.

Exchanger is an arcade game spanning two parallel universes, separated by a barrier. You control an exchanger, which is a device made of black and white holes that will suck aliens through a tunnel from one universe to an outlet in the other. The device will periodically change the direction of transfer after a short pause in operation. You can directly control the motion of one end of the exchanger, while the other end is controlled indirectly and may move in the opposite direction from the first end. Each level is initially populated with aliens of two types that have appeared in the wrong universes. Your aim is to send all of the aliens home, using the exchanger, so that the blue aliens are on the right side of the barrier while the yellow ones are on the left.

If you exchange an alien twice within a short period of time, it becomes angry and turns a red colour. An angry alien will wreck your exchanger if you touch it with the outlet, causing you to lose a life. Later levels also introduce mines which will detonate after contact with either end of your exchanger.

Future Flash is a variant of the Atari arcade game Missile Command . You start the game with four fixed bases with which to defend your planet. Aliens swarm towards you from the top of the screen, and you must defend against them by launching missiles. Exploding missiles have a small blast radius, but anything within or entering that zone will be destroyed. Once sufficient aliens are destroyed, the wave ends and bonus points are awarded for the number of your bases remaining.

Comet Tail is a Snake variant for the MSX. It takes place in a rectangular maze containing one blue and one yellow comet, each consisting of a nucleus and a tail. You control one of these comets, with the other under the control of the computer or another player. The comets are constantly on the move, but may turn left or right. Blue and yellow stellar material appears randomly in the arena. Collecting material of your own colour will allow your tail to grow. Collecting material of the other comet's colour will cause its tail to shrink.

Every time you collect any material, a timer resets. If you fail to capture any more material before the timer runs out, your tail will also shrink. You can lose a life if you completely decay, or if you run into the maze walls, your own or your opponent's tail. Play continues until you achieve a certain score, at which point an exit opens up in the outer wall, which will take you to the next arena. There are five speed settings and a total of 50 levels with increasingly complicated wall patterns, making it much more difficult to navigate safely.

The fourth of Hudson's W series compilations, consisting of:

• Super Doors
• Ame no Hi wa Ōisogashi

This is the only release of these two games for the MSX.

Midway is an arcade shoot-em-up set in world war II. You pilot an airplane from a squadron of three, and must take on the ships of the navy below. Your airplane moves at a fixed speed, and may only turn left or right. It can also travel off the screen, with the screen flipping to the new location. A never-ending stream of ships of various types appear from the North and slowly travel South. You can bomb the ships when immediately passing over them, and this will give you points and fuel to continue the attack. Dropping bombs that miss their targets will cost you points.

There are four different types of enemy. The aircraft carrier is the largest, easiest to hit, and worth the least. There are also battleships, armed with anti-aircraft weapons, smaller naval cruisers and submarines which periodically dive below the sea surface. You will lose a plane when hit by anti-aircarft fire, or when running out of fuel. The game is over once the entire squadron is defeated.

Silicon is a top-down arcade maze game in the style of Rally X but set on the inside of a silicon chip. You control a miniature debugger, which must traverse the maze to collect all of the stray bits while avoiding dangerous enemies.

There are two types of enemy in the maze. Bugs, visible on the radar, are constantly on patrol. You can shoot these to return them to egg form where they are immobile but still deadly. Occasionally, a glitch will appear at a random time. When this happens, a "heartbeat" is played as a sound cue. The frequency of the heartbeat slowly increases as the glitch becomes more serious, and you will lose a life if it is not destroyed within a certain time.

The stray bits to be collected appear as shimmering symbols. You can only carry four of these at a time, after which you should take them to the output port at the top right of the maze. Picking up a bonus, appearing as an octagon, will cause your debugger to change colour and become invulnerable for a period of 20 seconds. Getting all stray bits will take you to the next skill level, unless a glitch is active, in which case it must be dispatched first. Later levels have different layouts, and faster and more numerous bugs.

Candoo Ninja is a side-scrolling platform game with four stages of play. In the first, you must dodge birds and leap ditches to reach the entrance to the enemy's lair. In the second, you must climb ropes and onto moving platforms, defeat eight swordsmen in armed combat and retrieve their treasures. In the third, you must collect eight keys while avoiding bats, arrows and other objects. In the final stage, you must ascend a rope avoiding bats and the enemy's throwing stars, until you reach the exit. After this, play loops with faster moving enemies.

You can start the game at three different difficulty settings. The harder levels increase the number of fatal obstacles that must be avoided during play.

Grand Champion is a top-down car racing game. You have controls to move left and right, to accelerate, and to switch between low and high gear. Each level starts with you in last place behind a bunch of other cars, and you have to finish in the top three places by the time you reach the finish line.

During the race, there are several variations in the environment. These include a thunderstorm which makes the track more slippery and causes lightning bolts that must be dodged, a tunnel where vision is limited to the extent of the beams of your headlights, and a narrow bridge over water.

While the track is depicted as having bends or corners, it is actually mostly straight with occasional narrowing and slight deviations to the left or right. The major difficulty is in dodging cars while overtaking. Soft collisions with these cars will damage your car, which will need to be repaired by a stop at the pits (which occurs automatically). Harder collisions will require you to wait for a replacement car, making it difficult to catch your competitors. At various times during the race, the positions of the other cars on the track will be shown on a radar on the right of the screen. Your current rank is displayed at the top of the screen.

Finishing in the top three will allow you to compete in the next race, which has a similar track layout and a different coloured background, but a larger number of cars to overtake.