UXB

Roger Hagerty, Auburn, AL

For Atari and VIC, a game which tests both dexterity and nerve. Unexploded bombs litter a minefield. Your job is to quickly defuse the bombs without tripping a mine. The VIC version saves memory space by putting the instructions on a separate program. Type in Program 1 and SAVE it. Then type in Program 2 and SAVE it on the same tape (after Program 1).

World War II. London is battered and scorched. And although there is a pause in the fighting, a peril remains among the rubble: UXB's, Unexploded Bombs. These are shells that failed to detonate, but remain a danger, their unstable nature making them literally time bombs.

Your Mission

You are an explosives expert, charged with the vital duty of defusing or harmlessly detonating the UXB's. Using your joystick (Atari version), move your flashing marker about the screen. For the VIC version, use the keys I,J,K, and M to move, where I is up, M is down, J is left, and K is right. Touch your marker to a UXB to render it harmless.

A Few Complications

Your job is not as easy as it may sound. First, you have only 30 seconds to perform your task. Second, the field you're working in is also a minefield. Littered about the playfield are numerous colored bombs that you must avoid, lest you meet an untidy fate.

Using the keyboard for movement makes the game quite challenging for VIC owners, since it takes a while to get used to such movement. Hold a key down to continue movement in the selected direction, but let go before you hit a mine! A joystick makes movement much easier so an extra incentive was added to the Atari version: the faster you clear out the UXB's, the better your score. Your score (the number of UXB's you hit) is multiplied by 30, less the number of seconds you take. So if you take 20 seconds, your score is multiplied by 10.