Kaktus
arcade shooter game for Commodore 64, 1983
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KAKTUS - a prickly problem!
In the barren wastes of the desert the
only plant that can survive is the giant
cactus (cactus ginormus), but now even
the cactus faces extinction. A giant
swarm of wasps is threatening to topple
the last surviving cactuses one by one
and only you can save the species!
SCENARIO
The only way to save the cactus is to
strike first, eliminating wasps and
hornets before they can take a bite from
the foot of the plant. Hornets look much
like wasps, but have darker heads; they
are also dangerous because they must be
hit twice to be destroyed. However, if
you wit until the hornets are close to
the ground you can gain a much higher
score when you do wipe them out.
Be careful though, because if they make
it to the base of the cactus they'll
take two bites instead of one! Although
you can move above or below ground you
can only get from one side of the cactus
to the other by going underneath. The
mole which occasionally comes across
will try to fill in the holes in the
ground, and could trap you above if you
are not careful; you shouldn't collide
with the mole either. Another hazard is
a mist of highly dangerous droppings
that the wasps leave as they buzz around
Let them hit you and you lose a life.
Because the droppings are acidic they
tend to eat through the ground, and will
in time create holes. If you can survive
the first screen there's an extra hazard
from the second screen onwards.A buzzard
will fly across the screen from time to
time dropping eggs that fall so fast
they can knock a hole to the ground,
though they bounce on the rock beneath
(goodness know why they don't break!).
Avoid the eggs at all costs, though you
can score a bonus by destroying the eggs
and the buzzard. At the end of each
screen you receive a bonus if the cactus
is still standing. The maximus bonus is
1000 points but each bite taken from the
cactus reduces the bonus by 100 points.
You start the game with 3 lives, and can
gain a bonus life by scoring 10000
points. A life is lost when you are hit
by the mole, a wasp dropping, or a
buzzard's egg, or when the cactus falls
over.
The Cactus will fall over if the base is
eaten away, or if the ground on either
sides has been eroded.
GAMEPLAY
Start the game by pressing the F1 key or
the joystik fire button. Plug your
joystick into Control Port 2, or if you
don't have a joystick you can still play
using these keys:
W: Up
X: Down
A: Left
D: Right
L: Fire
You can pause the game at any time by
pressing F3, Restart with F5.
RESTORE ends the current game (but you
shouldn't give up so easily!).
HOW LONG CAN YOU SAVE THE GIANT CACTUS
FROM EXTINCTION ?
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Some useful keyboard shortcuts
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[PAUSE] - stop/continue game
[F9] - quick load game state
[F12] - quick save game state (still stored after leaving the site)
[F11] - toggle fullscreen mode
[ScrollLock] - quick switch control ports
[PageDown] - make a screenshot (320x200)