Santa's Troubles
platform game for Commodore 64, 2023
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A few days before Christmas, the toys to be distributed to all the children of
the world have now been packaged in Santa's workshop. Unfortunately, a gang
of criminals decided to steal part of the gift packages to resell them on the
black market. The criminals then went to the North Pole and entered the
workshop stealing as many packages as possible and, after loading their
truck, fled. Shortly afterwards, one of the village elves noticed what had
happened and immediately raised the alarm. Santa Claus then hastily prepared
the sleigh complete with reindeer and following the tracks left by the
fugitives in the snow he reached the nearest town, where the criminals had
set up their den and where they had unloaded the loot. Now Santa Claus will
have to work hard to recover the stolen goods.
Gameplay
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The aim of the game is to help Santa Claus recover all the gift packages
stolen by the criminals.
Once Santa Claus has snuck into the thieves' den, he will have to move inside
the building avoiding the enemies and collect the packages bringing them to
the fireplace from which he entered. Santa Claus will be slowed down slightly
while carrying a package. After recovering all the packages, the player will
advance to the next stage.
At the beginning of each stage (except for the Expert difficulty level) Santa
Claus will have a magical power at his disposal capable of temporarily
stunning the enemies, but be careful that this power can only be used once.
Subsequently, for every two packages recovered, Santa Claus will receive
other magical powers in the following sequence: 1) Power capable of stopping
time for a few seconds, during which the enemies will not be able to harm
Santa Claus; 2) Power capable of stunning the enemies; 3) Power capable of
transforming Santa Claus into a "shadow", making him invulnerable and
invisible to the enemies for a few seconds. A flashing icon at the bottom of
the screen will indicate what power the player currently has.
Santa Claus will be able to move through the thieves' den via stairs,
elevators or trapdoors. The elevators can be called via the appropriate
buttons and then operated up or down as desired. The trapdoors can be used as
an escape route to elude the pursuers, or to reach the lower parts of the
building more quickly.
The enemies (2 for the Easy difficulty level, 3 for the Normal and Expert
difficulty levels) have different speeds and are able to chase Santa Claus
horizontally as long as they see him in front of them or along the stairs
when they are nearby. The enemies can use the stairs and the elevators but
not the trapdoors. The player will be able to stun an enemy using one of the
following methods: 1) Using the stun power; 2) Overwhelming the enemy by
falling on top of him through a trapdoor; 3) Operating or calling an elevator
upwards just before the enemy reaches it (the enemy will crash into the
moving elevator); 4) Operating or calling an elevator downwards crushing the
enemy underneath it.
In some stages there is a closed door. The only way to open this door is to
recover the key held by the Boss of the gang (the bearded man dressed in
brown). In order to steal the key from the Boss, he must first be stunned. An
icon at the bottom of the screen will indicate when the player has the key.
In some stages the fireplace is controlled by a thermostat, which will
automatically light the flame when the room temperature reaches the minimum
value. As long as there is the flame in the fireplace, the packages cannot be
recovered. To turn off the flame it is necessary to act on the thermostat.
The packages will have to be recovered before the time runs out. The amount of
time available varies depending on the stage. After losing a life, the time
will restart at a minimum of 35.
The player will get 1000 points for each package recovered, 10 points for each
horizontal step taken, 2000 points for stunning an enemy, 3000 points for
stunning the Boss, and 250 points for each unit of time left at the end of a
stage.
As the game progresses, the enemies will become faster and faster. The game
includes a total of 16 stages.
At 40000 points and then every 70000 points (90000 for the Expert difficulty
level), the player earns an extra life, for a maximum of 6 lives.
Options
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There are 3 difficulty levels to choose from: Easy, Normal, Expert.
Controls
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Joystick in port 2.
Joystick lever = Move Santa Claus in the four directions
Short press of fire button = Pick up and drop packages, call elevators,
turn off the flame in the fireplace
by acting on the thermostat
Long press of fire button = Activate magical powers
While playing, press F7 to pause or F1 to stop the game and go back
to the title screen.
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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)