Taz (C64)

Another quick port from my trawl of Youtube videos on the Atari 2600 games library. This was written in just over a day on the weekend of 10th July 2021. I've made a few changes to the difficulty curve to make for a more interesting game - the original could take a while to get going.

TAZ is an eating contest composed of three unbalanced meals. Each meal consists of eight courses. After you eat 20 (down from 50) items of one course, the next course is served. As you progress through the courses, the food moves faster and arrives more frequently. Unlike the original, the more items you miss the quicker the speed increases. This is to encourage players to stray from the centre of the screen to chase any missed items.

When you finish all eight courses of one meal, you immediately start the next. In each of the three meals the same food is served in the same sequence - you start with hamburgers and end with sundaes. If you devour all three meals you are rewarded with a surprise "dessert." What could it be - a stomach pump?

You start the game with three lives. Each time you swallow dynamite you lose a life. The game ends when you lose your last life. You win bonus lives at: 10,000 points, 30,000,  50,000, 80,000, 110,000, 150,000, and every 40,000 points thereafter.

The maximum number of lives that can be displayed on screen at once is six; the maximum you can have is eight.