PrinceWatercress plays Planet Patrol - The Longplay

...and now, a session of this game minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Planet Patrol is a horizontal shmup from Spectravision for the Atari 2600 from 1982. The game can be played with one or two players, and there are two game modes - one slow and one fast - for both the one- and two-player modes. You play as the white ship on the right side of the ship, and you move up and down with the joystick while firing missiles at the red ship with the fire button. 

You'll want to take down as many red ships as you can while also avoiding the blue projectiles that look like lances. According to the bottom of the screen, you only have three lives and a fuel tank, and if you get hit by enemy fire or run out of fuel, you'll lose a life.

You'll eventually see a black ship. When you see it, run into it to dock with it. This allows you to reach the bonus stage for a chance to refuel. The black ship is usually one of the last ships to appear before you see the enemy refueling depots. You'll need to destroy these green machines before you hit the green border and lose a life.

Once you destroy the enemy refueling depots, you'll have to fly through a minefield. You can't fire your weapon here, and all you can do is move up and down to avoid the walls of mines that are in your way. When you get past the mine field, you'll need to line yourself up with the black line. This is the refueling road, and if you successfully line yourself up with it, you'll refuel your ship.

In the next area, day will turn into night once you score enough points. When it turns into night, the red enemy ships become harder to see until they become totally invisible, and your weapon fire is the only thing that will temporarily reveal them for a second. Keep firing and you should be able to see them and either destroy or avoid accordingly. 

After that, you'll get the bonus area if you run into the black ship again and destroy the enemy refueling station, then you can go for a refuel again. After that, the game keeps going until you run out of lives.

This is a rather fine, yet serviceable, game. I have the feeling more people would be talking about this one if this game had come out just a little bit earlier. I didn't have much in the way of problems with the controls, and while the graphics are pretty basic, you can easily identify most of everything. This one is worth giving a shot, at the very least.

PrinceWatercress plays Planet Patrol

It's time for another Atari 2600, and this time, we play a horizontral shmup from the time of the North American game crash.

Longplay

Planet Patrol is a horizontal shmup from Spectravision for the Atari 2600 from 1982. The game can be played with one or two players, and there are two game modes - one slow and one fast - for both the one- and two-player modes. You play as the white ship on the right side of the ship, and you move up and down with the joystick while firing missiles at the red ship with the fire button. 

You'll want to take down as many red ships as you can while also avoiding the blue projectiles that look like lances. According to the bottom of the screen, you only have three lives and a fuel tank, and if you get hit by enemy fire or run out of fuel, you'll lose a life.

You'll eventually see a black ship. When you see it, run into it to dock with it. This allows you to reach the bonus stage for a chance to refuel. The black ship is usually one of the last ships to appear before you see the enemy refueling depots. You'll need to destroy these green machines before you hit the green border and lose a life.

Once you destroy the enemy refueling depots, you'll have to fly through a minefield. You can't fire your weapon here, and all you can do is move up and down to avoid the walls of mines that are in your way. When you get past the mine field, you'll need to line yourself up with the black line. This is the refueling road, and if you successfully line yourself up with it, you'll refuel your ship.

In the next area, day will turn into night once you score enough points. When it turns into night, the red enemy ships become harder to see until they become totally invisible, and your weapon fire is the only thing that will temporarily reveal them for a second. Keep firing and you should be able to see them and either destroy or avoid accordingly. 

After that, you'll get the bonus area if you run into the black ship again and destroy the enemy refueling station, then you can go for a refuel again. After that, the game keeps going until you run out of lives.

This is a rather fine, yet serviceable, game. I have the feeling more people would be talking about this one if this game had come out just a little bit earlier. I didn't have much in the way of problems with the controls, and while the graphics are pretty basic, you can easily identify most of everything. This one is worth giving a shot, at the very least.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 19 of 19

...and with this entry, Math Rescue is complete.

First | Previous

Level 15: The Dark Cave

In the final level of the game, you're going to be going through a ton of warps in order to get to where you need to go. However, if you can memorize where some of the numbers are, you can cut down on the backtracking in such a way that said backtracking will be reduced...assuming you're collecting all the numbers in order.

When you beat this level, you'll get the ending for Episode 3 as well as the entire game.

Whew! You've returned the numbers to their rightful places and captured a Gruzzle! It is a touching moment when the Gruzzle, Zorja, recognizes Benny as a long lost cousin.

Benny explains to the young Zorja that Gruzzles were not always pets and convinces her to choose freedom over the Glixerians.

With Benny translating, you invite all Gruzzles to come and live forever on planet Earth. In doing so, you have succeeded, not only in saving Earth's numbers for good, but in providing the gardeners on Earth with built-in slug control. The Gruzzles decide to move from the purple slime planet to the muckless, blue planet of Earth.

Best of all, your mother, who has been locked in the bathroom this whole time comes out into the living room. She is so happy to have the numbers back on her paycheck that she order pizza for everyone. In California, the highway patrol is so relieved that for a whole day, the officers give out doughnuts instead of traffic tickets.

For the Glixerians on Glixer II, however, things aren't so sunny. They fling stink mud at the backs of departing Gruzzles. Then things get out of hand and they begin throwing stick mud at each other. Soon the whole planet reeks of skunk!

But the Glixerians are not finished with the planet Earth! Watch for more episodes in the upcoming Gruzzle Puzzles.

Sadly, Gruzzle Puzzles never came out. But, hey, at least you've beaten Math Rescue!

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 18 of 19

The Asteroid Belt can be a little tricky for younger gamers, but thankfully you can climb up or down on the asteroids if you need to look up or down.

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Level 13: The Asteroid Belt

You're going to be jumping around in this level...a lot. If you know what you're doing, you can get all the Gruzzles to fall all the way to the bottom of the level and never have to deal with them again. If you're wondering where that is, it's slightly below the exit door. 

You can climb up and down on the asteroid platforms, and that can help you look up and down if you need to. 

Level 14: Exploring the Caves

Compared to The Asteroid Belt, this level is much more pleasant.

There is a warp before the "8" and "9" near the start.

If you don't find something leaping into the center of the underside of an arch near the start and moving around, try leaping into an arch from the side. You'll find a warp for your efforts.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 17 of 19

In this entry, the levels start getting a little more frustrating...but thankfully, not too much.

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Level 11: Inside the Gruzzles' Spaceship

If you pick up all the numbers in the proper order, you'll hit all the warps and you'll hit all the trucks in the order you need to hit them in (for the most part).

Level 12: The Space Maze

Accurate level name is accurate.

Hitting all of the warps is fun. One seems to lead to a dead end, but if you leap into the wall there, you'll see more of the level. You'll eventually be warped back to the start, so if you missed anything on the drop at the beginning, you can go for it again.

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 16 of 19

Time to make some more progress in Episode 3...and this is where the level design starts getting messy again.

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Level 8: Lava Castle

You'll get bonus points off a green truck at the start. There is also a ceiling to jump through for a secret area left of the start.

Level 9: Return to Space

Yep, it's back to platforming and maze-like level design again. I want to say it's not too bad, but it's too easy to hit the wrong number and there are Gruzzles everywhere.

Level 10: Space Attack!

Be careful on the pipe platforms, as you can accidentally drop through them by pressing Down on the arrow keys.

Follow the pipes when you see all the "Danger" signs, so you don't accidentally take a leap (or drop) of faith for the "9".

PrinceWatercress plays Math Rescue - Part 15 of 19

The lava is back, and so is all of the platforming that comes with it.

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Level 5: Blueberry Boardwalk

You'll need to leap through the wall next to the exit to find the second set of numbers. Thankfully, the whole first set is there in the way towards the exit from the start.

Watch for openings in the walls if you need to find a way to continue.

Level 6: Caramel City

Just below the start, you can leap into the wall at the far-left and be taken into a secret area.

Also, how dare they put the 7 before the 6. Why.

Level 7: Lava Land

The numbers are all over the place here, so keep that in mind in case you're getting that number sequence bonus.

There are two warps, both in the lower corners, and they lead to various items.