PrinceWatercress plays Drill Dozer - Part 4 of 28

The next part of the story takes us to the art museum, and we'll have to head there to get the Red Diamond back...

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Area 2-1: Art Museum

Marked Map (by TerraEsperZ)

Unmarked Map (by Spanettone)

The police officers fight much like the Skullker enemies that you've fought before. Also, don't worry about the treasure above where you start. You'll be getting it later. For now, just break the glass below you to break into the museum.

When you land in the art museum, you'll need to head to the left first. You'll need to do this to get to second gear and take care of the area on the right. As you go through here, you'll be re-introduced through the drill ducts. Remember to use R to go through the red ones and L to go through the blue ones. If you need to go in reverse, use the opposite button while in the ducts.

Watch out for lasers. They hurt. Also, destroy everything you see, including the security cameras, for chips.

You'll soon find a block hiding a red drill duct. This takes you to the second gear, which will allow you to continue on.

You'll soon find out that you can move a painting with B. Move it to the other end to get that big security wall out of your way.

The red and purple square blocks alternate. When one color disappears, the other reappears. You'll be seeing these in other stages, and they appear and disappear in very straightforward patterns

You'll also need to watch your head while using the socket lifts afterwards due to the walls and ceilings. Along the way, you'll soon find the third gear. The doorway at the top takes you to some treasure - and the start - but again, you'll have to come here later to get it. Drop back down to the museum, and head right. With both gears in your possession, you can easily get through here. Take out the officers and watch the lasers.

The guys with the shields can be taken out if you hit them with the drill from above and then drill them from behind. Some of the officers in the small robot suits don't have shields, and you can easily defeat them.

To take out the robot dogs, watch out for and avoid the jump, then drill the dog from behind. If the dog runs in place, jump after or run away from the charge attack. After enough damage, the armor will be removed, and damaging it again will help take it out for good.

You'll soon see a security robot suit with an exposed bolt. Drill the exposed bolt with R and get to third gear to remove the bolt and make that robotic armor suit fall apart. Also, keep this in mind for later.

In the room with all the statues, one of the statues will be facing the other direction. Move the statue that's directly above you all the way to the right and place it below the one that if facing right, and you'll clear the wall in front of you out of your way.

The battery replaces a lot of health, and you won't see it very often throughout the game.

When you reach the stage, watch where the enemies are standing so you don't take contact damage, then take them out like you usually have.

You'll soon face a guard in the armor suit from earlier. Block the punches with your drill, and when you see one of the fists turn red, jump. The giant screw will soon be exposed, and you'll want to jump up, drill it and shift up to third gear to do as much damage as possible. Once the armored guard is beaten, you'll soon find a vault. From here, the Red Dozers regroup and the level ends. You'll then find out that the vault has three locks, and you'll have to stake the place out further to find out how to open them.

PrinceWatercress plays Drill Dozer - Part 3 of 28

Now that we've been exposed to things we'll see later in the game, let's head back to the main game and try to get the Red Diamond back.

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Area 1-2: Skullker Factory

Marked Map (by TerraEsperZ)

Unmarked Map (by Spanettone)

At the beginning of every level, you will always be at one gear, and you'll have to find your second and third 

Watch for cracks in the ceilings when you enter the factory; you'll find chips that way.

The yellow rubber blocks make their debut here. As mentioned before, drill into them with one shoulder button, then press the other while still drilling to launch yourself backwards. The higher the gear you're in, the more you'll be launched back, and you can also change direction mid-flight to latch onto something else, if need be.

You'll need to get second gear and launch off the left end of a rubber block to get your first treasure chest, which contains the Round Stone. There are 31 treasures that you can collect for the treasure room, and all of them are needed for 100% completion.

For the mini-boss, take out the enemies, then drill up into the mini-boss to damage it when it extends itself downwards. Don't forget to shift up to second gear to do more damage.

To power up the socket lift after the mini-boss, you'll have to enter the door to the left.

Hold B and move around with the D-Pad to look around. Doing it at the crack in the wall reveals the room below. Go down there, go up to the lever, press B when the game tells you, and you'll pull the lever and get the socket lift moving.

The flying enemies with the drills will drop down on you when you are near them. When they drop, be ready to back away and then hit them with the drill.

There is a set of socket lifts in the outside area, but until we can break the metal block, we can't go any further with it.

Back inside, you'll be drilling through a lot of desks and office equipment. Before the second mini-boss, there is a desk you can drill through for energy. You'll then fight two of the missile tanks from Area 1-1. Wait for one to shoot a missile, then drill into it. When the other one shoots a missile, you'll need to launch off yourself the first missile tank like you did with the rubber locks, then switch direction and drill into the other one. You'll have to keep switching between the two tanks as they shoot missiles to take them out as quickly as possible without taking damage and make quick work of them. 

The spring enemies after the mini-boss produce electricity, and if you attack them as they do this, you'll take damage.

Hold Down and press A to slide across narrow passages. If you don't get through the passage, just slide again.

As always, pay attention to walls to find out where you can destroy them. For the wrench box you're forced to slide to, there is a part of the wall with a bandage on it, signaling that you can destroy it to open that part up.

You'll eventually face Croog, the mastermind of the Skullkers, with the Red Diamond. After he refuses to give the Red Diamond back and flies away, you'll have to face him. The spark plug you'll find on the way to Croog gives more health than the green stone.

To beat the Scorpion Drill, wait for the drill to hit the ground, then drill into it and get to third gear as you do. When Croog sends bombs at you, watch the bombs' movement and jump over them when they get close.

After you destroy the drill, Croog's tank will grow spider legs. When the mouth opens, drill into the mouth and get to third gear to do a bunch of damage. If it takes a while, Gearmo will give you a hint telling you to drill the mouth. You'll still have to watch for the bombs, so be careful. Also, don't hold Right while drilling into the mouth, or else you'll drop into the tank when you get knocked back.

After you beat Croog, Croog will fly away...for now. You'll find out that Croog is taking the Red Diamond to the Art Museum, and you'll find out that some strange guy is now running a shop at the trailer where you can buy things such as energy tanks that act as reserve tanks and give you more health with the chips that you've been picking up throughout the game.

PrinceWatercress plays Drill Dozer - Part 2 of 28

Before heading back to the Skullkers' lair, we check out the Red Dozers' training course.

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At the main menu, you can see the equipment that is equipped on your Drill Dozer, you can see the treasures that you have collected, and you'll also be able to save and load games. You'll also be able to go to the map and play and re-play levels.

While we could go to Area 1-2 right now, we're going to the training course to see what the future of the game holds.

Red Dozers' Training Course

Marked Map (by TerraEsperZ)

Unmarked Map (by Spanettone)

The chalkboards will contain notes on the things you have just interacted with, and you can read them with B.

The boxes with the hourglasses on are time blocks. They will re-appear after being destroyed. There will be a series of beeps, and after the third set of beeps, the block re-appears. If you're inside where the block is, the block will not re-appear until you move out of the way. The darker blocks take more abuse before getting destroyed than the lighter ones.

If you hold forward on the D-Pad while drilling through multiple blocks at third gear, you'll keep moving forward from block to block as long as you are holding forward and the button you are drilling with.

The drill ducts allow you to move forward with the drill. Hold R to go through the red ones, and L to go through the blue ones. If you shift to third gear, you can fly through gaps in the ducts.

The screw gates will open paths to areas and can also help you get to others. Experiment with the screw gates to figure out which button you need to screw them. By moving one screw in, another screw moves out. The screws will move back to their original positions after a few seconds.

Sometimes you can interact with things on the wall with B. By placing the jigsaw puzzle piece on the wall by walking up to it with B and placing it where you need to - which is the puzzle below - you can open up a wall. You'll be doing this to open up paths throughout the game.

The yellow square blocks are rubber blocks. If you drill into them with one shoulder button, then press the other shoulder button, you can launch yourself backwards. The higher the gear you're in, the further you'll launch yourself back. You can switch directions while launching yourself, allowing you to perform multiple rebounding jumps with multiple rubber blocks, and while this takes practice, it can be done and it will get your places.

There are socket lifts that can carry you from either side. Remember that they can only carry you for as long as your drill is spinning, and if you hit a ceiling or a wall, you will automatically let go of the socket lift. Thankfully, you can switch the side of the socket lift that you are on with the D-Pad.

You'll find a treasure chest with 150 chips at the end.

PrinceWatercress plays Drill Dozer - Part 1 of 28

A shame this came out shortly after the DS did. I never hear much about this game, but what I hear about it is good...even if there are things about it that frustrate me later on.

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Area 1-1: Skullker Hideout

Marked Map (by TerraEsperZ)

Unmarked Map (by Spanettone)

The game begins with The Red Dozers - Jill, Grutch and Gearmo - heading off to the Skullkers' hideout to retrieve the Red Diamond, which was left to Jill after her mother passed away. Jill heads off in the Drill Dozer into the Skullkers' hideout, but she soon falls through a trap door and gets knocked for a loop upon landing. From here, getting back out is priority number one.

Left and Right move left and right, A jumps, B in conjunction with the D-Pad lets Jill look around while the B button is held down, Down and A slides. L and R will be your drill buttons, with L drilling in one direction and R drilling in the other. You'll be using R more often than not, but there will be times where you have to use L, and that will be mentioned in detail later. When you drill, you'll see a gauge on the screen that fills up and goes back down. You'll be able to get more out of your drill later in the level.

Jill soon gets back in the Drill Dozer. By drilling through the wall with L or R, you can destroy the wall, but the drill will not run for long. The walls you destroy will have health meters, and when they go all the way down, the walls will be destroyed. You can also hold Left and Right to move forward and back while drilling. If you see cracks in a wall, floor or ceiling, you can use the D-Pad in conjunction with the drill to drill through them and find things.

In the next room, you can destroy the blocks with the drill. The blocks reveal some posters with information, such as the pause menu where you can save your game and exit the level as well as the equipment menu and help file that you can access with Select. If you get the prompt above your head to press the B button, press it. Sometimes it will be Grutch or Gearmo contacting you, and other times, you'll be able to read the thing your standing in front of or interact with what is in front of you.

The small black rectangles you'll pick up are chips. Chips are used to purchase things in the shop, which won't be mentioned until a bit later on. The bigger the chip, the more it is worth.

As you go through the game, you'll get hints from Grutch and Gearmo, usually Gearmo, about what you need to do next.

Self-repairing barriers require extra gears to get through. The small ones require two gears, while the bigger ones require three. If you see a big red box with a drill on it, drill through it to open it. You'll find second gear. To shift gears, hold down either of the shoulder buttons, and when the drill gauge gives you the "SHIFT UP!" instruction, briefly let go of the shoulder button you were holding and press and hold it again to run the drill in a higher gear. You'll go into second gear, and while the drill will still go up and down, that brief instance will be more powerful than when your drills are in first gear. With that in mind, time it right, and you'll be able to destroy the barriers in one shot without them regaining health. Shifting up will take some practice and timing, but once you get used to it, you'll be able to do some cool stuff in this game.

Along the way, you'll have to use your drill to fight enemies. Enemies have health meters much like cracked walls, and you'll need to defeat them to progress and get chips. Some robotic enemies will shoot bullets at you, but if you drill the bullets, you can block the bullets. The drill won't block all projectiles, such as missiles or bombs, however.

The boxes with the wrench on them will give you health (such as the green stone that replenishes three units of health) or chips for the shop. 

The blocks that are made out of metal won't be able to be destroyed yet. You'll need parts from the shop to break them, and you won't get them until later.

The electrical barriers in the broken parts of the floors will hurt you, so jump or slide over them.

To go through doors in the background wall, go up to them and press B to enter them.

You'll eventually go through the Skullkers' quarters and destroy everything before you get to third gear. The socket lifts will carry your Drill Dozer from one point to another if you drill into it and keep running the drill. If you let go of the button you're drilling into the lift with, you'll let go of the lift.

You'll eventually get your third gear later in the later. Getting to third gear from second gear is just like going from second to first, except you're shifting up from second gear. Once you're in third gear, however, the drill will keep running until you let go of the shoulder button you've been using to run the drill. Also, the music changes to something much more triumphant once you have third gear. With third gear, you can go through the thicker self-repairing barriers and tear through scores of enemies and blocks.

With third gear, you'll finally be able to make it to the elevator behind the big barrier you couldn't get through before. If you go to the left, you'll go back to where the trap door was. The battery will refill even more health than the green stone, and you won't find it often.

Going to the right leads to a fight with a tank. Jump over the missiles, then drill into the hole in the tank and shift up to third gear. If you know what you're doing, you'll be able to take care of the tank in two attack cycles.

Afterwards, you'll be able to put your drill in a machine to open the door. R will open the door, while L will close it. When you're done, press B to detach your drill from the machine. You'll need to break a wall on the other end to reveal the machine on the other end to close the door, which in turn lowers a wall blocking the exit. Once that wall is lowered, you'll be able to exit.

Jill - who is a silent protagonist - talks with Grutch and Gearmo. When you leave a level, you'll automatically go back down to first gear and lose the other two gears, but you'll be able to regain those gears in every level you go to. You'll also find out that Jill's father, Doug, was beaten up by the Skullkers, and Jill is taking over as the boss in his stead until he recovers. From here, the hunt for the Red Diamond continues on.

PrinceWatercress plays Ossie - The Longplay

I can't believe I almost made it to the sixth screen with the minimum eight-second limit. I made this game look easier than it is here.

Let's Play

Ossie the Osprey has five chicks in the nest. These chicks must be kept alive by feeding them with fish. At random intervals, a poacher climbs the tree to steal a chick.

Z moves left, X moves right, : moves up, / moves down and Return allows you to dive (if you don't have a fish) or drop a fish (if you do) on the BBC Micro keyboard. When the game is over, press Spacebar to start a new game. Press Break at any time to end the game.

The numbers at the top of the screen, from left to right, are your current score, the amount of lives/chicks you have left, the amount of time you have left before you lose a life/chick and your highest score for the play session.

You lose a life by failing to drop a fish in the nest in time, or from the poacher reaching the nest.

The poacher can be killed by flying into him from any direction. He will come back, however.

The height of Ossie above the water before diving determines which row of fish is accessible.

When a fish is caught, fly Ossie to a point above the nest and drop the fish. Ossie will not dive from above the tree.

There are twenty (20) seconds on the first sheet (screeN0 to catch a fish and drop it in the nest. If you exceed the time limit, you lose a life.

If you drop a fish in the nest within the time, the timer restarts. On subsequent sheets, the time reduces by two (2) seconds per sheet to a minimum of eight (8) seconds (which happens on the sixth sheet and thereafter).

After the third, fourth and fifth sheets, an extra life is given. (The game says it happens after the second, but you have to beat three sheets to even get one, so you'll have to play well.)

You'll score ten (10) points for catching a fish, five (5) points for dropping a fish in the nest and twenty (20) points for killing a poacher.

When you start the game, press Spacebar to start flying around and diving for fish.

To get a fish on the top row, you'll need to dive down from just above the bottom of the nest. With all of the rows, if you are at just the right distance from the fish when you drop down, you'll be right above it when you reach the row.

To get a fish on the row second from the top, you'll need to dive down from just above nest level. You'll need just a little bit of sky below you between the left and center mountains in the background.

To get a fish on the row second from the bottom, you'll need to line yourself up with the peak of the center mountain in the background. 

To get a fish from the bottom row, you'll need to position yourself just below the center of the cloud in the upper-left corner. Be sure you're fairly ahead of the fish so it is below you when you reach the bottom of the screen.

You will need to be exact with the elevations you drop from to get a fish from a certain row. Diving from higher elevations will not get you any fish from the higher rows, so you'll be forced to know where to dive from in order to get all the fish. Not surprisingly, this is the hardest part about the game, but once you get it figured out, it's easier and more fun to play.

This is one of the more original ideas I've seen for arcade-style games on the BBC Micro so far, and while figuring out where to dive from was a bit of a task, getting it figured out makes this game easier to play and more fun to enjoy, and it also allows you to make the game look easier than it is. It can be a little hard to tell where Ossie is at times because of the white on the mountain peaks and the clouds, but at least the graphics are easy to identify and the gameplay is responsive. If you need an arcade-style game for BBC Micro, this is definitely one to recommend.

PrinceWatercress plays Ossie

It's been a while since I played an arcade-style BBC Micro, so here we are...with Ossie!

Longplay

Ossie the Osprey has five chicks in the nest. These chicks must be kept alive by feeding them with fish. At random intervals, a poacher climbs the tree to steal a chick.

Z moves left, X moves right, : moves up, / moves down and Return allows you to dive (if you don't have a fish) or drop a fish (if you do) on the BBC Micro keyboard. When the game is over, press Spacebar to start a new game. Press Break at any time to end the game.

The numbers at the top of the screen, from left to right, are your current score, the amount of lives/chicks you have left, the amount of time you have left before you lose a life/chick and your highest score for the play session.

You lose a life by failing to drop a fish in the nest in time, or from the poacher reaching the nest.

The poacher can be killed by flying into him from any direction. He will come back, however.

The height of Ossie above the water before diving determines which row of fish is accessible.

When a fish is caught, fly Ossie to a point above the nest and drop the fish. Ossie will not dive from above the tree.

There are twenty (20) seconds on the first sheet (screeN0 to catch a fish and drop it in the nest. If you exceed the time limit, you lose a life.

If you drop a fish in the nest within the time, the timer restarts. On subsequent sheets, the time reduces by two (2) seconds per sheet to a minimum of eight (8) seconds (which happens on the sixth sheet and thereafter).

After the third, fourth and fifth sheets, an extra life is given. (The game says it happens after the second, but you have to beat three sheets to even get one, so you'll have to play well.)

You'll score ten (10) points for catching a fish, five (5) points for dropping a fish in the nest and twenty (20) points for killing a poacher.

When you start the game, press Spacebar to start flying around and diving for fish.

To get a fish on the top row, you'll need to dive down from just above the bottom of the nest. With all of the rows, if you are at just the right distance from the fish when you drop down, you'll be right above it when you reach the row.

To get a fish on the row second from the top, you'll need to dive down from just above nest level. You'll need just a little bit of sky below you between the left and center mountains in the background.

To get a fish on the row second from the bottom, you'll need to line yourself up with the peak of the center mountain in the background. 

To get a fish from the bottom row, you'll need to position yourself just below the center of the cloud in the upper-left corner. Be sure you're fairly ahead of the fish so it is below you when you reach the bottom of the screen.

You will need to be exact with the elevations you drop from to get a fish from a certain row. Diving from higher elevations will not get you any fish from the higher rows, so you'll be forced to know where to dive from in order to get all the fish. Not surprisingly, this is the hardest part about the game, but once you get it figured out, it's easier and more fun to play.

This is one of the more original ideas I've seen for arcade-style games on the BBC Micro so far, and while figuring out where to dive from was a bit of a task, getting it figured out makes this game easier to play and more fun to enjoy, and it also allows you to make the game look easier than it is. It can be a little hard to tell where Ossie is at times because of the white on the mountain peaks and the clouds, but at least the graphics are easy to identify and the gameplay is responsive. If you need an arcade-style game for BBC Micro, this is definitely one to recommend.

PrinceWatercress plays Megamania - Game 1 Longplay

It's now time to tie everything up with a silent Game 1 longplay. Enjoy.

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You may think that this is just a slightly different Space Invaders clone at first glance. But Activision knew better than that, and instead of taking on aliens, you're taking on...hamburgers, cheese and tires...as the Starship Enterprise. Huh?

Actually, according to Wikipedia, the game is a near-clone of Sega's Astro Blaster, and plays the exact same way: stuff moves towards you, you shoot them before they shoot you while trying to avoid them all, the energy bar works as a timer, and the enemies reappear at the top if they move past the bottom. Also, the ship is actually a cross between the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser. Whenever you clear a round, you get bonus points based on how much energy you have left.

Gameplay is pretty simple. Left and Right on the joystick move you left and right, while the fire button fires the lasers, which the game calls missiles. Keep in mind that when you're shooting lasers, the lasers move with your ship. Just be careful not to spend so much time directing your shots at the enemy that you direct yourself into the enemy shots!

The enemies that you face off against are as follows, in this order: hamburgers, cookies, bugs, radial tires, diamonds, steam irons, bow ties and space dice. Once you defeat the space dice, you'll start the second loop, and when you do, the enemies will have new colors and much different patterns.

Game 1 allows you to fire with guided missiles that move with your ship, while Game 3 allows you to fire missiles that go straight no matter what. Games 2 and 4 are the same as Games 1 and 3, but are the two-player variants. In the two-player modes, both players take turns and switch off when someone loses a life to see who can get the better score. Also, the difficulty switches control the speed of the missiles. B/Novice will give you fast missiles, while A/Expert will give you slower missiles.

The pace in this game is pretty good. The patterns will keep you on your toes when you're trying to learn them, and the game can get pretty hard pretty quickly. The later levels can still be a blast, such as avoiding the red tires in the tenth level. Another game I consider worth picking up.