Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.7
Posted: Mon Feb 24 00:52:21 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 05:50:51 EST
References: <1030@unc.unc.UUCP>
Reply-To: nathan@eddie.UUCP (Nathan Glasser)
Distribution: net
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 50

In article <1030@unc.unc.UUCP> glassner@unc.UUCP (Andrew S. Glassner) writes:
[color=blue]> the game says "Escape on the Rope Bridge".[/color]
[color=blue]> ... I can't find the[/color]
[color=blue]> "Rope Bridge".  In fact, I've never made it off of that[/color]
[color=blue]> board.  Is there a way out?  Can you leave some unfreed[/color]
[color=blue]> kids behind?  How do you find the mysterious "Rope Bridge"?[/color]

I'll answer the specific question asked as well as give a more general
description of the game.

In order to get to the rope bridge you must complete the 4th "freeing
the kids" board and a 4th mine-cart board. There is no 4th sankara stone
board; the rope bridge takes its place. On the 4th easy level kids board
you must cross the vertical bridge over the lava to get to the mine cart.

On each of the 3 levels (easy, medium, hard), you must complete four kid
boards, four mine cart boards, and 3 sankara stone boards before getting
to the rope bridge. After crossing the rope bridge you enter the
"challenge round", in which you whip golden statues for points until you
die. In other words, you can never leave the challenge round. All three
skill levels are entirely separate; there is no way to start on easy and
get to medium or hard after playing n boards, etc.  In the challenge
round you'll never see Mola Ram or his flaming hearts, but the Prince of
Pendor [sic] appears and stuns you, which means that you sit down
(involuntarily) for about 2-3 seconds during which time a thugee guard
or one of the frequent tiny bats (smaller than during the earlier parts
of the game) hits you and kills you. It seems to be impossible to whip
him, and you must basically avoid him. Has anyone else found something
to do with him?

When I play (which isn't often any more), I play the hard level, and
never play the 2-quarter/7 man option. Most people think I have put
two quarters in when they see me playing, but that's just because
you can have 6 extra men after completing the first set of 3 boards.
I really don't think it's worth putting in a second quarter. For the
second quarter you get 4 additional guys, but if you can play the
game well, on your first quarter you will have 11 guys altogether.
You start with 3, get 7 extra men from points (the last free man is
given at about 275,000), and you can get one more for doing the right
thing after you cross the bridge.

My personal high score is 759,000 (1 quarter). I have seen a score
in the 800's or 900's, but I am not certain that it wasn't a 2-quarter
game. What are other people's scores on this game? (By the way, the game
often displays 3-life games on the 7-life score board, and vice-versa,
so it is difficult to tell sometimes what type of game it was.)

				Nathan Glasser
				nathan@mit-eddie.uucp
				nathan@mit-xx.arpa