Skate Crazy

Scenario

Freddy’s the name and skating’s the game, and as every street wise kid knows the only way to succeed is to gain “Street Cred” from your friends and onlookers.

Freddie must buzz around on his skates performing daredevil stunts. Points are given for successful manoeuvres but the all important CREDOMETER is only hoisted upwards by achieving suitably " posy" feats. Keep an eye on the OUCH METER though, as this measures your grazes and bumps, and naturally leads to a loss of Cred.

SKATE CRAZY is made up of two separate, but interfacing games, the CAR PARK CHALLENGE and the CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE. Unlike ordinary computer games you may pass from one to the other without losing your score or level.

Playing the Game

The Car Park Challenge

You and your roller skating friends have taken over a disused multi-storey car park where you are holding a competition to find the championship skater.

Each level of the car park has a course laid out using tyres, boxes, traffic cones, tin cans, ramps, etc. It is around this course you must skate, performing stunts to impress the judges, whilst passing between the timing gates.

Fellow skaters will judge your performance and award marks at the end of the course-should you complete it-and these marks determine whether you may progress to the next level.

There is a wide variety of stunts you can perform to impress the judges - jumping from the ground or from ramps, twisting in the air, jumping over obstacles, etc. However, be careful not to tire yourself too much. Jumping, falling down, crashing and skidding are all very tiring and wi ll register on your fatigue meter. If your fatigue meter reaches full you will have to retire from the game, exhausted!

As you pass through the starting flags the timer on the screen will start. You have until the time runs out to reach either the next gate - a pair of cones (special cones if its a “backwards gate”)*, or the flags at the end of the course. Failing to complete a section of the course between gates results in the loss of one of your four lives. Reaching the next gate with the timer in the green earns you a bonus. An extra bonus is awarded if you didn’t crash after the last gate.

You may skip gates if you get lost or are in desperate trouble, but if a gate is skipped you must pass through the next one - and you may only skip up to a maximum of five gates, any more and you will be disqualified!

PLEASE NOTE

All the gates are marked by flags. Yellow flags mark normal gates and red mark the “backward gates.”

Controls

GAME A

GAME B

Move the joystick alternately LEFT and RIGHT to make Freddy skate along.

After the judges have awarded their marks - and providing you have impressed them enough to progress to the next level - you will be placed in front of two doors:

• Skating towards the RIGHT door takes you to the next level of the CAR PARK CHALLENGE
• The LEFT door tokes you to the CHAMPIONSHIP course.

Changing from one game to the other does not lose your level within either game. Should you change to the Championship course after completing level 2 and then later come bock to CAR PARK CHALLENGE, you will resume on level 3.

All four levels of each game must be completed to finish SKATE CRAZY.

JUDGING

There are four judges each assessing different aspects of your skating ability:-

JUDGE 1: OVERALL SKATING

• good jump landings, collecting bonuses, backwards skating.

• crashing and skidding.

JUDGE 2, COURSE +good time between gates, knocking can over. -missing gates, not reaching gates in time.

JUDGE 3, JUMPING FORM RAMPS +complexity and variety of moves. -bad landings, repeating stunts too often.

JUDGE 4, JUMPING FROM FLOOR +complexity and variety of moves, objects jumped. -bad landings, repeating stunts too often.

NOTE: Jumping without performing a stunt will not impress the judges, but they will not penalise you either.

MOVING FREDDY

Holding the joystick in the required direction causes Freddy to skate in that direction, accelerating to a maximum speed. Once you let go of the joystick and it returns to its central position, Freddy will freewheel to a halt.

To turn Freddy and keep his speed, move the joystick to an adjacent position (if travelling up, then up-left and up-right are adjacent positions). Freddy can do a large sharp turn without losing speed by moving the joys tick to the required direction using adjacent directions.

PLEASE NOTE

After completing one level you are placed on a ramp:

• Skate to the RIGHT for the next level of the CAR PARK CHALLENGE
• Skate to the LEFT for the CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE

Moving the joystick to a new di rection that is not adjacent will make Freddy skid to a holt, a nd then set off in the new direction (useful for braking).

Jumping

Freddy can jump in two ways - from the floor and off ramps.

To jump from the floor, select the height of the jump using the FIRE button and power meter. When moving in the required direction and speed, hold the fire button down and you will see your power meter quickly rise. Release the button when the required power is reached to start the jump. Jumping obstacles on the floor requires good timing. Jumping from a ramp is similar - once direction and speed are reached use the button to select your jump power, but now the ramp will automatically release the power for you as you hit it, so keep the button pressed until after the jump has started. If you release the button too early, you will jump over the ramp like the other floor obstacles.

The judges base their marks for jumping on the variety and complexity of the manoeuvre. The complexity of a jump is assessed on the number of half turns and changes of direction, and whether the landing was O.K. (landing backwards particularly impresses the judges).

Twisting in Jumps

To twist during a jump is fairly easy - simply turn the joystick clockwise or anti-clockwise (or a mixture as you get better). Be careful to move through the adjacent directions throughout the turn.

There are rules to landing a jump correctly. You must either face the same direction, adjacent to take off direction, or directly backwards. If you land backwards you will continue moving backwards with all the directions reversed (you will need to be able to skate backwards for the special gates in the higher levels). To return to forward skating perform another jump and land facing forwards. If you crash into something you will get up facing forwards.

Ducking

This manoeuvre can be performed on all levels, but is only needed on the later levels. It is performed by pressing down on joystick while freewheeling. Use the duck to pass under low barriers. Should you come to a halt while ducking you will get up immediately, so make sure you’re going fast enough to clear the obstacles.

Objects and Obstacles

Other skaters will also be skating in the Car Park. Some are nasty, some are just a nuisance, all will knock you down if you hit them.

Some Objects on Later Levels

Hints & Tips

1. Try to skate smoothly and don’t skid too much
2. While you should try to get as many cans as possible, some are difficult to get and may be better left alone
3. When performing stunts, try to turn the joystick smoothly and evenly around the directions and don’t try to do too much - skill will come with practice
4. Jumping obstacles is sometimes easier than skating around them-and yau also impress judges and score points
5. Don’t drift too far from the arrowed course or you will lose time and may miss gates
6. Once you think you have performed enough stunts to impress the judges, don’t repeat yourself too much or crash while attempting difficult jumps. Use straight jumps instead to finish the course. This reduces the risk of bod landings and crashes and allows you to concentrate on following the course
7. Don’t waste time or lives trying to get every point on the course, just get the convenient ones and get a round the course faster.

Championship Course

Level 1: Freddy must dodge and duck the obstacles in the building site without being caught out by the angry ’ brickies '

Level 2: Here he must cross the lake to the park, avoiding the deadly wildlife

Level 3: Down in the London Underground, Freddy skates through the tunnels, over the electric cables and battles with the giant rats

Level 4: Out on the street, Freddy causes havoc amongst the pedestrians and fights rival gangs

Move the joystick from left to right to build up speed, but be careful as Freddy will trip over surfaces which are not smooth if he is skating too fast .

Increasing ‘Cred’

Collect the litter which is scattered around the course. If you reach the end of the course you will be able to exchange the litter for money with which you can buy pads, gear and wheels to increase your CRED and help you through the game. An option will then be given to either load in the next level or reload the ‘Car Park Challenge.’

Credits

PROGRAMMER(S): Andrew Green, Robert Toone
MUSICIAN: Ben Daglish