Grand Monster Slam

Grand Monster Slam

Game No.	66
Voting	7.35 points, 31 votes
Developer	Coding: Rolf Lakämper Graphics: Olaf Menges, Andreas Görtz Cover: Hartwig Nieder-Gassel
Company	Golden Goblins
Publisher	Rainbow Arts, EDOS, CP Verlag, Softgold (Top Shots)
Musician	Chris Hülsbeck
HVSC-File	/MUSICIANS/H/Huelsbeck_Chris/Grand_Monster_Slam.sid
Release	1989
Platform	C64, Amiga, Atari ST, PC/DOS
Genre	Weird! Sport
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

Grand Monster Slam, which was only available for home computers, seems to be heavily based on the arcade game Penguin Wars from 1985 which was made by the Japanse company UPL (Universal Entertainment Corporation).

Prelude[edit | edit source]

It all started with the "Big Embarrassment" for the Goblins in the war against the humans. During an attempt to lay siege to a desert fort of the humans, they didn't think of the fact that in the desert only few stones are available for their catapult and so their attack had failed after only 5 minutes. But the Goblins were so enraged by the laughter, so they decided to storm the fort, which was repelled by the humans by letting lots of stones rain on the Goblins...

With this the war could have ended, but instead the Goblins took the stones, which they got back while receiving lots of bruises, to shoot back at the fort. With the same result as the first time... ...This went on for three years, until the tired parties could bring themselves to make a peace treaty. In memorance, they then met every 3 years for a big celebration, where honourable catapult shots were exchanged.

The other peoples also liked this peace celebration and wanted to join in the shooting of catapults. Therefore the Halflings declared war to the Goblins and the humans and symbolically threw cobblestones at them and surrendered after 5 minutes...

This was also done by the other peoples and after that it was time for a new program of this party. It was only named "Grand Slam" anyway and after some incidents there were the final rules for the Grand Monster Slams:

Current proceedings[edit | edit source]

Instead of shooting at each other with catapults, only the best of each race compete to shoot all Beloms to the opposing side. Subsequently the competition is won by doing a homerun to the opposing side. This had the advantage for everyone, that it meant lying on the floor only for a short time after being hit without suffering bigger injuries. Except the Beloms of course... ...These demanded in return the intermediate round, where they tried to bring about the winner of each round's downfall by tickle attacks. Each winner has only a pole to keep the Beloms away temporarily...

If you have won all three duels of a league, you need to proove your accuracy by shooting the Beloms into the mouths of the six Faultons. These are not allowed any more in the regular game, as they had the silly habit to eat all Beloms instead of shooting them back. But don't worry, all swallowed Beloms are spitted out again after this intermezzo. At least this was secured by the Faultons.

Design[edit | edit source]

The graphics are painted and animated lovingly, the game fields are static. The sound is realistic during the rounds, the title melody gets you into the game. The opponents have different strenghts and weaknesses, to which you as player need to adapt to win the game.

... the opponents of the first league ...

... the menu ...

Hints[edit | edit source]

In the main menu you can choose the current "Hall of Fame" to look at the highscores. With "Faulton feeding" and "Revenge of the Beloms" you can train the intermediate games. "Grand Monster Slam Main Tournament" starts the main game.

The cassette version of Grand Monster Slam is compared to the diskette version highly limited, as the opponents in the first two leagues are not chosen randomly - so you always get allocated the same three of the seven displayed opponents when repeating the game.

Main game[edit | edit source]

Intermediate round - Revenge of the Beloms

The aim is to shoot all Beloms (furry ball creatures) to the opposing side. If the opponent or you are hit, this leads to a short unconsciousness, which lasts longer the more often you are hit.

Controls

/ - walk in the corresponding direction
- (hold fire) determine shooting strength
/ - determine shooting direction
/ - special shot
- (release fire) shoot
- provoke the opponent
- homerun (only possible, when all Beloms are on the opposing side)

Penalty kick[edit | edit source]

If you shoot into the audience, the opponent gets a Pelvant penalty kick: a member of this race ropes down at the field and the opponent decides the direction in which the Pelvant should walk towards you. If you decide for the right position, then the penalty kick will be repelled and the opponent gets a Belom back. If you are on the wrong position then you get three Beloms into your own half.

Controls

// - decide walking direction of the Pelvant
// - decide defending position

Revenge of the Beloms[edit | edit source]

The Belom which will attack next, shakes shortly before its attack, which gives you the chance to align the pole in the right position. Starting from the main position you can defend six attack directions. A changing of the position is only necessary for an attack from the side.

Controls

/ - align pole
/ - change position (the direction needs to be neutral in between)
/ - hit

Faulton feeding[edit | edit source]

The six Faultons are on pedestals of different heights and each need to be hit with one Belom.

Controls

- (hold fire) determine shooting height
- (release fire) shoot

Points[edit | edit source]

In the main game in the starting league you receive 2000, 4000 and 6000 points for the first, second and last victory.

in the second league there are 5000, 7000 and 9000 (?) points

(maybe there are additional points for a quick victory)

During the Revenge of the Beloms a number will be given by the king (10 after the first victory, then 20, 35, 45, ...). If you repell less, 100 points per Belom are subtracted. If you repell more, you get 100 bonus points per Belom. If you exactly fulfill the target, there are 5000 bonus points.

Solution[edit | edit source]

Tips and other information[edit | edit source]

Generally

At first sight in Grand Monster Slam it is your thrust to hit the enemy as often as possible without getting hit yourself. But there are other tips, which can facilitate your live as a fighting dwarf:

Shooting

How fast you can shoot depends mainly on the paths you take. If you have just avoided a Belom, this one is quickest to reach. If many Beloms wait on your side to occupy the Belom points, you should do a row shot: place yourself on a Belom point and press quickly the fire button in succession. The waiting Beloms occupy the Belom points, only to be sent directly to the opposing side.

Hitting

Exact aiming gives you time advantage. Either the opponent needs to dodge (therefore loses time and maybe lets himself be cornered) or he will be hit by the Belom (he stays down on the ground). The more often an enemy is hit, the longer he stays down. Use the time! If you can aim well and have the right timing, you should be able to hit the opponent once again when it gets up.

If you can shoot exactly, you should try to hit the enemy at the height of the head. Those hits tire the enemy more than hits at the foot. Every enemy has difficulties to avoid flat shot Beloms which have bounced from the bank.

Provoking the enemy

Whenever you have the time, you should do the "annoyance gesture" (joystick downwards and fire). You might not notice it right away, but the enemy gets more and more nervous through this. When the enemy loses it's temper and shoots at the grand-stand, you reach a Pelvans. If you convert the Pelvans freekick, has 3 Beloms less at one go. That is already half the victory!

Not getting hit

It is recommended to keep moving all the time. Some enemies have difficulties to take the movements of the dwarf into account while aiming. A frequent changing of the direction can confuse the enemy.

Tips for the higher leagues[edit | edit source]

In the second and first league there is a disturbing fence in the middle of the field. As you need to aim higher, you will shoot slower. In the middle of the field the fence is interrupted. As long as the opponent lingers at the three middle Belom points, you can hit it without problem through the "hole in the fence". Only from the middle are effective row shots possible.

The opponents

Some opponents have weaknesses, which you can use:

Laziness: lazy opponents might not walk towards the Beloms that are too far away.
Timidity: frightened opponents avoid approaching Beloms, as soon as they only come near them. Being occupied with avoiding, such opponents do often not get to shooting.
Bad power of observation: some opponents seldom consider the movements of the dwarf when shooting.
Shooting precision: some opponents have difficulties to hit the dwarf exactly.
Speed: slow opponents wait longer at Belom points before they shoot the next Belom.
Sensitivity: some opponents get up right away after a hit, while others stay down for a longer time.

Characteristics of the opponents of the 3rd league[edit | edit source]

Brunf, the oger: Seldom avoids the Beloms (hits don't harm it either), lazy, gets annoyed easily, in a Pelvans it walks mostly left or right.
Red Sonja Valmora, the amazone: quite frightened (hits also harm it a lot) and a bit slow.
Conold, the barbar: not very precise in shooting, lazy.
Zsch Lnk, the quadropus: bad power of observation, seldom gives way, a bit lazy.

Characteristics of the opponents of the 2nd league[edit | edit source]

Klaus von Adlerberg, the knight: a bit frightened and lazy. Shoots often into the corners.
Hiro Sha, the troll: not very precise in shooting, bad power of observation, lazy.
Quirks, the gremlin: aims bad, but is quite fast and hard to hit.
Gnarl, the gnoll: hits harm it relatively much. A bit frightened and lazy.

Characteristics of the opponents of the 1st league[edit | edit source]

All oppnents in this round are so strong that you cannot win against them quickly. You need to play them out, do net let yourself get hit and wait for the right occasion.

Nurfuk, the yalk: It can shoot Beloms from all Belom points by magic (not only where it is standing). Always stay on the move! The yalk doesn't shoot very fast and is rather timid.
Roarch, the dragon: It spews fire. So if possible do not stand dircetly opposite to it. By spewing fire it loses time, which you can use. By doing the "annoyance gesture" you can force the spewing at any time. After the spewing there is a pause, during which the dragon cannot spew any fire.
Winner, the goblin: puts up a magic cyclone as an obstacle on the side of the dwarfs. Do not walk against the cyclone! Avoid being pushed into a corner by the cyclone! The goblin is (as all the goblins) a bit lazy.

Tips for Belom punching[edit | edit source]

As beginner you should not confuse yourself, that you jump into all four positions with the dwarf. Only from two positions (e.g.: "dwarf looks to the left" and "dwarf looks upwards") you can get hold of all approaching Beloms. For each of the eight directions there is only one joystick movement that you need to learn. If you have the possibilityr, you should play with the keyboard, as the right/left movement is better to distinguish from the punching.

Tips for Faulton feeding[edit | edit source]

As the timing needs to be kept very precisely in this interlude to get the Belom transported into the mouth of the Faulton, you should act in accordance with the up and down movements of the Beloms:

Faulton number (from left)):	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.
Movements of the Beloms (up+down):	1x	1x	2x	3x	4x	4x

Cheats[edit | edit source]

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.35 points at 31 votes (rank 315). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
64er	10	Issue 8/89
C64Games	9	12th May 2008 - "top" - 4586 downs
Lemon64	6,9	12th May 2008 - 19 votes
Kultboy.com	7,33	12th May 2008 - 12 votes
ZZap64	71%	Edition 7/89

Reviews[edit | edit source]

FXXS: "An inventive "sports game" which needs tactics and skills. Due to the KO mode and the many loading times is the frustration potential very high. Therefore "only" good 8 points."

Robotron2084: "Then, as now, there are only three adjectives that come to my mind when thinking about this game: fancy, monotonous and frustrating. Fascinated by the really convincing presentation of this game at the beginning, this changed more and more towards being bugged after playing for about a dozen times. Liveliness is missing in this game, the constant kicking seems more like working on an assembly line, the fun factor is deifnitely not high enough, this can't be helped by the mini games either. In one sentence: I didn't like this pseudo sports game with all its graphical and sound technical gibberish at all: 4 out of 10 points."

TheRyk: "Concering what a pity, that there is no multiplayer mode: the game would then have been able to unfold a lot more potential. Exclusively sitting in front of the box during the long loading times and then finally just doing monotonous activities, will just get boring some time. Can be played occasionally, it is entertaining through the funny graphics and the successful sound, but unfortunately just for a limited short while. For me it is worth a tight 6 out of 10."

Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]

Sequel[edit | edit source]

In the sequel "M.U.D.S. - Mean Ugly Dirty Sports", you take over the role of a coach in a monster soccer team. The programmer Teut Weidemann was involved in this project, unfortunately there is no C64 conversion of this humorous game.