Moon Patrol

Moon Patrol

Game No.	291
Voting	7.15 points, 20 votes
Publisher	Atarisoft
HVSC-File	GAMES/M-R/Moon_Patrol.sid
Release	1983
Platform	Apple II, Atari, C64, MSX, PC-DOS, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Shoot'em Up, H-Scrolling
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (in turns)
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

The game Moon Patrol is about a patrol drive on the moon with the help of a corresponding vehicle that can jump and shoot. On the way to the checkpoints (A to Z) there are not only holes and stones disturbing the patrol path, but also UFOs and spaceships, that in addition drop missiles and bombs. If the drive to the next checkpoint (E, J, O, T, Z) is done within a certain time, you get awarded bonus points.

This genre was rather popular at the beginning of the 80s and different variations were published.

Design[edit | edit source]

Very rudimentary conversion of the arcade machine with utterly simple but clean scrolling graphics from left to right. The collision query is a little on the unprecise side, so that jumping over obstacles needs training. There are background music and FX.

... an animation from section E

Hints[edit | edit source]

Controls[edit | edit source]

in the options screen

F1 start of the game
F3 single player / two players
F5 choose level (beginner / champion)

in the game

F5 abort game and back to the options screen
Space pause, continue with fire button

/ move vehicle further forwards to the right / backwards to the left
jump
fire

Points[edit | edit source]

Obstacles	jump over	destroy
Crater	100	---
Rock	50	100
Rolling rock	100	50
Mine	50	---
Tank	100	200
Flying objects	---	100
Hostile vehicle	---	800

Solution[edit | edit source]

Tips

The further to the right you drive, the later you will notice an obstacle, but if you drive to the leftmost, you will not be able to react to a hostile vehicle coming from behind.
Try to jump over two craters closely next to each other with one jump.
Some UFOs throw bombs that create new crates.
If a hostile vehicle appears from behind, jump over it and then shoot it.

Cheats[edit | edit source]

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.15 points at 20 votes (rank 402). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	9	25th July 2008 - "top" - 6952 downs
Lemon64	7,5	04th January 2011 - 55 votes
Kultboy.com	8,25	28th October 2008 - 4 votes

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Robotron2084: "Oh, look: The moon car has square wheels! No wonder, that it likes to clash into numerous crates. Maybe this could be also the fault of the the very picky collision query, or the latent oversize of the sprites compared to the original. On the other hand hits from the own laser cannons are sometimes "just simply" ignored - you see: poetic (in)justice. I do not really like this proposition by Atarisoft, furthermore, the lumpen graphics are compared to the original really TOO bad. The mountains in the background almost make you laugh (or cry!) involuntarily. God knows that they have not put much effort into this. Therefore: a just acceptable version: 5 out of 10 points."

Shakermaker303: "Rather miserable, you do not have to know this."

Rockford: "Everyone who - same as me - has played the arcade machine version often and liked it, can only be disappointed here. The bad collision query was already mentioned. The fact, that my vehicle explodes a few meters in front of the crater - but not always - does not make it better. If I remember right, one could shoot the small mines on the arcade machine. I couldn't make it in this version. The mountains ... snow-covered. On the moon. Gnhnhn. I agree with the 5 points."