is a game for 2-8 players, mainly intended for MultiJoy.
Every player controls a ship with a goal to shoot and destroy enemy ships.
Every player starts with three lives, and when they are depleted, the ship will sink.
Player can, however, enter the game again with no limit nor point penalty. Player can even choose point on the border of the screen, where to reenter the game.
The ship can shoot from each side independently, and can use as many cannons, as many lives it has left.
Cannons reload just a bit slower than it takes the balls to hit the water.
The balls follow a curve which roughly in its middle third exceeds the height of the ship. This means it is possible to sail under enemy ball.
Damaged ship can be repaired. Lost life is replaced by an arrow on the information panel.
To repair the ship the joystick has to be moved into the indicated direction. First direction is always up.
After six successful steps, the ship will get one life back.
The game ends after the selected game time.
Entering the game: Joystick direction - movement around the map border Fire - enter the game
During the game: Joystick left and right - steering Fire + Joystick left and right - fire cannons on the respective side
The game has two game modes. Individual (Deathmatch) and team-based (Team Deathmatch, Team DM). Scoring for the players is the same in both modes - one point for every hit scored on the enemy.
In the team mode the teams also get points - one point for every enemy ship sunk. In the team mode it is not possible to damage ships of your own team, and the points are not awarded for such hits. The balls will, however, stop.
Configuration menu can be controlled either by the alphanumeric keyboard, or by using the console keys: Start, Option, Select.
J - Joystick - switches Joystick mode. In the Standard mode, the game will automatically enable first two players and the team game will be disabled
G - Game type - switches individual and team game mode
T - Time - switches game time
M - Map - switches a map
1-8 - activation and deactivation of a player at the given position. All players are disabled in the beginning. Any joystick movement will however enable given player.
H, Help - displays basic help
Space, Start - starts the game
Esc, Start - ends the game prematurely
Select - selects next menu item
Option - activates selected menu item
Joystick - sets player name and selects a team in the team game. The color of the player in the individual game is fixed to the given position and can't be changed.
After the game is finished, a list of players is displayed, sorted by the points. In case of team game, the final team score is also displayed.
There are some interesting statistics displayed in the player list:
Pts: points count, i.e. how many times the player hit an enemy ship
H: Hits, i.e. how many times the player got hit by an enemy ship
%: how many percent of the shots fired hit an enemy
K: Kills, i.e. how many times the player finished an enemy
D: Deaths, i.e. how many times the player died
R: Repairs, i.e. how many times the player successfully repaired his ship
Each column has also the best achieved value indicated by a small star, and the worst value indicated by a black spot.
The game requires 64 kB of RAM, and MultiJoy for more than 2 players. The game does not use the stereo modification.
The game supports both PAL and NTSC, including speed and color corrections.
The game was created by Antonín "R0ger" Holík, and it is his first finished game for Atari. Hurray. There was, however, a lot of assistance from PG, Bob!k and Rudla, especially tips, advice and ideas. Other members of Atariklub.cz also helped, especially by testing the game. Special thanks goes to Nezgar for NTSC testing.
The game was made using the MADS assembler and the Altirra emulator. The music and sound effects are made in RMT, the graphics were made mainly using Aseprite.
The opening song is called "Sails of Doom", and it also has lyrics. The first verse goes: "Sails of Doom, Sails of Doom". The rest of the lyrics is unknown.
The game contains one secret map.
Wordplay on the word "balls" during the gameplay is highly inappropriate.