10 replies to this topic

[ls650]

I have owned a copy of Seawolf for about a year. Great shooter, but there are a couple of questions I have:

1) The manual says Color/BW toggles "Auto-launch of your torpedoes".  I have tried both Color and BW, and see no difference in gameplay...

2) Why does air bubble/pod show up so rarely?  You have 99 seconds of air but the air pod only shows up every two minutes or so, so you really don't get much out of it.

[atari_envy]

ls650, on Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:35 AM, said:

I have owned a copy of Seawolf for about a year. Great shooter, but there are a couple of questions I have:

1) The manual says Color/BW toggles "Auto-launch of your torpedoes".  I have tried both Color and BW, and see no difference in gameplay...

2) Why does air bubble/pod show up so rarely?  You have 99 seconds of air but the air pod only shows up every two minutes or so, so you really don't get much out of it.

1) I never noticed the auto-launch setting in the manual till you mentioned it. I tried the BW/Color switch on mine with no effect. I guess it is the same as the GUNFIGHT homebrew. Its manual says that the BW/Color switch toggles whether bullets bounce, but it does nothing as well; the bullets bounce regardless of setting.

2) That damn pod vexes me. It is how the game always ends for me -- I run out of fuel. And it seems to show up just after I die, i.e. Out of fuel, sub sinks, about 15 seconds after my next sub starts, there is the pod with an (un-needed) refuel.

Regardless, this simple shooter is still a lot of fun.

[save2600]

The original Sea Wolf is on a timer and the only way you can extend it is by getting a certain score. I have my arcade machine set for 79 seconds w/ 40 more seconds given after you reach 4000pts. That's a great system actually because who wants to sit and play such a simple shooter all day long? lol I normally hate timed games, but getting a certain score within a certain time is the perfect challenge for this kind of game. Perhaps the author realized that and tweaked the air bubble out of the realm of normal gameplay? Or not and it's just an oversight. lol

[ls650]

I just realized that the programmer is 'cybergoth'.

I'll send him a PM and ask him for details. When I get a reply I'll let folks know what he says...

[Cybergoth]

Thanks for the call

ls650, on Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:35 AM, said:

1) The manual says Color/BW toggles "Auto-launch of your torpedoes".  I have tried both Color and BW, and see no difference in gameplay...

When activated you can just keep the fire-button pressed, else you have to trigger it for every single torpedo. Just a little anti numb-thumb (or RSI ) measure

ls650, on Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:35 AM, said:

2) Why does air bubble/pod show up so rarely?  You have 99 seconds of air but the air pod only shows up every two minutes or so, so you really don't get much out of it.

It's triggered every 1.000 points, so the better you play, the more often you'll see it

atari_envy, on Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:59 AM, said:

I guess it is the same as the GUNFIGHT homebrew. Its manual says that the BW/Color switch toggles whether bullets bounce, but it does nothing as well; the bullets bounce regardless of setting.

Bullets will always bounce from the top/bottom border, the switch toggles wether they can bounce from the side borders as well. (Bullets will only travel for a limited time though, i.e. they won't go back to the other side of the screen)

[atari_envy]

Wow. Ask and you shall receive.

Thanks a bunch Cybergoth, this clears up a lot. Great job, BTW.

[Miss 2600]

I've started playing Seawolf and was wondering about the fuel pods, too. I would run out of fuel and then, when my new sub started, a fuel pod would show up when I had plenty of fuel and didn't need it.

This thread explains it. It makes sense to do it that way because it challenges the player to knock out ships rapidly to score enough to get a chance at a fuel pod for survival. The manual just says the pods are sent at "regular intervals", though, not when a certain number of points are scored.

I really like torpedo games, so this one is right up my alley. I like the music it plays at the beginning/end of the game, too.

[rmaerz]

This Sea Wolf home brew rocks! I'm a big fan of Sea Wolf (arcade) and this version along with the Commodore 64 are excellent port of the arcade classic.

[Cybergoth]

Miss 2600, on Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:47 PM, said:

The manual just says the pods are sent at "regular intervals", though, not when a certain number of points are scored.

It's been a while and I can't tell for sure if that was intentionally obfuscated or not. Sometimes we didn't want to go too much into detail and explain *everything* in the manual, so there's still room for the player to figure out something like that on his own. Chances are also that this may have just escaped proofreading though

Miss 2600, on Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:47 PM, said:

I really like torpedo games, so this one is right up my alley. I like the music it plays at the beginning/end of the game, too.

Glad you still like the game. The tune is adapted from "Das Boot". Not sure if you just got the 2 hour cinema cut over in the states, but the original 6 hour TV series is still great to watch today. The title music was brilliant, still gives me goosebumps:



This techno remix was quite popular in the 90's:

[Pioneer4x4]

Cybergoth, on Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:34 PM, said:

Glad you still like the game. The tune is adapted from "Das Boot". Not sure if you just got the 2 hour cinema cut over in the states, but the original 6 hour TV series is still great to watch today. The title music was brilliant, still gives me goosebumps:

Cool, I am a fan of that movie. I never saw the full miniseries, but I have the plen-o-long version on DVD. (I think it is about 3:45)
I'll have to try the homebrew, just for the music. Is the rom available?

Edited by Pioneer4x4, Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:57 AM.

[Impaler_26]

Pioneer4x4, on Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:54 AM, said:

I'll have to try the homebrew, just for the music. Is the rom available?

Yep, the rom is available here:

http://www.atariage....areLabelID=2696