Raster Fahndung is a puzzle game where you must locate patterns of 6 by 6 squares inside a playfield of 32 by 20 squares. Sounds simple enough in theory, but with the timer ticking down in the background you don't have the luxury of carefully scrutinizing the playfield to locate the patterns! And when you sneak a peek at the pattern (by pressing the fire button on your joystick) the timer counts down even more quickly!
The game starts with the creation of a random playfield consisting of 32 by 20 squares. Your cursor is located in the middle of the board. Push and hold the fire button to display the 6 by 6 pattern you must match on the playfield. You can use the joystick to move your cursor in all directions. Your cursor points to the top left corner of the 6 by 6 search pattern. Press the fire button when you believe you have found the correct position. If you are right, you'll receive points. If you are wrong, the required pattern is displayed again.
In a simultaneous two player game, both players must locate the same pattern, but each player can view the required pattern individually. The player who finds the correct position first receives one point. The two player game ends when the countdown timer reaches 0 or when one player manages to reach 9 points.
The left difficulty switch allows you to choose the game timing mode. "Easy / A" selects the fixed time limit per level, starting at 90 and decreasing by 5 per level until the minimum of 20 seconds is reached. All following levels offer 20 seconds. The timer on the "Hard / B" setting starts at 90 seconds and you have to find as many patterns as possible within this period.
How many patterns can you find before the timer expires?
Includes cartridge and four-page, full-color manual. Available in both NTSC and PAL video formats (please specify above when ordering).
Author | Simon Quernhorst |
Number of Players | 1 - 2 |
Controllers | Joysticks |
Cartridge Size | 4K |
Label and Manual | Simon Quernhorst |
Reviewer "Nathan Strum" is wrong in stating that "when you fail to locate a pattern, the game doesn't show you where the pattern was".
The game does show the correct position by placing the cursors to the correct spot!!
The additional splash screen makes this a perfect homebrew title.
The patterns appear to be generated at random, or at least, there's enough of them here so they don't seem to repeat. The graphics are for the most part just blocks, but because of a very elaborate animated title screen, the whole game feels like it has a certain level of polish to it. The sound is minimal, but adequate. A few things could have been improved: the cursor that you use to find patterns seems to be offset from the pattern itself, which is a little confusing; when a game ends, you can't start a new one with the fire button; and when you fail to locate a pattern, the game doesn't show you where the pattern was.
Raster Fahndung makes for an interesting puzzle game, and a good diversion from other 2600 games. I tend to find myself playing a few games in a row, then putting it away again. It's not what I'd call addictive, but once in awhile it's a good game to revisit.