Moon
Patrol was originally released in the United States in 1982. The
original version was done by IREM, but it was released in the United States
as part of the Williams family of games. Moon Patrol was a modest
success, but not as heavily promoted by Williams as Joust and Robotron,
which were released the same year. As a result, it saw a shorter
production run and spent less time as a front line game.
You
are the driver of a moon buggy. Starting off at moon base, the objective
is to clear a lunar obstacle course, going from point A to point Z (literally).
This includes jumping craters of all sizes, running up and down hills,
jumping or shooting barrels, rocks, and tanks, jumping mines, and in later
courses, avoiding or shooting lunar flowers and rocket cars. Oh,
and of course it wouldn't be a game set in space without the alien spaceships
flying overhead. There are three types of aliens. Two of them
drop bombs on you, and one will try to crash land on you if you don't shoot
it. The third type, while it does not attack you directly, is nevertheless
the most dangerous of the three. Flying overhead, often out of the
range of your guns, it drops bombs in front of your moon buggy which create
new craters in the lunar surface if they land.
So
what do you have for defenses? Obviously your moon buggy is capable
of jumping over hazards which cannot be shot. However, it also comes
equipped with two laser cannons. One, mounted on the nose, fires
straight ahead. Since this is a heavier cannon, it can only fire
one shot at a time. The other is mounted behind the cockpit, pointing
straight up. Fortunately, as this is the moon, what goes up does
not necessarily come down. This gun fires lighter, faster shots to
deal with the agile alien ships. It can fire four bullets at a time.
The
biggest key to success in Moon Patrol is memorization. Learn each
course like the back of your hand. It's not as hard as you might
think, because the game only has two courses, the Beginner Course and the
Champions Course. Once you clear the beginner course, you repeat
the Champions Course for as long as you play the game.
Having
said that, there is an element of unpredictability, and that is in how
the alien saucers choose to attack you. Always go after the crater
makers first, if possible, because dealing with bombers and crater makers
together is like begging the game to kill you. If you don't mistime
your jump over the crater, odds are good you'll be hit by a falling bomb.
The
appearances of ground hazards, on the other hand, are preset. Develop
a plan of attack for getting through each series of ground hazards.
Most
of the time you will not have to worry about more than a token ground threat
when faced with a serious aerial assault, and vice versa. This allows
you to concentrate 90% of your attention on whichever is posing a greater
hazard at the moment. Of course, there are exceptions in certain
spots, especially later in the Champions Course, and that is where memorization
can be very useful.
In
dealing with the rocket car, drive as fast as you can while it's behind
you, and time its motions. When it makes its move, jam the joystick
back and hit the jump button. You will come down just behind it,
and if you shoot the instant you come down, you will get 1000 points for
bagging it at close range.
Don't
forget that tanks, barrels, and rocks can be jumped as well as shot.
In some situations it can be safer not trying to shoot them, for example
a tank or rock sitting on the far edge of a crater.
