Sinerunner - Atari 2600 homebrew game

About

In a not too far dystopian future you must evade the ruthless henchmen of corrupt authorities and make your way through a deadly maze of moving walls.

It is your mission to guide your avatar from the bottom of each of the 66 level screens to the top while not getting hit by the walls to finally find your way out into freedom.

Difficulty

The game supports two difficulties - hard (originally the normal mode) and easy. The desired difficulty can be selected in the main menu by using the joystick button.

In easy mode, the sine wave patterns are a little bit slower (25.6 seconds max. period time) than in hard mode (17 seconds) but also the runner moves slower to don't make it too easy.

Running

The game is single player and is played with the joystick in the left port. You have unlimited lives, there is no such thing as a game over. When you die because being hit by a wall, you press the joystick button and will immediately be reincarnated on bottom of the screen to go again.

The number in the bottom right corner of the screen shows the current try you are doing in the ongoing level. The upper left corner alternating shows your current score (orange/yellow) or the green 3-digit code identifying the current level. You can later use this code to directly start from this specific level using the "Resume" function in the main menu.

When you have reached the top of a screen, your score increases by the value shown in the upper left. Press the joystick button to enter the next level.

You may skip a level by just walking out of the screen to the right. You should feel really bad in doing so. Note that you will not get any points for a skipped level nor you won't receive the big bonus points at the end of the game if you have skipped one or more levels.

During gameplay, you may toggle the wall sound on/off using the "Select" button of the console.

Scoring

You receive points based on the number of attempts you need to complete a level. The score increment is the difference of your needed trries to a fixed reference value of tries for that specific level (plus three bonus points). The reference values ascend from 1 (level 1) to 22 (level 66). If you need more tries than the reference value, you still get 1 point.

If you haven't skipped a level and didn't start the game using the "Resume" function, you will be given a bonus of 75 extra points on completion of level 66. Best score for level 1 is 3 points and 99 points for level 66 (24 + 75). Highest reachable score is hence 966 points.

Scoring is the same in easy and hard mode.

Resume

The resume function can be selected from the main menu. Enter the three digits of the level you want to start from using the joystick up/down and the joystick button. After you have entered the third digit, the game will search for the corresponding level and start it. If the code is unknown, the game will return to the main menu.

Random

The random generator creates levels by random which can then be played. Other than the built-in game levels, the generated levels must not always be manageable. The generator uses both difficulty settings of the console to limit (or not) specific values of the generated level parameters.

Pressing the joystick button in random mode will generate another level.

Acknowledgments

Very special thanks to James O'Brien and the whole ZPH team as well as Thomas Jentzsch for the helpful feedback and support and Nils Poppendiek for additional testing and PR!