SEARS TELE-GAMES STEEPLECHASE Game Instructions For 1 to 4 players 6 Games Sears, Roebuck and Co. 4975126 Note: Always turn the POWER switch OFF when inserting or removing a Tele-Games Cartridge. This will protect the electronic components and prolong the life of your SEARS Video Arcade. Copyright 1981 Atari, Inc. 1. MEET THE VIDEO ARCADE HORSES Welcome to the VIDEO ARCADE Stables. It's time for you to meet the lively thoroughbreds waiting inside this game cartridge. This spirited bunch of hoofers never miss a race. Wonderful cartoonish drawings of horses are shown in their stalls. [Purple Horse, Little Dictator "Keep Out"] In the lane at the top of the playfield is "Little Dictator". Little Dictator has a mean streak that surfaces every now and then. Once, after losing a race, he ate the entire grandstands. [Blue Horse, Just Missed] The horse in the next lane was aptly named. "Just Missed" just missed every race he had ever entered before coming to our stables. Now he's as dependable as a horse could be. He doesn't win every race, but he never misses one. [Red Horse, Absent Mind] "Absent Mind" occupies the third lane down. He tends to forget things occasionally. One time during a race he completely forgot what he was supposed to be doing and ended up selling programs to the spectators lined up at the rally. [Yellow Horse, Lucky Devil] The horse at the bottom lane of the playfield is the pride and joy of the VIDEO ARCADE Stables. "Lucky Devil" is his name. He's become so wealthy from winning races that he now lives at the infamous "Horse Heaven Penthouse". At Horse Heaven, he sleeps in a hoof-shaped waterbed, dines regularly on caviar- flavoured oats and carrots and drinks champagne while lounging in his Gucci loafers and satin dinner jacket. So now you know a little about the VIDEO ARCADE team of horses. You can go against them in any one of the six games, or you can pick one of them as your own mount. Who knows? -- You may end up in Horse Heaven yourself some day. 2. OBJECT OF THE GAME The object of Steeplechase is to be the first player to advance your horse to the right side of the screen display. Each horse gallops at a given speed from left to right. While the horse gallops, hurdles of different sizes approach the horse from right to left. Your task is to jump and clear the hurdles, and get your horse to the right side first. As you are jumping each hurdle, your horse actually has no motion from left to right. Whenever you hit a hurdle your horse loses some horizontal position (distance) while it falls to the ground and gets up. The higher you jump your horse, the easier it is to clear all hurdles. However, the more time it takes to clear the hurdles, and the more time it takes to reach the right side of the screen. The height of a jump can be set by adjusting your height indicator bar. There are four height settings. Each horse has its own height indicator bar. To learn how to adjust the bar and how to control and jump your horse, see USING THE CONTROLLERS, Section 3. The speed of the race starts off slow, and increases when the leading horse: (1) gets about one-third of the way across the screen, and, (2) again when the leading horse gets two-thirds of the way across. A game ends automatically when the game clock reaches 3:00 and none of the horses have made it to the right side. All six games can be played by one to four players. If less than four players pick a horse before the race starts (see USING THE CONTROLLERS), the computer will control the other horse or horses. If players want to compete against each other only, they should play against the computer horses in Games 1 and 4. In these games the computer horses' performance rating is "poor", so they are essentially out of the race and you are free to race each other. If one or more players want to race against the computer, play against the computer's horses in Games 2 or 5 ("good" performance rating), and Games 3 or 6 ("excellent" rating). Be sure to read GAME VARIATIONS, Section 5, for a complete listing of each game. You already know that the next section (USING THE CONTROLLERS), describes how to control your horse. Read Section 4, CONSOLE CONTROLS, to find out how to select a game number, as well as how to start a game. The GAME SELECT MATRIX at the back of the booklet provides a quick breakdown of the game variations for each game number. 3. USING THE CONTROLLERS Use your Standard Paddle Controllers with this Tele-Games Cartridge. Be sure the controller cables are firmly plugged into the controller jacks at the back of your Video Arcade. Four-player games require an additional set of Paddle Controllers. Hold the controller with this red button to your upper left toward the television screen. See page 4 of your owner's manual for further details. Before each race begins (see game RESET switch, Section 4, CONSOLE CONTROLS), each player has four seconds to press the red controller button. This will place your horse in the race. Otherwise, the computer will control the horse. Notice that when you press the controller button your horse changes from a sitting position to a standing position. After the race begins, press the red controller button to jump your horse. Turn the dial on the Paddle Controller to select one of four height settings of the height indicator bar. To clear the widest hurdles, you must use the highest height setting. Use lower height settings to clear the small hurdles. 4. CONSOLE CONTROLS GAME SELECT Switch: Press down the GAME SELECT switch to choose a game. As you press the switch, the game number changes on the screen display. The game number is located toward the top, middle of the screen, as shown in Figure 1. Game RESET Switch: Use this switch to start each race. As explained in the previous section, after the game RESET switch is pressed, each player has four seconds to press the controller button and get into the race. Each race starts with the sound of a gunshot. The time clock begins counting at the beginning of a race. Figure 3 shows where the clock is located on the screen display. NOTE: The LEFT and RIGHT PLAYER SKILL switches have no effect in STEEPLECHASE. 5. GAME VARIATIONS NOTE: All six games can be played by one, two, three, or four players. See USING THE CONTROLLERS, Section 3. Games 1,2,3: The spacing between the hurdles in these games is "uniform", meaning that the distance between all hurdles is the same, enabling you to establish a rhythm. In Game 1 the computer horse or horse's racing ability is poor. In Game 2 the computer horse's ability is good, and in Game 3 it is excellent. Games 4,5,6: In these games the spacing between the hurdles is "random" meaning that the hurdles come at you with varying distances between them. In Game 4, the computer horse's racing ability is poor, good for Game 5, and excellent in Game 6. 6. HELPFUL HINTS At first, it may be difficult to focus your attention both on the horse, AND on the height indicator bar. You may have a tendency to keep your eye on your horse toward the left side of the screen, rather than on the bar on the right side. To eliminate this problem when first playing STEEPLECHASE, set the height indicator bar to its highest position and leave it there for the entire race. This allows you to get the knack of jumping hurdles without having to worry about the bar. Later, when you feel more comfortable about jumping, you can switch your attention to the height indicator bar. Naturally there is more than one method you can use to control your horse and the bar. You may develop a winning method of your own. One method is to quickly change your concentration from the horse to the bar and back to the horse. The trick here is not to linger too long and the bar and miss the hurdle. Another method you might try is to keep your attention mainly on your horse and you your peripheral vision to adjust the bar. This method can be especially helpful once you are used to adjusting the controller to move the bar. 7. GAME SELECT MATRIX Game Computer Hurdle Number Performance Rating Spacing 1 POOR UNIFORM 2 GOOD UNIFORM 3 EXCELLENT UNIFORM 4 POOR RANDOM 5 GOOD RANDOM 6 EXCELLENT RANDOM