“Bark!” you shout, as you bite the neck of another robot cat.
“Excellent!” exclaims the Doctor, turning on the lights, and
stopping the simulation. The rest of the robot cats lurch to a halt, and their
eyes go dark.
Exhausted from racing around the maze, you drop the cat, and
stand there panting.
The Doctor gestures to you while he talks to Melvin. “The
experiment is a success! The Player is no longer a mouse, but has now
stabilized as a dog!” He walks over and scratches your head. “I’m going to call
you Chuckie!” You wince and pull away, but you can’t argue with him… you do
seem to be a dog.
Melvin objects. “But… the Player doesn’t need to be a dog!
Our Queen needs the Player to be a human again!”
The Doctor keeps petting you, and starts talking annoying
baby talk. “What? Wittle Chuckie wuvs being a wittle doggie, don’t you?”
Melvin gets upset. “No! The player needs to be a human, and
our Queen needs the urn!”
The Doctor frowns. “Yes… I understand.” He strokes his red
chin. “And… that is part of my next phase of research… how to turn dogs into…
other things.”
“Like humans?” asks Melvin.
“Maybe? The research is in… early phases. Theoretically,
given the right poisons… err, I mean, the right diet, and the right amount of
stress, a dog could turn into a
human.”
“So, let’s do it!” says Melvin.
The Doctor furrows his brow. “Yes… well… I guess we can try.
It’s just that my research is in the early phases. I’m not exactly sure what
will happen.”
“But… the Player could
turn human again?”
“Yeeeessss…” the Doctor says slowly. He brightens. “It is
ahead of schedule… but if it works, the Purina people will be thrilled! Okay,
let’s do this!” You wonder if anyone is going to ask your opinion. It doesn’t
seem like it. The Doctor opens the door to an adjacent room, and looks back at
you. “Come here, Chuckie! That’s a good doggie!” You roll your eyes, and look
at Melvin pleadingly.
Melvin looks back. “Yeah, I know,” he says. “But it might
work! Do you have a better plan?”
Grudgingly, you shake your head no, and follow the doctor to
the next room. On your way you hear the nasal voice on the loudspeaker.
“Doctor? Are you there? I’m very worried about your patient!” The doctor either
doesn’t hear this, or doesn’t care.
This room has an even more elaborate maze, but it doesn’t
seem quite… finished. The control board is a mess of exposed wiring. At the far
side of the room is… The Purina Chuck Wagon? You remember that from old TV
commercials. The Doctor explains to Melvin: “This is like the last maze, but
instead of cats, it has a robotic dog catcher.” You see a strange gray robot on
one side of the maze. The doctor flips a switch, and it starts lurching around
weirdly. He sighs. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work very well… I haven’t
had time to finish programming it… I’ve been… a little sick. Oh well. I can
always use the hawk.”
“Isn’t it the hawk’s day off?” asks Melvin.
He smacks his forehead. “Oh… right!” He sighs. “Well, if I
can’t torment Chuckie here with the hawk, I’ll… have… uh… various flying
objects that would distress a dog.”
“Like what?” wonders Melvin.
“Oh, you know, masks, dog bones, this green thing…” He
connects some loose wires and various items start flying around.
You and Melvin look on. “I have to ask again,” says Melvin.
“Are those bones for dogs to eat, or… actual dog bones?”
The Doctor smiles. “What do you think would distress a dog
the most? Not to mention, if Chuckie gets to the Chuck Wagon, he’ll get a
toxic, I mean, delicious treat, in this flying dog dish.”
“Why make the dog dish fly?” asks a confused Melvin.
“We need stress to activate the toxins, and make Chuckie
change! Also, it’s funny!” laughs the Doctor fiendishly, flipping a switch from
B to A, and opening up his experiment notebook. “Now, run, Chuckie, get the
food, and we’ll see what you turn into! That’s a good doggie!” The dog catcher
robot starts lurching after you, and with a sigh, you run into the maze. You’re
scared for your life, but you try to think positive: the last experiment
worked… maybe this one will too?
Place the Chase the
Chuck Wagon cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set the difficulty switches to a.
Press “game select” to start the game. Wait, is that right? Huh, I guess it is.
Play until you get 1200 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section
of yourself completing the challenge.
Wow that was easy! JK this is going to be a rough one. Has the same level of "fairness" in my opinion as the Frankenstein game. I do okayish on the mazes but the reflexes to get that 100 point bonus in the later rounds, woof. 776 Final score this time but I missed 200 bonus points so this could have been an almost 1000pt run. It feels close but the level of precision to get those last few hundred points may very well result in countless more levels to clear which gets harder because the object flying across the screen that freezes you delays you longer and longer each round...
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/60jz5XLK7P8
It's a tricky one... but hopefully you'll get the knack soon. Maybe this commercial and it's "meat-like chunks" will inspire you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRDDs7owcro
DeleteHa! Unfortunately, the meat-like chunks aren't quite the motivation I require however I just can't give up on the AtariQuest! Been playing this every evening and this game can be quite frustrating. I struggle with the maze obstacles if they move fast and in certain shapes, but I am getting a little better at the bonus rounds. This good run 1065pts (link below) really occurred because cycle #3 had fairly easy obstacles going along the screen. Perfect run to get to 1200 points requires 11 rounds with bonus 100pts attained and last ~100 points comes from time remaining of clearing rounds. It was nice to see myself complete 11 rounds+ but very clear how much harder it is to line up the dog dish after the 3rd cycle. Also fun fact not mentioned in the manual is that you gain an extra life after you get to 1000 points. I recall some of your chapter challenges ended on the score which granted another life so this threw me off. You can especially tell this in the video when I die on life 3 and scramble back to the controls to keep playing :D.
DeleteRun starts at 6:30.
https://youtu.be/_g3OqnAzcRg
You're really giving it your all on this! I definitely was thinking of the 1000 point extra life when setting the 1200 point goal ... you are getting so close, I hope you get there soon!
DeleteTook a bit of hiatus but got a few solid weeks of practice in and had a breakthrough or two! Here it is in all its glory 1298 points!! So proud of this one, skill wise perhaps the hardest one I have completed yet. I won't lie there is a looming feeling I have that this quest won't be completed as intended simply due to the fact that it has taken us ~4.5 years to reach chapter 70. To that end I have some ideas which we can discuss in the Atariage Forums anytime which may be of interest to you. Anyways - here's the video in all its epicness :) https://youtu.be/9EDKGOwHg3U
ReplyDeleteYour determination on this one was definitely... dogged! It is true that the chapters are unlocking slowly... would be interested to hear your ideas about getting more people interested!
DeletePS -- This new video was a bit blurry again -- but the score was legible!