Blast Box

NOTE: I am rouse, or rouse_games, only much older; this is an OLD game. I didn't steal this. I'd rather not steal from myself.

The game, like I said, is pretty old, but had its fun parts and I was very proud of it. I also got a lot of positive feedback, and people liked the game, so I'm not gonna let it die.

Try to go through it without losing a single life. I changed it after complaints of "too hard" via email. Suck it up :).

The game was centred around an "arcade idea" based around (computer) germs. My actual concept was as follows: "The terrifying life of a virus scanner".

Strategy guide: I can get through the game without losing a life and getting a highscore of 60,000. The final boss is so difficult, it is worth 50,000 points if you kill it.

Ramming things - Run away from them, hit them from afar. Don't pick up heath pickups unless you accidentally run into them (which you really shouldn't). Take all other powerups (except the teleporter - it's useless, I put it there for players who panic).

Simple shooty things - Go far from them, then blast them. You need the powerups, so if you want to speed things up, kill them until health pickups appear, ram into them and rapid-fire them to death until you get all the powerups. Get the health, run away, repeat. Single shots don't do much damage - don't go for a health pickup unless a single rocket will kill you (about 60% health left). This is to go for a highscore - otherwise just weave through their shots, noticing the hitbox of the player is large.

Flamer guys - Make sure you don't get anywhere NEAR those flames. Different strategy from before - you can no longer ram into them to get powerups faster, because the flames can kill you in a single second. Shoot them from afar, lead them away from the powerups, then go get them. This is much slower than ramming into them, but most players would probably miss powerup oppurtunities here.

White energy masses - Rapid fire versions of the simple shooters. They swarm you, and fire very fast. It is deliberate it is difficult to dodge the shots - instead what you need to do is take very little damage and kill them up close either with your whip or with your rockets (but keep in mind the whip is important later on). Avoid their shots by moving in a perpetual movement. These are the fastest enemy, so get close to them. When they drop health, go out of your way to pick it up to avoid getting killed by the rocket launcher guys later. Prioritise getting rid of these guys before anyone (if you have a choice) - they swarm.

Minelayers - With an absurd amount of heath, these guys are a pain very far into the game. When the spawn period for the minelayers are over, most likely they will still be there. Avoid these guys until the next enemy appears, and take out the rapid fire white energy masses first. When they are less of a threat, whip these guys to death. If you bungle here, set a dummy magnet and rocket them to death - it is important you don't run into these (as they do massive damage).

Four-directional normal guy - This enemy shoots bullets randomly in 4 static directions. This means the game is seperated into four sectors with just one of these enemies present. The shots don't do much, and they fire spasmodically, so cross the sectors often, and avoid their shots. Don't go for these guys first, until the homing four-directional guy comes. Shoot them from afar when that happens.

Four-directional homing guy - Same as above, but the enemy moves into you, making the sector you're in smaller and smaller as you wait. Constantly move into the bigger sector, then kill it in the biggest one. If there are too many, magnet dummy the field and shoot the crap out of it. Likely, you will only be able to take out two of them, so don't waste your magnet dummies if you don't have enough left (2). These guys are annoying, but below the top priorities for killing.

Rocket launcher - Watch for these. Kill these guys IMMEDIATELY. They do insane damage at a fast rate. Never stand still, stand your distance, and do circles around it if possible. With all the chaos happening around you when you first see these guys, it might be benificial to set a magnet dummy and assassinate rocket guys.

Homing rocket launcher - Very dangerous. It is most likely you'll have many of these on your tail at the same time, meaning if you stop, you will certianly die. Run the rockets until they self-destruct, then take out the homing rocket generators. Take out all of the rocket launcher generaters before the homing rocket ones though - they won't respawn until the boss appears (which at that point you need to stop immediately and focus fire the boss).

Mothership - Spawns constant rocket guys. Incredibly dangerous. You need to keep constant fire on it otherwise it regenerates health. There are two ways to fight the boss - the speed way, and the highscore way:

Speed. Create a magnet and whip the ship to death whilst rocketing it, avoiding the dumbfounded enemies.

Highscore. Set "damage checkpoints". The more you set, the higher your score will be. To set checkpoints, say when you will focus fire the enemy, how high will you let the health regenerate before you go mad onto it? 200 damage done, then let 100 regain, repeat? Do that, and after you do 200 damage, rampage the other enemies with above strategies. I can guarantee, however, despite this, you will die eventually if you don't hurry it up because there will constantly be more and more enemies that will most certainly overwhelm you if you don't take out the mothership and finish the game.

Go until you are completely overwhelmed, then use said speed method. How man/woman are you? Certainly not enough to beat my all time highscore: 72,501 points. I am the developer of this game after all - I know all the tricks, and I wrote this damn guide.

Enjoy this old game with crappy graphics and a neat - I think, mechanic as the first game I ever made!
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