Circus Atari FAQ version 1.0 (C) 2006-2007 William Ornt Table of Contents ----------------- 0. Legal Info 1. Introduction 2. Game Screen 3. How to Play 4. Game Variations 5. Scoring 6. Tips Legal Info ---------- This FAQ is Copyright (C) 2006-2007 William Ornt. At the current time I am giving GameFAQs and _only_ GameFAQs permission to post/publish my FAQs. Please do not e-mail me asking for permission to reprint this as it will not get a response. If you find this FAQ on another site (with or without this disclaimer) please let me know where it is posted, and I will deal with them personally. 1. Introduction --------------- Circus Atari is a game similar to Breakout. The object is to collect balloons floating across the top of the screen by propelling two men on a seesaw. When an entire row of balloons are collected the row is replaced and bonus points are awarded. The game has no end, you can keep playing until you lose a life five times. 2. Game Screen -------------- The game screen looks like this: /------------------------\ | 0 8 6 2 1 3X | | ...................... | | ...................... | | ...................... | | -- -- -- | | | | | | | | | | | | __ | | . .__/ . | | | \------------------------/ The four-digit number in the upper left is the current player's score. To the right of that is a 1 or 2 indicating the player number, followed by a number from 1 to 5 indicating which life you are on. An X appears next to the life number if you have earned an extra life in the current turn. Below the numbers is three rows of balloons (from top to bottom, red, blue, and white). The red and white rows move from right to left across the screen, and the blue row moves from left to right. All three rows wrap around; that is, when balloons move off one side of the screen they reappear on the other side. Immediately below the balloons may be a group of three blocks, depending on what game variation you are playing. These blocks are to try to keep your men from reaching the rows of balloons; when your man hits the blocks, he will bounce off and come back down toward the trampoline. At the bottom of the screen are two trampolines at each end of the screen, which appear simply as black squares. Between the trampolines is your seesaw. You need to catch your falling man on the raised end of the seesaw to launch the man on the other end into the air. If you fail to catch the man he crashes into the floor and you lose a life. 3. How to play --------------- At the beginning of a turn, one of your men will be on the seesaw. Pressing the fire button makes the other man appear on one of the trampolines on the sides of the screen, and after bouncing on it, he'll come down toward the middle of the screen. Turning the paddle or moving the joystick will move the seesaw left and right, so you can catch the falling man on the raised end of the seesaw. This will propel the other man into the air, who you then need to catch the same way. This continues until you eventually miss the man when he comes down, which ends your turn. When you man gets high enough he can grab the balloons at the top of the screen. The object is to collect as many balloons as you can. If you clear the entire top row you will get an extra turn (though you can only earn an extra turn once per life). As long as you keep clearing the top row at least once per life, you can continue playing indefinitely. 4. Game Variations ------------------- Circus Atari has eight game variations, most of which can be played by one player or two players taking turns. Game 1: When a man collects balloons at the top of the screen, he bounces off them and heads back down toward the trampoline. When a row of balloons is cleared, a new row appears in its place. The row of three blocks underneath the balloons is absent. Game 2: Same as game 1, but with the row of three blocks added. Game 3: When a man collects balloons, he goes right through them and continues travelling upward. When a row of balloons is cleared, a new row appears. The row of three blocks is absent. Game 4: Same as game 3, with the row of three blocks. Game 5: Like in game one, the man bounces off the balloons back toward the bottom when collecting them. New rows of balloons and bonus points/lives are not awarded until all three rows are cleared. The row of three blocks is not there. Game 6: Same as game 5, with the block row. Game 7: Two players only. Unlike the other game modes, where the two players each have their own set of balloons, in this version both players play off the same set of balloons. That is, whatever balloons are removed from play when player 1's turn ends stay removed for the beginning of player 2's turn, and vice versa. Otherwise the game is the same as variation 1. Game 8: Same as game 7, with the row of blocks added. 5. Scoring ---------- Successful bounce off the trampolines or seesaw = 1 point White balloon collected = 2 points Blue balloon collected = 5 points Red balloon collected = 10 points White row cleared = 20 points Blue row cleared = 50 points Red row cleared = 100 points and extra life Notes: - In game versions 5 and 6, the three row cleared bonuses are only awarded after all three rows are cleared. - The score rolls over at 10,000 points. - You can only earn one extra life per turn. 6. Tips ------- - When the man on the left end of the seesaw bounces up, he does so from the position he was at, but the man on the right end bounces up slightly to the right of his position on the seesaw. So, when the men are bouncing directly straight up into the air, you must move the seesaw slightly to the right when the man on the right jumps to avoid having him crash. - The man on the seesaw will fly up higher if you catch the falling man closer to the edge of the seesaw. - If you've already earned an extra life in the current turn and there are only one or two red balloons remaining you may want to try to avoid catching them until you crash and use the extra life. When you lose the extra life you'll only need to grab the remaining red balloon for another extra life, whereas the bonus life would be wasted if you cleared the row with an extra life already in reserve. - For some reason, if you leave the game idle for several minutes in between turns it will automatically end the game and go back to the game select screen. So if you take a break between turns to use the restroom, get a snack, or whatever, make sure you don't take too long.