Loadstar 215/215.d81/t.peewee hockey

Text File | 2002-01-01 | 8.8 KB | 310 lines

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        P E E W E E   H O C K E Y

             by Dale Holden


    THE STORY:  It's a snowy Saturday
morning at the local hockey rink in a
small rural town. Because of the
storm blowing outside (and the fact
that the C-64 has only 8 sprites),
only 6 players and 2 goalies show up
for practice. So, they split into
two teams, to play "Shinny" until
they drop.

    Your younger brother, who didn't
bring his skates, leans on the boards
at center ice and throws the puck
onto the ice for faceoffs. He'll
call offsides if they want, but
that's about it. There are no
slapshots, high sticks or fights,
just kids having a good time,
pretending to be their favorite
hockey star -- the way kid's hockey
was meant to be played.

    THE GAME: You view the rink from
the South end looking North (bottom
of the screen to the top). You can
control any player (with Joystick 1
or 2) and the goalies (with Joy 1, 2
or keyboard), depending on how you
set up the players. The computer can
play any or all of the positions. Up
to 3 people can play at once (one on
each joystick, and one on keyboard
playing goal). You can play on the
same team or against each other.

    You can set the speed of the
hockey players, the reaction speed of
the goalies, whether offsides
are called, and even a directional
puck (see section on puck direction).
Each game is in three five-minute
periods.

    SPEED: the game settings are SLOW,
FAST, and 2FST (too fast). These
affect how fast the players and
puck travel.

    GOALIE SPEED: this determines how
fast they react as well as how fast
they move.

    The hardest skill to learn will
be skating. As you begin to skate in
one direction, you build up speed
and momentum. If you turn, you will
lose speed, but your momentum will
still carry you in the original
direction. If you try to reverse
your direction, the player will slow
down, stop, turn, and then slowly
start in the new direction. The
secret is to make "the big circle",
i.e. gradually turn toward the new
direction at high speed, so that you
maintain your speed, and stay up with
the play. Try to avoid a lot of
stops and starts and bumping other
players or you will end up trailing.

    Try the following for a good
beginner's game:

 1. Set the BLUE CENTER to JOY#1
 2. Set the other players to JOY#2
 3. Goalies on SLOW COMPUTER control
 4. Set game speed to SLOW
 5. OFFSIDES to NO
 6. PUCK to DIRECT

    PRACTICE: here you can practice
skating, passing, and making turns
and moves. Press F1 to quit then set
speed to FAST and try again. Take
some shots on the goalies to see how
they react.

    DEMO MODE: to see how the game is
played, set all the players and
goalies to COMPUTER control, and let
them go at it. If you want
continuous play, put a book on the
SPACEBAR, or tape the BUTTON on JOY#1
down. This will start the faceoffs
automatically.

    FACEOFFS: Pressing the SPACEBAR
or JOY#1 BUTTON will start the
faceoff. The ref throws out the
puck. When it lands at center, it
will bounce in a random direction,
and the play starts.

    TEAM COLORS: Each team can have
up to three sweater colors. The BLUE
team can choose: DARK BLUE, LIGHT
BLUE, or PURPLE. The RED team can
choose: DARK RED, LIGHT RED, or
ORANGE. The purpose of this is so
humans can tell their team-mates from
their adversaries.

    When the menu is shown, the BLUE
team has the three different colors,
since the Center and Winger are
humans, and the Defense is computer-
controlled. The RED team are all set
to the same color since they are all
computer-controlled. This is only
the default. You can choose any
combination you wish.

    SCROLLING: the screen will scroll
up or down any time the puck crosses
one of the two BLUE lines.

    OFFSIDES: If this option is
chosen, the play will be whistled
down if a player enters the offensive
zone before the puck enters, and he
touches the puck. If an opposing
player touches the puck first, the
offside is waived. There is no
icing, or 2 line pass calls.

    The computer controlled players
will attempt to stay onside, but
their momentum will carry them over
the BLUE line. So you must time your
pass or move so they are onside when
you cross.

    BODY CHECKING: When two players
collide, they are forced back in
opposite directions. This can be an
advantage or a disadvantage,
depending on the proximity of the
puck. If the puck is close, you may
want to negate your momentum this
way.

    OFFSCREEN: The screen follows the
puck! If you are scrolled off the
screen, you'll have to skate blindly
back into view. If you're bunched
with other players, you might have a
hard time doing this.

    CATCHING AND CHECKING THE PUCK:
Your player can only catch the puck
with the bottom third of his image.
You can't always catch the puck with
the end of your stick, so try to
place your body in the puck's path.
If another player has it, try to
place your player where he has the
puck. Remember, the puck will change
position as he turns. If you are
chasing the player from behind, you
can snatch the puck off his stick if
he moves his stick closer to you.

    CARRYING THE PUCK: The same
principles apply when you are
carrying the puck. You can turn in a
direction that will keep the puck
away from your pursuers. Or, you can
hand it right to them if you turn the
wrong way. This can also work to
your advantage. If  you hold the
puck out to an oncoming defender,
then you can spin away as he
approaches, and beat him to the net.
This takes some practice to master.

    PLAYING POSITIONS:  WINGERS -
their main role is to catch breakout
passes, and score goals. They rarely
go into their own defensive zone, but
they do go deep into corners on the
offensive zone to check and dig out
the puck. This is the easiest
position to play and is a good
starting point.

    CENTERS play the entire rink, and
are expected to score, set up goals,
and help out defensively in front of
their own net. They have to check
the other center, and make the right
passes. Center is a much tougher
position to play.

    DEFENSE - stay between the puck
and their own net, and move the puck
to the centers. They rarely go far
into the offensive zone, which is the
toughest spot to play, and best left
for experts. Even the computer has
trouble staying in front of the
oncoming player.

    GOALIES: When controlled by the
computer, they play the angles. That
is, they stay close to the side of
the net the puck is on. At SLOW
speed, they can be beaten by shooting
to the opposite side of the net. In
other words, if you are on the right
side of the net, shoot to the far
left side. At FAST speed, they are
much harder to beat, and at 2FST,
practically impossible to beat "far"
side. They will give up goals on the
"short" side, on occasion, if they're
not right up against the post. You
can poke it under them if you can get
really close in.

    KEYBOARD CONTROL: the RUN/STOP
moves LEFT and COMMODORE key moves
RIGHT. These keys were chosen as
they are interfered with the LEAST by
JOY#1. If a player continuously
holds JOY#1 in one direction, this
may stop the keyboard from being
read, so a little cooperation is
needed if 3 people are playing.

    PUCK DIRECTION: The puck will
travel in the direction the shooting
player is facing when he shoots.
There are 8 directions: NORTH, NE,
EAST, SE, SOUTH, SW, WEST,NW. If you
choose the +COLOR option instead of
DIRECT the puck color will cycle:
GREEN (left) to BLACK (straight) to
YELLOW (RIGHT), then black, green,
black yellow etc. This means that
the puck will travel one direction to
the left (if GREEN) or one to the
right (if YELLOW). For example, if
you are traveling NORTH, and shoot
the puck when it is YELLOW, the puck
will go NE. If you waited until it
was GREEN, it would go NW. If you
shoot when it's BLACK, it would go
NORTH. This allows you to skate in
one direction, but pass or shoot in
another. This is a useful skill, but
very difficult to master.

    HINTS & TIPS: Watch a couple of
games in DEMO mode, and note how the
players play their positions.
Although there is a lot of RANDOM
movement, there are certain
tendencies that you can take
advantage of. Know where the winger
is for an outlet pass, and when the
center is likely to dump it in front
of the net for you. Stick to the
EASY options (SLOW, no offsides etc.)
until you get a feel for the game.
Experiment with your moves and
skating, and get your buddies to play
Winger and develop your own plays.
Need more of a challenge? Speed up
the opponent's goalie. Try
controlling more than one player at
once, or the whole team, including
your own goalie! If you can play
2FST, with +COLOR, and stay up with
the play, I want you on my team!
Bring your own skates.

 DH


 AFTER-NOTE: In 1993, LOADSTAR had a
CodeQuest contest. I was sure Sea to
Sea would be in the money. But alas,
Dale submitted this exquisite program.
But, all in all, I have to hand it to
him. Getting so many features, so much
joystickery, so much realistic hockey
action on a C-64 is worthy of a great
prize!

 Thanks, Dale!

 DMM