OK, a good example of unfair deaths... on the level with the runway background (this is for the arcade version, but does apply to the conversions as well) the UFOs will move in a RANDOM pattern and suddenly swoop down at you. That is an unfair death right there, no way to "plan" your way around it. There are also many instanaces where enemies will spawn right on top of you and kill you instantly.
OK, a good example of unfair deaths... on the level with the runway background (this is for the arcade version, but does apply to the conversions as well) the UFOs will move in a RANDOM pattern and suddenly swoop down at you. That is an unfair death right there, no way to "plan" your way around it. There are also many instanaces where enemies will spawn right on top of you and kill you instantly.
Nope, wrong on both counts I'm afraid.
First of all, the example quoted here before disproves the second one. Things cannot spawn right on top of you and kill you instantly because you get given a couple of seconds grace period when they spawn where they have no hitbox and you can walk through them. This is true for all enemies.
And the ufos do not move in a random pattern. They actually set a course directly for you. If they hit something on the way to you, they will return to their original position and attempt to swoop for you again.
The reason they are tough on the runway level (or is it a corn field?) is because there are no platforms to impede them. However, if you time it so that you are at the top of one of BJ's giant leaps when they spawn, you'll be safely dropping away from them at speed.
You can see this in my playthru for the first cycle. Yes, by the second cycle i was fading a bit and lost a couple of lives, but was my fault and on the third cycle i got the method right again.
Even when the bird is moving like the clappers on your fourth playthru, the thing to remember is that BombJack is MUCH faster moving vertically than horizontally. The enemies can match your horizontal speed but they'l never match your vertical, and you can exploit that to outmanouvre them.
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Nope, wrong on both counts I'm afraid.
First of all, the example quoted here before disproves the second one. Things cannot spawn right on top of you and kill you instantly because you get given a couple of seconds grace period when they spawn where they have no hitbox and you can walk through them. This is true for all enemies.
And the ufos do not move in a random pattern. They actually set a course directly for you. If they hit something on the way to you, they will return to their original position and attempt to swoop for you again.
The reason they are tough on the runway level (or is it a corn field?) is because there are no platforms to impede them. However, if you time it so that you are at the top of one of BJ's giant leaps when they spawn, you'll be safely dropping away from them at speed.
You can see this in my playthru for the first cycle. Yes, by the second cycle i was fading a bit and lost a couple of lives, but was my fault and on the third cycle i got the method right again.
Even when the bird is moving like the clappers on your fourth playthru, the thing to remember is that BombJack is MUCH faster moving vertically than horizontally. The enemies can match your horizontal speed but they'l never match your vertical, and you can exploit that to outmanouvre them.
As the other poster said, that doesn't happen on the Spectrum version. That was one of the little things that made it so great.
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Isn't it the night view of LA from the hills?