Up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon. Here in my hometown, we are fortunate to have many avid ballonists who decorate the sky with their colorful hot air balloons on calm afternoons. This beautiful occurrence was the inspiration for this program.
Balloon Derby 128 recreates a popular ballooning event, called the "Bomb-Drop." In this competition, the pilots must maneuver their craft over a target and drop a "bomb," usually a bean bag or a sack of flour. The bomb closest to the target is the winner.
In the actual event, pilots steer their balloons by utilizing the different wind directions and velocities found at different altitudes. A great deal of skill and experience is required before a pilot can successfully rendezvous with the target site. In this game, fortunately, all you need is a joystick and a little eye-hand coordination!
Flight Plan
Begin your ballooning adventure by making sure you have a joystick plugged into port 2. Load Ballon Derby from Menu 128 and be sure to turn up the volume of your monitor to take advantage of the sound effects included. After a short sprite loading routine, the screen will blank for about 10 seconds while the background is being set up.
Like a real hot air balloon, you have only limited control of your craft. The wind will blow you at a constant speed across the screen. Moving the joystick up and down moves the balloon toward the background and foreground respectively. The FIRE button releases the flour sack when pressed.
Each game consists of 5 attempts to drop the bomb on the target. After the fifth try, a score is calculated and the player is given a skill rating. If you ever look to the sky and watch hot air balloons with the same wonder and fascination that I do, then you're sure to enjoy Balloon Derby 128!
