====Description==== Crossbow is a light gun shooter released as an arcade video game by Exidy in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, and by Atari Corporation for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers starting in 1987. The game is controlled via a positional gun that resembles a full-sized crossbow. from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow_(video_game) Tool-assisted superplay (TAS) of Crossbow Arcade (4,739,500 pts) (5 loops) ===Warning Flashing light=== -To see much less flashing white screen, skip to loop 2 (13:16) -The game allows you to shoot at around 3 shots per second. -Normally there are 20 frames between shots, but not always. Sometimes I had to wait 22 to 25 frames before I could shoot again, I don't know why. -In the map, the game asks you to choose a color but does not tell you which path is associated with which color. You need to remember this or you can view the map on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow_(video_game) -Since you can choose your path, you can: -Do the 8 levels one after the other -Do the boss after only 4 levels (Shortest path) Desert, Ice Cave, Drawbridge, Castle Room (Green, Blue, Blue, Red) -Never do the boss by doing the same 2 or more levels in a loop. This can be a good plan if you only have one friend and always lose one during the boss fight. But beating the boss gets you 250,000 points, which is tempting. -You get a new friend on 5 of the 8 levels for a maximum of 8 friends. -Desert -Volcano -River -Jungle -Ice cave -You do not get a new friend -Town -Castle (Drawbridge) -Castle Hall -New friends are awarded only once. ===Loop 1=== -Complete all 8 levels to collect all friends. -Shoot as fast as possible at as many things as possible. -Almost every round is full of things to shoot at. Since it is not possible to fire more than 3 times per second, the TAS has something to shoot almost all the time.
===Loop 2=== 13:16 -Keep all 8 friends alive -Complete all 8 levels -Only shoot things that would kill a friend. -At the end, in the Castle hall, I close the light. As you can see, every object/character has pale/white things on them so they can be seen in complete darkness, except for one friend (27:50). ===Loop 3=== 30:18 -Keep only 1 friend -Do the 8 levels with him -Only shoot things that will kill the character -Show that you can wait for the bridges to make themselves. (31:4633:4134:29) ===Loop 4=== 36:12 -Take the lower route in the map (5 levels). ===Loop 5=== 39:32 -Do the 4 higher levels in the map (Shortest Path) -In the Town level, the ghost cannot be shot when he is transparent. Since he flashes quickly, in real play he can be a real pain to kill. But you absolutely have to kill him since he will kill all the friends in his path. -There are 3 levels where you have to shoot something to make a bridge so the characters can cross, but you don't have to shoot, the bridge will make itself after a few seconds as shown in loop 3. (Volcano 31:46, Ice Cave 33:41, Drawbridge 34:29) -As far as I have been able to test, the time before the bridge is made seems to be a fixed time from the start of the level, regardless of whether a friend is waiting for it. And the waiting time is different for each level. -This could be a way to make these levels a little longer to score a few more points. But the game doesn't want you to stay there forever. -In the castle hall, once a friend reaches the trap door the scepter will glow, shoot it to open the trap door and allow your friend to go down. -You can wait until 2 friends are on the trap before opening it, but it can't be more than 2 since the game will wait before sending another friend (as shown at 27:23) ==Evil Master (final boss) -All you have to do is shoot his eyes when they are red. -But shooting his eyes before they turn red will give you 5000 points (only each time you hear a sound), a good way to increase your score. -Soon after his eyes turn red, they will shoot at the friend. To avoid losing a friend, you must shoot both eyes in less than 1/2 sec. -If you have a problem with the boss always killing a friend, try shooting the right eye first, you will have a little more time to shoot the left eye since its first shot won't kill the friend. (Seen in the video on Twin Galaxies) www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/213985 -So if you don't have 2 friends in play, it might not be a good idea to go there. What is a TAS? ua-cam.com/users/Prog61about For a good introduction to TASing: ua-cam.com/video/Ietk1-Wb7oY/v-deo.html For more information visit tasvideos.org. 0:00 Loop 1 13:16 Loop 2 30:18 Loop 3 36:12 Loop 4 39:32 Loop 5 42:47 Ending
6 місяців тому+4
That's some peaceful strolling with all the Crossbow shooting.
I've actually TASed the Atari 7800 port of this game (have the short run on my channel, never posted the longplay because of all the flashing and repetitiveness). In terms of home ports, it's almost arcade perfect - the only difference I can see off the bat besides a reduction in the graphic detail (and somewhat lower "enemy density" because of that) is that in the Castle Hall level the screen will never go completely black even if you shoot out all the torches - it'll remain at the dark blue stage. I know from working on the A7800 version the score limit there is 10 million before it rolls over - it looks like the arcade's limit is higher based on an old TG record of nearly 20 million, but I can't imagine you want to go at this game long enough to see where the arcade's score cap might be. :P
Couldn't they find one extra unique sound effect for the Master of Darkness? After "You Will Die," those monkey sounds combined with his goofy face ruin any sense of foreboding. I can't take it seriously after that.😆
It says a lot about a game when a TAS is just as annoying as playing it normally. 😵💫 You don't ever hear Exidy mentioned in the same breath as Atari or Nintendo, which is a bit of a shame. They were the one that brought an old idea (shooting galleries) to the electronic age and can be considered the pioneers of the first-person shooter. Without their critical proof of concept there might have been no NY Captor, no Duck Hunt, no Operation Wolf or Lethal Enforcers or Time Crisis or The House of the Dead. I knew a few places that had Crossbow, and I remember seeing it at Disneyland at least once. Like a lot of the classics, there was very little middle ground. Either you had laserlike accuracy and could best the dreaded Master of Darkness, or you _didn't_ and got wiped in a minute or so. Remember how far you had to stand back to play those insufferable Wii or Playstation Move shooters? Make the controller about ten times as heavy and mount it on a tripod and you have some idea of how unforgiving this game was. Strangely, I don't remember there being any controversy. You'd think a booming "YOU WILL DIE" at the very start or a huge scary face turning into a skull (and back!) would've drawn plenty of ire, but no, at least to my knowledge. Nice one, prog61. Worth the wait. 👍 If you're interested in similar games, may I suggest Cheyenne, possibly the fastest possible 99,999,999? (Shouldn't take as long as it sounds thanks to the multiplier.)
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====Description====
Crossbow is a light gun shooter released as an arcade video game by Exidy in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, and by Atari Corporation for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers starting in 1987. The game is controlled via a positional gun that resembles a full-sized crossbow.
from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow_(video_game)
Tool-assisted superplay (TAS) of Crossbow Arcade (4,739,500 pts) (5 loops)
===Warning Flashing light===
-To see much less flashing white screen, skip to loop 2 (13:16)
-The game allows you to shoot at around 3 shots per second.
-Normally there are 20 frames between shots, but not always. Sometimes I had to wait 22 to 25 frames before I could shoot again, I don't know why.
-In the map, the game asks you to choose a color but does not tell you which path is associated with which color. You need to remember this or you can view the map on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow_(video_game)
-Since you can choose your path, you can:
-Do the 8 levels one after the other
-Do the boss after only 4 levels (Shortest path) Desert, Ice Cave, Drawbridge, Castle Room (Green, Blue, Blue, Red)
-Never do the boss by doing the same 2 or more levels in a loop. This can be a good plan if you only have one friend and always lose one during the boss fight. But beating the boss gets you 250,000 points, which is tempting.
-You get a new friend on 5 of the 8 levels for a maximum of 8 friends.
-Desert
-Volcano
-River
-Jungle
-Ice cave
-You do not get a new friend
-Town
-Castle (Drawbridge)
-Castle Hall
-New friends are awarded only once.
===Loop 1===
-Complete all 8 levels to collect all friends.
-Shoot as fast as possible at as many things as possible.
-Almost every round is full of things to shoot at. Since it is not possible to fire more than 3 times per second, the TAS has something to shoot almost all the time.
===Loop 2=== 13:16
-Keep all 8 friends alive
-Complete all 8 levels
-Only shoot things that would kill a friend.
-At the end, in the Castle hall, I close the light. As you can see, every object/character has pale/white things on them so they can be seen in complete darkness, except for one friend (27:50).
===Loop 3=== 30:18
-Keep only 1 friend
-Do the 8 levels with him
-Only shoot things that will kill the character
-Show that you can wait for the bridges to make themselves. (31:46 33:41 34:29)
===Loop 4=== 36:12
-Take the lower route in the map (5 levels).
===Loop 5=== 39:32
-Do the 4 higher levels in the map (Shortest Path)
-In the Town level, the ghost cannot be shot when he is transparent. Since he flashes quickly, in real play he can be a real pain to kill. But you absolutely have to kill him since he will kill all the friends in his path.
-There are 3 levels where you have to shoot something to make a bridge so the characters can cross, but you don't have to shoot, the bridge will make itself after a few seconds as shown in loop 3. (Volcano 31:46, Ice Cave 33:41, Drawbridge 34:29)
-As far as I have been able to test, the time before the bridge is made seems to be a fixed time from the start of the level, regardless of whether a friend is waiting for it. And the waiting time is different for each level.
-This could be a way to make these levels a little longer to score a few more points. But the game doesn't want you to stay there forever.
-In the castle hall, once a friend reaches the trap door the scepter will glow, shoot it to open the trap door and allow your friend to go down.
-You can wait until 2 friends are on the trap before opening it, but it can't be more than 2 since the game will wait before sending another friend (as shown at 27:23)
==Evil Master (final boss)
-All you have to do is shoot his eyes when they are red.
-But shooting his eyes before they turn red will give you 5000 points (only each time you hear a sound), a good way to increase your score.
-Soon after his eyes turn red, they will shoot at the friend. To avoid losing a friend, you must shoot both eyes in less than 1/2 sec.
-If you have a problem with the boss always killing a friend, try shooting the right eye first, you will have a little more time to shoot the left eye since its first shot won't kill the friend. (Seen in the video on Twin Galaxies) www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/213985
-So if you don't have 2 friends in play, it might not be a good idea to go there.
What is a TAS? ua-cam.com/users/Prog61about
For a good introduction to TASing: ua-cam.com/video/Ietk1-Wb7oY/v-deo.html
For more information visit tasvideos.org.
0:00 Loop 1
13:16 Loop 2
30:18 Loop 3
36:12 Loop 4
39:32 Loop 5
42:47 Ending
That's some peaceful strolling with all the Crossbow shooting.
Always like the write up and discussion you provide on what's going on.
I've actually TASed the Atari 7800 port of this game (have the short run on my channel, never posted the longplay because of all the flashing and repetitiveness). In terms of home ports, it's almost arcade perfect - the only difference I can see off the bat besides a reduction in the graphic detail (and somewhat lower "enemy density" because of that) is that in the Castle Hall level the screen will never go completely black even if you shoot out all the torches - it'll remain at the dark blue stage.
I know from working on the A7800 version the score limit there is 10 million before it rolls over - it looks like the arcade's limit is higher based on an old TG record of nearly 20 million, but I can't imagine you want to go at this game long enough to see where the arcade's score cap might be. :P
This will still remind me so much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Also Blackstar.
Nice, can you do a TAS for Puzzle Bobble? It’s my favorite series (also the Bubble Bobble series).
Exidy’s Chillers vibe 😂
The C-Series at Exidy, maybe?
Couldn't they find one extra unique sound effect for the Master of Darkness? After "You Will Die," those monkey sounds combined with his goofy face ruin any sense of foreboding.
I can't take it seriously after that.😆
35:54 Only affected this…!
all your friends are daredevils...!
It says a lot about a game when a TAS is just as annoying as playing it normally. 😵💫
You don't ever hear Exidy mentioned in the same breath as Atari or Nintendo, which is a bit of a shame. They were the one that brought an old idea (shooting galleries) to the electronic age and can be considered the pioneers of the first-person shooter. Without their critical proof of concept there might have been no NY Captor, no Duck Hunt, no Operation Wolf or Lethal Enforcers or Time Crisis or The House of the Dead.
I knew a few places that had Crossbow, and I remember seeing it at Disneyland at least once. Like a lot of the classics, there was very little middle ground. Either you had laserlike accuracy and could best the dreaded Master of Darkness, or you _didn't_ and got wiped in a minute or so. Remember how far you had to stand back to play those insufferable Wii or Playstation Move shooters? Make the controller about ten times as heavy and mount it on a tripod and you have some idea of how unforgiving this game was.
Strangely, I don't remember there being any controversy. You'd think a booming "YOU WILL DIE" at the very start or a huge scary face turning into a skull (and back!) would've drawn plenty of ire, but no, at least to my knowledge.
Nice one, prog61. Worth the wait. 👍 If you're interested in similar games, may I suggest Cheyenne, possibly the fastest possible 99,999,999? (Shouldn't take as long as it sounds thanks to the multiplier.)