Super Sharks - C&VG - BBC Micro - Emulated, BeebEm - 8,637 points

Super Sharks is an action game for the BBC Micro. It appeared as a type-in in the January 1985 edition of Computer and Video Games magazine. The program was written by Carl Robertshaw.
The game, like most type-ins, is a simple one, but a little different from the usual 'Space Invader' clone. You have three bases at the bottom of the screen which can fire at waves of robot sharks that swim above. Occasionally a shark will swim down to attack one of your bases and you only have a short time to destroy it. At the top of the screen are supply boats. When these are gone it is game over and unfortunately it is your wayward shots that damage and sink them.
Gameplay is simple. Press 1, 2 or 3 to fire your weapon from the corresponding base. Ocean currents will affect your shot and add a huge random factor to the gameplay. Whether you hit the shark or not is more to do with luck than your skill in this game. However, if you only use the left and right bases, you have a better chance as half the randomness is removed by the edge of the screen.
There are 15 sharks in each wave and if you destroy them all, then it is on to a fresh wave. As mentioned above, the gameplay is very simple and the random effect of the currents negates a lot of the skill you put into timing your shots. The shark is quite a nice large graphic, though. I didn't mind playing a few times to see what it is like, but this is not a game that you will come back to after that.
This run was made on the 23rd June 2024 using the BeebEm emulator on PC. The final score was 8,637.
Time stamps:
00:30 Title screen.
00:36 Instructions.
00:56 Game start - several failed attempts begin here - shown because I don't know how to get back to the menu to show this is level 1.
03:30 Screen 1 complete.
05:48 Sunk the last boat - first life lost.
06:00 Screen 2 complete.
08:08 Screen 3 complete.
09:04 Shark dives down to attack base. Second life lost.
09:29 Last boat sunk - third life lost and Game Over! Final score 8,637 points.
Intro Music:
Music by: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Title: Legend
/ @whitebataudio