Kaboom!

Activision, Inc.
for Atari VCS
$22.95/$17.50-19.50
1 or 2 players
Rating: PG
Graphics: 8
Game Play: 8
Longevity: 8

It’s the world’s first terrorist home-video game!

In Kaboom! a Mad Bomber (in black-and-white striped garb) moves back and forth at the top of your TV screen, maniacally dropping Bombs on you.

OBJECTIVES

You must catch as many of the Mad Bomber’s deadly projectiles with your Water Buckets for points as possible without missing them. Initially, you are provided with three Water Buckets, stacked on top of each other. The Mad Bomber drops his weapons in waves. He starts dropping Bombs slowly in the first wave. As he becomes more skilled in the art of lighting and pitching Bombs, his speed increases. In addition, so do the number of Bombs he drops before stopping for a break.

The Bombs in each successive wave are worth progressively more points. There are eight waves in all, starting with ten bombs in Wave 1 and increasing to 150 in Wave 8. Oh, yes, by the time you reach. Wave 8, the Bombs will be dropping at a staggering 13 per second! If a Bomb hits the ground, it explodes along with all the other Bombs on the screen. At this point, the Mad Bomber giggles, and you lose one Bucket (the bottom-most one).

You then drop back to the previous level, and the next set of Bombs comes a little more slowly again.

STRATEGIES

Success at Kaboom! is achieved, not by trying to catch each individual Bomb, but by thinking of the screen as a “connect-the-dots” picture. Do not concentrate on any one part of the screen, but take in the whole picture. Mirror the movements of the Mad Bomber with your paddle.

Especially when the Bombs are falling fast, observe the pattern in which they are falling and move your Bucket accordingly. A smooth paddle movement works best for most of the game, though you should be prepared to make some sudden, jerky reversals at various points in the game.

The first Bomb in each new wave will be dropped from the spot the Mad Bomber ended up after the previous wave.

Don’t simply move your Buckets under the Mad Bomber — especially if he is on the far edge of the screen. Move the Buckets first to the center of the screen and then position them under the Bomber. This will protect you from the inaccuracy of control near the edge of the screen.

As you pass each 1,000 points in Kaboom!, you get an extra Bucket. However, you can never have more than three Buckets at any one time during the game — none can be kept in reserve. Thus, you should miss the very last (or close to it) Bomb in a wave just before you

reach a 1,000-point plateau. This drops the speed of the Bombs down a bit, and you’ll get the lost Bucket back as soon as you go over 1,000 (or multiples thereof).