Chase the Chuckwagon FAQ(Atari 2600)
copyright 2006
by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and
I just wanted to save a memory of a great game and the odd solutions any way
I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if
you'd like to post it on your site.
**** AD SPACE **** My website:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS AND POINTS
3. LEVEL MAPS
4. STRATEGY
5. VERSIONS
6. CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
Chase the Chuckwagon isn't a very ambitious game, being based on a commercial
for Purina's Chuck Wagon dog food. There was this dog who ran after a
chuckwagon full of dog food and if you bought enough Purina gave the cart
away as a promotional item. It had a catch tune and repetitive lyrics. The
game isn't quite as repetitive but features you as the dog in the commercial
running through four symmetrical mazes. At the end of each you have a
challenge with a falling bowl. Face it and push fire at the right time and
get more points than you ever got in the maze.
The maze features an idiot dogcatcher who stays on one half of the map and a
little bouncy object that hits off the walls and starts at various angle. The
bouncy object paralyzes you for 3 seconds when it touches you on the first
level and more on the second. The dogcatcher kills you with a huge nuking
noise, as does running out of time. Your dog has three lives and there's no
chance for an extra. But even if the game were better and you had a cat with
nine lives the repetition would still probably do you in.
Well, there it is. I've pretty much described the game, and you can probably
guess what else to do, but I recently finished a FAQ for the very
entertaining and difficult NES game, Banana(plug plug) and I think other FAQ
writers might do well to go with a small-stupid game if they're feeling
burnout after a long one. It works for me, and it could one day even help us
complete FAQs for all the retro platforms!
2. CONTROLS AND POINTS
Going left/right takes longer than up/down. You can't really go diagonally in
the tight quarters of the maze.
Firing only works to send your dog left/right after he faces that way in the
bonus section. It doesn't allow you to bite the dogcatcher or anything, which
would be cool. Rats.
If you solve a level, you gain the # of seconds left, on difficulty A(30 to
start) or B(60 to start).
If you catch a bowl while it is falling, then you get 100 points. Your dog's
nose should be in line with the bowl. On later levels you need to line it up
exactly with the edge of the bowl, which falls fast. Turn the dog left/right
in the bowl's direction and push FIRE.
3. LEVEL MAPS
There are four levels which cycle until you're killed or you get bored of the
whole deal. More likely the latter will cause the former to happen.
Level 1:
+---------- ----------+
| |
| + +--------------+ + |
| |\| |/| |
| | + + +-+--+-+ + + | |
| | | / \ | | |
| ||| | + + | ||| |
| | | | \ / | | | |
| | \ | + + | / | |
| | | | | | | |
| | + +-+ +-+ + | |
| | /| |\ | |
| | + +---+ +---+ + | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | + | | + | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| + | | | | | | | | + |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
+---+-+-+------+-+-+---+
There are no real dead ends here and it's debatable whether it's better to go
right at the crossroads(up, right, down, DR) or down(down, right, up, right,
down, right, up, right)...you have plenty of wiggle roon up and down to avoid
any bouncing enemy either way.
Level 2:
+----------+ +----------+
| | | | | |
| ++ + + | | + + ++ |
| | | | | | | |
| | | +---++ ++---+ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | ++ ++ ++ ++ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | +-+------+-+ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | +--+-+ +-+--+ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | +------+ | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| +-----+ | | +-----+ |
| | | |
+----------+ +----------+
Down, right, down, right, up, left, down at the first, left, up all the way,
left, down, right. With the long U/D's there's not much risk for getting
caught.
Level 3:
+-------+-+ +-+-------+
| | | |
| +-+ +-+ + + +-+ +-+ |
| | | | | | | |
| | +--------------+ | |
| | | |
| +-------+ +-------+ |
| | | |
+-----+ + | | + +-----+
| | | | | | | |
| +-+ +-+ | | +-+ +-+ |
| | | | | |
| + +-----+ +-----+ + |
| | | |
| +------------------+ |
| | | | | | | |
| + + + + + + + + |
| | | |
| +-++ +-+ -- +-+ ++-+ |
| | | |
+------+--------+------+
Oh my goodness, a level with a somewhat tricky dead end! Head right to the
edge then all the way up, and follow that path to the exit. If you take the
left turnoff you'll be trapped very close to the end and won't have the time
to get back. If you get trapped the second time through this level, the
repetition may already be rotting your mind, and you would be better off
trying something cheesy like even NIM.
Level 4:
+--------- ---------+
| |
| +----------------+ |
| | | |
| | +----- -----+ | |
| | | | | |
| | | +--------+ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | +- -+ | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | +----+ | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | +--- ---+ | | |
| | | | | |
| | +------------+ | |
| | | |
| +------- -------+ |
| |
+--------------------+
No dead ends here but the bad guy might be clever enough to catch you--and
you can't really waste any time leaving because of all the backtracking you
need to do. Just go right, up/down the wall, left and up/down through the
next hole until you've won. Pay attention that you don't get sideswiped going
left/right...you may have to wait a bit.
4. STRATEGY
Not much really. The bad guy that floats around will probably nail you before
the randomly moving dogcatcher will. And eventually fatigue will cause you to
run into the bad guy, or just plain old dumb luck.
The dogcatcher always appears on the left(the only nonrandom thing about him)
and seems dead intent on looking for you in dead ends before getting close to
the right.
The bouncer generally tends more horizontal than vertical when it bounces.
Always try to draw an imaginary line where it goes and remember you can
calculate where it'll bounce off a sidewall next based on the last two places
it bounces, using simple arithmetic--(place 2)=midpoint of (place 3) and
(place 1) though if place3 is out of bounds, see its mirror reflection across
the maze endline it crossed.
Like catching a baseball this is a lot easier to DO than to write up.
The main piece of strategy involves waiting for the bouncy diagonal guy to
bounce ahead of you. You may also have to watch how he bounces off the corner.
If the diagonal guy is going DR and bounces left of the corner, he will come
back up a bit right and up of where he started. This is simple geometry;
he'll come back in a direction parallel from where he started. Also keep in
mind that the change in where he passes you by is twice the distance from the
corner. So you may have to avoid him on the way there and back. Eventually
you'll have to do too much avoiding due to dumb luck, or just because the
enemy's not bouncing at enough of an angle. Or it'll go so fast it'll maim
you twice. Oh well.
The bowl only falls twice in the bonus scene so just take a shot and you
probably want to hit the button a bit before you think you do.
End of FAQ Proper
================================
5. VERSIONS
1.0.0: submitted to GameFAQs 8/10/2006, complete
6. CREDITS
Thanks to CJayC as usual for such a great site and, though I hate to admit it,
the people who write for more popular games so that these old school FAQs can
be hosted for free.
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should,
too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer,
falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, AdamL,
and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned
message board incarnation.
Thanks to AtariAge, a great site in general, for the manual. Full link:
http://www.atariage.com/manual_html_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=567
..and before that, Greg Chance's wonderful now-gone home page at
videogames.org where he hopes someone will take all the stuff...so I did,
what I needed, vicariously, under fair use as this is not a competing work,
etc. as it describes strategy, and maybe you can do the same for a different
FAQ.
Thanks to the Stella programming group for the Stella Emulator and its save
states, without which I'd never have finished this FAQ, being as impatient as
I am.
