CARNIVAL
Manufacturer: Sega / Gremlin
Year: 1980
Personal hiscore - 14,670 points.

Carnival - all the fun of the fair! You are at a shooting gallery, and you have to shoot all the targets in the range with your limited supply of ammunition. You have control of a gun which can move left and right to aim and fires directly upwards towards your targets.

Your targets include ducks, rabbits and owls and are laid out in three rows. They move across the screen from left to right, then down to the second row from right to left, then finally down to the third row again from left to right. Owls and rabbits will go off the screen to reappear again at the top row, but ducks will dive down towards you from the bottom row and if they reach you without being shot they steal your bullets.

A bonus box is located at the top left of the playfield. Shooting the box gives you the value inside, either good or bad. This could be an increase or decrease in score, or extra bullets or even losing some bullets!

Bonus letters also appear on the range and these must be shot in order for you to receive the bonus score displayed below the BONUS indicator at the top right of the playfield.

There are also eight pipes which circle round at the top centre of the screen, and these can be shot from either the left or right of the box. Shooting all eight before the bonus ticks down awards the points displayed in the Pipes bonus box.

If you manage to clear the level of all animals/objects/pipes you advance to a bonus intermission screen where you must shoot a polar bear which is moving from left to right. If you shoot it, it turns and moves in the opposite direction, getting progressively faster. After later screens more polar bears up to a maximum or 4 set on 4 levels above you are there to be shot, and obviously things get trickier with four lumbering bears to aim at.


Scoring:

Shooting the bonus box at the top left: the score inside the box (+ or -).

Shooting an object in the top row scores the points at the right of the screen level with the top row (50, 60, etc)

A hit in the 2nd row scores the points at the right of the screen level with the 2nd row (30, 40, etc)

A hit in the bottom row scores the points at the right of the screen level with the bottom row (10, 20, etc)

A hit on a polar bear in the intermission screen scores 50 points.


Game Dipswitch options

No dipswitch settings available.


Playing hints/tips

o Make any ducks on the lowest level your priority at the start of a screen, as they will soon swoop down to steal some of your ammunition.

o Keep an eye out for the passing boxed '5' and '10' symbols, as these award 5 or 10 extra bullets respectively when shot. You won't have enough ammo to complete a screen without at least hitting a few of these.

o You can stay to the left of the screen, which will enable you to pick off any good bonuses in the bonus box at an early stage. Don't get too trigger happy though, or you might be dropping your score or losing a lot of ammo too quickly if you hit a negative 'bonus'.

o The key to getting a lot of hits on the polar bear(s) in the bonus stage is to concentrate on only one bear and hit it as close to dead centre as possible. If you do this keep firing rapidly and you'll rack up a few points as it won't be able to escape from a constant barrage of bullets.

o Extra bullet '5' and '10's only appear on the top two rows and don't reappear at the top after going offscreen from the middle row so make sure you pick them off whenever possible.


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