What to do for my next column? Decisions, decisions? Then I realized that I
hadn’t done a game solution or a map in quite some time. OK, what game?
According to my research, most had already been done by others, or yours truly.
Here is one game that seems to have been missed. It is a decent game with good
graphics, but it has one thing that must have caused a lot of frustration. I am
talking about the difficulty getting back on the skateboard. The trick is that
you must have enough running room in the direction you want to go. You must
first pick up the board by walking to the middle of it. Then run with it and
fire to drop and jump on it. Just be sure to allow yourself enough room. If it
is too crowded, use another room. It takes some patience to master this feat. I
still have trouble sometimes. Any time you hit a wall, you will fall off your
board. The object of Super Skateboardin’ is to shut off all electricity within
15 minutes after closing time (5PM).
The detail map shows where to find all the sources of electricity that must be
shut off. Each light must be shut off by jumping up. The rest of the appliances
and machinery are shut on or off by passing their switch boxes. The number rows
represent all the floors from the lowest basement level up to the roof. The
letter columns are used to mark off the rooms. All of the tube entrances have
been numbered according to the best sequence that I have come up with to solve
this maze. Please note that a lot of times you should finish working on a floor
you just reached before continuing up or down.
This map may look like a plate of spaghetti, but it can be broken down in easy
to perform sections by using the pause button. For instance just remember for
the beginning: across-down-down-up-across. Then hit PAUSE. You will now be in a
position to go into the #4 tube entrance in room E3, bought some time to check
the map, and plan your next few moves. You also have to remember to shut off all
possible electrical devices along the way. I will leave the rest of the
breakpoints up to the reader. There is enough time, even with map lookups or
retracing your steps, to complete this game. Just keep an eye on the decreasing
power usage meter on the left as you shut things off. When you have everything
off, it will flash EXIT. Make a beeline for the front door, but be careful not
to turn anything back on. The game is beaten when you get the flashing YOU WIN!
message. The game still has replay value because you can strive for a faster
time.
If you are by room E9 and you have just shut off the coffee pot (last item) and
you still don’t get a flashing EXIT, you have missed something along the way.
You still might have time left to backtrack up or down. You can see 3 floors
simultaneously. Look for something still on. If you find it, pause and plan an
access route by using the map.
TIPS
1) To get a good start, pick up the board, but jump on in the first room.
2) A lot of times you may have set something back on as you entered a tube. When
it is close to an entrance, you may have to turn it back on so that when you
exit it will be shut back off.
3) To bypass a tube entrance you have to be standing up on your board.
4) To enter a tube entrance, you have to be in a crouch on your board.
5) Try to shut off all lights by jumping non-stop. Once they’re off, they stay
off.
6) To avoid turning anything back on, jump up over the logical switch location.
7) Be careful on the roof, you can fall to your doom if you go too far.
BUG
It is possible for your skateboard to get stuck in a doorway. This happens when
it is sticking out exactly halfway between adjacent rooms. Every time you try to
pick it up or move it, it won’t work because it gets stuck between the
room/screen changes. There is no way out of this, you may as well hit reset.
