Circus Atari

How good are your reflexes? To find out, try to pop the balloons by bouncing the clown on the teeter-totter. Red, white, and blue balloons are all worth different points. The more difficult to “pop,” the more you score.

About the Game

Demanding both quickness and precision from its players, Mike Lorenzen’s Circus Atari is one of the more demanding paddle controller-based games. Although graphically simple, Lorenzen was able to animate a surprising amount of personality into the little clown stick figures.

Object of the Game

POP! POP! POP! Pop the balloons and score points. A wall of red, blue, and white balloons appears at the top of the screen. You must pop balloons by catching a clown on the teeter-totter and bouncing him up to the balloons. Use the controller to move the teeter-totter across the screen to catch the clowns.

Each time a clown pops a balloon, the balloon disappears and you score points.

How to Play

Each player receives five clowns (or turns). If you fail to catch a clown on the teeter-totter, he will crash and disappear from the playfield. Press the red controller button to make another clown bounce off the trampoline from the right or left corner of the playfield. The game ends after five clowns have crashed. The clowns may land on any point of the teeter-totter except where the other clown is sitting, which causes them to crash.

Use the paddle controller to move the teeter-totter across the screen. Press the red button on the paddle controller to start a turn, or press the red button to make a clown bounce on the trampoline. Pressing the red button while the clown is in the air changes the direction of the teeter-totter. This is helpful in preventing the airborne clown from crashing into the other clown on the teeter-totter.

Scoring

The first point is scored as the clown leaves the trampoline. Once the clown starts the bouncing motion, one point is scored each time he hits the trampoline or the teeter-totter. Additional points are scored as the clown pops the balloons.

Remember, the higher the balloon the clown pops the more points you score, so it is best to catch him on the edge of the teeter-totter for the highest bounce.

You receive an extra clown (or turn) each time you pop an entire row of red balloons. The top-right corner of the screen will show an “X” to indicate an extra clown or turn. Although scoring can be infinite, there is only space for four digits on the screen, so when you become a pro, your score will read 0000 again when you pass 9999.

At the end of each game, final scores appear at the top of the screen; left player to the left and right player to the right in two-player games.

Difficulty Options

When the difficulty button is in the A position, the clowns bounce faster after contact with the balloons and the teeter-totter. While in the B position, you have better control over the clowns because they don’t move as fast. For one-player games, use the left difficulty button.

Game Options

To choose a game, press Select. There are eight game variations. The game and the number of players appear in the upper-middle part of the screen, with the game number to the left and the number of players to the right. To begin a game, press Reset.

One or two players can play Games 1 through 6, but Games 7 and 8 are two-player games only.

Game 1: Breakout Circus

As the clown pops balloons, he rebounds from one balloon to the next both horizontally and vertically. After popping a full row of balloons, a new row appears and you receive bonus points. Simply pop the top row of red balloons to receive an extra clown.

Game 2

This game is similar to Game 1, except the playfield has an additional wall of barriers added below the balloons, which makes the game more difficult.

Game 3: Breakthru Circus

In this game variation, the clown does not rebound off the balloons. Instead, he continues to move in a horizontal direction off the balloons. This version is somewhat easier for a beginning player. Scoring is the same as in Game 1.

Game 4

This version is Breakthru Circus with a row of barriers added to the playfield below the balloons.

Game 5

This game is also similar to Breakout Circus, except the balloons do not “restore” after the full row has been popped. You must pop all balloons on the screen to get three new rows of balloons. Once this happens, you receive 170 bonus points and an extra clown.

Game 6

The same as Game 5, but with an additional row of barriers added below the balloons.

Game 7

Game 7 is for two players. Both players share the same wall of balloons. The computer tracks each player’s score individually.

Game 8

This variation is the same as Game 7, but with the addition of barriers below the balloons to make the game more challenging.

Features

Single Line Clear (1L)

A new row appears each time a full row of balloons is popped.

Full Clear (FC)

To receive a new row of balloons, all balloons on the screen must be popped.

Barriers (BA)

A row of barriers appears below the rows of balloons.