This is Moondust.
It's a very unique
game for the Commodore 64.
And I...did not know what to think of it when I first saw it.
I messed around with it and eventually
kind of figured out what was going on.
I think.
And then I finally found the manual for it
and I'm like, oh,
that makes sense.
I guess.
I figured I'd take a look at it here.
Because it's probably one of my favorite games for the 64 now and it's...
really, really cool.
I don't know what the heck is with it, but it's awesome.
So basically, you go through and you can choose
one of four difficulty levels:
Beginner, Evasive, Freestyle or Spinsanity.
I thought that was the name of a Crash Bandicoot game or whatever.
But anyway, now, pretty much you start off
in this screen where
everything is just kind of going weird.
The joystick kinda controls
everyone at once.
That's what I didn't understand at first.
Everything is
independently controlled yet
controlled all at the same time.
In theory, you are the astronaut guy
who is just kinda spinning around
with a disconnected head.
Those five different colored things
are moon ships.
Basically, they go all around the screen,
sort of following your commands with the joystick.
And the whole goal of it is...
Well, you see like different point totals coming up on the screen here.
Think of it as
a dartboard on acid.
That's essentially the whole thing.
With the astronaut spaceman guy,
you can press the button
on the joystick at certain points on the screen
outside of this central area where there's that little circular kind of thing.
And when you press that, he drops a seed.
A moon seed or something, I guess.
And...when you drop that seed,
you want to drive your moon ships over that seed
and spread the seed out.
Yeah.
In doing so, you want to spread that seed
as close as you can to the middle of the board.
So, uh...
Yeah, it's pretty much like hitting a bullseye,
uh, in darts.
Or curling or whatever.
Now, you occasionally do pretty well,
if you happen to get a bullseye or get really close,
and then you'll get a bonus seed.
Normally, you only have three seeds.
But, yeah, any time you drive over a bullseye, I think it gives you another seed.
Or maybe it's every other time, I don't know, but...
Uh, yeah, you just keep on doing that and you keep spreading things out.
The most interesting fact about this game, though, is that
the sounds and soundtrack
are completely random, in a way.
They're generated by the Commodore as you play it,
so when you press left, it makes a certain set of sounds,
you press up, it changes the pitch.
Pull down on the joystick, then it changes the pitch
in another way, and you can mix it diagonally, you know, other things.
You'll get all sorts of really, really weird sounds.
It's just, I'm looking at it now
and I...I kinda zone out...
It's pretty cool to look at, too.
There's a lot of messed up-looking pixelization going on.
It's actually quite fun. I would recommend it to anyone.
Whether or not you are on any kind of
perfectly legal substance or not.
It's...
enjoyable, once, uh...
you kind of get the hang of it.
I don't know if anybody ever can get the hang of it.
Because it really does seem to have a mind of its own
It'll play with itself when you don't do anything.
You know, if you don't watch it,
it will get frisky.
Sometimes the game will just end,
especially on some of the later difficulty levels.
I don't understand those completely at all.
Sometimes, the joystick button doesn't do anything.
Sometimes it will switch
counter-clockwise and clockwise movements.
But like I said, they move independently, too,
so I really don't understand every aspect of it.
But the ones that I do,
mainly, you just try to hit the bullseye.
Simple enough.
And the rest of it, you could just zone out.
It's really good to come home and just chill to.
That is, if you can get your Commodore 64 working within fifteen minutes.
Which was a challenge for me because
my disk drive refused to work.
And then when it would work,
it would overload on memory, so I–
Whatever. I haven't played it in a long time and...
Anyway,
it was freakin' awesome, this game.
If you can find Moondust,
get it. If not,
there's plenty of places online
Lemon64 and such,
that'll refer you to some good places where you can grab
a disk image.
Or cartridge image.
Or whatever method it happens to come in.
So, Moondust.
Yep.
[ding]
Ding!
Frick...