Rodland

Rodland

Game No.	8
Voting	8.14 points, 28 votes
Developer	Steve Snake, Robert Whitaker
Company	Jaleco
Publisher	Storm / The Sales Curve Ltd.
Musician	Martin Walker
HVSC-File	MUSICIANS/W/Walker_Martin/Rodland.sid
Release	1991
Platform	Amiga 500, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, NES, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Arcade - Platformer (Single Screen)
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (simultaneous)
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

Start screen from Rodland

The storyline: The siblings Tam and Rit live in an elf village. They lead a happy live there with lots of sweet cake and endless parties. One morning they realize that something terrible has happened to their cohabitants over night. The village inhabitants have turned to evil, captured their mother and locked her in the Maboots Tower. Fortunately Tam and Rit have inherited the Wand of Sheesanomo from the eldest of the village and they have been given the Rainbow Shoes by their father. Armed with these two things they can mount the tower to free their mother. But they have to hit furry creatures on the head with their wand and climb on ladders which can be reached with the help of their Rainbow Shoes. This is not easy at all when the former friends have some really mean surprises in store!

The game: The game consists of 32 levels and some additional bonus levels. The task is to collect flowers and to either nudge the evil creatures or throw them to and fro with the magical wand until you can pick up a useful weapon. Touching an opponent leads to death. Single platforms can be reached by ladders, jumping or sometimes by climbing a balloon. There is also the possibility to build own ladders, whereas the self-built ladder disappears when a new ladder is built. If you don't defeat the opponents of a level in a certain time, the game automatically switches into a "mean mode" and everything gets more difficult. A level is finished when either all opponents are destroyed or all the flowers are collected. In the latter case you enter an "EXTRA GAME".
EXTRA GAME:

All the remaining opponents transform, and with their destruction one of the letters "E", "X", "T", "R" or "A" is released. The letter changes and fully disappers after some time. By cleverly collecting the letters you can combine the word "EXTRA". If you have completely collected the word during the game, you will get awarded an extra life from am elf. So on the one hand you should aim to kill as many opponents as possbile through the normal game, but on the other hand keep some of them alive to be able to collect as many letters as possible in the EXTRA GAME.

The crocodiles:

After level 8 you get into the first bonus level. If you are successful in a bonus level you receive 10000 bonus points each. In the first bonus level you fight against six crocodiles. If you hit a crocodile often enough with the wand, it will disappear. The difficult thing is, that these crocodiles spit out little baby crocodiles, which kill you as soon as you touch them. For this reason it is recommended to keep enough distance from the crocodiles. Not to be attacked from both sides for a long time, it is wise to first kill the crocodiles on one side and then on the other. If you play with two players, it would be best to use one player for each side. You are safest on the lowest plane. There is no need to climb up the ladders, the crocodiles will come down by themselves.

The whale:

This bonus level follows level 16. Here you fight against a whale, from whose blowhole small whales are ejected. The eye of the whale is the soft spot and can be best reached by a ladder. This also brings the advantage that you are quite safe from the baby whales, because they don't climb the ladder. To defeat the whale it has to be hit 20 times. A finished bonus level is always rewarded with a small firework.

The elephant:

The third bonus level follows level 24. An elephant sits on a trapeze that moves it up and down as well as left an right. In line with the crocodiles and the whale small beings emerge from the elephant's trunk. The elephant is defeated after 30 hits.

The boss enemy:

The last bonus level is reached after level 31 and is at the same time level 32, the last level. It takes a very long time to overcome this opponent. You should use all weapons available. Whoever defeats the boss enemy does not only deserve the thanks from the mother but also the final sequence...

The characters:

In the game all characters are animated and thus more recognizable.

The characters (Only a selection, there are even more!)
	Rit	Rit is Tam's sister. (Player 1)
	Tam	Tam is Rit's sister. (Player 2)
	Spuds	They have the mean habit to duplicate themselves. The more you kill, the more they duplicate. Avoid to use of bonus weapons to keep their number low. It is best to let them live until you have picked all the flowers, to collect as many EXTRA letters as possible.
	Sharks	Do not let yourself be fooled by the tears! The touching of tears leads to death.
	Wasps	When you see them you'd better make a bolt for it or you kill them as quickly as possible. They are the only creatures able to fly.
	Nessies	They constantly have a ravenous appetite. If you are on the same plane, they will go after you.
	Polymorphs	Contain a hidden surprise. Like the Nessies, they can only see you if you are on the same plane. In case of an attack, just build a ladder and take flight.
	Bushies	These are just furry fakes (phoneys). The are relatively slow and easy to hunt down.
	Bunnies	When they grasp a carrot, it is time to run away, because then they whiz over the screen.
	Starfish	They have their own version of an Australian hobby. Be aware of their boomerang.
	Blue Meanies	They name already implies it! They only appear, when you need too much time for a level.
	Letter	Contains one of the letters "E" (red), "X" (brown), "T" (yellow), "R" (green) or "A" (blue)

The weapons and their impact:

When one of the evil creatures is killed by the magic rod, there appears a weapon at its place. The weapon is activated through a touch by the peg.

The weapons
	Balls	These 4 balls move similar to balls on a billiard table over the whole screen and explode after some time. If they touch one of the creatures, it turns into a fruit. Picking up the fruit will be rewarded depending on the type with 1000 (strawberry), 2000 or 3000 points.
	Rocket	The rocket is fired horizontally in the running direction and destroys the creatures which are in the fireline.
	Dynamite	The dynamite works horizontally in both directions.
	Bomb	The bomb destroys everything in the immediate surroundings.
Further weapons are "Super" (a diamond-shaped letter), "Ice" (ice crystals) and "Flame" (a fire flinger).

Design[edit | edit source]

Graphics: Every individual level is limited to one screen. While the original machine game and other portings feature nice and detailled background graphics, this version has only a black background. This tends to make the game action clearer and above all very quick. The single characters are designed with great detail in shape and colour and are mainly alive through the successful animation.

On the upper edge of the screen both players' score, the number of lifes left and the level (scene) is displayed. You can also see the letters of the word "EXTRA" you already collected.

Sound: The game has a well-fitting, almost sticky tune-like title song. During the game itself no music is heard, but the single activities are sufficiently and differentially set to music.

Hints[edit | edit source]

Operation by joystick

Without pressing the fire button
Left	Walk to the left
Right	Walk to the right
Up	Climb up a ladder
Down	Climb down a ladder

In some later levels there are several doors, which you can go through by pressing the joystick upwards. You come out of another door but watch out, you never know which one it will be!

If you jump down from a ladder or a platform you can move the peg with the joystick to the left or right while flying.

While pressing the fire button
Left	Rod to the left
Right	Rod to the right
Up	Build a ladder upwards
Down	Build a ladder downwards

If you hold an enemy with the wand, you can throw it to and fro with the fire button.

Keyboard commands

By pressing the H button, the game is paused and continued. Using the RUN/STOP button ends the game.

Solution[edit | edit source]

How you solve the game, can mainly be learned from the description of the game. When you play the game alone and you want to get as far as possible, you can use a small trick. Shortly before you get killed with the last life, you can just continue playing with player 2. For this you only have to press the fire button of the other joystick.

Cheats[edit | edit source]

1. If you enter "ONLY JOKING!" into the highscore, the entry changes to "OR AM I?" and you get unlimited lifes. At the same time the saving of any highscore will be disabled.

2. Entering "PAUL ROGERS" changes to "BART SIMPSON", but has no other effect.

To change certain settings the version of REMEMBER (Release 329) or the one from LEGEND/NEI is recommended. Here different trainer modes are adjustable.

Version by Remember:

In this version by Remember different mistakes were corrected. When you have played the game until the end or you die fighting the boss enemy, the highscore table shows now the right level number 32, instead of 31. You could get touched by the first boss enemy before it appeared on the screen. Also the second boss enemy was counted as touched before it appeared on the screen, when you had touched the disappearing (flashing) first boss enemy. If you finished the game, you could only switch the C64 off after the final sequence. In this version you can enter the highscore and continue the game with the Commodore key as you would expect it. Furthermore it is possible to save the highscore table.

Possibilites of settings:

Dis-/enable fastloader
Highscore or training mode
Unlimited lifes for both players
Unlimited credit for both players
Invincibility for both players
Quick-fire (Wop)
Defeat boss enemy with just one hit
Skip level by pressing the Commodore key
Show final sequence

Version by Legend/NEI:

Possibilites of settings:

Unlimited lifes
Unlimited credit
Shield (invulnerability)

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
8.14 points at 28 votes (rank 80). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	10	2nd April 2015 - 10 out of 10 points - 20970 downs
Lemon64	8	2nd April 2015 - 8,3 out of 10 points - 81 votes
C64.com	9	2nd April 2015 - 8,5 out of 10 points - 4087 downs
Ready64	8	2nd April 2015 - 8,29 out of 10 points - 7 votes
Kultboy	8	2nd April 2015 - 7,8 out of 10 points - 19 votes
The Legacy	8	2nd April 2015 - "very good" - 9 votes
ZZap64	9	Issue September 1991 - 90% - p.60
Retrogaming History	7	Issue January 2009
64er	7	Issue January 1992
Computer & Videogames	9	Issue Oktober 1991 - 85% - p.100
Commodore Format	9	Issue Oktober 1991 - 82% - p.44 Issue July 1993 - 89% - p.78
Commodore Force	9	Issue May 1993 - 86% - p.16 Issue July 1993 - 84% - p.46 Issue August 1993 - 90% - p.19

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Stefan67: Whoever knows and likes Bubble Bobble should essentially try this similarly designed game. This game is one of my favourite games for several reasons. On the one hand because you can play it twosome (simultaneous player) and during the course of the game the second player can enter the game just by pressing the fire button on the joystick. Primarily the animation of the characters but also the sound effects are lovingly designed. The course of the game reminds you somehow of Pacman (picking up flowers and fruits) and also of Lode Runner (the ladders and persecutive creatures). The operation with the joystick is simple and reliable. The bonus and extra levels prevent that boredom is raised quickly. To get an extra life from the elf is always a nice thing to see and hear. Less than 9 out of 10 points for this game is not really fair.

FXXS: On first sight you already miss the music during the game rounds, on the other hand the consideration between killing the enemy or rather going out of the way and speculating on an extra life is exciting enough not to be bored... Therefore narrow 9 points.+

TheRyk: Apart from some bugs like an enemy recovering and killing you while beaten up in the bottom right corner, a great game with awesome graphics and really good music. Though it is impossible not to see that Rodland was obviously inspired by Bubble Bobble, there are enough own good ideas. 8 points from me.