Bristles

Bristles
Title screen of the game
Game No.	533
Voting	7.40 points, 5 votes
Developer	Fernando Herrera, Robert Diaz, Adam Bellin
Company	First Star Software
Publisher	State Soft
Musician	Jerry White, Adam Bellin
HVSC-File	/GAMES/A-F/Bristles.sid
Release	1984
Platform	C64, Atari 400/800, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Platformer
Gamemode	Single player up to 4 players (in turns)
Operation
Media
Language

Description

Painter in Action

Bristles is a platformer where the player takes on the role of a painter tasked with painting the interiors of eight houses, one after the other, within a set time limit. Not only are the elevators in the building difficult to use and require precise timing for getting in and out, but the painter also regularly encounters enemies in the form of large and small paint buckets, and a naughty girl enjoys leaving handprints on the freshly painted walls, which then have to be painted over.

Design

In each level, a house is first drawn in full screen before the player-controlled painter can begin painting the interiors under time pressure. The enemies that make the painter's life difficult become more varied and numerous as the game progresses. Once all the rooms in a house are completely painted, the level ends and the remaining playtime is converted into points. During this process, a new word or phrase appears, which, when combined across a sequence of eight consecutive houses, forms a life lesson (see also section "Solution").

The screen builds up stylishly at the beginning of each level.

While painting the house, the painter must dodge numerous enemies, such as flying paint cans.

While any unused time is added to the score, the next word of a life lesson appears.

Graphics

The screen is displayed in multicolor bitmap mode (graphics memory at address $6000, video RAM at $4400). In the intro, however, only the last line with the achieved score is displayed as a multicolor graphic, while the main part of the screen is displayed as monochrome text (character set at address $1000, video RAM at $0400). The game's elements are implemented partly as sprites and partly as part of the background graphics.

Sound

Both the title screen and certain events in the game are accompanied by polyphonic melodies from the ballet "The Nutcracker" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (see section "Theme"). Additionally, a short sequence plays whenever the painter ducks or jumps forward; the following illustrations show the temporal development of the pitch with a resolution of 0.5 ms (2000 pixels/s in the original resolution) in a musical staff format. The scale at the top and bottom of the diagrams is divided into 10 ms segments.

Sequence when ducking (638 ms)

Sequence when jumping (559 ms)

Hints

The goal of the game is to control a painter who must paint all the interiors of a total of 8 houses in succession within a limited time. The player starts with 10 paintbrushes, which correspond to the player character's "lives". A mishap, such as a collision with an opponent, costs the painter one brush. The game ends when the last brush is lost, as well as when the maximum time allotted for painting expires. Each completely painted house is rewarded with two additional brushes (corresponding to two extra lives); the remaining time is also converted into points and added to the player's score.

If the player manages to completely paint all 8 houses, the game continues with the same houses but at a higher difficulty level. This can manifest as more numerous or varied opponents, or as new challenges (for example, the use of transparent paint, which means that already painted rooms can only be identified by sound, not appearance). Experienced players can also start the game at a higher difficulty level (see section "Controls").

When painting with transparent paint, it is not visually apparent when the last room is being painted.

Painting houses in the dark – how does this comply with occupational safety regulations?

Screen Layout

Typical scene from the game

Controls

"Bristles" is controlled with a joystick in port 1; if desired, an additional joystick can be used in port 2 for multiple players. The keyboard is only needed to configure and start the game:

• F1 : Start the game
• F3 : Select the number of players
• F5 : Change the joystick/player mapping
• or : Select the player to configure
• or : Select the player's name from a predefined list
• : Change the difficulty level for the currently selected player

In the game, the painter is controlled as follows:

• or : The painter moves left or right.
• : The painter jumps vertically or climbs a ladder.
• : The painter ducks or climbs down a ladder.
• : Together with or : The painter jumps left or right.

Enemies and Items

A whole host of enemies make life difficult for the painter. Their numbers gradually increase, and some of them only appear in the higher levels. These unfriendly companions are presented one by one below, along with the objects that might help defend against them (see the gallery below):

Brenda the brat enjoys leaving handprints on freshly painted walls — which, of course, the painter then has to paint over again. Luckily, she loves sweets and can be distracted for a while if the painter gives her a candy cane. To do this, the painter first has to pick up one of the candy canes lying around the building; this makes him blink and prevents him from painting any walls for a while. If he then encounters Brenda, the candy cane and the blinking effect transfer to her. The painter can then continue his work while Brenda is distracted for about 15 seconds and doesn't cause any mischief during this time (see the animation on the right in the "Tips" section). In the easiest difficulty setting, Brenda appears in the third and all subsequent houses; in the higher difficulty settings, she is always present.

A small can of paint (half a pint) flies horizontally through the building, costing the painter a brush if hit. However, the can pauses briefly at the edge of the screen beforehand and blinks a few times as a warning. A collision can be avoided by moving to another floor in time, or by ducking or jumping over the can, depending on its altitude (see the middle animation in the Design section). Flying paint cans appear in all buildings.

A silly bucket traverses the building from left to right, using the elevators to regularly change floors. With a little practice, its movements become predictable, allowing the painter to avoid it; however, these enemies also steal the paint rollers scattered throughout the building, costing the player potential bonus points. On the easiest difficulty setting, this enemy spares the first building, but otherwise, silly buckets are always present. In higher levels, these enemies appear so frequently that they occupy the elevators for a large portion of the time.

The Bucket Chucker relentlessly pursues the painter throughout the entire building and can even jump over elevator shafts. However, if the painter manages to activate the paint mixers and then lure the Bucket Chucker to one of these machines, the enemy will remain there for a certain period of time. In the lowest difficulty level, the Bucket Chucker appears in the 4th, 6th, and 8th buildings; in all higher difficulty levels, he also appears in the 2nd building.

Steam pipes appear in houses 5 through 8 on all difficulty levels and must be skipped by the painter, otherwise he will lose a brush.

The objects shown below can be helpful during the game. Not yet described in the enemy description is the paintbrush, which replenishes the painter's supply when it runs low; this only occurs in the last three houses of each group of eight. Collecting a paint roller grants 300 bonus points but has no further effect on the game or the enemies.

Paint Mixer (enabled)

Candy Cane

Paintbrush

Paint Roller

The silly buckets and paint rollers are part of the background graphics; all other enemies and objects are rendered using sprites.

Tips

• If you lure the top bucket (bucket chucker) into the ground floor between the ladders and then leave the floor via one of the ladders, this enemy will remain trapped there until the painter drops a paintbrush or returns to the ground floor (see the left animation in the gallery below).
• When Brenda the brat uses an elevator, the painter's current direction determines which way she exits. This allows Brenda to be guided to the edge of the screen, where she can then only cause very limited damage.
• Skipping elevator shafts saves a lot of time compared to using the elevators and also makes route planning easier, as the buildings can be worked through floor by floor.

The top bucket is trapped between ladders.

The top bucket is temporarily stuck to a paint mixer.

Brenda can be briefly distracted with a candy cane.

Solution

High scores can be achieved primarily by memorizing the enemies' movement patterns and choosing the painter's path so that he can carry out his work undisturbed. Furthermore, it is helpful to practice temporarily disabling Brenda and the top bucket, as otherwise they make prolonged, uninterrupted work almost impossible.

As an added bonus, after each successfully painted house, you are rewarded with the following life lessons, presented in bite-sized pieces of 8 words or phrases:

• "IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GOOD THEN TRY TO BE BETTER"
• "THE KEY TO WINNING IS NOT GIVING UP"
• "SOME OF US ARE LUCKY MOST OF US HAVE TO TRY HARDER"
• "THE WINNERS SHARE THE GLORY BY RESPECTING THE LOSERS"
• "WINNING INVOLVES LEARNING HOW TO CORRECT YOUR MISTAKES"
• "IF YOUR THINK THIS WAS HARD TRY ASTRO CHASE. KNOWLEDGE TRANSCENDS TIME AND SPACE"

Cheats

There is a crack in the CSDb. by Nostalgia with a Trainer function.

Votes

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.40 points at 5 votes (rank 306). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
Crash	75% (Use of computer 84%, Graphics 70%, Playability 82%, Getting started 85%, Addictive qualities 73%, Value for money 45%)	Issue 14 (March 1985)
Commodore User	Presentation 4/5, Skill level 3/5, Interest 3/5, Value for money 4/5	Issue 15 (December 1984)
Your Commodore	4/5	Issue 4 (January 1985)
Sinclair User	6/10	Issue 37 (April 1985)
Personal Computer Games	7/10 (Graphics 7/10, Sound 6/10, Originality 6/10, Lasting interest 7/10)	Issue 14 (January 1985)
Ready64	8	November 17, 2023 - 1 voto
Lemon64	7,31	November 17, 2023 - 26 votes
Universal Videogame List	4/5	November 17, 2023
Rombachs C64-Spieleführer	10	September 1984 - "Verdict 1"

Critics

Stephan64: "While the first houses are quite easy to paint, the higher levels are hit by such a barrage of nasty enemies that you can't help but wonder why the poor painter puts himself through this grueling job... and the player even more so. Nevertheless, 5 points, especially for the original brushstroke design of each level and the lovely background music... and, well, an extra point for the funny idea with Brenda the brat."

Rombachs C64-Spieleführer: "The game is fun, suitable for children, but difficult to win at higher levels, so it also offers something for joystick acrobats (Rating 1)."

Miscellaneous

Cover

Cassette version cover

Inlay

Cassette version inlay

User Manual

Manual, page 1 (title page)

Manual, pages 2–3

Manual, pages 4–5

Manual, pages 6–7

Manual, pages 8–9

Manual, pages 10–11

Fastloader

The cassette version of Bristles uses an integrated software fast loader, which is automatically activated during loading and speeds up the loading process by about a factor of 6. This fast loader is stored in encrypted form in the header of the program stored on the cassette, meaning it is transferred to the cassette buffer as soon as the filename is found. The program itself is just a short routine that then decrypts and executes this fast loader. Furthermore, this program is responsible for destroying the fast loader after it has finished, so that a subsequent reading of the cassette buffer does not reveal its operation. During the loading process, the screen usually displays a horizontal striped pattern; occasionally, the loading screen shown below is also visible.

The fast loader is capable of loading up to 256 individual program components sequentially. Each such file is preceded by a 4-byte data structure containing the start and end addresses of the subsequent data block. Thanks to optimized encoding (shorter intervals for 0 and 1 bits, no parity bit or byte, and no duplicate storage of program data), loading "Bristles" takes about two and a half minutes, whereas the KERNAL's datasette routines would take about 12 minutes for a file of this size.

Almost as interesting as the fast loader is the routine that decodes it before it is used. To obscure its exact workings, this decoder uses a large number of illegal opcodes (mostly NOPs) and therefore, when disassembled, initially appears more like a random data block than executable code. This program segment is loaded into the memory area $02A7...$030B and overwrites two BASIC vectors there, causing it to start immediately after loading.

The same fast loader is also used in the cartridge versions of the games "Astro Chase", "Starquake", and "Aztec". The game manual includes the note "Burner 'FASTLOAD' (C) 1984 D. Turner/Dream Software."

Cassette version loading screen

Theme

The following gallery shows the title theme, which plays while the start screen is displayed, as well as the three short sequences that underscore individual events during the game, in standard musical notation. For creative reuse of all the melodies, the sheet music is also available as a PDF document (File:Bristles Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:Bristles Theme.abc.txt).

Title theme, reconstructed by logging all write accesses to the SID

Musical accompaniment of individual events

Video Recording

Longplay of the game, unfortunately played with a Trainer that makes the painter immune to some enemies.

Highscore

The following high score list invites you to immortalize yourself with your highest score. There is no distinction based on difficulty levels; the ranking is simply determined by the number of points achieved by the players.

Topscore of Stephan64

1. Stephan64 - 8014 (23.11.2023)
2. Keiner - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)
3. Niemand - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)

	#2 Keiner		#3 Niemand

Links

• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 1125
• C64Games.de - Game No. 1921
• Lemon64 - Game No. 4072
• ready64 - Game No. 1176
• Bristles at MobyGames

• CSDb
• Universal Videogame List
• Spectrum Computing
• Atari Age
• Alternative, more detailed version of the manual

Magazine

• Crash Magazine test report (p. 32)
• Sinclair User test report (p. 32)
• Your Spectrum test report (p. 45)
• Commodore User test report (p. 70)
• Your Commodore test report (S. 47)
• Personal Computer Games test report (p. 56)
• TV Gamer test report (p. 48)
• Analog Computing test report (p. 19)
• Video Games test report (p. 80)
• Antic test report (p. 90)
• Games test report (p. 56)