Shamus Case II

Shamus Case II
Title screen of the game
Game No.	512
Voting	6.60 points, 5 votes
Developer	William Mataga, Joe Vierra
Company	Junglevision Software
Publisher	Ariolasoft, Synapse Software
Musician	William Mataga
HVSC-File	/GAMES/S-Z/Shamus_Case_II.sid
Release	1984
Platform	Atari 400/800, C64
Genre	Shoot'em Up, Actionadventure
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	Released in 1983 for the Atari 800 Forerunner: Shamus aka Joe Rivera

Description

Shamus Case II is an action-adventure game that spans 39 screens. The player takes on the role of a detective tasked with tracking down and finally neutralizing the villain "Shadow", who has escaped from prison and is already known from the Shamus forward game. Shadow is hiding in an underwater cave system and is defended by an army of loyal crabs, clams, and snakes, so our hero must fight his way room by room to reach this enemy.

Shamus on his way through the first two rooms

Hordes of sea creatures attack Shamus

After several hits, the bird turns into a fireball

Design

The detective "Shamus"...

...and his opponent "Shadow"

During the game, the screen displays the section of the cave system where the player-controlled detective is currently located; only a single-line status indicator at the bottom of the screen displays the current game progress. The labyrinth consists mainly of brickwork, rendered in warm colors (brown, orange, yellow, and violet on the upper floors) against a black or dark gray background.

Technical details regarding the programming of the graphics can be found in the "Technical Details" section.

Sound

A shortened, three-part version of Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" plays on the game's title screen (see sections "Theme" and "Videos"). During gameplay, the sound output is limited to providing background noise.

Hints

Starting from room number 0 (bottom left), the goal of the game is to guide Shamus across the entire Shadow fortress to his cave (room number 39, top right) and initiate the destruction of the complex. The path is blocked at four points by locked doors (see illustration on the right), so Shamus must first collect the corresponding key for each door. The keys, as well as the extra lives that can be collected along the way, can be found in numerous locations throughout the labyrinth and look like small padlocks (image left).

Once the destruction of Shadow's dwelling has been initiated, Shamus must escape to safety by returning to the starting room. There is no time limit for either the outbound or the return journey.

Screen Layout

Typical scene from the game: Cave system full of snakes

Typical scene from the game: Fight against sea creatures

Controls

On the title screen, the difficulty level can be selected by pressing F5 . The level cycles through "Novice", "Intermediate", "Advanced", and "Expert", with the enemies becoming more numerous and faster as the difficulty level increases. Once the desired level is selected, pressing F7  starts the game.

The game can be paused at any time by pressing the SPACE  key; during the pause, the screen displays a small map showing the part of Shadow's Fortress explored in previous games, as well as the player character's current location. Moving the joystick in any direction resumes the game. While the game is running, it can be quit at any time by pressing the F7  key, forcing a return to the start screen.

After starting the game, the player character is controlled exclusively with a joystick connected to port 2. The exact procedure depends on the type of room Shamus is in:

In rooms with a tiled floor, whether in a cave system or in open-air rooms, the joystick only controls the character's movement: Left and right movements make Shamus move in the corresponding direction; in combination with the fire button, Shamus jumps and thus overcomes pits or gaps in the floor. If he is on a ladder, joystick movements up or down make Shamus climb up or down.

In rooms where Shamus has to defend himself against hordes of sea creatures, the fire button is used to fire up to two plasma projectiles. From the third press of the button onward, one of the previously fired projectiles disappears, while Shamus fires a new one. Joystick movements move Shamus in the corresponding direction.

Keys and extra lives can be easily collected by moving Shamus to the corresponding symbol; finding a key is worth 500 points. A door, symbolized by a keyhole, can be opened by Shamus carrying the matching key and moving to the corresponding symbol. The door then disappears, clearing the way; the player also receives 1000 points. If Shamus doesn't have the key or if it doesn't fit the door, he remains locked out.

Enemies

In the rooms with tiled floors, as seen, for example, in the left illustration of the first gallery, Shamus encounters his opponent Shadow as well as numerous small poison snakes (the two left figures in the first row of the following gallery). Since his plasma cannon is unavailable in these rooms, he cannot fight these enemies, but can only avoid them and traverse the corresponding sections of the building as quickly as possible.

In other rooms, hordes of sea creatures (second row of the gallery) attack Shamus. Each creature shot down is worth 5 points.

The bird (right illustration in the first row) plays a special role, joining the fray in these rooms after a while: Initially, it shoots at Shamus, thus becoming another opponent. However, if Shamus hits it three times in a row with his plasma cannon, the bird transforms into a fireball that bounces back and forth among the sea creatures. It destroys all the opponents it hits and thus becomes an ally of Shamus.

Shadow

Poisonous Snake

Giant Snake

Bird

Octopus

Ray

Crab

Clam

Pufferfish (?)

Tips

• Anyone who makes a map of Shadow's fortress will quickly realize that a fall by Shamus into the room below doesn't necessarily result in a vertical drop. For example, if the sea creatures have completely destroyed the floor of room 2 (screen C13 on the map shown in the "Solution" section), Shamus falls from there into the adjacent room to the left, number 1 (screen B13, see the middle illustration in the First Gallery). The return route that Shamus must take after successfully traversing the building also involves a series of diagonal falls.
• The Shadow's fortress is always laid out the same way, so you can memorize the locations of keys and extra lives and don't have to search for the corresponding path through the fortress each time. This also saves time by preventing you from collecting worthless items, such as the advertisement for the game "Fort Apocalypse" (left illustration).
• Firing the plasma balls in rapid succession at the approaching sea creatures is especially worthwhile when Shamus is directly threatened by these enemies. Otherwise, it can be better to sit back after firing two projectiles and watch them do their work, reflecting back and forth between the enemies.
• You can easily achieve any score by fighting off the attacking sea creatures from a safe location — and briefly switching to the adjacent room whenever the enemies get dangerously close (middle animation in the following gallery; only one pass is shown to save storage space).
• The fortress map, which is displayed after activating pause mode using the SPACE , includes all rooms explored in previous games since the program started, not just the screens entered in the current game. This map becomes increasingly helpful when playing several games in a row. A complete map with all rooms can be found at the beginning of the "Solution" section.

Collecting the ads only wastes time and doesn't award any points.

You can easily achieve any score by periodically switching between rooms 2 and 3.

Empty map at the start of the game, showing only your current location and objective.

Solution

The solution to the game "Shamus Case II" is to guide the player character from the starting room — located in the bottom left corner of the map — to his opponent Shadow's cave (top right corner), activate the detonator provided there to blow up the building complex, and then return to the starting room. However, this is not possible directly, as access to higher rooms is only possible at a few points via ladders, or alternatively by successfully fighting an army of enemy sea creatures descending from above, which rewards ascent to the next level. Furthermore, the path is blocked at four points by doors that only open once Shamus has collected and is carrying the corresponding key.

Complete game board (displayed in pause mode)

Complete return route to the starting room

Map

The following illustration shows the structure of Shadow's fortress. For better orientation, the map includes a grid and a coordinate system, to which all subsequent location information refers.

Map of the game. Each room is shown as it appears immediately upon entering.

Numbering of the individual rooms. The arrows indicate which new room a vertical fall leads to.

The path to Shadow's cave in Screen I1 is largely determined by the positions of the doors and their corresponding keys within the building: The key in Screen B8 opens the door in D10 (and only this one), the key in G11 the door in D8, the key in G2 the door in E5 (although it's tempting to use this key to go directly to Shadow's cave instead of descending six levels again), and finally, the key in E8 opens the door in G1. Two extra lives each can be collected in Screens D11, E10, G10, and E4.

Solution

The following gallery shows—divided into four sections for clarity—the path to the control room, from which the detonation of Shadow's castle can be triggered (Images 1–3), and the subsequent return to the starting room (Image 4). Paths with a key are shown in green, paths without a key are shown in red. Detours that serve only to acquire extra lives are colored purple.

First part of the path, from the game's starting point

Second part of the path

Third part of the path, to activating the detonation

Return to the starting point

Cheats

In the CSDb there are a large number of Cracks with a Trainer function. The most extensive customization options are offered by the version "Shames: Chase II +6D" by Nostalgia (first image in the gallery below).

Trainer by Nostalgia

Trainer by Wanderer

Internal Data Structures

Knowledge of memory allocation and internal workings is helpful for developing custom trainer functions and for analyzing or manipulating the data used by the game. The following table therefore compiles a range of information about "Shames Chase II".

Address	Content	Range of values	Comments
$0039	Current room number	0...38	For assignment, see section "Map"
$008D	Number of lives	0...9	The maximum value that can be reached through extra lives is 9
$35CE	Key carried by Shamus	0...4	0=no key
$3517—$351D	Current score	0...9999999	Encoded as screen codes $00=space character, $10...$19=digit 0...9

Votes

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.60 points at 5 votes (rank 639). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64 Games	5	December 7, 2025 - "befriedigend" - 20119 downs
Lemon 64	6,79	December 7, 2025 - 33 votes
Ready 64	6	December 8, 2025 - 2 voti
Atarimania	7.6/10	December 7, 2025 - 34 votes
Rombach	8	September 1984 - "Verdict 2"

Critics

Stephan64: "Shamus Case II is a beautifully crafted and, considering its release year, surprisingly complex action game. However, the far too high demands, even on the lowest difficulty level 'Novice' make it unplayable for anyone who doesn't dedicate months to fighting the evil Shadow as their sole pastime. Therefore, I give it 4 points for a game I would only play again in the event of an acute attack of nostalgia... and even then, only until the symptoms subside."

Rombachs C64-Spieleführer: "The game requires a great deal of patience and practice; otherwise, success is impossible. It's not for the impatient player. If you liked Shamus, you'll also like Shamus Case II (Verdict 2)."

Miscellaneous

Theme

The following image shows the title theme—a shortened version of Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette"—in standard musical notation. For creative reuse, the sheet music is also available as a PDF document (File:ShamusCaseII Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:ShamusCaseII Theme.abc.txt).

Sheet music of the theme song, reconstructed by logging all write accesses to the SID

Cover

"Cover".

Video Recording

First part of a longplay (second part see section "Videos")

Technical Details

The screen is displayed entirely in multicolor text mode (screen memory starting at address $4400, alternating with $4800 when scrolling up and down; character set starting at $5800). The gameplay is only partially displayed using sprites: The Shamus is always represented by sprite 0; sprite 1 shows either the Shadow, the white bird, or the fireball into which it transforms. Furthermore, sprites 2–4 are used for the patrolling snakes (using sprite multiplexing, activated by a raster interrupt in raster lines 104, 144, 184, 238, and 249), and finally, sprites 2–3 for the plasma spheres fired by the Shamus. All other enemies and projectiles are part of the text display.

To detect whether Shamus is bitten by a snake or attacked by a bird, the program relies on sprite-sprite collision detection by the VIC (register $D01E), while attacks by sea creatures on Shamus and the effect of plasma balls on these enemies are based entirely on sprite-background collision detection (VIC register $D01F).

Highscore

The following list invites you to immortalize yourself with your highest score. "Shamus Case II" can be played at any difficulty level. However, since it is easy to achieve arbitrarily high scores in this game, the ranking is based on the highest room number the player character has reached. Only in cases of entries with the same room number does the score determine the ranking.

Topscore of Ivanpaduano

1. Ivanpaduano - 15.065 - 5 (01.01.2026)
2. Stephan64 - 12.775 - 5 (29.12.2025)
3. Keiner - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)

	#2 Stephan64		#3 Keiner

When taking the screenshot after the game ends, you must be quick, because the score remains visible for only 1.5 seconds after losing your last life and is then lost. It might be advisable to take a screenshot shortly before the foreseeable end of the game, just to be safe.

Links

Wikipedia: Shamus_Case_II

• C64Games.de - Game No. 1720
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 6748
• CSDb (all entries)
• CSDb - Release No. 238778
• CSDb - Release No. 229533
• Universal Videogame List
• Lemon64 - Game No. 2282
• C64.com - Game No. 1740
• ready64 - Game No. 493
• Shamus Case II at MobyGames

• Atarimania

Videos

• Video at YouTube Longplay Teil 1/2
• Video at YouTube Longplay Teil 2/2
• Video at YouTube Charles Gounot: "Funeral March of a Marionette"