The Spy Strikes Back
| The Spy Strikes Back | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Game No. | 531 | |
| Voting | 6.00 points, 4 votes | |
| Developer | Robert Hardy, Mark Pelczarski | |
| Company | Penguin Software | |
| Publisher | U.S. Gold (Electric Dreams) | |
| HVSC-File | /GAMES/S-Z/Spy_Strikes_Back.sid | |
| Release | 1983 | |
| Platform | Apple II, Atari 400/800, C64 | |
| Genre | Arcade | |
| Gamemode | Single player | |
| Operation |   
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| Media |  
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| Language | 
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| Information | Series:
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Description[edit | edit source]
In the game "The Spy Strikes Back", the player, as a spy, must search an international terrorist's building for nine clues and use them to thwart his plan to detonate a nuclear bomb in a major city. The building has five floors, each with 24 rooms where these clues are hidden. However, these rooms are controlled by guards who will immediately raise the alarm and pursue the spy upon seeing him.
Backstory[edit | edit source]
After successfully completing a dangerous mission at the Russian embassy in Korea (see the predecessor game "Spy's Demise"), Agent 00P has finally been assigned a quiet office job. But before he can really enjoy it, he is summoned to headquarters by phone at 4:00 AM on Sunday morning. Upon arrival, the secretary, Ms. Moneypenguin, immediately refers him to his boss, who assigns him a new, dangerous mission: The international terrorist Dr. Xavier Tortion is blackmailing the world with the threat of detonating a nuclear bomb in a major city. According to intelligence information, Dr. X, as the terrorist is known for short, is holed up in a converted castle in the East German town of Aichenbach. Agent 00P's task is to infiltrate this fortress and gather information that will thwart Dr. X's plans. It is crucial that he avoid detection by the numerous electronic sentinels of the castle in order to lull Dr. X into a false sense of security.
Design[edit | edit source]
The terrorist's castle has five floors, each with 24 rooms that are very similar and displayed in full-screen mode. Each of these rooms contains 16 cubicles, between which the spy can hide and into which he can escape in case of danger.
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Graphics[edit | edit source]
Both the game board and the secret codes found (see section "Solution") are displayed in Multicolor Bitmap Mode (bitmap starting at address $2000, Video RAM with color information starting at $0400). The spy and the guards are single-size multicolor sprites; all other objects are incorporated into the bitmap representation. To detect whether the guards have captured the spy, the game relies on sprite-sprite collision detection by the VIC (register at address $D01E).
Sound[edit | edit source]
As long as the spy remains undetected, one of seven two-part background melodies plays (see section "Theme"). Once the guards have noticed the intruder, only the alarm siren can be heard. Collecting items is accompanied by a short squeak, and the spy's arrest by a short sound sequence.
Hints[edit | edit source]
The objective of the game is to play as a spy, exploring the five-story house of an international terrorist and collecting a total of nine clues without being captured by the guards. Each floor of the house contains 24 rooms, each with 16 booths. Somewhere in the corridors between these cabins, there is usually a flashing ring (see image on the right) which, when collected by the spy, opens a passage to the adjacent room. In rare cases, however, a clue can also be found here, symbolized by the silhouette of a spy (image on the left). Collecting this clue not only grants access to the adjacent room but also brings the player one step closer to solving the game.
Within a floor, not all rooms are connected and accessible by passageways. Instead, it is sometimes necessary to briefly take the elevator to another floor, explore a few rooms there, and then return to the original floor to visit all the rooms on that floor.
The cabins can serve as hiding places for the spy if he has been spotted by the guards and triggered an alarm: once he has retreated into a cabin, the guards abandon the pursuit and resume their patrol. Furthermore, some of these cabins contain doors (see image on the left) that lead to an elevator to the next floor up or down, or objects that can be picked up. These objects have no further function in the game but award additional points (see the gallery below). The number of bonus points per collected item depends on the floor; on the ground floor, it's 30 points, while on the upper floors, it's 50, 70, 90, or even 120 points per object. For every 2000 points, an extra life is awarded, provided the player character does not already have the maximum of 5 lives.
 Object 1 (Binoculars?) |
 Object 2 (Radio?) |
 Object 3 (Floppy disk?) |
 Object 4 (Bomb?) |
 Object 5 (Laptop?) |
 Object 6 (Camera?) |
 Object 7 (Pistol) |
During the game, a timer is displayed, counting down continuously. This is not a time limit that determines how long the spy can remain in the current room. Rather, this timer indicates how many points the player can expect to receive when moving to the next room — either via a side exit or an elevator. The timer value is halved with each alarm the spy triggers; this rewards both speed and skillful work.
Screen Layout[edit | edit source]
Controls[edit | edit source]
While the title screen is displayed, the player can choose between the joystick (J ) and keyboard (K ) input devices. Pressing either of these keys starts the game.
During the game, the player simply needs to determine the direction in which the spy should move — either by moving the joystick in the corresponding direction or by using the A (up), Z (down), CRSR ⇓ (left), and CRSR ⇒ (right) keys.
Pressing the P key pauses the game (but not the background music), regardless of the input device selected; pressing any key resumes the game.
Once a clue has been found, it can be viewed as many times as desired by pressing the ENTER key before returning to the game with the P key. If multiple clues are already in possession, they can be switched between using the spacebar, allowing each clue to be viewed as often as desired.
The F7 key toggles the background music on and off. The F1 key allows the player to select the waveform of the music playback, thus influencing the sound of the background music. Pressing the RUN/STOP key exits the game and returns to the start screen.
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Tips[edit | edit source]
- Access to the cabins that offer protection from the patrolling guards becomes increasingly restricted on the higher floors. The following gallery illustrates this using the example of the room in the upper left corner of each floor. Only cabins containing an elevator leading out of the room can always be entered from all sides; furthermore, the cabin where an elevator leading into the room arrives can have more access points than a normal cabin. If the spy enters a cabin through any of its entrance doors, he can only ever leave through that same door.
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- If you don't care about the clues hidden in the building and just want to achieve the highest possible score, you can simply stay on the ground floor and quickly search for bonus objects by moving around a group of rooms with as few guards as possible — for example, the starting room and its three adjacent rooms.
- Do not collect a clue while an alarm has been triggered and the guards are hot on the spy's heels. After examining the clue and returning to the game, the pursuers will still be in the same position and can arrest the spy before the player has even realized what's happening.
- After collecting a clue, the room is restocked with bonus items. If you had previously collected all the items, you can collect double the number of bonus points.
Solution[edit | edit source]
The goal of the game, to collect all 9 clues hidden in the terrorist's fortress, can only be achieved by systematically searching the rooms of this castle. The floor plans of all the levels, as well as a precise knowledge of the elevators that connect them, are very helpful in this regard. The following maps therefore show which rooms on a floor are connected by doors and whether there is an elevator in the respective rooms that goes up (green rectangle) or down (red rectangle).
The rooms on a floor are partly groups that form a cycle and can be traversed in a fixed direction, and partly pairs of rooms that the spy can enter alternately. Connections between these groups or pairs of rooms exist only via other floors, which can be reached indirectly by elevators. An extreme example of this are the two middle rooms in the top row of the lowest (blue) level: They can only be reached from the other rooms on this level by the spy ascending to the top (gray) floor, entering one of the middle rooms in the top row, and then descending floor by floor using a total of four elevators. Rooms that are so difficult to reach are usually also heavily guarded.
Despite careful planning, it may not be enough to enter each room of the fortress once in succession, because not all clues are in place from the start. Rather, a clue may be found later in the game in a room that has already been unsuccessfully searched. In this case, it is necessary to systematically search all the rooms a second time.
Map[edit | edit source]
 Ground Floor (Level 1) |
 1st Floor (Level 2) |
 2nd Floor (Level 3) |
 3rd Floor (Level 4) |
 4th Floor (Level 5) |
Solution word[edit | edit source]
The 9 clues that the spy collects during the game contain a clue to the metropolis where the terrorist D. X is planning an attack. They each consist of a sequence of 13 symbols, each represented by both a color pair and a tone pair. Each symbol encodes a letter of the alphabet; identical symbols represent identical letters. When strung together, all the clues form a text of 9 × 13 characters. Similarly, identical tone pairs encode identical letters. The resulting audio sequence is also available as a PDF document (File:SpyStrikesBack Hints PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:SpyStrikesBack Hints.abc.txt) for listening and, if desired, playing along.
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A plausible decoding of the clues by substitution and the corresponding solution, the US city of Boston, can be found at "digitpress.com", it reads:
NOT A CAPITOL BUT HAS ONLY ONE (Boston is not the capital of a US state (confusingly, it is the capital of Massachusetts), but the word "Boston" contains only one capital letter)
SALT CAN BE FOUND ON ITS EAST (east of Boston lies the salty water of the Atlantic Ocean)
ITS CONSTITUTION IS WOODEN (reference to the wooden warship "USS Constitution", which was built in Boston)
AND IT LIES IN THE LAND OF THE FREE (and the city we're looking for is in the USA)
SEND ANSWER TO PRESTON (the penguin "Preston" is the mascot of the company Penguin Software)
The assignment of the color codes to the corresponding letters on the website "digitpress.com" refers to the Atari version of the game; the mapping of both color pairs and tone pairs on the Commodore 64 is illustrated in the following gallery:
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Cheats[edit | edit source]
In the CSDb there are two Cracks by Commo Bam and by Derbyshire Ram with a Trainer function:
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Alternatively, a version of the game without a trainer function can be modified by POKE commands directly after loading, before starting with "RUN", to add additional trainer functions. For the crack from Xerox, the necessary commands are, for example:
POKE 6881, 0 : REM IGNORE SPRITE-SPRITE-COLLISIONS POKE 6891,165 : REM INFINITE NUMBER OF LIVES POKE 9957, 0 : REM INFINITE TIME
In particular, the first of these POKE commands allows you to explore the fortress of the terrorist Dr. X undisturbed.
Votes[edit | edit source]
| Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote): | ||
| 6.00 points at 4 votes (rank 886). You need to be logged in to cast a vote. | ||
| C64Games | 6 | November 17, 2025 - "gut" - 19462 downs |
| ZZap! 64 | 10% (Presentation 51%, Graphics 15%, Sound 40%, Hookability 31%, Lastability 12%, Value For Money 9%) | Issue 8 (December 1985) |
| Lemon64 | 6,67 | January 6, 2024 - 9 votes |
| Rombachs C64-Spieleführer | 10 | September 1984 - "Verdict 1" |
Critics[edit | edit source]
Stephan64: "What at first glance looks like a simple search-and-collect game turns out, on closer inspection, to be a tricky puzzle that requires careful route planning due to the building's chaotic architecture. The idea that the guards wander aimlessly around the building and only give chase once they've spotted an intruder is also amusing. However, the disappointment is all the greater for those who actually take the trouble to collect all the clues scattered throughout the fortress: the game doesn't have a proper ending, and the secret message is so cryptic and confusing that most players will ultimately be left sitting helplessly in front of a wildly flashing and beeping screen. Therefore, 5 points for a surprisingly complex, but ultimately frustrating game."
Rombachs C64-Spieleführer: "An interesting, exciting game where the motivation to play is maintained for a long time by a reward promised by the manufacturer for the correct solution (verdict 1)." [1]
Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]
Cover[edit | edit source]
The games "Spy's Demise" and "The Spy Strikes Back" were distributed by U.S. Gold on a single storage medium. The following illustration shows the cassette cover.
Inlay[edit | edit source]
The shared inlay of the cassette version of "Spy's Demise" and "The Spy Strikes Back" contains the backstories on the outside and the instructions for both games on the inside.
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Cassette[edit | edit source]
Theme[edit | edit source]
As long as the spy remains undetected between the booths, one of seven two-part background melodies will play. The left and middle illustrations in the following gallery show two examples of these musical pieces in standard musical notation. A monophonic funeral melody is played when the spy is arrested (right illustration). For creative reuse, the sheet music for all melodies is also available as a PDF document (File:SpyStrikesBack Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:SpyStrikesBack Theme.abc.txt).
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Fastloader[edit | edit source]
The cassette version of "Spy Strikes Back" uses the Novaload fast loader. In the scrolling text displayed on the loading screen (right image in the gallery below), Penguin Software advertises its predecessor game, "Spy's Demise": "LOOK OUT FOR EXCITING PENGUIN PRODUCTS - SPY'S DEMISE - SPY STRIKES BACK".
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During loading, three three-part melodies shorten the waiting time (second row in the gallery). For creative use, the sheet music is also available as a PDF document (File:SpyStrikesBack Loader PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:SpyStrikesBack Loader.abc.txt).
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Trivia[edit | edit source]
According to an article in the computer magazine Antic [2], the publisher Penguin Software announced that in every US state, every Canadian province, and every other country, the first person to decode the encrypted message would win a software package worth $100.
Video Recording[edit | edit source]
Short sequence from the game, played on an Atari home computer (video of the game on the C64 not available)
Highscore[edit | edit source]
The following high score list invites you to immortalize yourself with your highest score. The list is sorted in descending order by the score achieved. The number of clues found can also be entered as a "level", but (since it is not visible in the screenshot) it does not affect the ranking.
- Stephan64 - 5459 - 1 (12.01.2024)
- Keiner - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)
- Niemand - 0 (tt.mm.jjjj)
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| #2 Keiner | #3 Niemand |
Links[edit | edit source]
- C64Games.de - Game No. 1171
- Lemon64 - Game No. 2436
- Gamebase64.com - Game No. 7266
- ready64 - Game No. 4974
- CSDb - Release No. 108539 (Derbyshire Ram), CSDb - Release No. 101960 (Commo Bam), CSDb - Release No. 97500 (Xerox)
- CSDb (all entries)
- The Spy Strikes Back at MobyGames
- Magazine
Sources[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Oswald Reim, Martin Scholer: "Rombachs C64-Spieleführer", Rombach, 1984, page 332
- ↑ Antic Vol. 3 No. 2 (June 1984), p. 82
