Gyroscope Details - LaunchBox Games Database

Overview

Releasing a game which resembles a well-known arcade game before any official license can be released was always a challenge for publishers, and in this case Melbourne House released a game similar to Marble Madness. Controlling a gyroscope, you most navigate your way down a sloping track full of hazards. The viewpoint is in fixed isometric 3D, with hazards including buildings, ramps and drops. The gyroscope accelerates quickly and takes time to slow down, so it is easy to go into a screen too fast. Failing to keep the gyroscope spinning freely as it navigates these costs you one of your seven lives. You are also playing within a time limit - losing a life sees you return to the start of a level without regaining lost time, but running out of time sees you lose a life, but be able to continue from where you were left with a new set of time (so, as with Chase HQ, completing tricky levels can take 2 or 3 lives at first). You get time bonuses for completing a screen, points bonuses for completing one of the seven four-screen levels, and an extra life for reaching 1000 points. At the end of level 7, you will get 1000 points for each remaining lives, doubling your current amount of lives. You will then start again at level 1 but mirrored by the vertical axis (you are now climbing from the bottom of screen to the top). After level 14 (level 7 mirror), you will again win 1000 points for each remaining lives and then the game loop on level 1 (not mirrored).