How to play Fast Eddie online
- Run left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Climb ladders: up and down arrow keys
- Jump: Space bar (you jump further if you are running)
- Choose a difficulty level from 1 to 8: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Pause and resume: F2 (the Color/B-W switch)
The difficulty switches are not used.
Gameplay
Each screen holds ten prizes, which appear two at a time and float above the floors. Eddie grabs one by jumping up into it. The Sneakers come in different sizes and groupings depending on the level, and if one catches Eddie he is tripped and you lose a life. He has no weapon: his only choices are to jump over a Sneaker or climb to another floor. On a ladder he is safe.
The top floor is guarded by High-Top, the tallest Sneaker of all. He gets a little shorter every time Eddie collects a prize. Once nine prizes are taken, a key appears above High-Top, and by then he is short enough to jump over. Grabbing the key sends Eddie on to the next screen and earns an extra Eddie. The tenth prize is optional, but it is worth 90 bonus points. You start with four Eddies and can hold up to three extra ones.
Tips
- Use ladders as hiding places. Sneakers cannot trip Eddie while he is on one, so wait there until the floor is clear.
- Take a run-up. A running jump carries further, which helps over wide Sneakers.
- Change the ladder layout. According to a tip on AtariAge, holding Reset (F12) lets you pick a different ladder arrangement.
History
Mark Turmell made Fast Eddie at Sirius Software, which mainly published computer games. Sirius released it for the Atari 8-bit computers and the Commodore 64 in 1982, and a VIC-20 version followed in 1983. The Atari 2600 cartridge came out through Fox Video Games, the video game arm of 20th Century Fox. Critic Brett Weiss later called it an entertaining game, though he found it less deep than Space Panic or Mr. Do!’s Castle. Two fan-made hacks, Packrat and Tronman, are based on the 2600 version.
