How to play London Blitz online
- Choose your starting rank: up and down arrow keys
- Walk the streets: arrow keys (no diagonals)
- Switch between map and street view, or examine a bomb: Space bar
- Pick a slide on the bomb: up and down arrow keys
- Move the selected slide: left and right arrow keys
- Restart at any time: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You start by choosing a rank, which sets how hard the bombs will be. The map view shows your sector as a blue and green street plan, with a red cross for your position and white flashes where bombs are. In the street view you only see what is directly ahead of you, and a white arrow acts as your compass. Walk to the square with the bomb and press the button to examine it.
Each bomb has three sliding bars. The top and bottom bars have six positions and the middle one has four. Set all three, then test the combination: move up or down until all three bars show green, and give the joystick a quick push left or right until you hear a beep. An indicator light for each bar then responds. Black means the bar is right, red means move it left, and green means move it right. Pressing the button takes you back to the street if you want to leave a bomb.
There are three kinds of bomb, told apart by the colour of their slides:
- Green slides: the basic bomb described above.
- Blue slides: an automatic bomb that cycles through sixteen fixed combinations by itself. You test as it goes and read the lights to find the right one.
- Orange slides: like the basic bomb, but the indicator lights are shuffled, so a light does not necessarily belong to the bar next to it.
A red line on a green background shows the time left. When it runs out, a faster yellow timer takes over, and at the top rank that last stretch lasts only 33 seconds. Higher ranks also allow fewer wrong tests before the bomb goes off. Each rank has eight levels: a green bomb moves you up one level, a blue bomb two, and an orange bomb three. To be promoted you have to defuse more bombs than you let explode. The game ends when you reach Captain, when you are busted below Lance Corporal, or when a bomb kills you.
Tips
- Solve one bar at a time in your head. Each test tells you the direction for every bar, so move each one halfway towards its remaining options rather than one step at a time.
- Keep paper handy for orange bombs. Note which light reacts when you move which bar, and the puzzle becomes a basic bomb again.
- Start at a low rank. The timers are longer and you can make more mistakes while you learn the system.
About London Blitz
Avalon Hill was best known for war and strategy board games, and London Blitz is one of its small line of 2600 cartridges. It prefers history and puzzles to shooting, which makes it unusual on the console. The cartridge is rare today.
