How to play Off Your Rocker online
The manual says the game can be played with a normal joystick instead of the Joyboard. Leaning on the Joyboard pressed the same switches as a joystick, so the emulator’s joystick keys work fine.
- Repeat the pattern (lean on the Joyboard): arrow keys
- Tell Rollie you are ready: Space bar
- Choose the number of players (1–4): F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Novice or Expert mode: F4 (the left difficulty switch)
Gameplay
Rollie lights up a sequence, and you answer by pushing in the matching directions in the same order. Each round adds to the pattern, and after the seventh round the patterns speed up. A sequence can grow up to 99 steps long. You can take as long as you like before your first move, but once you start you have only five seconds between moves. Get it wrong and Rollie falls over and an ambulance comes to take him away.
Up to four people can play, taking turns on the same controller. The left difficulty switch sets how turns work. In Novice mode (A), each player keeps going until they fail, then the next player takes over. In Expert mode (B), players take one turn each in rotation, anyone who fails drops out, and the flashing score shows whose turn it is. The right difficulty switch does nothing.
Tips
- Use your free thinking time. There is no time limit before the first move, so replay the whole sequence in your head before you start.
- Keep a steady rhythm. Five seconds between moves is plenty if you don’t stop to think in the middle.
- Link colours to sounds. Each flash comes with a tone, and remembering a little tune is easier than remembering a list of directions.
History
Before it built the Amiga computer, Amiga Corporation made accessories and games for the 2600. Its big plans included the Joyboard and a cartridge add-on called the Power Module, but the only Joyboard game it actually sold was the skiing game Mogul Maniac. Off Your Rocker was completed, and the cartridges were made, but Amiga left the collapsing 2600 market before it was released. The unlabelled cartridges later ended up with a company called Pleasant Valley Video, which sold them to the public, so this “prototype” is easier to find than most unreleased games. It also appears on Power Play Arcade Video Game Album V, an unreleased Amiga compilation.
