How to play Ram It online
- Move the Ramroid up and down: up and down arrow keys
- Aim left or right: left and right arrow keys
- Fire the laser: Space bar (holding it down fires continuously)
- Choose a game (1–8): F11 (the console’s Select switch), or push the joystick up
- Start a game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch) or Space
- Player 2 (two-player games, taking turns): T/F/G/H to move and aim, A to fire
The difficulty switches have no effect in this game.
Gameplay
There are 32 colour bars in all, split between the two sides, and they grow toward the centre at random. Your laser only reaches a short distance, so you move up and down the track and push each bar back until it is gone completely. Any bar you leave behind starts growing again, and bars that reach the middle block your path.
A round ends when you clear every bar, when you get boxed in, or when the timer runs out. The timer counts down from 5,000 and starts flashing at 500. Each hit on a bar scores 10 points, and if you clear the screen, whatever is left on the timer is added to your score. In most variations some bars flash: one hit removes a flashing bar for 400 to 1,300 bonus points, depending on its length, but a new bar may pop up on the other side straight away. Each new round is faster than the last. You have three chances: the third time a round ends without the screen cleared, the game is over.
The eight games offer four speeds (children’s, slow, medium and fast), each for one or two players. The children’s games have no bonus bars; the faster the game, the more bonus bars appear and the shorter they flash.
Tips
- Tap, don’t hold, the arrows. Short taps make it much easier to stop exactly beside the bar you want.
- Clear one side first. Working on one side at a time makes it less likely that bars from both sides will box you in.
- Leave the top and bottom bars for later. They cannot block your path, so ignore them until they start flashing, then take the bonus.
History
Telesys, based in Fremont, California, released six Atari 2600 games before closing during the video game crash of 1983. By model number Ram It was the fourth, and its manual carries a 1982 copyright date. The company’s cartridges ended up in bargain bins, but Ram It gets strong scores in the reviews listed on AtariAge, and it later appeared on many unofficial multi-game cartridges.
