Save the Whales

How to play Save the Whales online

• Move the submarine: arrow keys (all eight directions)
• Fire a missile in the direction the periscope points: Space bar
• Player 2, the whaling ship (two-player games): F and H to move left and right, A to drop a harpoon or net
• Choose a game (1–8): F11 (the console’s Select switch)
• Slow or fast harpoons and nets: F4 (left difficulty switch; A = slower, B = quicker)
• Harpoons or nets: F9 (right difficulty switch; A = harpoons, B = nets)
• Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)

Gameplay

The whales swim along the bottom of the screen on their way from the Arctic to their breeding grounds at Baja. The whaling ship moves along the surface and drops nets or harpoons. You have to shoot each one before it reaches the whales or hits your submarine. Harpoons are smaller and faster than nets, so they are harder to hit. From time to time, six flashing pieces of radioactive waste appear. Touching one costs you a submarine, and you must hit all six to clear them.

Every net or harpoon you destroy scores 100 points, and so does clearing a whole wave of waste. Each 1,000 points brings back one whale and gives you an extra submarine. At 5,000 points the whales reach Baja, the pod is restored and you get four more subs. The game ends when you lose your last submarine or all the whales are gone. The eight games combine one or two players with four speeds, from slow to very fast. In a two-player game the second player steers the whaling ship and does not score; the only aim is to put the submarine out of the game.

Tips

• Don’t wait just below the surface. It is tempting to catch harpoons as soon as they are dropped, but after the first few they fall much faster, and you may be hit before you see them.
• Clear radioactive waste at once. It does not drift away on its own.
• Aim before you fire. If the periscope points the wrong way, you have to wait for the missile to disappear before you can shoot again.

The story behind Save the Whales

Steve Beck planned Save the Whales as the first of three games with an environmental theme, each raising money for a good cause. The other two, Dutch Elm Defender and Attack of the Baby Seals, were never programmed. For a long time the game was only a rumour: it was said to have been available on GameLine, a short-lived service that let players download games over the phone line, but nobody could remember playing it. A prototype was finally found in early 2002.

With Beck’s permission, cartridges with a new label, box and manual was sold at the Classic Gaming Expo that same year. Two prototype versions are known: a work-in-progress dated 7 February 1983 and a later final version. AtariProtos found it fast, hard and fun for a few minutes, but repetitive.