How to play Snail Against Squirrel online
- Move the squirrel up, down, left or right: arrow keys
- Pick up or put down a nut: Space bar
- Start over on the current cave: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Start on a different cave (screen): F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0ā9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0ā9 loads it
Gameplay
Two trees stand in the lower left and right corners of the screen. A sound tells you when a nut is ripe. Pick it and carry it up through the floors to your cave at the top. You can carry only one nut at a time. A cave holds five nuts, and once it is full the game moves you on to a new, empty one.
The snails are the problem. Meet one head-on while carrying a nut and the nut is lost. Meet one with empty paws and you are knocked down to the bottom floor. But if you come at a snail from behind and walk over its back, you defeat it. You can leave nuts on the upper floors for later, but they are not safe there: snails push them down, and they also roll off by themselves after a while. Leave a ripe nut on the tree too long and it goes bad. Lose five nuts and the game is over. The nuts you have left are shown in the lower left corner. You earn an extra nut every 10,000 points, up to six in reserve.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Carry a nut to the third floor | 100 |
| Carry a nut to the fourth floor | 200 |
| Defeat a snail | 500 |
| Store a nut in the cave | 1,000 |
The German manual adds a friendly rating of your winter supplies: under 10,000 points the squirrelās survival is in doubt, and above 76,000 it can afford to invite guests to a spring party.
Tips
- Attack from behind. A snail walking away from you is 500 points, half a stored nut. One coming towards you is a threat.
- Donāt park nuts for long. A nut left on an upper floor will roll back down, so only drop one to dodge a snail and pick it up again soon.
Other versions
Like most Bit Corporation games, this one was sold under many names. The NTSC version was called Squirrel, and Brazilās CCE released a cartridge by that name. In Germany it appeared as Schnecke gegen Eichhƶrnchen, and there are also Spanish (Ardilla) and Italian (Chiocciola e lo Scoiattolo) titles. As a PAL cartridge, this version runs at 50 Hz and can feel slightly slower than an NTSC copy.
