How to play Squeeze Box online
- Move your prisoner: arrow keys
- Change the angle of your shots: hold Space and press up or down; the angle stays until you change it
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a game: Space; F12 (Reset) starts a new game at any time
- Fast or slow walls: F4 (left difficulty: A = fast, B = slow)
- Manual or automatic fire: F9 (right difficulty: A = manual, B = automatic)
Gameplay
The walls are made of coloured bars that grow towards the middle of the room. Each bar you hit is pushed back, and once you have cleared a gap you can walk out into the next room, where the bars grow faster. Touch a wall three times and the game is over, followed by what the manual calls “the hottest finish” in video games.
Each coloured bar you shoot back scores 10 points, and walking out of a room scores 100. There are six variations:
- Games 1 and 4: bars grow in from both sides. Clear every bar before leaving to earn an extra star (extra turn), up to three.
- Games 2 and 5: bars grow from one wall only. Shoot each one all the way back until it turns white, and the room clears.
- Games 3 and 6: bars grow from one wall while the other wall slowly closes in; blinking bars are worth 20 points.
Games 4 to 6 have twice as many bars as games 1 to 3.
Tips
- Stand close to the bars. Your shot travels less far, so you fire more often. Just don’t touch the wall.
- Finish one side first. Clear one wall completely before turning to the other.
- Change your angle as little as possible. Every adjustment costs time.
About the game
U.S. Games was the video game label of the Quaker Oats Company, which bought it in 1982 and closed it the following year. Squeeze Box carries the code VC2002, and a version was also released in Brazil by Dynacom. Reviewers have not been kind, and players often mention sluggish controls, though some remember the comic game-over scene fondly.
