How to play Stampede online
- Ride up and down: up and down arrow keys
- Throw the lasso: Space bar
- Choose one of the eight games: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Start a game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Rope length: F4 (the left difficulty switch); A gives a shorter rope, B a longer one
- Save and load: Ctrl + 0ā9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0ā9 loads it
Gameplay
The screen scrolls from left to right, with the cattle (the manual calls them ādogiesā) running ahead of your horse. The rope always flies straight out in front of you, so you must line up directly behind a calf and throw from the right distance; too near or too far and you catch nothing. While the rope is out, your horse stands still.
The number at the top left is your stray count. It starts at 3 and drops by one each time a calf escapes off the left edge of the screen. When it runs out, the round-up is over. There is no time limit, and every 1,000 points adds one to the stray count, up to a maximum of 9.
| Calf | Points |
|---|---|
| Dark red Hereford | 3 |
| Medium brown Guernsey | 15 |
| Light brown Jersey | 25 |
| Black Angus | 100 |
Two things get in your way. Bleached skulls lie on the trail, and your horse rears up if you ride over one. The Black Angus is worth the most, but it stands still facing you and cannot be herded, and bumping into it also makes your horse rear.
Game variations
The eight games have ranch-hand names, from Sidekick to Cattle Baron. In Game 1 the cattle run straight ahead in a fixed order: Herefords first, then Jerseys, then Guernseys, with the odd Black Angus. Game 2 is the same, but the cattle dodge up and down to avoid your rope. Games 3 and 4 repeat these without a fixed order. Games 5 to 8 match Games 1 to 4, except the cattle start at full gallop.
Tips for a longer round-up
- Herd first, rope second. Riding just behind a calf makes it run further ahead, which keeps it from straying. Use this to hold the cheap Herefords in front while you rope the valuable ones.
- Grab the Angus early. Because it does not move, it drifts toward you fast. Line up and throw at once, or steer around it.
- Donāt commit too early. Once you throw, you canāt change your mind, so make sure no other calf is about to slip past first.
- Get ready after the last Hereford. Whiteheadās own tip: when you rope the last of a row of Herefords, faster action follows.
The story behind Stampede
Stampede was released in December 1981 and fits into just 2 KB of ROM. Video magazine liked its charming graphics, and an Intellivision version followed in 1982. Activision invited players who reached 3,000 points to send in a photo of their screen and join its āTrail Driveā club. The manual also notes that at 10,000 points a small steerās-head brand appears and the score rolls back to zero.
