How to play Tapeworm online
- Steer the worm: arrow keys
- Light up the night patch: Space bar (costs one bean each time)
- Choose a game: F11 (the consoleās Select switch). Game 1 is one player, beginner; game 2 is two players, beginner; games 3 and 4 are the advanced versions for one and two players
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Difficulty switches: F4 and F9. The manual calls position A āDiet Beanā and B āHigh Calorie Beanā without explaining further
- Player 2 joystick: T, F, G, H
Gameplay
Each patch holds ten beans, which show up one at a time. A beetle crawls along the bottom of the screen from left to right, heading for the fruit. If you eat the bean before it arrives, the beetle goes back to the start and the bean counter drops by one. If the beetle wins the race, two more beans appear and the counter rises by two. Up to eight beans can be on screen at once, so falling behind quickly snowballs.
You start with four worms. You lose one if you hit the edge of the patch, get tangled in your own body, touch an obstacle, or let Spanky the spider or Beeky the bird touch your head (the yellow square). As you move on to later patches, new obstacles appear in the middle of the screen.
The five patches are named after fruits, and each is worth more than the last:
| Patch | Each bean | Fruit |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Apple | 5 | 50 |
| 2. Orange | 10 | 100 |
| 3. Grape (night) | 15 | 150 |
| 4. Strawberry | 20 | 200 |
| 5. Banana | 25 | 250 |
The grape patch is played at night. You only see the patch for about two seconds after eating a bean, and pressing the fire button buys another two seconds at the price of one bean. You earn a bonus worm every 1,000 points, with at most four in reserve. The score tops out at 9,995, which earns the top rank of āTape Wormā.
Tips
- Keep the beetle in mind, not just the bean. Every lost race adds two beans, so a quick, slightly risky route often beats a safe, slow one.
- Plan the night patch in daylight. After each bean, look where the next one is and memorise your path before the light goes out. Use the fire button only when you are truly lost.
- Protect the head. Spanky and Beeky can only hurt the yellow head, so turn it away from them and let the body take the close pass.
History
Spectravision was founded in 1981 by Harry Fox and Alex Weiss. In late 1982 it renamed itself Spectravideo because of a naming conflict, and it later moved on to home computers. In Tapewormās manual, the worm introduces himself as the critter that cleans up fruit left over from other video games.
