Worm War I

How to play Worm War I online

• Steer left and right: left and right arrow keys
• Speed up / slow down: up and down arrow keys
• Fire: Space (tap for single shots, hold for rapid fire)
• Player 2 (two-player games): T/F/G/H to drive, A to fire
• Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
• Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
• Worm movement (random or fixed): F4 (the left difficulty switch)
• Brake response (slower or faster): F9 (the right difficulty switch)
• Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it

Gameplay

Worms come down the screen in groups: first one, then two, then three and so on, up to six at once. The first group is worth 20 points per worm. After that the value goes up, and you get a bonus each time you wipe out a whole group. Blocks in your path are worth 5 points each.

In the one-player game you have a single tank, and fuel is everything: and the game ends when your tank runs dry. You start with 99 units. Driving forward uses up fuel, running into a worm costs 10 units and hitting a block costs 5. To top up, drive through a pagoda gas station. The faster you go through, the more fuel you get, up to 12 units at a time and never more than 99 in total. You are also briefly safe from collisions while refuelling.

Variations and switches

There are nine variations: three for one player, three for two players on the same team with shared fuel and points, and three where two players compete with separate totals. Within each group of three, the options change how many blocks are on the road, and option 3 has “invisible worms” that you only see in brief flashes. The left difficulty switch makes the worms move at random (A) or in fixed patterns (B). The right switch sets how quickly your tank brakes: A is slower, B is faster.

Tips

• Back off when a new group appears. Pull down on the stick as the next wave arrives so the worms don’t swarm you.
• Hit the pagodas at speed. A fast pass gives you more fuel than a slow one.
• Be careful with blocked pagodas. If a pagoda sits on a block, shoot the block away carefully, or just nick the pagoda.
• Every collision costs fuel. A worm costs you twice as much as a block, so shoot worms before they reach you.

History

Worm War I was developed by Sirius Software and released under 20th Century Fox’s video game label. It also came out for the Atari 8-bit computers. Programmer David Lubar went on to make other games, including Fantastic Voyage for the 2600 and, later, River Raid II. From the mid-1990s he became a successful children’s author with more than 50 books, including the Weenies story collections. In Brazil, CCE also sold the game.