Head On (Irem, M-15 Hardware) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 45 years ago:

PT Head On © 1979 Irem.

Irem's Head On is a 2-D maze racing game. You control your car through the maze to pick up the dots while at the same time avoiding the car, or cars, that are constantly trying to ram you. Successfully get through one maze and many more await you. This is good practice for freeway driving in the big city.

TECHNICAL
Irem M-15 hardware

Main CPU: MOS Technology M6502 (@ 733.125 Khz)

Screen orientation: Vertical
Video resolution: 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette colors: 8

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1

TRIVIA
PT Head On was released in September 1979 in Japan.

PT stands for Play Table.

Irem made their game a bit different from the Sega/Gremlin version by putting the 'I-R-E-M' letters in the maze. While they didn't give any points for running over them, they did affect the bonus -- if you were able to get the IREM letters in each quadrant the same color when finished, you added to the bonus multiplier

SCORING
Dots: 5 pts X number of cars on field.
Diamonds: 10 pts X number of cars on field.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Always be aware of where the Jam Car(s) is/are located. They can only make one lane change at a time but that lane change may be into your lane.
• The faster you go, the fewer lanes you can cross. At full acceleration, you will only be able to change one lane at a time. In the earlier levels, this will be fine since you will only be dealing with one car. In the multiple Jam Car levels, this can be a very bad thing. Decelerate (take your finger off the accelerate button) to go across multiple lanes.
• The Jam Car(s) always travel in a clockwise motion while you travel in a counterclockwise motion. Remember that so that you don't get confused when there are multiple cars in the maze. Also, the color of the Jam Car is red while yours is white.
• Don't try to get all the dots on one of the lanes. You need to anticipate where your next move is well before you enter the lane change area since you cannot change lanes at any other time. Sometimes, on the earlier levels, it is best to do a staggered type dot pickup where you do lane one, change to lane two, to lane three, lane four, lane five, then back to lane one. If you time it right, the Jam Car or Cars will still be in the maze.
• Don't let the speed of the Jam Car(s) throw you. Just plan to be out of your lane and in the lane change area before them. If both cars enter at the same time, you run a big risk of a collision.

CONTRIBUTE
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