REVIEW BY:  KEITH JEFFERSON of ST.LOUIS AUG.
     Keith writes for SLAUG newsletter & BBS.

Title: Dam Busters

Your mission will help break the back of Germany's war
effort.  Your modified Lancaster bombers, flying at low
altitudes, will drop specially designed bombs on very select
targets.  You will destroy the dams that supply power for
Germany's vast war-time industry.

This game is the most complicated game on cartridge yet
(which reminds me - why is the game also released on tape?
The 2 versions are the same except that the tape is slower,
can not be used on the Colecovision game player, and is more
prone to wearing out.  Doesn't make sense.)  Damb Busters
simulates all the aspects of a WW2 bomber.  There are no
points tallied and just one goal - to blow up a dam.  Since
so many people have a lot of trouble figuring this one out,
we've decided to focus mostly on playing tips in this review
of the game.  Just remember, stick with this game.  It's a
winner and will provide you with many more hours of fun than
most other games will.  This game grows on you and is, in
our opinion the best we've yet seen (in terms of
playability, not action or speed) for the Coleco game
cartridge system.

Some useful pre-flight tips:
1)Be careful to shoot the attacking airplanes, especially
the ones attacking from the rear of the plan (screen 3).
2) When there is a fire in one of the engines, go to the
appropriate extinguisher and pull down on the button.  Once
the fire is out, try to restart the engine.  (Note:
evidently either engines  one or three are the only ones
that will ever catch on fire and out of these, the only one
that can be restarted is engine #1.)
3) If one of your engines is on fire and you have already
used the xtinguisher, to keep up the airspeed, sometimes
decreasing the pitch of the propellers and increasing the
engine speed slightly will increase your airspeed.  If
engine #1 is on fire and you have used your extinguisher,
it's possible, for a temporary airspeed increase, to bring
the #1 throttle to zero and then raise it to maximum engine
speed.  The engine will slowly die off but this is helpful
when you need a little more airspeed to increase your
altitude.

Starting Off
->Setting Parameters.<-
The first thing to do is to increase the airspeed and set
your course.  Go to screen 6 and raise all 4 throttles until
the tachometers show a reading of about 10 o'clock.  Go back
to screen 1.  The air speed indicator should be reading
about 9 o'clock.  Next go to screen 5 and place the
navigational marker over the dam which you are going to
bomb.  (Note the dam closest to the top of the screen (#5)
is the easiest to bomb because the length of the lake is
longer there giving you more time to set up the bombing
parameters.)  One you have chosen a dam, return to screen 1
and line up your compass with the red navigational
indicator.

->Getting to the Destination.<-
Now the trick is to get to the dam without being shot down,
catching on fire, or just plain crashing.  As you fight off
the enemy planes, periodically check your compass (screen 1)
to make sure that you are still on course and also check
your map (screen 5) to see where you are in relation to the
dam.

->Setting Up for the Dam.<-
As you start approaching the dam, reduce your airspeed. (You
may find that it is sometiems necessary to increase the
pitch of the propellers as well as decreasing the engine
speed to get the proper airspeed.)  Your speed is good when
the airspeed indicator reads about 7 o'clock.  Continue to
fly over the dam and past the end of the lake.  After you
have given yourself adequate room, make a U-turn towards the
dam.  Aligning the navigational indicator is critical at
this time.  Keep on checking the map to see how far the
plane is from the dam.  Once you reach the tip of the lake,
go to the bomb room (#4), turn on the altitude lights, start
the bomb spinning and adjust the altitude with the joystick
until the edges of the circles just touch.  Return to screen
one.  The dam should be in sight at this time.  Try to keep
the dam in the middle of the screen.  go to the front
gunners' room (#2) which is now th 60 mm aiming sights.  If
the dam isn't in the middle of the sights, return to screen
one and realign the plane with respect to the dam,  Return
to screen 2 and if the sights are aligned properly, drop the
bomb.  If you pass over the dam or cannot line up the
sights, you may turn around for another run at the dam.

Note:  Once the dam is seen, the game switches into another
mode.  The plan can't turn as quickly and the enemy planes
don't attack.  This must be taken into consideration if you
plan to make a second attempt at hitting the dam.

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