The Wicked Father (Atari 2600)

Introduction

The Wicked Father is a swimming bastard simulator for the Atari 2600 and can be played on real hardware using a flash cartridge, or on your computer using the Stella emulator downloaded from https://stella-emu.github.io/

Playing the unconsionable character of the title who has taken out insurance on both his house and family, you enter his world the moment after he has just trapped them in the basement and flooded the property.  A delicious profit surely awaits!

Instructions

Aim for the door (a dot!) in each room.  Water rises incessantly, filling the house; languish for too long and you'll drown.  There are five floors in the building; played on difficulty setting A (advanced), after every four rooms you'll escape to the next floor and the water level will drop a bit, bestowing some much-needed breath-related respite.  Playing on difficulty setting B (beginner), the water level resets on each screen.

Left and right does what you'd expect.  When you're not submerged, the fire button will let you jump.  When underwater, you'll start to run out of breath, so repeatedly hammer the fire button to swim up.  When you reach the surface either jump out to land on a platform, or slowly pulse the fire button to bob on the top of the water.  When you leave the water your lungs will return to fine fettle.

Hints

Hammering the fire button does mean exactly that, don't gingerly tap it in the hope that it will get you where need to be.  Your swimming abilities are hardly of Olympic standard so it's a downright struggle once doused.  Try to avoid water whenever possible but realise that learning to swim is a vital skill for later levels.

Jumping across many of the platforms is a definite trial of tenacity.  Careful exploitation of the water can be another way around them, there are a couple of methods you can use to complete some of the levels that way which may not be obvious at first glance.

Try to think about where you'll appear on a new screen as you leave the previous one.  If the door is at the bottom then be aware that unless you are moving to a new floor on the next screen, you'll probably need to swim rapidly or jump to gasp some oxygen in the next room.  You'll find as you play it a few times you'll pick up speed on the earlier levels and have more in reserve for starting each new room.

Don't take things at a leisurely pace, but don't be hasty either.  Square yourself up to the challenge, pay attention, and you'll be fine.  You utterly undesirable swindler.

Controls

Joystick left/right - move character horizontally

Fire button - start game, jump when on land, swim when submerged

Difficulty switch - on title screen, select A for advanced game or B for beginner game

Reset - quit to title screen during game