yeah i played this game all the time and had no idea what i was suppose to do, and it was still fun

This is genuinely one of the best games of that era. It's easy to get into with clear mechanics and visuals, but not easy to win. It rewards mastery, but also doesn't crush your soul as a new player. Goes straight into same pile with the likes of Speedball 2 or Impossible Mission.

@@noway8662 What are those numbers in the up-right corner?

​@@user-ck2hr5vn8e Your score

without a doubt

Haha Same!

Same, same.

Took me some time to understand the logic but finally did. Awesome game ahead of its time. Fun story : this particular game gave a load error 4 times out of 5 on my tape....

I understood it (mostly) but never finished it

Basically just a top down shooter where you eliminate all enemies in the ship but you can hack the enemies to take control of them for superior firepower and armors.

883s are too slow. 821, 742, and 711 are where it's at.

821 was my fav. :)

@@Aragon9th Sure, but it's not effective against 883/834/751

@@jyutzler Well, the 821 is fast, has superior firepower and holds the power for a long time after it has been taken over, i was even able to kill the 999 without bigger problems. Imho the 821 is the best beast one can get.

@@jyutzler Yes, but as the 883 is basically a Dalek from Doctor Who, then they were not known for their dexterous manoeuvrability.

haha

Yes the 476 was one heck of a sexy hard droid, my favorite one too! :) The best droid in the game!

Totally agree! Paradroid, Uridium, and Impossible Mission was games that was so massive, good loooking and playable, that they defied belief! Unbelievably good on a meagre 64K!

I'd made up my own hacking mini game based on this classic. Mine is a circular circuit with nodes all the way around the outside forming kind of a maze to route through to choose while the ICE chooses them too, to defeat you. The circuits go to a circle in the center divided into blocks that you're trying to change to your color. Some circuits dead end, some go through a converter switching to opponents color, some split apart and give you multiples. You used ICE Pics to change the nodes. I've never seen a game with a hacking mini game like it.

XWolven now that is interesting.

Yeah, I vaguely remember this happening once or twice. I got scared and switched out pretty quickly.

I don't think I ever got to #5. The enemy bots fire too fast. I'm pretty good at the transfer game though. I really only lose it if I'm the 001 and I get an unfavorable (bland) layout.

+The Rainblossoms On some cracked / copied disc version of Paradroid can occur a bug in that way, that the walls onto some decks suddenly disappear, so that you can move outside; but everytime this error (due to a disc copy error) occurs, the whole game collapses during some minutes then. Anyway, there does exist a real bug in this game (not due to a disc copy error), in that way, that when you use the lift and then just immediately return to the deck you just came from, it could be possible then, that some doors onto that deck do not open anymore. But that's no problem - to solve that bug, just go back to the lift and then try once more, then the doors open normally again. By the way - the 883 security droid (the Dalek ;)) is a really dangerous opponent (except when you just a control a droid with a disrupter weapon); but for the own use it is a very bad one - very slow, no good weapon power and very, very fast energy drain ...

+thecoldheart2012 Mine must have been a copy error. Still, it was sometimes possible to get back inside the ship depending on the shape of the deck. It didn't usually crash my machine but it would usually leave you in a surreal cybernetic oblivion from where there was no return. And yeah, Unit 883 was tough to fight but not so effective when using it. Sadly. At least it looked cool.

+The Rainblossoms Yes, indeed - this is exactly that bug you do describe here, which I had meant! That bug - due to a copy error - especially occurs on one of the shuttle store decks (the yellow one, where two shuttles are stored there). That bug can also have the effect then, that the sprites of your device can get bigger, until nothing functions anymore. Anyway, each time that bug occurs, you unfortunately have to quit your game then. Oh yes, the unit type 883 really looked very cool! ... and somehow also very menacing and also kind of scary! For sure this droid was a small kind of gimmick by Andrew Braybrook as some reference to the Daleks from the Dr. Who tv-series. But it also always reminded me of a creature called Morra from the Mumins (kind of troll-stories from Tove Jansson from finland). I also liked the design of the unit type 615 a lot! That was that rather rare appearing sentinel droid. And the design of the unit type 834, too! (That was this blue sphere security droid). ... by the way - that droid (834) is a hell of an opponent in this game! Because it is so damn fast (as fast as its gunfire!) and its fast movements are often so weird, strange and unpredictable, that this droid is extremely dangerous! I had played Paradroid so often now since 1986 and mostly I was destroyed by a unit type 834 in the end ... But here, concerning the 834, it is quite the same as with the 883 - very dangerous as an enemy, but rather useless for the own use.

+thecoldheart2012 Yep, that sounds right. The deck was yellow from memory. But yes, it was usually a reason to restart the computer, even if you could get back inside the deck. The Moonmins monster! Lol, I used to watch that but didnt know what it was called. Yeah it was kinda similar. The 834s were hilarious and dangerous at the same time. They even used to eat a few of their own energy bolts from travelling too fast. Sadly they werent as good as they should have been. Usually very hard to hit unless you used a droid with an area effect weapon. 821 was awesome, and 476 was the main workhorse of the game for me.

+The Rainblossoms Hi! ... I'm back among the living ... it took me some time to reply ... For I do play Paradroid since it was new in 1985, I thought, I make you a kind of a list of all droids appearing in this game, which does reflect my gaming experiences with Paradroid and which also does refer to your last comment / reply here: Okay, let's start with the two disposal droids: Unit type 123 - slow, extremely weak and all in all absolutely useless (except when you are in an absolute emergency with a flashing 001-device ... that's also for all servant droids) ... although this droid looks funny with his horizontal egg-head ... and it has an infra-red sensor ... for whatever use ... Unit type 139 - same useless device as the 123 The servants: Unit type 247 - quite fast (yeah anti-grav!) but nevertheless useless; although - while not so slow - the best of the three servants ... and this droid looks somehow funny, too ... Unit type 249 - another useless device ... and ... tripedal (!?) - how should this one walk? - but okay, it seems to function Unit type 296 - the worst of the three servants - very slow and very(!) useless ... butler-droid with a tray ... The two messenger droids: Unti type 302 - very fast; can be useful sometimes on decks with only lower class droids but nothing more ... that one always looks like a kind of a spring to me ... Unit type 329 - very slow and an absolutely useless device ... but that one wins - in my eyes - the price for the most hilarious designed droid of the whole game ... The maintenance droids: Now it becomes more interesting ... Unit type 420 - although this one is very slow and useless, it has one advantage - immune to disrupter weapons! So this one can be useful, when you play a game strategy, to leave some 711s and / or 742s alive on some decks and later take a 420 to transfer on that decks Unit type 476 - best of the lower class droids! So here we do have the only armed lower class droid (laser - yeah!); then it is quite fast and its energy also lasts quite long; this one is very useful to clear decks with lower class droids until up to 614s. But for decks with droids over 614s the 476 is too weak and far too less protected Unit type 493 - that one unfortunately has got no armament, but it isn't that bad - can be useful on decks with lower class droids up to 598s, because it is fast and its energy lasts quite long; but - for sure - the 476s are a far better choice; but when no 476 is available, although a 493 (that guy with the tool-box ...) might be useful ... (to be continued)

You probably won't get a notice about my answer anymore but it was just how effective you were. More destruction (kills) in short time period means higher alert. Game gives extra points for higher alert states (green-yellow-orange-red).

476 I think was my favorite all around droid with good weapons and longevity

via the 302 if you were being careful. But yeah, 476 was the best all around. Still one of my absolute favorites and certainly the first to bear that label.

@@KitShannon Via 302. Exactly!

Hehh. You're absolutely right!

@@KitShannon Same here :)

Late answer but this was in Paradroid 90. Raiders were pain in the ass when deck was cleared from droids.

Controlling other droids drained the energy of both units. The 001 influence device could be re-energised but the controlled robot could not. Hence the need to constantly transfer to new droids. It was a part of the strategy but made it very challenging as you got through higher-end robots, where the length of control was less and the need to find a new "host" is greater.

The player who plays Paradroid in this video here is a very routined player, also concerning the transfer-game. But anyway, his speed there while doing it is correct and not a fake. So maybe you just need some more practice at the transfer-game, because to win the tranfer-games is one of the most important challenges in this game; so when you loose those transfer-games too often, you won't get very far here... By the way - what kind of joystick do you use? Maybe there is something wrong with it or with the set-up of your joystick? Because normally you don't have to tap your joystick for each line during the transfer-game; just roll it down (or up) to the line you want to entry as fast as you can. I - for myself - use a good old Competition Pro-Joystick from 1987 when playing this game on my C-128D and it works perfectly, accurate and fast!

thecoldheart2012 I know that the transfer game is very important to succeeding, why is why I never even managed to clear the first ship. I always seem to get crappy setups for the transfer game, where both sides are equally complex and confusing. Combine that with an inability to select the lines I want fast enough, and it's a recipe for failure. Also, I have to admit that I never completely understood how the energizers work. The instructions say that they can restore energy lost due to damage, but how do you know the difference? I mean, one time your droid starts flashing and moving onto an energizer recharges it. Another time it starts flashing and moving onto an energizer does nothing. It seems as if each droid can only be recharged once. Is that correct?

lurkerrekrul Here are some hints for a successful transfer-game, maybe these are helpful for you: 1) Choose a side where there are line-splitters and line-keepers; and - when you currently control a droid with many entries - choose a side where you do have more room and space. And in general: Always first look for those fields your opponent cannot reach here and colour them in your colour. And: When you currently control a droid with only very few entries and you your opponent droid has got many entries, then wait a while until about your time is around -20 / -15 until you start (but then you have to be very fast for sure!). 2) Don't choose a side when there are too much colour-changers, blockers and line-narrowers. A few words to the "healing-stations" now: These healing-points only(!) repair damages which were caused by weapons, ramming and explosion-fire. They don't(!) repair "damages" which are caused, because you control a droid for a too long time (for the 001-device can't control another droid too long - and as higher the class of the droid you control as faster your energy here drains down). So if your droid is flashing this can have two different causes: 1) Damages caused by weapons etc -> go to an energizer or transfer. 2) "Damage" because your "droid-control-time" seriously is running out -> transfer immediately! (By the way - even your 001-device can start to flash, when you wait far too long with a transfer.) And: As long as your droid is still "fresh" you can heal damages caused by weaponfire etc. as often as you want to.

thecoldheart2012 Thanks for the tips. :) I'm still not clear on damage vs. normal energy drain. If your droid starts flashing how do you know if it's because you took too much damage in battle or because your control is running out? You might assume it's battle damage, run to an energizer and find that nothing happens because you got hit right as your control was running out. I really wish that AB had implemented a more clearly defined system of energy use and control time. Maybe two countdown timers, one for your energy, which could be recharged an infinite number of times, and one for when your control will run out and you'll need to transfer to a new droid.

lurkerrekrul Normally, you can hear it, when you droid is damaged by weaponfire*, ramming or by an explosion - for each of these damages there is a certain FX-sound. So when you hear such a sound, you know, that you are hit - and those damages can all be healed at an energizer (but only if your droid is still "fresh" enough for sure, because you always can heal those damages only to the best level of your current "droid-control-time"! - with other words - when your "droid-control-time" is almost running out, it is useless to heal damages caused by weaponfire etc. at an energizer anyway). Concerning the "droid-control-time" again - when you play this game very often, you'll soon find out about how long approx. you can control a droid of a certain class of droids. And: When you're not sure anymore if your droid is flashing because of damages caused by weapons etc. or because of the energy drain, then better transfer immediately and don't search for an energizer - so here transfering is mostly always the best alternative. * except: damages caused by disrupter-weapons have no special "hurt-FX-sound" on your droid. P.S.: In the later Paradroid '90 there are kind of two "countdown-timers" for your droid-energy / damages. But I must say, that I see no special need for such a second "energy-timer" here in the classic Paradroid from 1986. If you are new to this game, then Paradroid is a game which has a lot to do with try and error. But as often you play it, the more you'll learn and find out (develop certain strategies and so on). And you'll see more and more then, how perfect this game is! Even a player who plays this game for decades now can still experience some surprises here!

Great Game BUT What are the blinking circles?? they are for Health ??