The minimum score required in Worm Whomper by Activision for the Mattel Intellivision to earn a patch was: 75,000 points. The best advice in Worm Whomper is to read the manual, so that you know all of the nuances of the game. The manual gives some really good tips. Worm Whomper for Mattel Intellivision was designed by Tom Loughry.
Activision Worm Whomper for the Mattel Intellivision system is one of the more entertaining and at the same time grueling games to play. On this system you are provided with overlays that slip onto the gaming controller. These overlays show you which game to select. You chose either a one player game or a two player game. Player one is defined with blue overalls and uses the left side controller. Player two uses the right side and wears the black overalls. The players switch after one player has completed an entire wave of attacking insects.
Wave after wave of insects invade the corn crops. The objective is to protect and defend these valuable crops and save farmer Felton’s fields. There are many insect enemies that are hungry, such as worms, snails, slugs, and bugs of all sorts. There are twelve different ones to be exact. The defense is using a pumping container of pesticide to kill them. You also can use plough balls to flatten the bugs dead. It’s sort of like using a smart bomb.
The controls are by using the disc on the Intellivision controller. In the usual method there is up, down, left, and right. But you also can just tap in any direction on the disc to make minimal movements for precision in those directions. Use the “upper” side buttons for shooting the pesticide at the oncoming enemy bugs. You can either keep pressing the button for more accuracy or hold the button down for continual fire. The “lower” button is in charge of firing the plough balls. And again, by holding the button down you can fire multiple plough balls. Plough balls can flatten and kill each bug that’s in its direct path of rolling on that lane. You start off with three plough balls, and are awarded three more for each wave that you complete.
The farmer can utilize the entire screen and move about freely to protect the corn. You earn points for each bug killed. Bonus points are given at a value of “50 X the wave” for each corn stalk that remains on the screen at the end of the wave. Your point value differs depending on which bug you kill. Some are worth only 1 point, where others are worth 7000 points. Also keep in mind these values are multiplied by the wave that you are on. So if you are on wave twenty, it would be 20 x 7000 for that specific bug point value.
The tool shed is placed at the bottom middle of the screen. You go there to replace any spray gun containers that come in contact with any enemy bugs. When you do make contact with any bugs, the bugs die but you lose a spray gun.
When you start the game, you will notice that there are 10 stalks of corn and there are several numbers that are on the screen. The numbers at the lower left side are the reserve corn stalks that you receive. The numbers in the upper left is where the extra plough balls are. You start off with three in reserve. The numbers in the middle are where your score will be. The numbers in the upper right are where the wave number is represented.
The corn stalks that you are protecting turn brown when a bug comes in contact with them. But don’t worry as it takes two contacts to make the corn wither. You get one replacement corn stalk at the beginning of each wave from the ones that you have in reserve. You get a bonus corn stalk at the end of every fourth wave.
Some bugs will attack in straight lines, while others have a wavering pattern or diagonal attack patterns. The oncoming waves of bugs have different elimination amounts. Certain bugs only take one hit to kill and others could take up to seven hits to kill. There are snail shells and slug slime that clutters the field of attack. The spray gun will not penetrate these hazards, but the plough ball will. There are moths which do not eat your corn stalks, but do however drop eggs that hatch into caterpillars that do eat your corn stalks. So be vigilant about which bugs you kill and their screen placement to where you’re remaining corn stalks are.
This game uses a side view of attacking, but game play is much like the game Missile Command which uses a vertical view of attacking. You must defend the remaining corn stalks that are yellow and that are closest. After all you wouldn’t want to be shooting bugs at the top of the screen when your corn stalk is at the bottom, placing it in jeopardy of being eaten. You must be observant of which bug is of more importance and danger to the corn. Spray the larger bugs first because they move the fastest and do the most damage.
This game does have a pause feature so you can come back at a later time and continue game play. You press the numbers “1 & 9” or “3 & 7” at the same time to initiate this feature. I wouldn’t however recommend this if you live in a state which has a lot of lightning and or you live in an area which has a lot of power outages.
*TIPS: Use survival instinct on what to protect most, so you can last longer. As you play, your hand will endure a lot of pain and cramping due to the unusual shape of the Intellivision controller, not to mention the wear and tear from the disc due to constant movement. This is a long game and your hands must be conditioned to endure. That takes hours of practice to develop.
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When you are ready to submit a world record score for Worm Whomper by Activision, check the scoreboard here: https://www.twingalaxies.com/game/worm-whomper/intellivision
And when you’ve earned your patch, just visit https://www.ActivisionPatches.
