Saboteur 9-2-83

 

This version of Saboteur is the one commonly seen floating around the web, and therefore the version most people are familiar with.  Up until an even later version was discovered we assumed that Atari had abandoned development of this title because this version is only 90% complete.  There are still a few bugs and issues to be worked out, but this version is fully playable.  The biggest change in this version is that the board flow has been retooled.  Even if you beat the first board you must face the second board, but if you beat the second board you still get to skip the third board.  This no longer makes sense from a logic standpoint (why would you face the warhead if you stopped the rocket?), but makes the game a bit more robust.  

This change did introduce one problem though, what's the point of stopping the rocket on the first board if you have to stop the warhead on the second board anyway?  This oversight was fixed in later versions by making the second board much tougher if you let the rocket escape.

The third board still has the strange pulsating shape (which is supposedly Hotot), but the graphics have been changed significantly.  It's obviously that Howard was trying to make this board work, but finally ended up changing it to a one-on-one fight with the Warhead.

 

Differences

The instructions on the first level are different, it says "Stop Rocket Save Birdies" instead of "Save Gorfons".
The Yar doesn't appear as often.
The boarder surrounding the second board has been changed to green.
The sounds have been changed slightly.
The Yar character from Yar's Revenge makes an appearance as a bad guy.  
Your firing rate is slower
The pulsating shape on the third level is different looking.
The lasers the shape shoots are green instead of brown.
The shape at the end of level 3 now explodes if you take too much damage.  It will also explode if you beat the level successful.
The random colored bars in the "score box" at the bottom of the screen extend the full length of the box and overlap the score and copyright.
This version has a copyright date of 1983.

 

Copyright 1983

 

Stop Rocket Save Birdies!

 

Mmmm.... Minty green walls.

 

I liked the old shape better...

 

 

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