CRAZY COMETS

For the Vectrex. 1 or 2 players. Vectrex controller.

FREEWARE. Crazy Comets for the Vectrex is a free fan conversion of a 1985 Commodore 64 game. Selling it, or selling cartridges with it, is not allowed.

THE MISSION

Planets are pouring into your sector of space. Each one grows the longer it lives. Grown planets gather satellites, go crazy and hunt you down. Left alone, they become Super Novae. Shoot them while they are small, clear the round, and stay alive.

GETTING STARTED

Copy the cartridge image to your flash cartridge. The game is a 64K image. Your flash cartridge must support 64K images with PB6 bank switching (VecMulti, VecFever and similar). A cartridge limited to 32K will not run it.
Insert the cartridge. Leave the joystick centred and switch on. The game reads the stick's rest position at power-on.
The ALIGN screen appears. See below.
On the title screen, press button 3 to choose 1 or 2 players. Press button 1 to start.

THE ALIGN SCREEN

All text in this game is drawn in rows, swept left to right and then right to left. Every Vectrex lines these sweeps up a little differently. At power-on the game shows sample text and an ALIGN number.

Press 2 or 3 to change the number until the sample letters look clean.
Press 4 to continue.
Hold 4 while switching on to skip the screen.

The starting value, 12, is right for most consoles and for the MAME emulator. The setting is not saved. It resets at each power-on.

EMULATORS. On emulators based on vecx (including libretro-vecx) the text is broken at the starting value. You must use the ALIGN screen there: lower the number to near 0 until the text is clean. vecx-based emulators are not supported, because their timing and brightness differ from a real Vectrex. For the best results use a real Vectrex or MAME.

CONTROLS

Control	Action
Joystick	Moves your ship in any direction. The ship always faces up.
Button 1	Fire. Hold it down for rapid fire. Also starts a game.
Button 2	Brake. Hold it to stop the ship dead. You can keep firing.
Button 3	Title screen only: 1 or 2 players.
Button 4	Not used during play.

ANALOG CONTROL

Crazy Comets uses the analog joystick of the Vectrex controller. A small push moves the ship slowly. A full push moves it at top speed. Use an original Vectrex controller, or another analog controller, if you can. Digital controllers and adapters work, but the ship then moves only at full speed and fine aiming is much harder.

Do not touch the stick while switching on. If the ship creeps by itself, switch off and on again with the stick at rest.

THE SCREEN

Scores are at the top: player 1 on the left, player 2 on the right. At the bottom left are the round number (R 01) and your reserve ships. Between games, the title screen and the two POINTS SCORE pages repeat.

THE ENEMY

PLANETS enter from the edges of the screen, small. They grow while they live. A small planet needs one hit. A grown one needs many.

SATELLITES orbit grown planets. They keep coming while their planet lives. Attacking satellites leave orbit and come for you.

CRAZY PLANETS (Crazy Callisto, Crazy Krypton) flash, speed up and home in on your ship.

SUPER NOVAE are what planets become if you leave them too long. They are fast and dangerous.

COMETS streak across the screen and chase you if left alone. One hit destroys them.

SPACE CAPSULES drift past between some rounds. Fly into them to collect them. Do not shoot them.

SCORING

Target	Points
Satellite in orbit	10
Satellite attacking	100
Crazy Callisto	200
Crazy Krypton	300
Super Nova	500
Space capsule, collected	200

ROUNDS AND SHIPS

Destroy the set number of planets to clear a round. Each round is faster than the last.
Destroy every planet before it becomes a Super Nova for a PERFECT ROUND bonus.
You start with 3 ships. You earn a bonus ship every 10,000 points.
Touching a planet, satellite or comet costs a ship. The game ends when you have no ships left.
Two players take turns. Both use controller 1.

HINTS

Shoot planets as they come in. Small ones die in one shot.
If one planet grows to full size, clear the others first, then deal with it.
Hold the brake to stay put and keep firing.
Satellites are good points, but they never stop coming while their planet lives.
Watch the screen edges. Planets and comets enter there.

CREDITS

Crazy Comets for the Commodore 64, 1985.

Programming and graphics: Simon Nicol.

Music and sound effects: Rob Hubbard.

Published by Martech Games Ltd.

Vectrex version, 2026: Sad Enby Games.

This is an unofficial fan conversion. It is freeware: you may copy and share it free of charge, but you may not sell it.