Game:

Chuckie Egg (1983)

Duration: 4:56

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3

The last four levels of Chuckie Egg, played on the BeebEm BBC Micro emulator. Level 40 is without any doubt far harder than any of the levels before it; it took me a long time to discover the route shown in the video, and a still longer time to practise it until I felt confident of pulling it off. It's true that Chuckie Egg has no random elements; if you follow the same route, then so will the duck and hens. But even a tiny variation in the route, such as waiting one pixel out of position or for a second longer, can lead to a large difference in result. I can always get to the top-left egg, but inevitably there are slight variations in how I get there, and sometimes that means I can't jump back over the gap to continue this route, and I will either die or else fall into the gap, getting the second egg in the top row, and have to take a different route for the rest of the level.

The other very tricky part is getting past the top hen when he moves to the side on the lower platform. You may remember that on Level 24, with the slower hens, I didn't dare to attempt this; with the faster hens there is exactly one frame in which you can jump safely. And this route involves making that jump twice. The alternative is to keep moving around and hope to get a better opportunity, but that won't always come, as you can see from the way I lose my lives on this level, trying to keep moving for as long as I can while hoping for a chance to slip past the hens.

I don't show the ending because there isn't one: after Level 40, the last eight levels just cycle endlessly.

The music for this video is a medley of "Battle Theme" and "You're Not Alone" from Final Fantasy IX.

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