Background[]
Berzerk Debugged is a version of the original Berzerk which no longer has crashes and has a few other bugs fixed. In the original version, there is a bug which causes the player to not receive a bonus for destroying all enemies on a level with ten robots. The crash exists at higher point ranges (5,000/7,000 points and above). At these point ranges, a high number of robots return fire simultaneously and overload the memory needed to keep track of all the projectiles. In addition, robots can no longer shoot through walls.
Homebrewer Mark Shaker released Berzerk Debugged as part of Vectrexcarts.com. At the time, he had acquired two different fixed version of Berzerk which contained several bug fixes. One was a GCE prototype dubbed Berzerk II and the other was a debug by Fred Taft from a disassembled ROM. Both fixed the crash and had a number of other optimizations. Berzerk II is included on the Sean Kelly Multicart 2.0 while the Fred Taft Berzerk Debugged may be the version released by Mark Shaker and later John Donzila.
Gameplay[]
The game involved the player(s) running their way through a series of mazes while destroying as many robots as possible; destroying all robots in a maze would result in a bonus. Touching any robot, explosion from destroyed robot or wall segment or being shot would cause them to lose a life, and once the player ran out of lives the game would end.
If the player took too long to escape from a level, the indestructible Evil Otto nemesis would appear from wherever the player had originated from in a maze and bounce his way across the screen, through walls and robots alike. The fewer robots that remained, the faster Otto would travel.
Controls[]
Main Menu[]
- Choose from one or two players--button one
- Start game--button four
In-game[]
- Move--joystick or D-pad
- Fire--any button
Scoring[]
- Shoot robot--50 points
- Bonus--10 points per robot
- Extra life--5,000 points
Trivia[]
- Berzerk was followed by the less successful sequel of Frenzy, which was ported to the ColecoVision.
- Berzerk was also ported to the Atari 2600 and 5200 and was planned to be released for the Atari home computer line, but ended up never seeing a release date.
- Verzerk was also an upgraded version of Berzerk which incorporated speech into the game if the player had a VecVoice.
