Surf's Up [Model 3125]

Surf's Up © 1983 Amiga

You control a little yellow surfboard (which just happens to be about the same size and shape as the JoyBoard) which you can move about the screen in an attempt to 'ride the wave'. The mechanics of this aren't well understood, but there are two lines that are used to represent the wave. The top line never moves, while the bottom line will slowly move up to meet the top line. When this happens a brief red flash will appear then the line will go the bottom of the screen again. After a while of moving around these two lines will stay together, it's at this point you can start scoring points.

To score points you literally need to jam your surf board into the lines. Every time you do this your score will increase. You can leave you board on the lines for a while to rack up a score (and bonus points if you do it long enough), but after some time you'll wipe out. This time becomes shorter and shorter as the level wears on. You'll also notice a flashing dash on the left edge of the screen. This dash appears to be a timer of some sort. It goes down each time you wipe out and each time you miss a wave. When it disappears completely the game ends. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to replenish this bar and it doesn't reset at the start of each level. If you do manage to last long enough you'll eventually land on the beach where you'll hear a cute little jingle and a flashing bar will appear on the side of the screen based on how high the timer was. After the tune plays you'll be taken to the next level.

If you find the gameplay a bit boring and want a little more of a challenge then you can flip the left difficulty switch to the A position and you'll have to deal with all sorts of ocean life. Snakes, whales, coral, tentacles, and bits of broken pier will all make your life much more difficult. The snakes and whales (well their tails anyway) are easy enough to avoid, but you'll want to position your board between the coral chunks, tentacles, and piers as they come in pairs. Depending on the level, these obstacles move at a leisurely pace or quite fast. Also be aware that you can only move the surf board left or right when you're up on the wave and not at the bottom of the screen. As you may have guessed, hitting any of these will cause you to wipe out.