Steeplechase [Model 49-75126]

Steeplechase © 1981 Sears

The object of Steeplechase is to be the first player to advance your horse to the right side of the screen display. Each horse gallops at a given speed from left to right. While the horse gallops, hurdles of different sizes approach the horse from right to left. Your task is to jump and clear the hurdles, and get your horse to the right side first.

As you are jumping each hurdle, your horse actually has no motion from left to right. Whenever you hit a hurdle your horse loses some horizontal position (distance) while it falls to the ground and gets up. The higher you jump your horse, the easier it is to clear all hurdles. However, the more time it takes to clear the hurdles, and the more time it takes to reach the right side of the screen.

The height of a jump can be set by adjusting your height indicator bar. There are four height settings. Each horse has its own height indicator bar.

The speed of the race starts off slow, and increases when the leading horse:
(1) gets about one-third of the way across the screen, and,
(2) again when the leading horse gets two-thirds of the way across.

A game ends automatically when the game clock reaches three minutes and none of the horses have made it to the right side.

GAME VARIATIONS
NOTE: All six games can be played by one, two, three, or four players.

Games 1,2,3: The spacing between the hurdles in these games is 'uniform', meaning that the distance between all hurdles is the same, enabling you to establish a rhythm.

In Game 1 the computer horse or horse's racing ability is poor. In Game 2 the computer horse's ability is good, and in Game 3 it is excellent.

Games 4,5,6: In these games the spacing between the hurdles is random meaning that the hurdles come at you with varying distances between them.

In Game 4, the computer horse's racing ability is poor, good for Game 5, and excellent in Game 6.