Introduction - Atari STEEPLECHASE Operation, Maintenance & Service Manual

Atari's Steeplechase is a horse race video action game
designed for up to ,ix players. The game is packaged in its
own distinctively-styled upright cabinet that rests directly
on the floor. (Drawing number A003249 in Section VI I of
this manual shows an external view of the game.) A 23-inch
black and white TV monitor is mounted at the top front of
the cabinet and players stand in front, facing the TV screen.
Six horizontal strips of transparent material, each of a dif­
ferent color, are affixed to the plexiglass panel in front of
the TV screen. Each strip covers one player's race track on
the screen; when the game is energized, each strip filters
the light corning from images underneath that strip. To
players looking at the screen, the result of this filtering is
that no two horses are of the same color.
The player-operated controls are located on a horizontal
flat panel, beneath the TV monitor. The controls consist of
a "START" push-button switch and six back-lighted player
push-button switches, one for each player. Figure 1-1 shows
the graphics on this panel.
Two identical coin mechanisms are located below the
player-operated controls. They accept quarters only, and
arc connected so that either one can initiate play. The
Steeplechase game features an owner/operator-adjustable
option that permits on-site game structuring for six players
per coin, or for two players for one coin, four players for
two coins, six players for three coins. The cash box is
located behind the coin mechanism access door. A speaker
mounted inside the cabinet, to the left of the coin mechan­
ism, will produce a variety of game sounds during play.
In the Steeplechase game a player tries to jockey his
horse to the finish line ahead of all other horses. At the
beginning of play on the left side of the TV screen a separate
horse image appears for each player, along with a seventh
pace horse at the bottom. The race begins when the start
button is depressed, and ends when one of the horses
reaches the finish line located near the right side of the
screen. During a race the horse images gallop across the
screen, moving from left t o right, and have to jump over a
string of fence picket obstacles that appear at various points
along the racetrack.
These pickets also move across the TV screen, but from
right to left toward the horses. There is a separate string o f
pickets for each horse, but all pickets move at the same rate
and corresponding pickets along the track line up one
beneath the other (from the top of the screen on down).
The sketch in Figure 1-2 shows a typical picture appearing
on the screen partway through a race.
I. Introduction
1 .'I PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
1.2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PLAY
In order to advance toward the finish line, a player has
to make his horse jump over all pickets after the first one.
He does this by depressing his front panel push button
whenever he wants the horse to jump. But anytime a horse
strikes a picket- either because the player failed to depress
the button before the horse reached the picket, or because
he depressed the button too soon and the horse landed back
down on the track without having jumped over the picket
that horse momentarily falls, drops back a short distance,
and then gets up and starts galloping again.
The spacing between successive pickets is irregular; this
makes the game more challenging because it prevents a
player from advancing a horse merely by depressing the
button at a regular rate. Other aspects of the game's opera­
tion provide additional challenge as the horses approach the
finish line: pickets are made to move at faster and faster
rates, the jump of the leading player's horse becomes shorter,
and players get less visual warning of approaching pickets.
Along with the video action just described, the following
sounds produced by the speaker during play add to the
game excitement: a bugle call as soon as the first coin is
deposited, the starter's gunshot when the start button is
depressed, hoofbeats and crowd noise throughout the race,
and loud "cracking" sounds whenever any horse strikes a
picket.
When the race is over, the image on the TV screen of
the winning horse begins to blink. It continues to blink until
another play sequence is initiated (by a player depositing a
coin).