This page was put into the site after I received an email from someone who had found the site by chance, and couldn't work out whether Rick had any weapons or not. See the icons at the top of the game screen? There you have it. Rick starts with six bullets in his gun and six sticks of dynamite.

What I forgot to say was how to use each one, because it's not obvious.

To fire a bullet, hold FIRE and press UP.
To lay a stick of dynamite, hold FIRE and press DOWN.
To poke a wall (or anything else) with your stick, hold FIRE and press LEFT or RIGHT.

Rick 2 went all futuristic (even though it was still 1945!) so the stick was dropped in favour of Rick's own fist, the bullets were turned into laser beams, and the dynamite sticks were turned into bombs, and had an extra twist - they could be kicked in one direction or the other. To do this, hold FIRE, press and hold LEFT or RIGHT, then DOWN. It can work just using diagonal directions, but this works better. (If you have a joystick, imagine it as being like engaging second gear or reverse in your car...)

There ya go... now some info about controls on each version.

The Atari ST version uses a joystick, and so all you have to do is follow the instructions above. Joystick emulation on WinSTon/STew uses the cursor keys and R-CTRL as the fire button. Also, press SPACE to change between colour and black and white.

The Amiga version is also joystick-only, but the control options are partially redefinable on WinUAE - there are three keyboard configurations, which should be selected in Amiga Mouse Port 1. Beware of the Lock Fire button, it can cost lives if you knock it accidentally, so that Rick waves his stick instead of running away from murderous Goolus!

KEYBOARD LAYOUT	UP	DOWN	LEFT	RIGHT	FIRE	LOCK FIRE
A	NumPad 8	NumPad 2	NumPad 4	NumPad 6	NumPad 5	NumPad ENTER
B	cursor keys				R.CTRL	R.SHIFT
C	T	B	H	F	L.ALT	L.SHIFT

As in the ST version, SPACE can also be used to change the screen between colour and black and white.

The PC version may use a joystick; I don't know, because I haven't got one, but the chances are the game is old enough for it not to work with one. Rick 1 uses the following keys:

O = up, K = down, Z = left, X = right, SPACE = fire
P = pause, E = abort game, ESC = exit.

Rick 2 uses a slight variation of these keys:

O = up, K = down, Z = left, X = right, P = fire
W = pause, Q = abort game, ESC = exit.

The keys are redefinable for Rick 2, but these are the default.

The Speccy version, as usual, had several control options; keyboard, Sinclair or Kempston joystick, and cursor keys. The keys were:

O = up, K = down, Z = left, X = right, ENTER = fire, P = pause, Q = quit.

Whether you can use a joystick or not depends on the emulator but any half-decent emulator should be able to handle it - Spectaculator and ZX32 definitely can.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Spectrum, the cursor keys were: 7 = up, 6 = down, 5 = left, 8 = right, 0 = fire. Anyone who had a Speccy in 1982 probably had to use these keys for a lot of games, but with up & down next to each other and between the left and right keys, I don't recommend it because they're terrible to use.

The Commodore 64 used a joystick, but the WinVICE and CCS64 emulators allow keys to be set up for joystick emulation. Press F9 to enter the console, select "Options" and then "Input", or enter the menu directly by pressing ALT+I. Define the keyset in Control Port 2 as follows:

Emulator	UP	DOWN	LEFT	RIGHT	FIRE 1	FIRE 2	FIRE 3
WinVICE (Keyset A)	cursor keys				R.CTRL	n/a	n/a
WinVICE (Keyset B)	HOME	END	DELETE	PAGE DOWN	R.SHIFT	n/a	n/a
CCS64	cursor keys				Z	X	C

Diagonal controls can be ignored, and only fire button 1 will be used for Rick.

The Amstrad used keyboard controls similar to the Spectrum. The normal keyboard controls are:

O = up, K = down, Z = left, X = right, SPACE = fire, H = pause, Q = quit.

F8 can be used to select control option for using a joystick. Keyboard emulation of the joystick is as follows:

HOME = up, END = down, DELETE = left, PAGE DOWN = right, R.CTRL = fire.