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Demolition Herby
One of the lesser known releases from Telesys, Demolition
Herby is a game that most collectors have heard about, but never
actually seen. On the surface Demolition Herby may look
like a simple Amidar clone, but upon closer inspection players
will find that it has some extra features that really round out
the game. Unfortunately Demolition Herby is fairly rare so
most people have never had the chance to give it a spin.  Like Amidar, the goal of the game is color in all the squares on the game board. This is accomplished by driving around all four sides of each square (the lines will change from white to red). Once you've filled in one line the three Chase Cars will begin their pursuit. When a car is in the same lane as Herby it will double in speed and attempt to ram him. If one of these cars touches Herby you'll lose a life. Thankfully Herby isn't 100% defenseless. Herby can ram the backs of the Chase Cars and send them flying off the screen for a few seconds (be careful the bouncing car doesn't hit you though). If Herby manages to do this to all three Chase Cars he'll gain both super speed and be able to fill lines for about 10 seconds. Use this time wisely!  In addition to being a dangerous tailgater, Herby has another weapon at his disposal. When pushing the fire button Herby gains super speed, but this comes at a cost. While in high speed mode Herby cannot change the lines from white to red (except in the bonus situation mentioned above). Using super speed also increases Herby's gas consumption. The gas meter acts like a timer and is constantly counting down and the only way to fill it is to complete squares or finish a level. If the meter reaches zero then Herby will lose a life. Once Herby fills in all the squares the game will continue to the next level. On each level the cars get a bit smarter in a bit faster and starting at level nine they'll even begin erasing lines so watch out! One of the more interesting yet overlooked features of Demolition Herby is its two player mode. If a joystick is plugged into the second player controller port then that player can control all three of the Chase Cars. The player actually only controls the fastest car, but the other two cars will follow the general direction of the lead car. This is one of the few 2600 games that allows the second player to be the villain rather than just taking turns playing the main character. This two player mode turns a average game into an exceptionally fun one (assuming you have someone willing to play with you that is). 
While Demolition Herby won't win any awards for
originality (at its heart it *is* an Amidar clone), it's truly
one of the hidden gems of the 2600 library. The two player
mode alone makes it superior to the 2600 version of Amidar and
it plays better too. Unfortunately Demolition Herby was
the last release from Telesys before they decided to throw in
the towel so it only saw a limited release.
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