Hobo

Name:	Hobo
Company:	UA Ltd.
Model #:	3
Programmer:	Unknown
Year:	1983
Released?	No
Notes:	A retail box, manual, and cartridge were found in 2011

Hobo was one of six different games UA Ltd. was planning on releasing for the 2600 based on their offerings for the Arcadia 2001.  For those not in the know, the Arcadia 2001 was an obscure home game system released in 1982.  To say that the Arcadia 2001 didn't take the market by storm would be an understatement, but it was much more popular overseas where dozens of different clones were marketed.  However due to the video game crash UA decided not release any of their games, either in the U.S. or in Europe.  Interestingly Hobo, along with Pleiades, R2D Tank, and Funky Fish were never released in the U.S. for the Arcadia 2001.  These titles only saw release in Europe and Canada for various clone systems.

Hobo is an interesting action game with three different screens.  Unlike most of UA Ltd.'s games, Hobo was an original idea, not an obscure arcade port or knock off.  Oddly enough the box says that the game was a 'licensed arcade game', but this is not the case and is most likely a result of using one of the other UA cartridge boxes as a template.  The goal of the game is to safely guide your hobo through three screens of increasing danger in order to get to the other side of the Grand Central Railway Station and catch a train out of town.

Screen one finds our lovable hobo trying to cross a busy freeway in front of the railway station.  This screen is fairly straight forward, dodge cars and make it to the other side.  This screen was obviously inspired by Frogger, and is the simplest of the three.  While you can move the Hobo left and right, it's generally better to just make a straight run for it to the other side, pausing as necessary as the cars are rather fast.  If the Hobo gets hit he'll be carted off the screen by two men carrying a stretcher.

Screen two shakes things up a bit and finds our hobo trying to scale a series of walls in order to reach the railway station itself.  The manual refers to this screen as a 'fortress' which really doesn't make any sense, and the artwork clearly shows the hobo scaling a wall.  Each of the three wall platforms is connected by a series of ladders that the hobo can climb.  Each platform is also patrolled by a group of two or three cops who will constantly march down and off the screen only to reappear at the top.  Thankfully your hobo can jump over the cops if they get to close, but often times it's just easier to time your movements and avoid them all together as you'll hang up in the air for a rather long amount of time.  Unlike in the Arcadia version of the game, the goal is not to get to the top of the screen but rather to collect all the items on the various platforms.  Once you've collected all the items you'll be taken to the next screen.  In a nice little bit of eye candy, if the Hobo gets caught by the police he'll be carted off to jail.

Screen three is the most interesting of the bunch.  Here you must guide your hobo over a series of trains (I guess he's running on top of them) as they scroll across the screen.  There are eight different lines of trains you need to jump across in order to reach the handcart at the top of the screen which will allow you to get out of town.  The first four rows have no walls on the sides so you're safe to scroll off the sides of the screen.  However the last four have walls which you'll splat against if you do not move quickly enough.  Be aware that there's a small delay in the movement from row to row, so you can't move too quickly.  There also seems to be a bug in the collision detection between the Hobo and the trains, so sometimes you'll look like you've safely reached a train but the game will still think you've missed.  If you succeed in reaching the top you'll start back at screen one with everything moving a little faster.  Like the other screens, there's a bit of eye candy if you die.  On this screen if you miss a train a little cross will appear where the Hobo died.

Hobo offers the standard options that most UA games did.  The player can either play through all three levels in order (Game 1) , choose to play only one screen over and over again (Games 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3), or play a particular screen over and over but with infinite lives (Games 3-1. 3-2. and 3-3).  This allows the player to practice a certain screen or just skip screens they don't like.  The game can also be paused with the Color/B&W switch.  The game even features a demo which wasn't particularly common at the time.  One odd quirk in the game is that it will display the title screen between each screen and won't advance until the player pushes the fire button.  This was most likely to give the player a breather between screens, but it's still somewhat odd if you're not expecting it.  In keeping with the game variation numbering, each level is referred to as 1-1, 1-2, or 1-3.

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