Blueprint

Name:	Blueprint
Company:	CBS
Model #:	4L 2714
Programmer:	Unknown
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Port of the 1983 Bally Midway arcade game

That nasty troll Ollie Ogre is trying to get his dirty mitts on your girl Daisy Damsel, and it's up to you to stop him.  However you're just a poor handyman, how on earth can you possibly stand up to troll?  Fortunately for you, you do have one talent, you can build!  It's up to you to gather all the parts to the machine laid out on the blueprint and assemble them into the ultimate weapon.  Sound easy?  Well there are a few things standing in your way...

Blueprint is really a game of memorization.  For you see, the pieces of the machine are hidden in the various houses scattered around the board.  It's up to you to remember which houses you've been to and which houses are still left to visit.  If you guess wrong and go into a house you've already taken a part from you'll find a bomb.  When this happens you must quickly drop off the bomb into the monster/bomb pit in the lower right corner.  You can press the button to use some of your "Fast Run Time" to speed up your trip to the pit, because if the bomb blows up before you get it to the pit you're toast.

Once you've successfully located a machine piece all you need to do is drop it off onto the blueprint at the bottom of the screen.  Once you've assembled the whole machine, quickly run over to the start button and bring your creation to life!  Now that you have a weapon you can turn the tables on Ollie and blast him to oblivion.  Of course Ollie isn't going to simply stand by while you gather the parts for his destruction no he's got other plans...

If you take a look at the top of the screen you'll see what looks like a large eggplant chasing a girl.  That eggplant is Ollie and that girl is Daisy.  If Ollie catches Daisy it's game over, so be quick about your task.  Notice the flowerpots at the top of the screen?  Those flowerpots are more than decoration, they're deadly weapons!  Every now and then Ollie will knock one down and try and flatten poor J.J. (that would be you).  Even more disturbing is that once a plant reach the bottom of the screen it grows legs and starts chasing J.J.!  Thankfully these plants grow tired and give up the chase after a few moments.  

There are two other monsters poor J.J. must watch out for during his journey, Sneaky Pete and Fuzzy Wuzzy.  Sneaky Pete is a small blue creature that hides in the monster/bomb pit, just waiting to make his move.  Once Pete jumps out of the pit he'll make a beeline towards the start button, if he hits the button your machine will break and all the pieces will fall to the ground.  To get rid of Pete you must grab him and drop him back into the pit.  Alternatively you can drop a bomb on him before he jumps out of the pit.  Thankfully you can simply pick up the fallen pieces and put them back onto the blueprint.  Fuzzy Wuzzy is a deadly blue guy in a red cloak which will begin chasing J.J. around the city starting on level 3.  There's no way to destroy Fuzzy Wuzzy so you'll just have to avoid him.

Blueprint is great game that sports an excellent mix of strategy, memorization, and fast action.  The non-centering 5200 joysticks hamper the gameplay somewhat, but are manageable once you get the hang of them.  Blueprint was also scheduled to be released on the Atari 400/800, but that version mysteriously never materialized.  A prototype for this lost 400/800 version probably exists somewhere...

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