| Dream Shopper | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sanritsu |
| Publisher(s) | Sanritsu |
| Year released | 1982 |
| System(s) | Arcade, Sord M5 |
| Japanese title | ドリームショッパー |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Players | 1-2 |
| Modes | Single player, Multiplayer |
Dream Shopper is an arcade game which was released by Sanritsu in 1982. It runs on Namco's Pac-Man hardware (a Zilog Z80, running at 3.072 MHz), but with a General Instrument AY-3-8910 running at 1.78975 MHz for audio.
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The opening cutscene.
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First part of a round.
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Second part of a round.
Gameplay[edit | edit source]
The player must use a four-way joystick to take control of a man who looks a little like Nintendo's Mario (the eponymous "Dream Shopper") - and at the start of the game the text "YOUR PRESSING GOAL IS 10000 POINTS" will appear on the screen. The screen will then cut to a shot of a room whose floor is comprised of 144 random tiles as they flash up and give you a brief idea of what they all are; all except the 66th tile (which is the one with the apple) will then go black, and the Dream Shopper will have to walk around the room and use the "Reveal Button" to reveal the type of tile he is standing on.
Yellow tiles are worth 50 points, green ones are worth 100, blue ones are worth 250 and red ones are worth 500 - and if the Dream Shopper should walk over that 66th tile (with the apple), he'll become faster, all the remaining tiles will be revealed for a short period of time and he can defeat the strange-looking yellow creatures (which look like a distant precursor to the Pikachu from the Pokémon series) that are pursuing him for extra points. Enemies return to normal moments after the invincibility timer runs out, and the fruit tile will change from an apple to a bunch of grapes, a melon and then a banana. Using the powerup a fourth time will erase it for good.
Not only must the Dream Shopper normally avoid contact with the yellow creatures, but he must also watch out for holes on the field. Those are always just barely visible, and you can confirm their positions by using a fruit tile to light up the room. If the protagonist reveals a bomb, he will only have a couple seconds to vacate the blast radius, as in, you must run away on a straight line or you will get hit. A few extra points are awarded if one or more of the yellow creatures perish in that explosion. Furthermore, a hole will be left on the bomb's former position to further complicate things.
Like in Pac-Man, you may use the doors on the edges of the screen to warp and try to evade the pesky enemies. They cannot use doors but are highly unpredictable, as they're faster than the Dream Shopper and will sometimes dart straight at him. Reaching the fruit powerup or clearing a stage without losing a life can be very difficult with those guys wandering all over the place. Trying to kill enemies while a powerup is active is often not worth the effort as they're too erratic and are only worth 100 points. You're better off using the extra speed to flip more tiles instead.
From Round 3 on, green enemies will come out of trapdoors on random panels and zig-zag around the room while making odd noises. They are far too unpredictable and are also immune to the fruit powerup. They seem to leave the room after a while, if you survive that long.
Also, frogs are hidden on the field and they add another element of luck to gameplay. Upon being revealed, they will bounce across the room and reveal tiles of their own color while converting any already revealed tiles of different colors. Thus, the appearance of a yellow frog can be highly detrimental to progress.
Once you have reached 10000 points on the first half of a round, it is cleared and the second half, a maze stage, will begin. The Dream Shopper will have to make his way along a path comprised of copyright (©) symbols towards his girlfriend's castle, while again watching out for yellow creatures and collecting dropped items like shoes, necklaces, handbags and rings as he goes. Losing a life here will skip the stage. The game will switch back and forth between those two types of stages, with different layouts for each maze.
Dream Shopper can be set to award extra lives at certain score thresholds, but this is disabled by default. It has no continue function, so a game over will always set the player back to round 1. High scores cannot receive initials.