Hurry, hurry, hurry! Step right up and see the most daring acrobat in this wide world! He jumps, he swings, he flies! Watch Sammy Lightfoot perform incredible feats high above your head. His courage will amaze you and his skill delight you. So step right up and get your tickets now!
Original loading instructions
Commodore 64 diskette
1. Label side up, insert disk in the disk drive.
2. Close the drive door.
3. When the screen says "READY", type LOAD"SAMMY",8,1 and press RETURN
4. Plug joystick into port #1
5. When the title page appears, press joystick button for option page.
6. Move joystick up or down to select options, press button to change options.
Commodore 64 ROM cartridge
1. Turn off your computer.
2. Insert Sammy Lightfoot cartridge (face up) into the expansion slot to the right in the rear of your computer.
3. Turn on power to the computer and monitor.
4. Plug joystick into port #1
5. When the title page appears, press joystick button for option page.
6. Move joystick up or down to select options, press button to change options.
Colecovision ROM cartridge
1. Make sure your Colecovision unit is off before inserting or removing cartridge.
2. Insert Sammy Lightfoot cartridge into the slot, with the label facing you. Be certain it is locked in place.
3. Turn on the power to the television and Colecovision unit.
4. When the title page appears on the screen, your game options will appear.
5. Choose thenumber of players and skill level.
Controls
Commodore 64 Joystick
Use the stick to move left or right. The button will help Sammy to jump, hang on to ropes or start the elevator.
Colecovision Joystick
Use the stick to move Sammy left or right. Use left side button to help Sammy jump, hang on to ropes or start the elevator.
Colecovision Control keys
Press * to restart the same game.
Press # to change game options.
Press 1 to pause and resume play.
How to play Sammy Lightfoot
Manual description
Ladies and gentlemen, let me direct your attention to our center ring. In a few moments, high above your heads, you will see a performance that will chill and thrill you. You will see that great trapeze artist, Sammy Lightfoot, do things you wouldn't thought possible!
Sammy will leap huge circus balls and fly through the air over scorching flames. With incredible balance and agility he will dodge lethal plungers to cross huge chasms. Finally to amaze and delight you, Sammy will swing on a trick rope, challenge the man-eating pumpkin and soar on a flying carpet!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you that death-defying daredevil, Sammy Lightfoot!
Options screen (C64)
When you start a new game, you'll first see the options screen. In this screen you can select whether to play with 1 or 2 players, as well as the starting level for each player. The lower the level, the less difficult it is.
In the options screen, you can also set to enable or disable the sounds and scene tunes.
When you've made your selections, activate the PLAY command to begin the game.
Each player (whether you play alone or as 2 players) has 4 lives. No additional lives can be gained during the game. When a player loses a life, he'll start again at the beginning of the scene in which he lost his life and proceed until all his lives are exhausted and the game ends.
If two people play the game, then player 1 starts first. Player 2 starts after player 1 loses a life. Then, after player 2 loses a life, player 1 resumes where he left off. Both players keep switching turns until both players have lost all lives and the game is over.
Note: the apple II release appears to only have single player and no options screen. the player automatically starts at level 0.
Scenes and levels
As Sammy Lightfoot, you'll need to pass three scenes, each with its own unique challenges. After you've completed all three scenes, you'll start again at scene 1 but the difficulty goes up by one level.
For the Commodore 64 there are in total eight levels, ranging from 0 to 7. If you manage to complete level 7, then level 7 repeats itself until all lives are exhausted.
For the Apple II there are in total twelve levels, ranging from 0 to 11. If you manage to complete level 11, then the game returns to level 6 and you'll proceed again from there until all lives are exhausted.
SCENE 1
Starting at the bottom right, jump on the trampoline 3 times (hold the action button) to get to the upper level. If a rolling ball comes at you, jump over it and if a bouncing ball comes at you then go under it. Run-jump to the trampoline below to bounce across the chasm to the center platform - careful not to miss your jump and watch out for balls coming your way from above to time your jump. Jump and hold onto the swinging rope (hold action button to hold on to it and release to drop on the other side). Use the trampoline to get to the higher level (careful for incoming balls). Run right, jump across the gap and step on the platform below the pumpkin to activate the upper rope. Dodge balls if you encounter them. Jump for the swinging rope and land on the platform without touching the pumpkin.
As levels progress, there will be more, faster and different kinds of balls coming from both the upper left and right of the screen and the pumpkin will move faster also. White balls always roll. Green balls (white balls with a smiley in the Apple II release) bounce, and yellow balls (dotted balls in the Apple II release) may either bounce or roll.
SCENE 2
Starting at the bottom right, jump across the four platforms to the left side without touching the six platforms that move up and down. Beware though that the four platforms occasionally shortly disappear and reappear by a certain pattern. Note also that you can avoid the moving platforms by standing between them. Once on the elevator on the left side, press the action button to go up - the elevator on the right will go up as well. Now head back to the right elevator by jumping across the moving platforms. Once on the right elevator, press action again to move up more - the elevator on the left will move up also. The moving platforms will disappear and a flying carpet appears. Step on the carpet, press the action key and it will take you to the final platform, but move along left and right with the carpet to avoid falling off.
As levels progress, the bottom platforms will disappear and reappear faster and in different patterns, the moving platforms will go up and down faster and the flying carpet will move in more complicated patterns to the finish line.
SCENE 3
Starting at the bottom left, go right, dodging the bouncing dots in the corridor and jump to the elevator on the right. Press the action key to go up with the elevator. Then jump left and go left through the upper corridor, avoiding the beams that come down from the ceiling and the dot that hovers over the ground. Activate the left elevator to go to the top. Jump to the first swinging rope, keeping the action button down, and release the action button to jump to the next rope, quickly pressing and holding the action button again to hold onto that one. Finally land on the final platform in the upper right corner without touching the pumpkin.
As levels progress the bouncing dots in the bottom corridor will increase to four dots and will bounce faster. The dot hovering the ground in the middle corridor will be added, but apparently won't increase in speed. The vertical beams will increase in speed and numbers, and the pumpkin will also move faster.
Scoring
The quicker you finish each scene, the higher your score will be. When you start a scene (or restart a scene after losing a life), a timer will start at 9990 points and count down at a rate of approximately 100 points per second. When you complete the scene, the remaining points are added to your total score. If the timer hits zero before you reach the end of the scene you can simply continue playing but will obviously not earn any points for that scene.
If at the end of the game the total score is among the top 10 highest scores, the player is asked to add his initials and his score is added to the high scores list.