HSC12 Round 14: Beam Rider & Bonus Star Rider

[+therealbountybob]

Latest Tables

Beam Rider

1st therealbountybob (p) 57,002 12+1pts #
2nd SHiNjide (p) 49,628 11pts
3rd McKong (p) 34,500 10pts
4th jblenkle (n) 31,612 9pts
5th JK40001 (p) 18,210 8pts
6th playermissile (n) 12,028 7pts
7th ballyalley (n) 10,570 6pts
8th Mrs McKong (p) 7,548 5pts
9th Sleepy (p) 6,140 4pts
10th Sikor (p) 2,056 3pts
# New HSC Record bonus point

STAR Rider
1st therealbountybob (p) 185 4pts
2nd SHiNjide (p) 180 3pts

2nd roadrunner (n) 180 3pts
4th ballyalley (n) 75 1pt

Round 15 Poll OPEN

Edited September 2, 2015 by therealbountybob
no reason so move along

[ballyalley]

For a good score, it's so important to take the mother ship down.

 

That's true, taking down the end-of-sector-ship is important, especially later in the game when you have earned quite a few extra ships. After destroying the Sector Sentinal (mothership) each of your extra ships is worth, I think, 200 points. At the beginning of the game, when you don't have that many ships, this bonus doesn't add up to more than about 600 points, but later, missing it can really mess-up your scoring. It's a fair scoring side-effect that when the Sentinal is easiest to destory at the beginning of the game, it is worth the fewest points, but later, when you've gained plenty of ships in reserve, and the Sentinal has become more difficult to defeat, it's worth many more points. As you lose ships and your reserve ships begin to dwindle down toward the end of a game, the bonus for destorying the Sector Sentinal becomes less important again. The Sector Ship-bonus sweet-spot, for me, starts at about Sector 8, but that's about when it begins to get difficult to destroy. That is what makes "Beamrider" such a fun-to-play game; it has good balance and it awards points in a fashion that makes taking risks worth it every time.

[Sikor]

Edited September 1, 2015 by Sikor

[ballyalley]

First Tables

[...]

Space Rider

 

Little typo there, "Bob." It's not "Space Rider," it's "Star Rider."

[ballyalley]

I just love "Beamrider!" Here are some pictures and manuals for those that, like me, can not get enough of this wonderful game.

 

First, here are the front and back of the boxes:

 

 

I OCRed the information on the back of the "Beamrider" box:

 

3D

Dark. Dangerous. Demanding.

 

A beam matrix of iridescent blue engulfs the distant blackness of Earth-Space. You stand watching. First mesmerized, you now realize the beams carry weapons. Frightening creations in endless configurations. Intriguing to watch, but will you-- yes you, dear reader-- take action? You will??!! Then roll up your sleeves, mount these beams and ride!!

 

Animated graphics create a 3-D perspective that virtually pulls you into the screen. Pulsating sound effects intensify the constant array of new objects that zips from beam to beam. Beamrider combines tomorrow's technology with designer Dave Rolfe's fantastic imagination to forge the challenge you'll return to again and again!

 

Winner 1983 Vira Game of the Year

 

Designed by Dave Rolfe, Adapted by Action Graphics

I couldn't find scans of the Atari 8-Bit version of the manual, but I did find the Atari 5200 version on AtariAge. The manual is laid-out nicely; it's a poster that folds into a square. On the poster-side there is the same picture from the front of the box. On the back is the manual. Here is the "front" of the manual (when the poster is folded-up):

 

 

Here is the poster (when the manual is completely unfolded):

 

 

I'd love to have a high-res scan of this poster so that I could print it as a poster and hang it up on my wall. For ease of use, I've OCRed the manual. The manual has some important pictures, so I made sure to include those here too. I used the available BBCode of the AtariAge forums to make the manual easier to read too.

 

Beamrider

 

The Restrictor Shield, 99 sectors deep, now surrounds the Earth. You are the Beamrider, on a mission to clear the Shield. There you must demolish an onslaught of alien frights as you dodge from beam to beam. Sector after sector, the deluge deepens...

 

Initial Set-Up

• Insert cartridge. Turn power on.
• Select number of players by pressing the 1-4 on the left controller.
• Select level of difficulty by pressing 1-3 on the left controller. The higher the number, the greater the challenge.
• Once the difficulty level has been selected, you'll shift to the Space Station. Its control panel displays your score, two reserve ships, three torpedoes, the sector number and the number of enemy saucers in the sector.
• To start, move the Joystick. The hatch doors will open, thrusting you through hyperspace to the Restrictor Shield.
• Your Light Ship follows the left and right movements of the Joystick to fire laser lariats, press either bottom side button. To fire torpedoes, press either top side button
• Press Pause to pause the action. The screen will go black. To resume play, press PAUSE again.
• To drop out of a multi-player game without interrupting the other players, press * on the controller when your turn begins. Your score will be omitted and the sequence of play will be adjusted to the remaining players.
• To begin a new game when the current one is over, wait several seconds and press START. Beamrider will replay at your previously selected difficulty level with the same number of players.
• To begin a new game at any time and select a new difficulty level, press RESET.

Beam Bearings

 

The Space Station. When your ship is destroyed or when you complete a sector, you will return to the space station. To continue, move the Joystick.

 

Enemy Saucers. There are 15 enemy saucers in each sector. They must all be destroyed before you can go to the next sector.

 

The Sector Sentinel. When all enemy saucers in a sector have been destroyed, their Sentinel ship will cruise across the top of the beams. Only a torpedo can destroy it.

 

Weapons. Laser lariats are effective against White Enemy Saucers. Yellow Chirper Ships, Blue Chargers and Red Zig Bombs Torpedoes will destroy the first object they meet on a beam. You have three torpedoes per sector.

 

Yellow Rejuvenators. Occasionally, yellow rejuvenators will float through the beam matrix. Earn a bonus ship for each one you touch. If you shoot or torpedo a reiuvenator, it will turn red and destroy you on contact.

 

Dangerous Encounters

 

With the first swing of your laser lariat, the white enemy saucers approach. But there's more. As you progress through the Restrictor Shield, a sinister collection of aliens will materialize. A new danger is added with every other sector, up to sector 14:

 

Sector Craft Vulnerable

 

1 White Enemy Saucers Yes

2 Brown Space Debris No

4 Yellow Chirper Ships Yes

6 Green Blocker Ships No

8 Green Bounce Craft No

10 Blue Chargers Yes

12 Orange Trackers No

14 Red Zig Bombs Yes

 

Only "vulnerable" objects are affected by laser lariats (saucers and chirpers are destroyed, chargers and zig bombs are deflected). Everything else can only be dodged or, in extreme cases, torpedoed.

 

Scoring

• Score each time you destroy an enemy saucer, chirper ship or Sector Sentinel. Point values increase as you advance to higher sectors.
• The exact point value for each hit briefly appears in red in place of your score.
• Destroy the Sector Sentinel and you'll receive an additional bonus for each ship in your fleet.

 

Join the activision "Beamriders"

 

Reach sector 14 with a score of 40,000 points or more and you qualify to become a Beamrider! Send us your name and address and a photo of the TV screen showing your sector and score. Include $1.00 per emblem ordered to cover shipping and handling. We'll send you the emblem that identifies you as an official Beamrider. Be sure to write "Beamrider - 5200" and your score on the bottom corner of the envelope.

 

 

How To Be A Beamrider

 

Tips from Dave Rolfe, designer of Beamrider.

 

Dave Rolfe is a seasoned software designer, with an academic background in engineering and computer science. In his spare time, he can be found bicycling or listening to rock n' roll.

 

Greetings from sector 26 and moving! If you want to make it to the outer sectors, pay attention to these tips.

 

Maintain precise control by learning to TAP the Joystick to move your ship a single beam at a time. And stay near the center beams so you won't get boxed into a corner with nowhere to run. Zap the white enemy saucers as early in their approach as possible. And check this out: You can hit them when they're slightly off the beam, before they can drop their missiles.

 

When you see a yellow rejuvenator, don't abandon all caution as you move to catch it or you'll likely wreck your ship. If an enemy object is blocking the rejuvenator, you can use a torpedo to blast it out of the way. Then, catch the rejuvenator. But remember, you only have three torpedoes and they're your only weapon against the Sector Sentinel

 

And while we're on the subject, when the Sentinel is about to approach, don't sit on the beam you plan to shoot from. Green Blockers will swarm onto it immediately! Instead, wait on a beam you're NOT going to shoot from (like the one nearest the Sentinel's first sighting). As soon as the Blockers are locked onto that beam, zip over to an unblocked beam and torpedo the ship.

 

Last but not least, take time to notice the enemy attack movements. They follow motion patterns that allow you to anticipate many of their moves.

 

With practice, you'll be in the outer sectors before long. But don't get too far out to write me a note sometime. Because reading your letters is the next best thing to designing games.

 

 

Like many Activision games, there was a patch for this game. To get this one, players had to reach at least Sector 14 and score above 40,000 points. Then the players would send a screenshot of their game to Activision. In return they would receive a patch and a letter. I did find the patch for this game, although it's different from the one pictured in the manual. It looks like this:

 

 

The patch is accompanied by a letter congratulating the player. The letter that I found for this patch said that the player had to reach 60,000 points (not 40,000). Were there multiple patches and letters for this game? Here is the letter that came with the patch:

 

beamrider (Letter with Patch).pdf

 

The letter is wonderful; it fits well with "Beamrider's" theme I OCRed the letter too.

 

Dear Beamrider,

 

There it was: a shimmering grid of deep blue beams. A legion of radiant enemy starships. A solitary light warrior. The promise of a dazzling duel...more fun and challenging than the average player could imagine. And maybe at first it seemed like enough. It would be.... for that average player.

 

But then there's a few like you.

 

As you moved through the hyperspace door into that first light sector, and the sound warped to that ominous crescendo, well, you probably knew already.

 

That you had found your game. That perhaps you were more than just the average player. That Sector 20 and more than 60,000 points loomed just over the next other-dimensional horizon.

 

Congratulations. Looks like you were right.

 

Enclosed is your patch, Beamrider. Put it on your lightcraft. And get back out that hyperspace door. Because in a universe of light, one stands alone.

 

Respectfully yours,

Jan Marsella

Keeper of the Light

Reading the "Beamrider" manual and the other memorabilla for the game helps me to enjoy it. Perhaps you'll find yourself more engrossed by it now too.

[SHiNjide]

I just love "Beamrider!"

Yep, me to! I fell in love with it in this HSC round.

[ballyalley]

Here are some more scores for these two current HSC games:

 

Beamrider - 25,680) (Sector 14) (NTSC, Real Hardware; Atari 130XE)

Star Rider - 155 (PAL, Emulation)

 

"Beamrider" really does get difficult after Sector 11 or 12. I've found myself losing three or four ships in a row: Bam! Whack! Pow! These quickly-lost ships are soon followed by a nasty bit of cussing on my part! I may practice starting on Sector 10 by choosing Difficulty 3 at the beginning of the game just so that I can brush-up on those more-difficult Sectors. It's worth keeping in mind that the enemy's point values increase on every Sector that the player reaches.

 

How about awarding a bonus point to anyone that scores above 40,000 points in "Beamrider?" It's be like earning the patch-- but really getting it.

 

Once I played "Star Rider" using PAL emulation it played much better. I highly suggest that all NTSC players play the game this way. This game wears out my thumb pretty quickly. I may pull-out my X-Arcade joystick to play this game. I usually only use it for "Robotron," where it works amazingly well. The joystick is really large and so it's not used often. It looks like this:

 

I doubt that using that huge joystick will make the game easier to play, but it sure will save my trigger thumb! Any U.S. player who typed "Star Rider" from the listing in "Analog" magazine must have had a terrible time playing it. I'm not sure I'd call "Star Rider" unplayable using an NTSC Atari computer, but it's quite close to it. This is a game that might benefit from two scores: one for NTSC players, and another for PAL players.

[McKong]

52044

[Sikor]

[+therealbountybob]

...

How about awarding a bonus point to anyone that scores above 40,000 points in "Beamrider?" It's be like earning the patch-- but really getting it.

I've tried to limit bonus points for top players to keep things tighter this season, so players will just have to have the vitrual patch for 40K scores

Thanks for posting all the beamrider info

I doubt that using that huge joystick will make the game easier to play, but it sure will save my trigger thumb! Any U.S. player who typed "Star Rider" from the listing in "Analog" magazine must have had a terrible time playing it. I'm not sure I'd call "Star Rider" unplayable using an NTSC Atari computer, but it's quite close to it. This is a game that might benefit from two scores: one for NTSC players, and another for PAL players.

roadrunner please can you confirm if you played Star Rader on NTSC ? Seem to have to hit them multiple times to destroy them -anyone can win this one.

 

52K C'Mon McKong

[Sikor]

[McKong]

How about offering bonuses for the 40k patch and highest level reached for anyone finishing outside the top 3?

[McKong]

59044 Had 5 lives going into sector 19, it was just too fast for me!

 

Oh yeah I managed the 40k after sector 14!

Edited September 3, 2015 by McKong

[McKong]

Star Rider 470

[emontalva]

Hi, here my first score in Star Rider. E 235.

 

 

 

Regards

[+therealbountybob]

Welcome emontalva - hope you enjoy playing and will stick around, we could do with some extra players around here

 

Latest Tables

Beam Rider

1st McKong (p) 59,044 12+1=13pts #
2nd therealbountybob (p) 57,002 11pts
3rd SHiNjide (p) 49,628 10pts
4th jblenkle (n) 31,612 9pts
5th ballyalley (n) 25,680 8pts
6th JK40001 (p) 18,210 7pts
7th Sikor (p) 16,860 6pts
8th playermissile (n) 12,028 5pts
9th Mrs McKong (p) 7,548 4pts
10th Sleepy (p) 6,140 3pts
# New HSC Record bonus point

STAR Rider
1st McKong (p) 470 4pts
2nd emontalva (n) 235 3pts
3rd therealbountybob (p) 185 2pts
4th SHiNjide (p) 180 2pts
5th roadrunner (n) 180 2pts
6th Sikor (p) 165 1pt
7th ballyalley (p) 155 1pt

Can we have some vote PEEEEER-LEASE EV-ER-RY-ONE! Round 15 POLL

[+therealbountybob]

Improved on Star Rider to 480 !! Gets very intense you sort of have to line up underneath them and catch their movement arc... then had a couple of goes on the Beam... you can relax McKong; I must have shot every extra life going, and not even intentionally this time!

[McKong]

Welcome Mr. Emontalva. Put some of your favourite games on the games list thread, then if Bob is feeling generous he may put one forward for the vote for the next round!

[ballyalley]

This round one of the games is a non-commercial release which was released in 1989 in two magazines as a type-in game written in machine language. This game, "Star Rider," fascinates me because it was available for free (well, the price of the magazine).

 

"Star Rider" appeared in these two magazines:

1) "Star Rider" by Paul Lay. ("ANALOG" #69)(Feb 1989)
2) "Star Rider" by Paul Lay ("Page 6" (Feb/Mar 1989)

I was surprised to learn that in the later days of the U.S. magazine, "ANALOG," that programs were shared with "Page 6" magazine, which was printed in England. I don't know the details of this arrangement, and it makes me wonder how often and how many times that this was done. I presume (from the quick speed speed of the game when played on NTSC systems), that this game was programmed for PAL machines. Since the two issues of each magazine appeared at about the same time (February 1989), it's difficult to know for sure. I presume that the "Star "Rider" programmer, Paul Lay, was paid twice for this quality, but quite difficult, game.

 

If you think that this game is very difficult, then try starting from level 50 (by pressing number 5, instead of the start button). Yikes! Look how many enemies appear on-screen within seconds:

 

If you play level 50, then your game will end in seconds. The most I've managed to score on this impossible, over-the-top, fast-moving, nightmare level is 65 points in PAL mode. See if you can do better!

"ANALOG" had an impressive two-page color picture created for this game. I combined both pages as best as I could from the pdf to create this image:

 

I've extracted the article (minus the type-in listings) from each magazine. First, here is a link to "Star Rider," which appears on the cover of this issue of "Page 6" magazine:

Star Rider (Paul Lay)(Page 6 Magazine)(Feb-Mar 1989)(Docs)(Atari 8-Bit).pdf

Here is most of the article and background which I've OCR'ed from "Page 6:"

Star Rider
By Paul Lay

Admit it! Paul Lay's latest space shoot out is just too fast for you - you are doomed!

 

Your planet is being attacked by hordes of alien space craft and it seems you are the last hope of survival. You sit behind the controls of a Surface Runner vehicle which glides over the surface of the planet at an incredible speed. You are protected by a force field and armed with a limitless supply of photon missiles. You are the STAR RIDER.

The object is to blast as many of the alien spacecraft as you can without letting them get past you. Every time you hit an alien your score is increased and your shields are boosted, however when an alien gets past you, it zaps your shields making your Surface Runner vehicle shudder.

The game is over when your shields have gone. You will find STAR RIDER fast and furious, especially at the higher levels, if you ever get that fur!

 

Here is a link to the extracted article (also, minus the assembly listing) from "ANALOG" magazine:

Star Rider (Paul Lay)(ANALOG Magazine 69)(Feb 1989)(Docs)(Atari 8-Bit).pdf

As is common for "ANALOG," they've spent some quality time on the few pages of material that is included with this program. It's neat to read the background for both games, which is completely different for each publication. I wonder if the game's author had anything at all to do with writing a back-story, or if this was left up entirely to the editorial staff?

I've OCR'ed the article and background for "Star Rider" from "ANALOG" magazine. It wasn't until I proofread this article that I noticed that the player can start on a level other than 50, depending on which button is pressed to begin the game. Here is the useful, and fun-to-read!, background for the game:

Star Rider
By Paul Lay

Star Rider is an all-machine-code, 3-D arcade-action space game for any Atari 8-bit computer with a minimum 32K RAM, controlled by a joystick in Port 1.

Introduction

It is many centuries into our future, and all the countries of the Earth are currently united in an extensive colonization program, involving the creation of new civilizations on distant planets. However, the entire program is under threat from the Xylons, a massive alien empire that for years has been trying to gain supremacy of the universe.

It has taken you many years of intense training, but you've finally graduated as a Star Rider. Armed with the latest in photon weaponry, your craft orbits one of the colonization planets, and you are all that stands between this planet's destruction by the Xylons.

Typing it in

To create your copy of Star Rider, type in Listing 1 using the M/L Editor found elsewhere in this issue. Create the game file under the filename STARRIDE.OBJ, or, if you want the program to load automatically, use the filename AUTORUN.SYS.

Keyboard controls:

START: Begin game at Level 1.
1,2,3,4,5: Begin game at Levels 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, respectively.
C: Continue game from previous level.
T: Toggle vertical control.
SPACEBAR: Pause/resume game.
ESC: Abort game.

Game play

When you start a game, you will be presented with a cockpit view from your spacecraft. In the viewport you can see the planet surface below with the attacking Xylon crafts appearing from over the horizon. You will also see your photon-gun sights in the viewport. These are controlled by a joystick in Port 1, and photons are fired by hitting the trigger. Note two points: First, the left photon is always fired first, and the right photon is only fired if the left's already been fired! Second, the vertical control of the sights can be toggled by the T key.

At the bottom of the screen, you can see the control panel displaying your score, shields and the attack wave which you are on. For every Xylon craft which you destroy, five points are added to your score, and your shields are increased by an amount depending upon the attack wave (more for higher waves). Note that your shields cannot increase above 100%. However, if a Xylon craft is not destroyed, and instead shoots past you, deflecting off your shields, then 4% is deducted from your shields. If your shields fall below 0%, the game ends.

When the game is over, if your score is high enough, you will be able to enter your name on the high-score board. Moving the joystick left and right will move the cursor in the appropriate direction, and moving the joystick up and down will move through the characters. When you have finished entering your name, press the trigger. Note that on subsequent high scores, the previously entered name will appear (in order to save having to enter the same name over again).

The Program

Full use is made of the excellent graphics features of the Atari, utilizing player/missile graphics, custom display lists, GTIA modes, display-list interrupts, multiple character sets, load memory scans and so on.

The Xylon ships are drawn in 16-luminance mode, GTIA 9, which gives an excellent metallic effect. Actually, character graphics are used behind GTIA, giving characters of resolution two by eight in 16 luminances. The scrolling terrain is drawn in high-resolution ANTIC F (animated as part of the DLI), and the control panel is done in ANTIC 2. Players are used for the photons and sights, and a single missile is used for the scrolling stars (in both the game and title screen). The metallic text effects on the control panel and on the title screen are done by altering color register luminances from light to dark. The sound on the title screen uses 15KHz clocking and a high-pass filter in Channel 1. Finally note that no OS routines are used at all.

Here is a link to the disk image for the "ANALOG Computing" magazine that contains "Star Rider""

Analog Computing 69 1989-02 Build a UPS.atr

In the early 80s, the source-code listings for machine language programs were nearly always printed in "ANALOG" magazine, but as space in the magazine became limited in the mid-eighties, the printing of the listings began to disappear. Luckily, for all of those assembly coders, tinkerers, and curious hackers, the source-code listings were usually still on the monthly magazine's disk. The name of the source-code files are:

CHSET.SRC
LETTERS.SRC
PROG.SRC
PROG2.SRC
TERRAIN.SRC

The text files on the "ANALOG" disk are in the Atari's ATASCII format. These files aren't easy to properly view on modern computers, so I converted them all to ASCII using "ATASCIIView" 1.3 by Lee Hanken. Here is an example of one of them, which I renamed with the .txt file extension:

PROG.SRC (ASCII).txt

For ease-of-use, I've zipped the five ATASCII source-code files into one archive file. I hope that I've managed to get them all. I didn't know which Atari assembler the source would assemble with to make the executable object file. The object file, which is the runnable game, is also included on the original disk; no typing of the nasty machine language loader program was necessary. For this reason, consider these source files untested. If in doubt, then go to the original "ANALOG" disk to have a closer look at everything that is contained on it.

Star Rider (6502 Source Code)(ATASCII).zip

Here are the same set of files in ASCII format:

Star Rider (6502 Source Code)(ASCII).zip

It would be great if a member of AtariAge assembled these files and shared what they discover, including what was used to assemble to games.

If you've already played "Star Rider" this round, then continue to have fun playing it. If not, then time is running out to give it a go this round. I'm not any good at the game, but at least I'll get one point for playing the game-- and that's all you need to do. Go ahead, load it up, and check out this quality type-in game.

Thanks to "BountyBob" for finding "Star Rider;" I never would have played it otherwise. For me, this is one of my favorite reasons to participate in the High Score Club. I'll probably not return to this game because it's too difficult for me to play, but it's quite impressive to see running on the Atari 8-Bit-- and it only requires 32K of RAM. Just a few years earlier, perhaps with some polishing-up, this would have been a budget-priced game that would have sold rather well, don't you think?

[McKong]

64300 reached sector 20 for the first time!

Edited September 4, 2015 by McKong

[ballyalley]

64300 reached sector 20 for the first time!

 

That's a great score! There's no reason to stop playing now; not when you can simply just go ahead and beat the rest of the 99 Sectors. I know that you'll get right back to us on that, right?

 

I wonder, what does happen after Sector 99? Has anyone ever heard of anyone doing that impossible-sounding feat before? How difficult was level 20 in comparison to previous levels? I've reached Sectors as high as 18 or 19 before (although not even close to that during this round), but after about level 14 or 15 during this round, I've found that "Beamrider's" s difficulty really kicks in and I find myself scrabbling just to survive to destroy another few enemies, let along clear the Sector.

 

Who volunteers to go ahead and beat McKong...?

[McKong]

The key to getting good at these fast paced games is trying to stay calm as the game ramps up. At level 18+ this game gets so difficult!

[+playsoft]

ballyalley - thank you for your kind words! To answer some of your questions...

I submitted the game to Page 6 and never knew it was published in ANALOG until a few years ago when I became interested in Atari again and was searching to see if any of my old source code was out there. I'm certain I never knew because I always brought and have kept every magazine I had something published in. I don't have ANALOG #69 and don't recognise it at all. Also I would not have been very happy with it being given to ANALOG since they never paid the prize money for winning the ST programming competition.

Page 6 did have a similar program exchange in place with ANTIC at one time. My "Doing the Impossible" from Page 6 #21 May/June 1986 was reprinted as "Graphics Impossible" in ANTIC Vol. 4 #6 October 1987. I don't remember being paid for the reprint, but I did know about it as I have the magazine! Looking at both texts there are some phrases which I recognise as mine but there is other stuff which is definitely not from me.

I think it was AMAC that I used, but last year I ported it to the 5200: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/225413-page-6-type-in-star-rider/?p=2990534

In doing so I converted the source to ca65 and added symbols for the h/w locations so that it was easy to change them for the 5200. The source for the 5200 version you can get from the link above, the source for the (ca65) A8 version is attached.

 

source.zip

[+playsoft]

The way to get a good score is to keep picking them off where they are bunched and not worry too much when you are being bombarded.

[Sikor]