Hunch Back

In this game, players must maneuver the lead, bell-ringing character via a two-way joystick and a Jump button as he travels over the castle walls in an effort to rescue the beautiful Esmeralda from the tower. Each successive board presents new and more difficult challenges to the Hunch Back, who completes a screen when he rings a bell at the far right-hand side of the screen, before a torch-carrying soldier at the bottom can climb up and burn him.

In the first screen, the Hunch Back has to leap over fireballs in his quest. For the second screen, he must swing over a fiery chasm (and score a 2000 point bonus if it can be done before the soldier reaches the top of the wall and pops a heart). On the third screen, the Hunch Back must jump over gaps in the wall, while in the fourth, soldiers hide in the gaps and strike their spears up and down. The final screen features the Hunch Back jumping over arrows as well as the now-empty gaps. After the fifth round, various elements of the previous screens are mixed together, for slightly different challenges, such as avoiding fireballs and arrows while also jumping over soldiers.

Scoring points is based on how quickly you can finish a round, although there is no time to inform you about how much bonus time is left. No points are given for jumping over obstacles. The best way to score big, however is to complete five rounds without losing a life. If you collect five bells in this way, you are awarded a Super Bonus worth 10000 to 30000 points.

On each stage, you must move the Hunch Back to the other side and ring the bell before a torch-carrying soldier, who climbs the wall, makes it all the way to the top. If the soldier reaches the top, he will try to burn the Hunch Back with his torch. If the Hunch Back rings the bell before the soldier scales the wall, a bonus score is rewarded.

Depending upon which stage you are on, the Hunch Back must jump over various objects like fireballs and arrows. He also must jump over empty gaps or gaps where there are soldiers, who have spears and strike them up and down. The Hunch Back must jump over the soldiers when their spears are down.

On some stages, the Hunch Back might also have to swing across a fiery chasm on a rope and on some he might have to ring some bells to get over fiery chasms before he can ring the bell at the end of the stage. Some stages may have two or three dangers at once. When he gets to the stage where Esmeralda is imprisoned in the tower, that one is the most difficult because it has many dangers at once.

After the Hunch Back has rung the bell at the end of that stage and Esmeralda has been rescued, the game starts over again, but with increased difficulty.

This video game is based on the novel "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo.

On most of these games, there is a screen that says "Featuring The Bells", but on a game that had darker colored graphics, the same screen said "Featuring Quasimodo And Esmeralda".