INSTRUCTIONS
This is one video game that is fun to play even if you don't know the rules. So go ahead! When you're ready to find out why some fish bite and some don't, how to tell the whoppers from the lunkers and - especially - how to keep the shark from eating your catch, read these simple instructions. Good luck!


FISHING DERBY BASICS

The object of the game is to land 99 pounds of those beautiful fish.


1. Hit [s] to Select the Number of players..

Game 1	You against the computer
Game 2	You against another player


2.	To begin play or restart, press [r] 


Using the Keyboard

•	To move your pole out or back, press the left or right arrow key.

•	To lower or raise your line, press the up or down arrow key.

•	To reel your line in quickly, hold down the spacebar.


HINTS

How to Make 'em Bite

Drop the very end of your line (that's where the bait is) down to the level you want to fish. Then move the bait to touch the mouth of the fish you want to catch. The difficulty settings determine how close the bait has to be before the fish bites.

Got one hooked? If you don't do anything after hooking a fish, it will swim slowly up toward the surface (and the shark might gobble it up). If you want to reel it in quickly, hold down the spacebar or push the joystick button. Be quick, though.

In a two-player game, when both players have hooked a fish, only one can reel up at a time (the first one hooked). The other fish will swim up slowly until the first fish has either been caught or eaten by the shark.

Original Tips from David Crane, Designer of Fishing Derby

"The most important thing I can tell you is to WATCH OUT FOR THE SHARK! I've made it quick and wily and unpredictable. If your fish touches the shark anywhere, it'll turn in a flash and snap it up. So try to keep your fish away from it while you're reeling in.

"Once you've hooked your fish, you'll want to play it back and forth until the shark moves out of the way, then hold down the spacebar (or push the joystick button) and land it quickly. You can reel in more or less slowly by holding down and releasing the spacebar (or by pressing and releasing the joystick button), and you can move your line back and forth with the arrow keys or joystick.

"Since the big fish are in the fifth and sixth rows, go deep. Start with the fifth row if you're the player on the left. You will have a little advantage there, because you can reach the fifth row first. Players on the right should go to the sixth row to catch their big ones.

"Also, watch to see which fish start from your opponent's side and which start from your side. As fish are caught, they are replaced on the side they started from. It's better for you to catch fish that start under your pier, because you can usually go right back for another one.

"Fishing Derby is a game designed to be fun for everyone in the family. Now you won't have to get rained on or sunburned when you go fishing."

History
David Crane on "Fishing Derby"

By the time he finished high school, David Crane, one of the founders of Activision, knew the computer languages of Fortran and Cobal, quite a feat in the early computer era.  But perhaps more impressive was Crane's first "career" as a Professional Foosball player (yes, there actually was a league).  Crane, along with Steve Cartwright, one of the other game designers at Activision, competed in a $250,000 national Foosball tournament with over 500 tables.  Crane placed 64th and Cartwright 16th.  After that, both Crane and Cartwright went to the DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix and later worked at National Semiconductor where they helped design computer chips.

"On our computer I made an aquarium with rows of fish.  It was mesmerizing, sort-of like an actual aquarium.  But, I had to make a game out of it.  The great thing about the game is that we were making the 2600 do things through software tricks."

Cartwright adds, "We were always trying to be different and invent new play mechanisms.  The industry was young and we were inventing game play elements that are still being used today.  We were inventing fun.  One of the basics was what we called the 'Shark Element' because it was named after the shark in Fishing Derby.  It was just a fishing race but then David added the shark.  It was a simple addition -- but it made the game.  After that we were always looking for 'sharks' -- small additions that dramatically improved gameplay -- to put into our games."

Activision also was the first company to give credit to its game designers.  It was in direct contradiction to the policy of their ex-employer.  "They looked us straight in the eye and told us that we were no different than the assembly-line people who put the cartridges together.  So when we started Activision we decided that what we made was a creative product -- like a book, an author has his name on the front and a bio on the back jacket. --and so our credit should be no different because our product was no different."

After 18 years in the business, David Crane is still designing video games.  He left Activision in 1987 and is now the Vice President of Advanced Technology for Absolute Entertainment, a video game company founded by former Activision alumni Alex DeMeo, John "H.E.RO." Van Ryzin, Dan "Crackpots" Kitchen, and Garry "Keystone Kapers" Kitchen.  Besides Fishing Derby, his game credits include Dragster, Freeway, Laser Blast, Grand Prix, Pitfall!, Pitfall II, The Activision Decathalon, Ghostbusters, Little Computer People, Transformers, Skateboardin', A Boy and His Blob, Super Skateboardin', Amazing Tennis, Home Improvement, and a game specifically designed and scripted for the movie Toys that he co-designed with Alex DeMeo.
