As one of the arcade greats, curveball deserves a thread and some competition worthy of it. Thus, I throw down my gauntlet to any worthy warriors. At the moment, the mighty Montana Doug is the undisputed king, but I humbly challenge his respectable level 8-er and intend to kick his arse by the morrow. The fabled level nine is my holy grail, and rumour has it that it is an evil, bloodstained, godless place.

Here, I guide thee;

Levels one, two and three are very slow and you should be able to ace your opponent 90% of the time. To do this, simply circle your mouse around the ball in the direction you want it to travel, while you left click (once).

Level four, the ball will be travelling a little faster, but you should be able to keep the rallies to a mimimum (the loger the rallies, the more chance of you losing the point -and a life -and you need as many players as possible for level 8) with some good serving and some rudimentary slices (or 'curves'). The need to finish a level quickly is important because the bonus (bottom right) diminishes over time. In curveball, points lead to glory and fame (and wenches). You will notice that, while your 'lives' are presented by small silver discs in the top right corner, your opponent starts of with three red ones in the top left. Once you win a point, one of his discs will dissapear. You win a set (or a 'level') by eliminating all his discs. You begin with four lives.

Level five. Use this time to build yourself up into 'the zone' by some longer rallying (it's impossible to avoid by now because your fancy serving will yield only more fancy returns and it is important to let yourself get 'warmed up' into each point. Being flashy from the first stroke is not advised in curveball post level 5). From here, the play is much quicker, and when you have a ball richocheting off four walls toward you at 100mph, it is sometimes difficult to get into position. Level five is a Tim Henman aged 30.

Level six. You should not have lost any lives before now (like I said, you will need them). But here is where I almost always lose my first man. The action is more frantic now, but you should be seeing the ball well and developing your instinctive intuition. By now, 90 of your routine shots will come back at you. to win a point from here on, you will need to be creative. Wide angles and deep slices can beat him, but simple groundstrokes will almost always be punished.

Level seven is difficult, but not unwinnable without further casualties. Just hang in there and take it one point at a time. You will need them for the next set, in which you play the Roger Federer of curveball.

Level eight. You have maybe 2 or 3 hits from your serve to get you into play, but from then on you will be barraged by an omnipotent arsenal of slices, passing shots and powerful groundstrokes as he fires into each corner. You will crash and burn and lose many men here. All you can do is hang on...just hang on and hope that god will save you and lead you to the promised land of;

Level nine. We know little about it. Rumour has it, a glorious and brave warrior slew the mighty demon many moons ago. He calls to us...

I challenge thee.

-- Edited by stagger at 08:53, 2006-02-19