Achtung, die Kurve!

Curve Fever
Publisher(s)	Roy Heijmans
Platform(s)	DOS
Release	1995
Genre(s)	strategy
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Achtung, die Kurve!, nowadays Curve Fever, also known as Zatacka or simply Achtung, is a freeware, multiplayer DOS computer game that supports from two-player up to six-player gaming simultaneously. The game is a clone of the lesser known Cervi (Worms) from 1993, differing in that the lines now have holes. Author is Filip Oscadal, aka Fred Brooker, from the Czech Republic who made this game, together with Kamil Dolezal, for Amiga incl. music, sound effects and gfx background (worm speed depending on the picture). The game is supposedly from 1995 and written in Borland C++. The game has gained wide popularity by the remakes of Achtung, die Kurve! Flash Remake and Achtung, die Kurve! 2 made by Geert van den Burg and Robin Brouns. These remakes added powerups and online play to the game. The title is in German.

The game bears some resemblance to the game Snake, though in "Achtung, Die Kurve!" the main goal is to make the opponent hit the wall without hitting anything else by yourself. As a result, the game closely resembles the famous Light Cycle of the 1982 film Tron. The Kurve is controlled by only two buttons: one makes the snake turn left; the other, right. The main difference between Achtung and Snake is that Achtung can only be played multi-player, while Snake remains a single player game; although some versions of the game support singleplayer gameplay (for example IPCurve), you play against computer controlled Kurven in comparison to Snake, where you are there only by yourself.

Gameplay

The players spawn as a dot at random places on the playing field, and they keep moving at a constant speed. A line of constant size, just like snake, follows the dot's movements. Though, unlike Snake, the line doesn't disappear on the end. The players move until they crash by hitting the border or by hitting your own or some one else's line. The goal is to kill your opponents and be the last one to crash. This is most often done by forcing the opponents to crash. In most games this goal is set on 10 * (number of players - 1). When one has achieved the goal, the game ends. During the game relatively small holes of the same size are created at random places in the players line. These holes can be used for escaping from a certain crash, or for just showing off.

In its original version, there are a total of 6 different lines. Up to six people can play at the same time. All the lines are exactly the same, the color being the only thing setting the different lines apart. There are only two controls needed to control the lines.

Tournaments

Four major Achtung tournaments have been held over the years. The first one, held in the summer of 2004 in Utrecht, Netherlands, was won by the Turkish Nationals. This tournament became a major success and paved the way for an even bigger tournament 3 years later. In October 2007, a second tournament was held in Jakarta, Indonesia- in part of the nation's gaming tournaments. In front of a crowd of around 400, Indonesia's Mighty Badgers defeated Sam's Club from Singapore in the final. The majority of the contenders were part of IASAS schools. In December 2006, third tournament took place at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, Croatia. It was significant because professors also joined the tournament. In 2012 the first Worldwide Tournament for Achtung, die Kurve! has been held where paying players of the game could attend in an online tournament. Maikkon won this first online tournament. In Sweden there have been Achtung Die Kurve tournaments for a couple of years at a LAN party called Birdie. There are around 1000 people at Birdie each year and 2012 the winner won a graphic card by AMD. In January 2012 there was an worldcup tournament in Denmark with players from 13 countries where 2 of the 98 players were girls. In the final there were 6 different countries playing for the WC win: Dennis Zorko (Slovakia), Robert Feltcak (Poland), Pontus Larsson (Denmark), Anton Westman (Norway), Hampus Karlsson (Sweden) and Jimmie Klum (Sweden). The final was played in 6 games. All the players did play with every control for a fair result. In the end Jimmie Klum was a clear winner, Anton took the second and Hampus the third place. The prize was 1000 Euro and was collected from the money you had to pay to be in the tournament.

Power-Ups

Power Ups are effects importantly noted not available in the original version, but for the clone and remakes. If the power-ups have a green background that will affect the "car" you are controlling, if blue it will affect everyone, and if red it will affect all enemies. The power-ups range from: Turning Small, Turning Big, Ability to go through lines, Ability to go through borders, Changing from curved lines to straight lines, Going "super-fast", Going "super-slow", Spawning more "power-ups", and Inverting the controls.

Original game and ports

• The original game files
• Original game running in an emulator in the browser

Clones and remakes

• Kurves, developed for Android-devices, supporting up to 4 players. Includes power-ups such as cloaking, invincibility, cutoff,...
• dieKurve.net, an open source, network version remake of "Achtung, die Kurve" that runs inside the browser using canvas and websockets
• Achtung, die Kurve! Flash Remake and Achtung, die Kurve! 2, a Flash Remake of "Achtung, die Kurve!" and an online version of the game
• Achtung for iPad & iPhone A remake of Achtung die Kurve! for the Apple iPad & iPhone, supporting up to 4 players. Multiplayer, singleplayer & highscores
• IPCurve, an open source, network version of "Achtung, die Kurve!" that runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows
• Netacka, an open source, network version of Zatacka, supporting Windows and Linux
• Open source multiplatform remake of Zatacka
• Free Software HTML5 canvas remake
• Zatacka 360 A version made with Microsoft XNA for Xbox 360 and Windows, featuring improved graphics and gamepad control.
• Achtung, Wii Kurve, an open source clone for the Wii with lots of customization- and control options, and even music and sounds.
• Zatacka X, which adds weaponry, supports up to 8 players with support for simple AI players.
• PsyKurve, open source remake with highly colorful graphics, AI bots and customizable background music.
• die Kurve, an open source implementation of die Kurve on Qt, hence available on most of the platforms.
• Achtung 2 A remake of Zatacka, supporting up to 7 players, and with a team battle mode. (For Windows)
• Achtung, Kurve in German Download file and assistance for Achtung, die Kurve in German
• Achtung mehr Kurve A remake of Achtung die Kurve! with bullets and power-ups
• PasOpDeBocht A remake of Achtung die Kurve! with many weapons to defeat the other players.
• Frozen-Avatars Forum Achtung die Kurve Warcraft 3 Special Edition!
• IP Curve for Windows 8 A remake of Achtung die Kurve! which adds weaponry, team battle mode und AI bots
• IP Curve on Facebook A remake of Achtung die Kurve! which adds weaponry, team battle mode und AI bots
• Battle Noodles An HTML5 version with modern graphics and power-ups. Supports touch controls.