While cleaning out your closet, you discover your old Super Treadmill, a retro arcade game cartridge for the Nitrome Enjoyment System (absolutely no intentional relation to any other existing game system). It's been so long since you've played that game that you've forgotten what it's about, so you find the manual in your bookshelf and skim over it.
Our story opens with a somewhat overweight child by the name of Billy. He simply cannot stop eating, and he simply cannot lose weight. Thankfully, his Uncle Rico is there to save the day, and as a world-famous gym instructor he's the perfect go-to guy for the occasion. His solution: the Super Treadmill, the ultimate in exercise technology. It's the craziest workout in existence, with furniture and other obstacles constantly getting in the way that have to be dodged, but it's very effective... and Billy's willing to try it!
Use the [left] and [right] arrow keys to move Billy left and right on the treadmill, and press [up] to make him jump. Jump and run over all sorts of obstacles that fall onto the treadmill, from the tall to the short and from the slippery to the living! Power shakes will occasionally fall onto the treadmill as well; collect them for more points! Keep an eye on the sidelines; Uncle Rico will occasionally switch the treadmill's direction, or speed it up! Fall off the treadmill on either side and it's game over, but persist until the workout's done and you're done for the day!
Sadly, Billy is terrible at keeping weight off even after he's lost it, so he'll have to keep jumping on the treadmill day after day after day. And it seems that Uncle Rico's a little TOO serious about getting Billy in shape. Perhaps he has an ulterior motive...?
You can't for the life of you recall why you bought this weird game. Maybe a quick glance at its reviews will remind you. You boot up your computer, surf over to your favorite classic game reviews website, and see what the gaming wizard Analysis has to say about Super Treadmill.
Analysis: Super Treadmill is yet another prime example of interesting Nitrome fare. It takes a not-so-simple run-and-jump game and gives it an added twist: it's an allegedly old game emulated on modern technology, bad connection and all (don't you just hate when the screen blanks to "AV" in the middle of a hard jump?). The intention of this is to add a little extra challenge to the game, and it works quite well.
Like many Nitrome games, Super Treadmill has one significant flaw that can completely ruin the game for picky players, and in this case it's the pacing. (Pacing problems in a game about exercise... is that ironic or what?) The game takes a few levels to get interesting, and by then those of you with lesser patience will have thrown in the towel, which is a shame, because there's quite a bit they'll miss.
If you're not a patient person, you might be better off playing something else, but if you're willing to see the game through to the end, then go ahead and hop on the Super Treadmill!
Thanks to Tobie, Marie-Christine, Meester, Chris, and Repairmanman for sending this one in!
Ah, I remember this game. It was alwaya my favorite NES game! That is, until Super Treadmill 2 on the SNES. I'm so happy Nitrome remastered it! It's still as fun as before!
Wait.
If it's retro-console, why do I have to use the mouse on menus? I expected up and down to move through options.
Maybe I haven't found "start" and "select" yet. Has anyone else found those keys?
Does anyone know how and why Uncle Rico is dropping TANKS on me? It's not like they're expendable! The military needs them more than a boy with no metabolism!
That was fun! I love all of the games Nitrome produces, reason why I am so into Flash Games. It does require some patience, but is worth it. Great job Nitrome!
just going to point this out, there is probably at least one more faux eight bit game coming out, as evidenced at the Nitrome blog.
the only game yet un-made is in the upper right hand corner
Dear Billy, I wouldn't suddenly eat a whole bunch of burgers when I'm about to have a picture taken, why do you have to? And why do you let your uncle throw stuff at you with the intention of making everything harder? Why(as your seemingly only legal guardian) does he then put your very life at risk? Well, thanks for the game anyways.
From Me.
A serious comment here: Level 9 is IMPOSSIBLE!
Hint for level nine. If you jump, then move in air and don't press an arrow key when you land, no sliding occurs. Also, cacti don't hurt you from the side.
just going to say this, the link is important to show what i'm talking about, otherwise the second part of my message is nonsense
as for level 9, do you mean day 9 or the actual ninth level?
if it's ninth level
jump on the dogs to get rid of them
and wait until the bird has already gone by when jumping to the next pile of junk
This game is frustrating. There are just one or two parts on some levels that keep tripping me up, and I keep losing patience and quitting. Yet I still keep coming back.
I'm stuck 3/4 of the way through level 12 now. I'll try again later. This game is quite fun, despite the tricky bits.
I like how they simulate defects of playing home videogame consoles like static and the AV screen (plus the intro which introduced blowing into the cartridge).
Oh noooes! I do believe I've found a glitch!
On level four, when the treadmill sped up, I got caught on a cactus and blown off the screen. Now, whenever I retry the level, it starts at the increased speed, but poor Billy is returned to his starting weight/speed, and therefore is too slow to last even a second running or jumping! D: And I was having fun, too...
okay so I closed page and opened the game back up, and this time level four never sped up... that's weird :P
At the risk of sounding really st00pid here...
Every time I get to about 2100 points, Uncle Rico blows his whistle and tells Billy he's failed.
Jump over all obstacles? Tried that.
Jump ON all obstacles? Tried that, too.
Run fast enough to go off the end of the treadmill? Tried it.
Stay on the treadmill? Yep.
Pick up all the cans? Tried that.
Avoid all the cans? Tried that, too.
Don't know what I'm missing, but at least on my computer, Billy's relegated to a life of food obsession, clinical obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol, leading to a premature death.
Happy.
Nitrome has consistently been dropping the ball...somewhere along the line they are no longer turning out unique, fun to play games with lots of replay value, and have devolved to games with flaky controls and games that don't stay interesting for very long (like one level?!) Pity - they were brilliant once upon a time.
ookay...so it is a little bit of st00pid. There's no explanation of the rewind button that Rico throws out...and at least for me, it wasn't intuitive.
Guess I'm enough older than your usual audience that I actually remember playing on game consoles that faded in and out....and while it's funny for a while, it's awfully nice to play games that don't do that anymore.
Progress is good.
:/ If you HAD tried staying on the treadmill, you wouldn't have had that problem. Blame them for a repetitive level design if you like, but I thought the reversal signal was pretty obvious, especially when the furniture starts moving the other way.
That said, I'm on about the 8th level and it's getting pretty boring.
Rico points out when he decides to change the direction of the conveyor belt (with a rewind looking symbol pointing toward where the conveyor belts going to move), if he wants to make the conveyor belt to move faster his face turns red and yells out a stickman running. I thought you fail if you fall off, winning when the "Billy meter" reaches the top (it's like a survival timer), the cans being bonus points which is why they sometimes get in hard to get (I think they are enery drinks).
Is it me or is this the first time there are compliments for a game submission?
Jay I have been submitting a lot how can I tell it's gone through?
I think Nitrome actually has a winner here (I usually am not a fan of their games at all). Still working my way through it a level or so at a time, but each level seems like it has a different set of challenges and it's keeping me interested.
Great game, it would make it to 8bit if it didn't have so many shades of blue and brown but that's okay.
The levels look repetitive but if you play further you will see more zany furniture like snowmen, tanks, giant tiki heads, etc.
Keep up the good work Nitrome.
shouldn't this be tagged 'platform'?
Just finished it. The levels tend to go on for a bit too long, but aside from a few brief rough patches, this game actually had a nice difficulty curve for Nitrome. The final stage was a fun (although mercifully short) surprise, too.
All in all, this is pretty good for recent Nitrome.
Good game. I'm stuck on level nine, though. I do so enjoy being chased by rabid chihuahuas and jumping over coffins and tanks. Thanks, Uncle Rico, for introducing me to this wonderful workout.
This game is fun!
I got a little bored with the first two-three levels, and find it tedious to play more than 3 levels at a time, but the music is great (it actually makes me want to run) and Billy is amusing.
Currently on Day 16...its easy enough but I keep falling into the tuba pits.
I love the ending. While the first dozen levels were annoying, the last few were actually really fun.
Also, end spoilers:
In the end, it turns out the cryptic "bet" Uncle Rico was referring to all the time was "get your kid thin and prove it with a photo in 28 days." Because he couldn't prove it, despite doing it 27 times [Day 28 didn't work,] Uncle Rico had to put on 20 times his own weight. One year later, we see Billy followed his advice of eating healthy and exercising regularly, and actually looks thin without having to resort to the Super Treadmill. The real kicker is that now you get to see Billy and Rico role-reversed, with Billy telling his uncle to go on the SUPER TREADMILL. It is a VERY fitting and karmic ending, and I like it.
Reece is right. Level 9 is impossible!
Thanks for another great game, Nitrome! I'm stuck on day 21 (level 18). When Uncle Rico reverses the treadmill and the larger sofas start falling, I keep landing on a cactus and falling off.
Level 9 impossible? Nooooo! In fact, I want Nitome to make a level pack, with super-hard levels.
Boss info below! May ruin "shock" of boss!
Did anyone else think the Uncle Rico boss was about as hard as gas? He was incredibly easy to beat, and there was no variety in his attacks!
I finshed the game without too much trouble! In fact, the only one I had a real problem with is the "
Artillery" level (Day 26). Oh yeah, I named all of the levels so I stopped getting bored. (That's why the level's called "Artillery"!)Okay, I'm on the final level. I don't know what to do. I can keep jumping him, but nothing happens. Any tips?
@Xylozex: BOSS SPOILER!
When Rico stops speeding across and starts laughing, jump on him, keep doing this until you win!
Did anyone else think the boss was super easy?
if the things that drop annoy you,
press x
I'm stuck on day 12. It goes to fast and I can't get billy to jump on the chair!stupid thing. I'm memorizing it slowly and getting better.
Update