Jungle Run tips: vines, crocodiles and quicksand

Treasure is scattered across a flick-screen jungle in Jungle Run: the view changes as you run off one edge of the screen onto the next, and each screen has its own mix of swinging vines, crocodiles, quicksand and rolling logs. You collect every treasure in the zone within five minutes, and three zones stand between you and a win. It's an 8-bit game in the 64K home computer style, on the Retro arcade shelf of Games by Zaweba.

Running, jumping and letting go

Left and Right run, Space or X jumps, and Up and Down move you on ladders. Space or X is also how you let go of a vine. That one key doing two jobs is worth practising: jump to catch the vine, then press again at the right point in the swing to drop off.

Vines and crocodiles

Swinging vines carry you across gaps. Jump to catch one, ride the swing, and press Space again to let go. Letting go too early or too late is the usual way vine crossings go wrong, so watch the swing and release as you're over safe ground.

Crocodiles can be stepping stones. You can hop across their heads, but only while their jaws are shut. Wait for the mouths to close before you jump, and don't hang about once you're on one.

Quicksand and logs

Quicksand opens and closes. Wait for it to close before you cross. Rolling logs come at you, and being hit by one knocks points off your score, so it's worth timing your run to stay clear of them. Every knock comes off the total, so a run with lots of them ends with a poorer score.

Tunnels and scorpions

Ladders lead down to tunnels underneath the jungle. In the tunnels, every screen you walk counts as three, so they're a quicker way to cover the ground. Watch out for scorpions down there.

That makes the tunnels a real choice. They save time, which matters against a five-minute clock, but they bring their own danger. When a stretch of jungle above is full of hazards you've already passed, the tunnel can be the smarter way through.

Beating the clock

Five minutes per zone sounds like plenty until you're waiting for crocodile jaws to close. The way to save time is to learn the route: which screens hold treasure, where the tunnels can take you, and which hazards need a wait. A first run through a zone is often for learning; the next is for doing it properly.

Clear all three zones to win. Esc pauses, F11 fills the screen, and the title card and F1 cover the controls. Games by Zaweba keeps your best score, plays and wins on your PC, so each zone you clear and each point you hang on to shows up in your record.

Jungle Run has a cousin on the shelf in Jungle Ranger, though the two play nothing alike: one is a careful trek against the clock, the other a top-down fight. Both are drawn and made in code and run offline. Here, release vines over solid ground, wait for shut jaws and closed sand, and take the tunnels when the clock is tight.