Neuras is one of the earlier games by Japanese developer Inufuto using their C like cross-platform engine (called "CATE"), targeted at many 8 bit systems (Neuras, as of this writing, is available on more than 110). On systems that don't have hardware sprite chip or a dedicated background music chip (like the Coco's & MC-10), the engine uses tile based sprites, and single voice music in the intro, game end, and between screens. On the Coco 1/2 version, it runs in the equivalent of PMODE 3 (128x192x4), and on the Coco 3 version it runs at 256x192x16 (a narrower version of HSCREEN 2). The games are designed to run from cassette; this means that if you run the Coco 1/2 version from a disk drive or DSK image, you should use a Disk BASIC disabler routine (like ROML) so that the game doesn't occasionally crash or glitch some of the graphics.
Neuras is a maze game that has scattered pairs of playing cards. The player's mission is pick up a card and then "shoot" it at it's matching pair, which causes them to both disappear. The player can only carry one card at a time (which one is shown in the upper right corner). The player also needs a little bit of room to fire off the card; on later levels (with small corridors) the player may need to choose to carry the card as they will not be able to shoot at it. There are also bad guys that try to hone in towards the player (albeit at a much slower pace than the player can move). If the player shoots a card at the bad guy, it will be stunned for a small amount of time (and the player can even walk over him at this point), but it will revive and resume tracking the player. There is also a time limit to complete each level (and more bonus points are given at the end of each round for more time left on the clock). The maps get more complicated on higher levels, as well as their being more cards that the player has to pair up. The game runs completely by keyboards controls.
It should be mentioned the Inufuto has also released this game for the Coco's cousin, the MC-10. They require a 16K RAM expander, and run at a lower resolution (128x96x4), but play pretty well identically to the Coco versions.
Title: Neuras
Author: ???
Publisher: Inufuto
Released: November 6, 2021 (MC-10 version), November 7, 2021 (Coco 1/2 version), August 12, 2022 (Coco 3 version)
Requires: Color Computer 1 or 2, 32K RAM (Coco 1/2 version) OR Color Computer 3, 128K RAM (Coco 3 version)
Download Neuras for any platform including Coco's and MC-10's here (click the WAV link for the system you want to get it's cassette file). This is straight from Inufuto's website, and these are cassette only versions. Or, you can:
Download the DSK image (in ZIP format) that contains both the Coco 1/2 and the Coco 3 versions that can be launched by the BASIC programs included. RUN "NEURAS" to run the Coco 1/2 version, or RUN "NEURAS3" for the Coco 3 version.