Comment by OhMeadhbh
I didn't really get into Parsec. Tombstone City was my jam. And then I bought the Editor / Assembler package and it came with the source for Tombstone City as an example. It turns out the algorithm for figuring out which tumbleweed was going to turn into a monster was very simple. Reading that one bit of the source, I was able to predict where the bad guys would spawn and be ready for them. After that I could flip the counter and pretty much play as long as I wanted on two or three lives.
But yes. Old games. They rock.
I figured that out just from playing Tombstone City. It's the first paired cactus by scanning the board in reading order (each row from the top, left-to-right.) (You mean a cactus that turns into a monster, not a tumbleweed.) And yes, once you know that, the game is pretty easy when you can anticipate every threat. I remember being able to go for at least a couple hours in one game; don't remember if I ever rolled it over or got bored before that.