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The definitive arcade video game cheat sheet. Last update: 28 Apr 1992.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Important notice: | | The information in this document is copyrighted material - copyrighted | | by Jonathan Deitch and Jeremy Radlow. Clayton Neil Cowgill (cowgilc@ | | tsunami.cs.orst.edu) has expressed permission to store a copy of this | | document at his anonymous ftp site for public access and retrieval. | | You may distribute copies freely, provided this notice is not altered | | and is always included at the head of the copy and/or copies | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (The above is just legalese to make sure nobody takes this sheet, puts it in a book, and then sues me. Let me know if it could be worded better.)

This list was started by Jeremy Radlow. Due to the fact that he's lost his net access (horrors), I'm now the administrator of this list.

To get an up-to-date copy of the video game cheat sheet, ftp a copy from tsunami.cs.orst.edu in the pub/cheats directory or, if you can't ftp, send a message to jdeitch@umiami.miami.edu. There is not now, nor will there ever be, a 'mailing list'. Nor will I post the sheet to USENET due to its excessive size. This is mainly to keep my mailbox from getting flooded with the large number of resulting responses. (and I do mean *large*).

If you have already made a contribution to the cheat sheet and wish a new copy, just ftp a new copy or let me know and I'll mail you an up-to-date version.

Please note : due to the high traffic involving this list, it might take me up to a week or so to actually mail you a copy of the list.

There are three sections to the cheat sheet: * Beginners section. This contains either cheats that don't get you much, or cheats that are only helpful to advanced players. * Intermediate section. This contains cheats that can get you a big edge. They are usually not any harder than playing the game honestly. * Advanced section. This contains extremely low-effort high-pay cheats; secret back doors; and in the next revision will contain advanced general-purpose game beating strategies, if someone sends me some.

Please let me know if you think a cheat should be in another section.

When you send in a cheat, it'll be put in one of these sections and you will get a copy of the cheat sheet in return. Basically, you get out what you put in ...

Some of these cheats may be inaccurate; don't trust anything attributed to someone else. If it turns out that some information is wrong - don't get mad, get even! Tell me what's wrong. Please note, though, that different ROM versions on machines may eliminate some cheats ...

Games in this version (all sheets):

Game High score[1p/2p] [mp] level ----------------- ----------------- ---- ----- Road blasters 3,900,000 n/a 50 Cabal 1,950,000 No ALL (5 lives left) Cabal 1,525,000 Yes ALL (9 lives left) Galaga 3,600,000 n/a 255 Tempest 1,100,000+ n/a (> 80) Tron 2,100,000+ n/a (> 300) Bubble Bobble 2,800,000 n/a 57 APB 597,000 n/a 74 Zookeeper 583,000,000 n/a (> 100) Smash-TV 22,500,000 n/a end Bump 'n' Jump 1,850,000 n/a (> 40) Major Havoc 3,000,000 n/a ? Race Driving 465,000 n/a ? Teenage Mutant NT 3400 n/a end Gauntlet 6,666,666 n/a 458 Gauntlet II 485,000 n/a 58 Mercs 900,000 n/a ? Columns 99,999 n/a ? Rygar 2,830,000 n/a 27 Rolling Thunder 220,000 n/a ? Darius 3,320,000 n/a ? Dig Dug 3,999,990 n/a ? Galaga Plus 6,550,300 n/a ? Robocop 731,000 n/a All 7 levels Blood Brothers 21,450,100 n/a ?

The following games don't have any high scores ... send me some ?

Pac-man Paperboy Toobin' 1941 Crystal Castles Magic sword Trog 1943 Super Mario Brothers Defender Alien Syndrome Sinistar Return of the Jedi XyBots Star Wars Astro Blaster Hard Driving Double Dragon Joust Joust 2 Ghosts 'n' Goblins Slap Fight Alcon Centipede Space Dungeon Narc Gunsmoke 720 Street Fighter II Commando Assault Heavy Barrel Raiden Tiger Road Mercs Columns Golden Axe Afterburner I, Robot Donkey King (yes King) Dragons Lair II Galaxian Splatterhouse Alpine Ski Cap. & the Avengers Mat Mania Krull Tron Track & Field Xevious Robotron Forgotten Realms Donkey Kong Jr. Marble Madness Punch Out Forgotten Worlds Ninja Gai-Den Phoenix Pitfighter Vendetta Wizard of Wor

(When you send in your cheat, please send in your high score. Don't send in a high score without a cheat/strategy, it'll be ignored. And multi-credit games don't count ... but multi-player games do. That's what the [mp] slot is for. The idea behind this high score sheet is that if you have a high score higher than one listed here, you must know something useful ...)

Cheats in this revision: * All the Crystal Castle warps. * Big point bugs on Road Blasters, Star Wars, Super Mario Brothers, Paperboy, Robocop. * The standard back doors in Galaga. * Extra lives in Sinistar, Narc. * Etc.

Needed: * All sorts of hints/backdoors for doing/causing strange things of all types.

Contributors: Joshua Abbey, Ken Arromdee, Casey Barton, Barry Brumitt, M Darrin Chaney, Anthony D. Chen, Craig Coffin, Lee Crawford, David D'Auria, Scott C. DeFreitas, Jonathan Deitch, George Dolbier, Lee Dormon, Kerry B. Durham, Vivian Ford, John Joseph Gallagher Jr., Stuart C Glass, Keith Goolsbey, Frank Gomez, James Hague, David Hawk, Josh Hayes, Otto Heuer, Dave Hollinsworth, David Hsu, Ting Hsu, Steve Jacobs, Ian Jeffries, Kyle Jones, Benoy Koshy, Jonathan Kruger, Bob Kupiec, Felix Lee, Kwan-Yong Lee, Chris Long, Bert Loper, Bryan Martin, Tony Mason, David McGrath, Carl Mei, Mario Moeller*, Dave Morrison, Tony Nardo, Ian Novack, Fred Ochs, Steve Ozdemir, Allen Perry, Tad Perry*, Robert Potter, Eric Thomas Pronko, Jeremy Radlow, Hedley Rainnie, James Reed, Nate Renwick, Robert Schmitz, Seth Scott, Tim Shay, Eric Sheets, Colin Smiley, Eric Smith, Ryan Tanner, Eric Thompson, Richard Uyeyama, Ryan Vurlicer, William Wesner, Gregg Woodcock, Julius Yang, John Yeates, Bill ?

* special thanks!

Game notes from Allen Perry ---------------------------

255+ on 8-bit machines

Most games that have rounds will start over at round 256. This is a list of the ones that I am sure of :

Robotron Galaga Dig Dug Defender Stargate Ms Pac Man Pac Man - Causes the infamous "Split Screen" phenomenon Star Trek Zaxxon Satan's Hollow

As I have found out the hard way many games also will do strange things when you get 256 extra men. Usally they just think that you have 0 men left and end your game. This is a list of ones that i know for sure this happens to

Defender Stargate Nibbler Robotron - Seems to reset it self when you reach 256 men Qbert

=============================================================================

*** The beginner's cheat sheet ***

---- 1941 ---- (Contributor: unknown)

Never pick up the black bonus. [oooooook. What's so bad about the black bonus? -JTR]

--- 720 --- (Contributor: unknown)

In the ramp section, levels 8, 9, and 10: holding down the kick and jump buttons simultanously on the lip of the ramp will boost your air. This trick only works when you're going the correct speed (usually your third or fourth jump), and only once (as far as I can tell) per ramp session per level.

----------- Afterburner ----------- (Contributor: Anthony D. Chen)

key: S - start button V - vulcan cannon M - missle F - foot sensor (only on sit-down version)

stage press these do this effect ---------------------------------------------------- DEMO S V M F stick right DUKE message 1 S V M message 3 S speed fast 100 missles 5 S V M message 9 V M stick right 100 missles 11 V M stick left 50,000,000 pts 13 S V M message 16 S stick down message 19 S message 21 S V M F stick up 250,000,000 pts 23 S V M F message

--- APB --- (Contributors: me, and Dave Hollinsworth)

Note that the game never ends. You get through 15 bad guys, and then a sort of tough hitchhiker board, and then all boards afterwards are random. There are two villans it isn't worth wasting your time on: Fake Frank and Sid Sniper. I'll put up a complete strategy list on this one if there's enough demand.

Dave points out that when you start a new game, you may: - press Siren button and start to get a level 1-8 warp. - press Gas and Siren and start to get a level 1-16 warp.

----- ALCON ----- (Contributor: unknown)

This is a slap fight clone.

Don't fire a single shot, just get as far as you can without firing. When you die you'll come back with a full wing of heat-seeking missiles. You'll also get a bonus which is bigger the further you got before you died. (I got 256K bonus once this way).

Hint on picking up an extra ship: When you reach the point where the intersecting tubes and the little guys move in them and only fire at you at the intersections (near the end where there are two long tubes running along the left side), carefully use your shot power about an inch from the right side. A question mark will show up. Don't shoot it! Pick it up for an extra man.

-------------- ALIEN SYNDROME -------------- (Contributor: Mario Moeller)

Shoot and grab everything as quickly as possible. If you manage to finish a level before the timer reaches 100 you get a 60K bonus.

---------- Alpine Ski ---------- (Contributor : Tad Perry)

ALPINE SKI (WHY'D I *EVER* PLAY *THAT*?):

1. Go thru the downhill section with the points flags very slowing and avoid collecting positive points. 2. There's some point in the course (should be easy to find) where there's a negative points flag nearby trees that can be crashed into. This trick is best done here. 3. Collect negative points to roll your score back under zero. You will be granted massive time on the massive points you have. Unfortunately, time will be taken off at an incredible rate. 4. Run over the negative points flag as necessary to get rid of the points you win just by moving forward and crash into the nearby trees. 5. Repeat Step 4 until you've run out of time. You now have a completely unbeatable high-score which (if it were 1981) people would beg you to tell them how you did it.

WARNING: ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY DON'T GO BACK ACROSS ZERO OR YOUR GAME WILL END *IMMEDIATELY*!!!

-------- ARKANOID -------- (Contributor: Frank Gomez)

This one applies to the super arkanoid. On the level that looks like

- - - - ----------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Level 8, I recall. -JTR] don't kill too many blocks! Wait for the N pill. Get the balls to the top of the screen. Every time they hit one of the balls, 100 easy points. They hit the balls very often. If any one or two of the balls get out, don't hit them back in, since the one(s) up top will split...

[Yeah, I rememember this one. A few times I got lucky and got the Nova split power (16 balls at once, otherwise like N) and got mind- bogglingly high scores. In the millions. -JTR]

------- ASSAULT ------- (Contributor: Felix Lee)

Finishing a level with zero time will give you the maximum time bonus. On level 5 at default time limits, this is 330s x 50pts/s = 16500pts.

(Contributor: Unknown)

On the last level (11, I believe) there are TWO sections to it. In the latter section (which has a triangle ship in the exact middle), the first thing a person should do when they enter it is go around the edge counterclockwise hugging the wall the whole way.

All the mobile enemies disappear!! And then you just have to kill the guns to finish the whole game. The ending credits are TRULY incredible.

------------- Astro Blaster ------------- (Contributor: Allen Perry)

This is a list of just a few of the secret ways to get bonus points in the vertical space shoot-um-up Astor Blaster.

1000 Points for shooting without missing a shot during "Fuel status Marginal" 700 Points for killing everything in the horizontal attack force bofore they reach the other side of the screen 600 Points for getting thru an entire sector with out hitting "Critical" on laser temperature 400 Points for not losing a ship thru an entire sector 400 to 1500 Points for docking perfectly WITHOUT using the direction buttons ??? Points for "scraping" the docking claws duging dock

----------- BUMP N JUMP ----------- Don't smash any cars at all on a board, and you'll get 50,000 bonus points.

-------------------- Cap and the Avengers -------------------- (Contributor : Eric Thomas Pronko)

use Iron Man or Vision, use the jumping shooting attack on almost all bosses...pick up all possible enemies to kill them faster...

specific strategies:

whirlwind: hit him with a barrel right off. knock him down like twice (i forget how many times) before he starts to spin. make your way to the lower right hand corner and move up to dodge tossed objects. use the jumping shooting attack.

flying stages (not underwater): stay in the approximate middle of the screen and use both hands to hit either button to shoot more rapidly. shoot the sentinel in the band around his neck using this method of shooting and staying in the same place.

grim reaper: hit him with a barrel first; wait for each of his charges, jump over it, and hit him with the jump-shoot. when he flies, move right in front of him, wait for the bomb, jump it and jump-shoot.

wizard: try to get him on the opposite side of the screen, firing yellow bursts of energy. fire straight back at him and keep it up. try to be a bit lower than him.

mandarin: use the jump-shoot, for the most part. at the beginning, stand right in front of him, wait for him to shoot fire, jump it and jump-shoot. (also works for ultron.)

juggernaut: use firing weapon right before he gets up, works every time.

ultron: see aforementioned strategy on mandarin; jump-shoot. you cannot be hit by his lasers-that-are-shot-up-into-the-air if you are in the air.

twin robots ("you're trapped!"): hit of them with a thrown weapon at the start; charge and begin to pummel. the other one will walk right into the pummeling. try to stay away from the horizontal cracks. when they fall, move forward and repeat.

crossbones: jump-shoot with a lot of irregular movement while in the air. he can hurt you in the air (most other bosses cannot, so you can do long jumps in the air and fire right at the end of a jump; here you cannot).

red skull: (before) pummel him from afar with the shooting weapon, like you did the wizard. (after) use a specific retaliation for each of his attacks. machine guns: stay away and shoot, or go in close and punch. green laser: avoid it when it shoots, then go around it and punch, or go in front of it and shoot.. arms fired: jump them. hurricanes/bombs: a lot of jumping.

--------- CENTIPEDE --------- When you reach your last official extra man before 1,000,000, every time you score and have less than 6 men, you'll get an extra guy. This is a real pain, because this advances by 12,000 the amount of points you will have to get AFTER 1M to get your first guy after that point. :(

Important turning points (based on score): 60K - fleas speed up. 860K - spider goes back to 12-row wipeout. This is a pain...

Note that a very important factor in the game is the rate of feed of the new centipede segments when one reachs the bottom. You can manipulate this feed value, to get past the really impossible feed!

First, the feed rate doesn't advance until the first time a cent. seg actually feeds in. Then it advances on a straight point basis. It seems to turn over every 300K or so. But the rate of feed increases much faster when you're scoring while centipede segments are actually feeding in.

Note that on millipede, feed is even more important, and you have to be very careful tuning your feed rate according to the level you expect to reach at the time your feed reaches impossible level. The 'fast feed' machines are actually easier in this respect (for the more advanced players).

------- COLUMNS ------- (Contributor: Felix Lee)

You can reach the maximum score, 99999 points, simply by playing for a long time. But you can reach it quicker if you pull down most of the time. Pulling a column all the way down gives you 25 points at level 1, 125 at level 10. The extra points are added while you're pulling, so you can pull down a column *most* of the way and you can position just before it lands to get most of the points.

The magic jewel will be split if part of it sticks up above the top. The part above the top will fall seperately and get rid of more jewels. This is cute but not useful once you're good at the game.

-------- DEFENDER -------- (Contributor : unknown)

When you get your last official guy before 1,000,000, every time you score, you'll get an extra man.

(Contributor : Tad Perry)

The trick we used was to win 100+ ships between 990,000 and 1,000,000, thus fooling the game based on where score rolls over rather than where ships roll over. The version where you win 100+ ships has been tested, the version where you win 256+ ships never was because:

a. For every point scored in Defender from 990,000 to 999,975 you will win one extra ship and smart bomb. b. If you suicide on something, including a shot but not including hyperspace (because dying from hyperspace awards no points), you will lose one ship, but also gain one (net effect on ships is zero) plus one smart bomb. c. For winning n ships in Defender from 990,000 to 999,975, including suicides, you will have to wait n x 10,000 points after passing 1M before the game's accounting balances and it awards ships properly at 10,000 point intervals again.

TESTED (VERIFIED TO WORK): d. The score returns to zero every 1 million, meaning that if you had won 100 ships the machine would have to wait 1 million points to begin awarding ships again. However, since 1 million is equivalent to zero it awards them immediately at 1,010,000.

UNTESTED (PROBABLY WORKS): d. Being an 8-bit game, 255 ships is the maximum recognized. 256 ships/smart bombs is treated as zero. If you win exactly 256 ships during this period the machine will think you have won none and thus begin awarding ships immediately at 1,010,000.

In either case, you get to keep your surplus ships and bombs and can have super long turns where you bomb 2 to 3 times per wave to get out of dangerous situations.

Defender Tricks :

1. There are reverse lines for swarmers and mutants. If this line is between you and the type of enemy in question, they will travel the opposite direction around the planet to get you. (I.e. they won't cross this line to get to you.) If a mutant, say, is following you and you cross the mutant reverse line (to the left of the Big Mountain) it will suddenly reverse direction and go around the other way. The same is true for the swarmer reverse line (located approximately where your ship starts each wave). This doesn't affect swarmers that you are following behind. If you're on one side of the line and a pod is on the other and you shoot it open the swarmers will fly away from you and you can get in behind them immediately. The best use of these lines is where there are lots of swarmers and/or mutants that you don't want to hassle with. You stay near the line in question and go back and forth over it to keep the enemy in question on the other side of the planet. Especially useful in space and waves that get really hairy.

2. You can freeze a Defender machine by picking up all ten humans (on any wave, but Wave 1 is your greatest chance at success), stopping all forward motion of your ship, quieting the screen down (i.e. having no enemies moving around on it) and setting all the humans straight down quickly. This seems to work better were the terrain is very close to the bottom of the screen. Every thing will freeze, but you can still move your ship up and down. Thrusting will break the spell, so to speak. If you do pick a spot with shallow terrain, some humans will go thru the bottom of the screen and appear suspended in mid-air near the top. This trick is good during marathon games when you've reached Wave 256 and need a breather.

------- Dig Dug ------- (Contributor : James Hague)

Get either a Pooka or Fygar right on your tail, then pump him up but not so much that he explodes. Do this right near a rock--be warned that this is rather tricky. The idea is to loosen the rock when the enemy is almost fully inflated, get out of the way, then do a quick reverse and finish off the enemy at exactly the same time as he is crushed by the rock (avoiding the rock yourself, of course). This will confuse the game and all enemies on the current level will disappear leaving you to aimlessly dig tunnels through the dirt. You will not progress to the next level until you drop another rock.

[This is most definitely a bug.]

(Contributor: Allen Perry)

If you run over a fruit and blow up a enemy at the same time or just a little after you will get the same score for both the fruit and the ememy. The best way to do this is to shoot the enemy thru the fruit and start walking toward the fruit as you are hitting pump. If you time it right you will get up to 8000 (for the pineapple) each time.

This game does NOT give extra man after 900,000. The score will flip over at 1,000,000. It is very easy to get a score of 999,990 by eating dirt for ten points per section.

At level 256 the game will start over at level 1 and get easy again. But you will never get another extra man.

----------- Donkey King ----------- (Contributor: Allen Perry)

This was a bootleg version of Donkey Kong. The boards look almost the same but the colors are a little different and the screens are in a different order.

This may be a bug or it may just be a special part of the game. If you finnish ANY round with the last three numbers in the time left are at 300 ( it may have been 400 or 500, its been a LONG time since i played this game ) it will give you an extra 100,000 points. Just sit there until the timer is at the right number then finish.

------------------ Donkey Kong Junior ------------------ (Contributor : Allen Perry)

This will let you play forever. Start the game with both players. Play your f first player just like normal. Then when you die and you are on the second player you will have to move DKJr all the way to the right at far as you can go. You will be hanging off the ledge almost all the way. Then you have to wait for one of the traps to go down the rope that is above you and to the right. When the trap drops off the rope you have to time a jump to the right so you will hit the trap and the water at the same time. If you do it right you will start the number one guy with out loosing a man. And if you can get the move down you can play forever. Just repeat every time you loose with the first guy. There is a side effect to doing this, you will get to put your high score/name in as many times as you did the trick right. So if you did it 4 times you will get to put your name up 4 times. Kinda cool huh? Its hard to find a DKJr to play but its a cool trick nun the less.

---------------- Dragon's Lair II ---------------- (Contributor : Fred Ochs)

You can forget to pick up one of the secret treasures on the 5th level (Beethoven level), and when you finish the 6th level, it will tell you that you must go back and get the treasures you missed before you can continue your quest. So you just keep forgetting to get one of the treasures each time you repeat the screen, and it will jack your score up(It will take many time to do this however, but it's the only "safe" way I know of doing it) just be sure you don't get killed, I think it will mess you up if you do, I know it will make you repeat the 6th level again(a bitch of a level)

Normally you get about 1500 when you finish. I had almost 1900, and only repeated the 5th level 2 or 3 times.

---------------- Forgotten Realms ---------------- (Contributor: David Hsu)

If you are playing 2 player, when you get to the boss in the boat-like contraption which has gravity wells, guns, falling pointy things, if both of you are on the right wall (which blocks you from the boss), one person can shove the other thru the wall so that you can't be attacked by any of the things on the other side (named above).

There are several sections where one can go either up or down depending upon which barrier is shot first (top or bottom). If you shoot the bottom one both times, I believe that is the path with more points, though it can be harder. On one of these, there is a section where there are a lot of pudding-like slime things. Anyways, right before you leave that little maze and go out into the open to meet the boss, you can duck thru the wall and there is another store which you can buy lots of stuff from. You might have to move back and forth a little before you trigger the store to pop up (you can't see it, you just have to run into it). It is inside the bottom wall.

On the other path on which you can go down (the 2nd one), lots of guns which when pointed towards each other form a beam. You can shoot these little guns and each one that blows up becomes the biggest coin (zenny).

On the final level (going vertically), you occasionally run into gun emplacements where there are alcoves directly across on the other side. If you enter these alcoves and shoot, big coins will appear.

You can also shoot on some of the ledges that appear (hit the corner next to the wall) and stuff like power-ups and armor will appear.

---------------- Forgotten Worlds ---------------- (Contributor: Scott C. DeFreitas)

In Forgotten Worlds there is a field of zap laser pods (they rotate and shoot electric beams between each other) layed out in a grid pattern. If you blast the bejesus out of these the will each yield one of the big zenny coins (10000 I think) which is great for jacking your score up to about 5 million when you finish. Note that you really have to pound them and the casual players are usually worried about staying alive...thus, many people don't know about them.

There's alot of other stuff in this game like secret shops, armor, etc.

-------- Galaxian -------- (Contributor : Ken Arromdee)

Shoot one of the yellow (topmost) ships when it first comes down. It causes everyone to stop firing for a few moments.

---------- GOLDEN AXE ---------- (Contributor: David D'Auria)

If possible go to a different level of ground than your opponent. If you are lower you can cut up his legs and he can't hit you. If you are higher he will jump after you and you can hit him in mid-jump. (He won't attack until he's on your level).

(Contributor: Unknown)

General strategy: Make things fall off ledges. Best with skeletons on eagle's head on last level.

Two Player health restoral: If a player's health is at zero (no life bar visible) when the bonus level/intermission ends, s/he will begin the next level at full health (three life bars). So if you CAREFULLY hack one another, you can restore your health. You should allow the other character to recover after each swipe, otherwise you may throw or kick and actually kill the other player.

-------- GUNSMOKE -------- (Contributor: Mario Moeller)

When you're on level two, make sure you have a horse when you kill Roy Knife. Once he is dead, walk over his corpse and your horse will be killed. Roy raises from the dead as a sort of indestructable zombie. You can shoot him as much as you like, but he won't die. In this way you can play until you get tired of it. [Not sure whether this is a feature to be exploited or a bug to be avoided. -JTR]

------------ HARD DRIVING ------------ (Contributor: unknown)

You can go onto the test track (circle) and veer off to the left and come back on near the end. [oooooook. What do you gain by this? -JTR] [ A very short lap time ... -JND]

------------ HEAVY BARREL ------------ [A complete strategy guide from Julius Yang].

A somewhat obscure game, Heavy Barrel uses the same controls as Ikari Warriors, but is a better game IMHO due to the availability of different weapons, not just augmented versions of weapons.

The objective is to wipe out a military complex filled with soldiers and lethal military equipment. The available weapons are the standard machine gun, the heavy machine gun, the fan gun, the flamethrower, and the Heavy Barrel. Grenade weapons include standard grenades, red grenades, and ball and chains.

The Heavy Barrel is a super weapon that you obtain after getting six special pieces that glow yellow when you unlock boxes with keys. It has umlimited ammunition, unlike other guns, but it has a time limit. It destroys everything you hit with it...

Throughout the game there are only enough pieces to get the gun three times, but if you do this you will have to face a very tough section without it. The final machine is nearly impossible to destroy without the Heavy Barrel, so you ought to save parts until you have five, then get the last box that contains a special part.

At the start, you will parachute in. Massacre a bunch of guys until you encounter a man with a tripod machine gun. Kill him, then get the heavy machine gun weapon. Use this to wipe out the small tank next to the bridge.

Four boxes to the left of the bridge will be there. A heavy barrel part is in the second box from the right. Pick up the flamethrower, and start whaling on the guards and flying packs that come from across the bridge. After they're dead, a chopper will fly in and attempt to kill you. Throw grenades at it, don't waste the flamethrower. Presuming you have sufficient dodge skill, you can kill the chopper before it overwhelms you with bullets.

Across the bridge, a huge number of guys will attack you. Here is where the flamethrower is useful--it takes out a lot of guys at once. Next to the pyramid machine gun are three boxes--kill the gun, then open up the leftmost box. That reveals a red grenade icon. Pick that up, and start grenading your way to the gate.

At the gate, grenade everyone to death (you have 70 grenades to start with!) and keep pushing forward.

I don't remember the exact locations of any more Heavy Barrel pieces (except for the last one), but general strategies for dealing with tough parts I can give:

At three points in the game you will be on a moving platform. In anticipation of these difficult points you should have red grenades and fan guns or a flamethrower. If guys jump on the platform you ought to grenade them, since the gun should always be saved for blowing away heavy machinery. The first platform is a series of cannons which can be destroyed with a single grenade, then a series of guards which can be destroyed if you throw a red grenade to the exact center of the screen. At the end is a machine with large grabbers that extend towards you. Stay on the left of the platform, and start flaming it and hurling grenades simultaneously. The machine rarely grabs on the left, so with luck you should be able to destroy it without a loss. The second platform passes by a million cannons (I exaggerate only slightly) and it is imperative that you destroy as many as possible as soon as possible, since they FOLLOW the platform and shoot large cannonballs at you. Here is where dodging is useful, since it's hard to keep the number of cannonballs on the screen below 20. The third platform consists of a series of flying guards that seem ok, until TWO of the mechanical grabber things show up! Fortunately one attacks first, on the right, so you should stay on the left and disable it ASAP, then switch right and disable the other.

There is, at some point in the game, a narrow bridge which is the killing zone for two helicopters. You should have good weapons, and run up while facing backwards. Hopefully you can flame a copter to death, after which you can dodge the other until you kill it. If you die, pick up the fan gun sitting on the bridge, and use it.

At another point you will be confronted with two conveyor belts (which you cannot ride) going in opposite directions. Due to the obstructions in the middle you ought to use the Heavy Barrel here to blow everyone away, and run through like crazy.

At another point you will have to run a gauntlet of cannons and grenade- throwing guards. To deal with this, DON'T use the HB, since you will not be able to get enough parts to kill the last guy. You should get a flamethrower, and fire left even before the enemeies show up on the screen. They will die, and you can walk left to get more weapons as they show up.

Another large machine spits out glowing needles that split into three parts and angle downwards. You should dodge left and right methodically while tossing grenades and firing. Don't look at the machine! Just keep doing that while looking at the needles and dodging. Lives are much more important than keeping a hoard of weapons.

At one point you will meet three Predator-like creatures. You can destroy these three using machine gun or simple grenades, though they look tough! Only one or two fire slow shots at a time, so you can dodge them. Keep pumping bullets into them until one explodes.

The final gauntlet is hell. Enemy guards throw red grenades right and left, copters keep charging you, and more Predators show up. You should keep moving forward, never getting stuck in position, since if you press on you ought to be able to get the grenade throwers before they let off one throw. Keep your ammo well stocked by picking up new guns, even if you still have 20 shots left. Red grenades are essential here--the ball and chain is too slow to deal with so many guys.

You are near the end when you drive off the laughing guy...pick up the next box on the left, get the Heavy Barrel, walk north, and finish the game.

A few obvious reminders--you can only carry four keys, so if you have four and more are lying around, open up boxes. They can contain extra lives, shields, red grenades, weapons, a cloud gun (which is virtually useless), and HB parts. Learning where the HB parts are is pretty important too. But most essential is learning when to conserve your ammo and when to cut loose with everything you have.

Top Score--essentially meaningless, since at the end you have about 400k points and you get 1 million for killing the last guy. [I think that says it all, for this genre of game. -JTR]

-------- I, Robot -------- (Contributor : Tony Nardo)

Background: In _I, Robot_, one must jump on each red block (without getting zapped by the Big Eye, running into an obstacle, etc) and then attempt to leave that wave (by moving/jumping to the doorway under the Big Eye) before the timer elapsed. Bonus points were awarded based on time remaining.

The "Feature": *Some* machines would allow you to reset the bonus timer as it was ticking down. The timer would reset to 9999 and continue to rack up points. This could be repeated many, many times, thus allowing the player to virtually choose his own score.

Activating the "Feature": While the bonus timer is ticking down, press the left "vantage" button (one of two buttons which let you raise/lower your vantage point) and release it. If your machine has the reset "feature", the timer will reset to 9999 and continue ticking down.

[Note: as I said, it's been a *long* time since I played this game. I believe it was the left "vantage change" button I pressed, but it may have been the one on the right. I *do* know that I was trying to get a jump on changing my perspective for the next wave, which was how I discovered this "feature" in the first place. I also know that this cheat only worked on one of the two _I, Robot_ games in this area.]

----- Krull ----- Hunting strategy by hiding in cave when battling the "Big Guy" and hunting his shots. (combined effort)

----------- MAGIC SWORD ----------- (Contributors: Dave Hollinsworth, Bert Loper)

On level 49, bring the enemy as far to the left in the level as it's possible to go. Then kill him. While you're immune (for about 5 seconds after it dies), jump into the spikes to your left and open the far left chest. There's a jewel inside, worth 1 million pts.

Bert adds: The best way to get it is to kill the chimera (nasty dragon thingy) on the left side of the level and walk safely through the spikes while the screen vibrates.

An extra 1M points is available on blue level 30: there is a wizard there who levitates rocks. Jump and sword him once, then when he causes the rocks to appear use magic (both buttons) to turn the rocks into 8K gold pieces. You can do this until time runs out.

Level 47, pick up the double-point necklace, then use magic to destroy the wizard that keeps appearing (but wait till the instant the skulls around him materialize). They'll all turn into 8K GP's, doubled by your necklace. If you don't get hit by any of the dogs or red ghosts you can break even on this, since a food fairy appears just about every time you repeat this twice.

NOTE: These are all advanced techniques, obviously...

[ Note : See MS in the intermediate section too. - JND ]

--------- Mat Mania --------- (Contributor : David D'Auria)

First do the usual things in the game, a few punches and body slams until you can get a pile driver on your opponent. Once you get that first pile driver simply pick up your opponent and throw him into the ropes. Allow him to just ram into you.(you will both go down). Now just pick him up and give him another pile driver and then throw him again into the ropes and allow him to ram into you. Just keep alternating between pile-drivers and throwing into the ropes and ramming you until you feel like pinning him. Using this technique I got up to match 39 on a quarter, playing for over 1 1/2 hours.(bet the owner didn't like that) I'm not sure about the score though, It might have been something like 200,000 but its been a couple years since I last played it. Well is this a good cheat in your opinion. Pretty much, after you get that first pile-driver the match is yours.(I lost because I got cocky and tried to finish him by jumping off the top rope)

----- MERCS ----- (From: William Wesner)

At the end of stage 1, a large plane rises in front of the player. If you stand .25 to .5 inches up from the bottom of the cliff, and line up so your bullets will hit just to the right of the plane's center, it cannot hit you with its cannon. This takes practice.

------------- Ninja Gai-Den ------------- (Contributor: Ryan Vurlicer)

On the first stage, there is a popcorn stand (or whatever you want to call it...) at the end of the walking stage, right before you get onto the bars which you have to cross to get to the sumo wrestler at the end. This is somewhat difficult for beginners, because the bars are kind of tough. However, there is a leap of faith you can take to avoid the bars entirely. Do not destroy the popcorn machine. Kill all the enemies, then hop on top of it. Pull down until you are on the lower half of it (this is just to insure that the people on the bars can't hit you). Now, walk forward until the machine takes control (there is a point at which, if you let go of the joystick, you continue walking forward. this is what you are trying to do). Note that you don't fall when you walk off the popcorn machine. Neat, hunh? Do NOT jump at this point. A vertical jump is suicide. Normal forward jumps might be safe, but I make no guarantees. When you finally float within range of the final level, you can get off by jumping straight up, or by moving down on the screen until you 'fall off' of the popcorn machine...

------- OUT RUN ------- (Contributor: Mario Moeller)

The fastest route for finishing the game is Right (Devil's Canyon), Left (Snowy Alps), Right (Wheatfield), Right (Autobahn).

------- PAC-MAN ------- (Contributors: Dave Hollinsworth, one unknown person, Lee Crawford)

Idle trick: Need a breather? Just park yourself in the spot immediately and to the right of where you start, and make sure that no monsters are "looking" at you when you do it. The monsters will run all over the maze, but they'll never find you. Go to the bathroom in peace.

9th Key pattern for Pac-Man: (Provided by Ken Arromdee) ------------------------------------- |A------B ------C| |D------E ------F| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------ ------ --- ------ ------ | |G------H --I-----------J--K ------L| | | | || |___ ___| || | | | | | | ||____ | | ____|| | | | |M------N | ___| |_| |___ |Q ------R| |------- || ___O___P___ || -------| | | || | | || | | |------- -- | | -- -------| |-------S --T| |U--V -------| | | || ----------- || | | |------- ||W-----------X|| -------| |Y______ -- |___ ___| -- ______Z| | |___ |a __b___ | | ___c__d | ___| | |____ || |____| |_| |____| || ____| | | ||e __f___g___h___i__j || | | |___| || || |___ ___| || || |___| |k __l__m_||____ | | ____||n___o__p | | |___________| |_| |___________| | |_______________q___r_______________|

Move to the points in this order: hjnprqfgbaSTOIJPUX (fruit munch) WTSVQKHmkqrijdVQRLKEDCBHIOPUX (fruit munch) WSTVZonjihcdVSYlmeaSNMGABHGMNHIJKEFLKQVSaef.

(Contributor : Tad Perry)

Two 9-th key patterns of interest are: the fastest, reliable 9-th key pattern in existence (43 seconds per board--awesome for time-limit tournaments of that era) and the most exciting (my very own!) where you will go through two monsters and be nearly eaten several times before you're through. Both were printed in Joystik Magazine. I could work them up in ASCII if interest warranted.

As for the question about why the blue monster went off the maze tracks, [see below]it's hard to repeat consistently but this happens when you turn him blue while he's still inside the center box and then eat him right at the door. You can turn him blue again even though he's not following the maze, eat him, and have his eyes get lost because they don't know how to get back to the box. MORE COMPLETELY USELESS FUN!!!

Lee Crawford Says :

I have a PAC MAN (MS PAC MAN) machine and saw something this morning I didn't think could happen and thought maybe you'd know something about it. I was playing the first screen and the aqua ghost was heading up at the top of the screen. Instead of turning and following along the top of the screen he continued up and off the top and reappeared from below. I've NEVER seen this happen before ? [ Well, any ideas anyone ? -- JND ]

------- Phoenix ------- (Contributor: Allen Perry)

During the game three birds will attack all in a line. Let those birds fly all the way to the bottom they will start to fly back up. As they are flying up shoot all three in a row real quick (2 or 3 seconds) and you will get 200,000 points instead of 200.

---------- Pitfighter ---------- (Contributor: David Hsu)

I have seen this done but I can't get it done myself very frequently, but if you are playing Ty (the kickboxer), you can hit your joystick twice so that you cartwheel to the other side of your adversary and hit your punch button a couple of times doing your elbow to their kidney or stomach shot. When he hops up/back stunned, if you do your special kick, he will end up frozen. You can then pretty much just beat away at him and he won't do anything.

------------ RACE DRIVING ------------ (Contributors : Eric Sheets, Eric Thompson)

1) Whenever possible use the outside-in stratgy. Start on the outside of a turn then cut inside, making sure that you keep giving the vehicle gas. If you don't you may spin out and loose control (Depending on the car type). This stratgy is hard to use in the qualifing laps because of the oncoming traffic, but if timed correctly you can pass the oncoming traffic on their right side. When coming out of the turn take care in how you staighten the wheels (Slowly) or you can spin out as well.

2) It helps to take into consideration where a car is incountered because after running a track several times, and you get closer to the "maximum" speed for a strecth of road the car scenarios stay the same. For example: the first turn after the start on the origonal speed track (The one with a house on it and the very long right turn) should not have a car coming in the way of an outside-in tactic but a truck should be on the way. And if the speed of the car stays around 120 all the way around the track there should be a car at the turn.

3) Most turns from the origonal speed track can be taken (While using the previous hint) at about 120 mph.

4) On the super stunt track on the road up the hill and then a left turn, a driver may drive off the road to the left (Cutting the turn) and to an exageratted outside-in manuver.

5) The differences in the cars are as follows: Speedster: Excelent acceleration, and top speed is around 140mph, but handling is very loose and it tends to spin out on turns if pushed too far. Roadster: Slightly faster acceleration than the Speedster (I think.), top speed is only around 120mph, but handling is tight and takes turns much easier. Original: Same as Speedster. Original Automatic:Same as Speedster but with slightly slower acceleration. Note: Handling manifests itself in the sensitivity of the steering wheel to move.

By the way on the original speed track, after you drive under the last overpass there is a road that goes off to the left. If you follow it it goes to a "kinda" test track that is in a tight circle around a little circular structure. There is no application for this road but it is just wierd that it is there.

(Contributor : Eric Thompson)

Super Stunt Track (tested using the Roadster)

0. Never use the brakes; just shift down (if necessary :-)

1. Coming up the first hill, you have to slow down so that you don't fly into the barn and so you can make the sharp left-hand turn. If you're slick, you can take the hill at around 110-120mph.. just before you get to the top, throw it from 4th into 1st, and turn the wheel to the left. If executed properly, you will land doing a 4-wheel skid SIDEWAYS, which will both slow you to the proper speed and leave you right on the track facing the right direction, and in the right gear. Saves about 5 seconds--but mostly, it's fun to wow the onlookers :-)

2. If you're ever going to die (off a cliff, coming off a banked turn too hard, etc.) you can occasionally press Abort while you're in the air before you crash because the machine thinks it's in OFF ROAD mode even though the car is in the air. If you get to Abort before it hits the ground, you don't have to wait for the crash and burn, saving time.

This is especially effective if you are coming through the tunnel with only a couple seconds left--you can fly off the banked turn, make the finish line (i.e. get more time), and then Abort before you crash.. which will put you back at the Start line ready to run some more. If you don't hit Abort, it's over.

------ RAIDEN ------ (Contributor: unknown)

The most powerful weapon in the game are the stars which come from one player shooting another (must be in 2P mode... you can play two players at once if you like). Have one player grab the reds and the other grab the blues. The blue player should sit right behind the red player when it comes to taking out the final challenge at the end of each level.

The stars are about 5X as potent as the most powerful blue. The best combo is red with missiles and blue with the homing missiles.

------------------ RETURN OF THE JEDI ------------------ (Contributor: Mario Moeller. A point-scrounging tip.)

A tip is to reach level 8, enter the death star and destroy the reactor. On the way out, ram one of the supports to destroy the Millenium Falcon and the machine puts you back at the beginning of level 8. Keep doing this with your remaining lives. Finish the game on your last life to get the 100K bonus.

------- Robocop ------- (Contributor : Craig Coffin)

The following cheat for _RoboCop_ can earn (theoretically) infinite scores. There exists a level in the game (the Junkyard, I think), where there is an elevator. If I remember correctly, it's just after you get the Cobra gun. Anyway, you get on the elevator and ride to the top. When the elevator reaches the top, DON'T MOVE! Your score will suddenly start to increase, and will continue to do so until you step off the elevator.

See the Intermediate entry.

-------- Robotron -------- (Contributor : Tad Perry)

Robotron Name Trick :

Fire up while moving right and press Player 1 button, Fire down while moving up and press Player 2 button, Move down while firing up.

Trick must be done during game play. The designer's names will appear and stay on the screen until the right joystick is released from the up position. Your game is over(!) once you've done this trick.

(Contributor: Allen Perry)

Get points and extra men :

This will get you lots of points and extra men but at a VERY slow pace. This is good if you are going for that 200 million game and want to let someone hold the game for you while you take a break or a nap. On any 5th stage ( the ones with the brain guys ) shoot everything but 1 or 2 brains. Try and get them to follow you to the top right side of the screen. While touching the right side of the screen move all the way to the bottom. Keep shooting up. The Brains can't move all the way to the right so you can't hit them but there snake shot will move to the right and you will hit that. The brains will just sit there and walk right not down. So you can stay there for ever and shoot the snake shots. But you only get 25 points (i think) per shot. This is also good if you want to get a 9,999,975 score, if you are close just get to that screen and reach the top. Watch out for the stray shot that goes to the left, you may have to move left quick to kill it.

-------- SMASH-TV -------- (Contributors: me, and Bob Kupiec)

Don't try to conserve ammo. Your shots should be efficient and kill as much as possible, and you won't have time to think about conserving shots (esp. in the latter stages). The pattern of moves you should follow at the end of each board to reach the easiest boards is:

Level 1: right, up; and then you have no choices. Level 2: up, right; and then again, no choices. Level 3: right, right, down; and then you have no choices.

Following these moves should enable you to get through the entire game on one quarter in one-player mode, as I have. Tips on big guys:

Mutoid man: Stay *above* him. The best hiding place is at the upper corners of the board. Then nothing can get you, except Mr. Shrapnel. Best weapons are Shrieker grenades, then spread fire. Scarface: There are two attack types you use against this guy. The first is when you have grenades/shrieker grenades and are invulnerable. Then you blast away at his face. Be sure to get all areas of his face. The second is when you have spread/missiles/double. Then you travel around him in circles and knock out his perimeter shielding. If you don't get all his perimeter shielding he CANNOT die. This is why most people find him so hard. Then he is converted to a skull. When you have grenades/shriekers, be sure to get ALL areas of the face! Otherwise attack the top of his head, and in general keep him away from you. Cobra: You should fire at all areas of the cobra body. Don't move above the cobra heads, cause you will die. Best weapon: spread fire. Game show host: Same as mutoid man but moves really fast. Play cautiously. Note that you can stay at the upper-right-hand corner of the screen forever, picking up unlimited points on Mr. Shrapnel. This is slow, however.

The game is known to adjust its difficulty by the daily high score list. If the high scores are too high, making the game too hard, just turn the machine off and on again.

Now, the pleasure dome. This is hearsay, so don't get upset if this doesn't work. Sometimes, instead of saying "COLLECT POWERUPS!" on the second board, it'll say something else. When that happens, it means you can get to the pleasure dome that game. When you get to key room #1 (after the cobras) you can go down after the board is completed. Tough rooms follow. In the pleasure dome, you collect girls instead of gifts. It isn't possible to get to the pleasure dome on some machines. If it isn't on yours, ask your operator to ask Williams for a (free) ROM upgrade.

Felix Lee says this applies to Rom Version 8 and up. You can tell what version, he says, by the message in room #3 ("Collect TEN keys" instead of "Collect keys"). He also says that this is hearsay. I say that this is a scummy trick, putting out a game with a heralded 'feature' that won't exist for several months, and counting on people not to find out about it until then.

He adds that if you discover "Secret Warp 3", you've just experienced the game's error-recovery system at work.

Bob adds: When playing with 2 people, if one player finishes the level near an exit, the other will "walk through the wall" to the next room. Can be useful on some levels.

You can cheat the enemy men by running through them backwards (to do this, you have to be firing). This works especially well when you have extra speed.

(Contributor: Ryan Tanner)

I just saw the bit about ignoring the highscore unless you get some kind of cheat. There aren't any "cheats" in the true sense of the word in Smash TV. Smash TV has a warp that happens occasionally when it has an error, and will put you forward or backwards. Haven't been able to reproduce this.

Here's a list of fun things to do: When fighting Mutoid Man or the Host, get a shield and stand behind the boss. If he backs up far enough, he will push you back out the wall area he came in. You can not be hit there, and if you position yourself right, you can fire from that position. This isn't really a cheat since you need special weapons to kill the boss. You can leave the area by simply moving down.

If you have the sawblades and are moving right next to the exit and so is the other person, the sawblades will not have time to disappear and will be carried to the next wave. It's nice to see those sawblades cut up the camera men. Also, you can sometimes get another sawblade set for the other player because the software doesn't realize that you still have that set you should have lost. Dueling sawblades! After killing a boss monster, if player one stands next to the exit and player two stands to the left of some mines, player two will be dragged across the mines at no extra charge. FEARLESS MINE WALKER! This can also work on any wave ending, but you get more time to position player one and two on the end of a level.

---------- Space Duel ---------- (Contributor : Hedley Rainnie)

When in non-linked mode, it is possible to get a full shield during the bonus round. The way is to run the shield down to nothing (speaker makes no shield sound), then bounce off white walls for > 5 times with the shield button down. Suddenly the shield will be at full strength again. Anyone who has played in this non-linked mode knows the edge that a full shield gives.

------------- SPACE DUNGEON ------------- (Contributor: Frank Gomez)

When you reach 990,000, every time you shoot an enemy you get a free man. Be careful, your free men get knocked to 0 after 255.

If you pass level 99, you get to level 0 and it says "You're a hero on level zero."

A boring score-grabbing cheat: Lock yourself in a room by closing all the doors. The thief will appear. (To close a door, go through it then back immediately, may take more than once). Warning: this is a sure, but very slow, way to build points.

-------- STARGATE -------- (Contributor: Kyle Jones)

An undocumented feature. You need to have killed everything off in the wave except for one lander. There must be at least one humanoid on the ground. Wait for the lander to pick up the humanoid. Shoot the lander and catch the humanoid *just* before it hits the ground. The screen'll flash like mad and you will be awarded 2000, presumably for catching the humanoid and depositing it on the ground in the tiny interval before the wave ends.

(Contributur: Allen Perry)

If you go in to the warp gate and press reverse and warp at the same time you will make the screen mess up. It will look like you are going super fast from left to right. Kinda like a cardiagraph at high speed. This will kill the game that you are playing so you may want to tell the arcade attendent that it screwed up on you and maybe he will give you your money back.

----------------- STREET FIGHTER II ----------------- (Contributor: Benoy Koshy)

To get to Ryu vs. Ryu: Start a fresh game on the left side (1P). Select any character other than Ryu. Play the game until you reach Ryu. Lose. Join in the game on the other side and hit 2P BEFORE the timer runs out. Select Ryu and enjoy fighting Ryu.

For a special ending screen, beat every character in 2 rounds, on one quarter. It shows the production team for SFII.

[JTR: I should probably include the moves list, but it is larger than the entire cheat sheet!]

-------------------- SUPER MARIO BROTHERS --------------------

(Contributor: Gregg Woodcock; I'll vouch for it)

At the end of any world X-4 you can get a bonus for time = 0. Complete the level with exactly 0 seconds left, it'll give you points for 1000 seconds.

[This is an ok tip, but please: no more Unisystem-era Nintendo games. -JTR]

---------------------------- TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ---------------------------- (Contributed by: Kwan-Yong Lee)

In the sewer level, if you align your foot very close to the edge of the step without falling down, you can be invincible. You can still hit them with whatever type of attack you want, but they can't hit you.

You can theoretically get unlimited points. Use the yellow guy's boomerang. Lead one yellow guy in such a way that he gets stuck at an object (fire hydrant or barrel) between you and him, aligned horizontally. He will try to move toward you, but he won't be able to move since the object is near him. Get close enough to him so that he starts throwing boomerangs. You can kill each one for (wow!) 1 point. I got 4000 points on this game, which is pretty good considering most people make it to the end with only 350 or so.

(Contributed by: Dave Hollinsworth)

In the sewer level, stand just below the ledge in the middle of the screen. Then jump straight up. You will land just on the edge of the upper level. Nothing can hurt you for the rest of that level, but you can kill anything that comes close enough to you. (You can't move up or down though, or you'll have to repeat this trick).

(Contributor: unknown)

In the sewer level, you can keep from getting hit by walking right along the edge of the brick floor. This prevents enemies from attacking you from multiple directions. You still need to nail enemies directly in front of you or behind you. This is easy with Donatello.

(Contributor: Ting Hsu)

Killing most bosses consist of 3 strategies. They all consist of moving vertically towards the bosses. [In fact, that is the usual strategy for most games in this genre, since the bosses generally don't have any vertical attack forms. -JTR]

1: Move vertically upwards, hit the boss, and move vertically downwards. Repeat until dead. Works well on Bebop. 2: Wait for the boss to move vertically down towards you, wait for him, hit him, and move vertically upwards. Repeat until he's dead. Works best on Rocksteady. Best results occur when you hit and run at the same time. 3: Wait for the boss to move vertically towards you. Jump over him, move through him and attack as you do this, keep moving. Repeat. Works well on the big robots.

---------- TIGER ROAD ---------- (Contributed by Jonathan Kruger)

On the left-hand side of the top level of the room with the buzz-saw robots, if you jump and press attack at the top of the arc it will open the door to a secret treasure room to your left. The same holds true in the room with the spear-throwers and the steel bars across some of the hallways. Both of these rooms are in the fourth area and you have to be pretty darn good to be there. [Well, that's why this cheat is in the beginner's section... it's a high-effort, low-payoff cheat. -JTR]

------- TOOBIN' ------- (Contributors: Dave Hollinsworth, Carl Mei, Barry Brumitt)

Picking up a six-pack gives you unlimited cans, until you lose your life. A beach ball speeds you and your cans up.

Since the six-pack gives unlimited cans, you can take advantage of it by placing your character in a little crevice right next to a bad guy on shore and fire away. You're able to shoot very fast since you're very close. It is a very good way to rack up points and extra lives. Other tips: Always try to go through the gates you encounter in the river without touching the poles. This'll increase your score multiplier (up to 5X). Also, be sure to shoot as many twigs and other obstacles as you can (get the six-pack for this), because there are hidden letters and extra lives in them. Catch the letters for extra points given at the end of the level.

To be able to turn *fast* alternately press buttons on the corners, e.g. 1 2 3 4 Use 1-4-1, or 2-3-2, this'll greatly improve your playing.

Pick up letters whenever possible, and make sure your multiplier is high at the end of the board, for maximum points.

(Contributor: David Hsu)

A small thing is that if whenever you see mines, if you can get to the left side of it and turn so that you face it, you can shoot as many times as you like in rapid succession (hitting the mine rapidly), you can continue to cause explosions going up to the right wall. Most of the time, a prize of some sort will result along that path. Sometimes patches, sometimes beach balls, etc.

---- TROG ---- (Contributor: Dave Hollinsworth)

Watch the corner of the screen opposite from where you start. At the beginning of each wave except #1, one of your eggs will sparkle for a second. Get this egg last, and without dying. If you do, a pit with white squares in it will open up somewhere on the board. Fall down this pit rather than going home, and you will warp ahead 3 levels and get a bonus of 300,000 pts. (well, actually, everyone gets the bonus pts.)

Felix Lee says: Every player has his own warp egg. Only one player has to get the egg last without dying to activate the warp. On the levels with the striped eggs, the color of the sparkle distinguishes the warp eggs.

The warp will take you forward 3 or 2 levels, often 3, but sometimes 2. It's deterministic; island X will always warp to island Y, so it's possible to figure an optimal warp path.

---- Tron ---- General Tips (Contributor : Jonathan Deitch) :

For the Tanks - hide behind corners and use them for cover when you shoot. Also, use the transporter in the center as cover. You can shoot clear through the transporter and out the other side and zap the computer. Don't use the transporter except for a desperation tactic. It will more than likely dump you right in the computer's gunsight(s).

For the Spiders - Fire in a constant spread and just hose 'em down from side to side. Gradually move in a constant arc up to the entrance. Stay just outside the entrance and hose the spiders above and below until time runs out. Enjoy the music.

For the MCP Cone - Move up so you're just underneath the rotating cone and on the right side. Shoot the blocks nearest to you. This gives you another shot more quickly than shooting blocks farther away. When you get a gap, move up and fire away due left. Above all, don't hang around and get caught : if the going gets tough, move on up and into the cone. Don't forget to twirl the knob as you rise. (You'll see if you do it)

For the Light Cycles - Use a question mark type shape for the first board. The Computer'll run right into it. For the harder boards, try to trap them either near the center tracks or against the wall. This is, by far, the hardest thing to do.

Specifics (Contributor : Chris Long) :

The first few boards are unique, but the events of the game eventually repeat, two with one order and the other two with another. I believe that the Light Cycles and Tanks have order 6, the Grid Bugs and Cones order 5. For the Light Cycles you can develop patterns, for the Tanks you can do the same (the basis for all of my patterns involved immediately going up, to the right, and hiding halfway in and out of the teleporter). The Grid Bugs and Cones also have somewhat looser patterns, and for some of these boards you have to spin the controller *before* the board actually starts in order to have the gun positioned properly to shoot a bug/cone section and move (otherwise it is instant death). If there is any real interest I might be able to dig up my old pattern book. I've gotten over 2,100,000 (which took over 6 hours), which wasn't far from the world record at the time. I probably could have broken the world record (I had over 1,300,000 on my first man once when the machine reset) if there was an arcade near me that was open long enough.

------------- Wizard of Wor ------------- (Contributor: M Darrin Chaney)

ObBug: Give Wizard of Wor a good kick in the coin slot after you hit the Wizard (while the screen flashes). When it comes back up, it'll be in reverse video (white background) until you hit the Wizard again.

------- Xevious ------- (Contributor : George Dolbier)

First special: in the first cross screen river after three tanks that don't move. it's usually in the lower part of the river on the far left or far right. it's position moves around so you need to bomb the whole river.

Hint on second mothership: just before the escort you are swarmed by ships and 1 anti air craft gun, there are 4 missels silos in a small clearing. They are layed out in a diagonal going up from left to right. If you leave them alone you will have an easiser time getting to the second mother ship.

Hit the second mother ship as it is comming down!! don't let it start moving with you!!

Xevious Name Trick (Contributor : Tad Perry) :

Xevious includes a hidden name trick. The display can be brought up by bombing at the extreme right of the screen at the very beginning of the game before any enemies have appeared. The exact spot is marked by a slightly larger than normal dark shadow in the trees. Even if you don't know the exact spot you can usually get it out by bombing all over the place over there on the right side. You also score 1000 points for pulling this off.

=============================================================================

*** The intermediate cheat sheet ***

---- 1943 (Battle of midway) ---- On most every board, holding down combinations of joystick/Button A/Button B before the board starts will give you a weapon. (On a few boards this gives you a 'laser' which is a fantastic weapon).

(Contributor : Robert Schmitz)

After level one, when the game is adding you bonuses on, if you hold down fire and a) have the shot gun, your weapon will be made into the most powerful shot gun with 90 seconds remaining b) don't have the shot gun, you either will or won't get the same as the above (we never managed to work out the criteria for getting it before the arcade got rid of the game). Also if one player gets the laser and has full energy, player 2 can line his plane up with the player with the laser (as if to borrow energy) and he will get the laser as well. This is VERY useful if you are lucky enough to get the laser before the very last ship (which is hard indeed).

----- Cabal ----- (Contributor : Otto Heuer)

The giant chopper that shows up at the end of screen 4 on level one doesn't give you any points until you destroy it. Shooting the orange bullets won't knock off any points toward killing the chopper. Only shoot the orange bullets if they're in your way. Otherwise, spend all your time shooting the chopper. Don't waste any grenades on the chopper--it doesn't do as much damage as your gun (and you have unlimited bullets).

The giant submarine that shows up at the then end of screen 4 on level two can be sunk three times as fast if you shoot at the conning tower (the top-most part of the sub). It has also been determined that you can get by the submarine WITHOUT killing it... just avoid it until it submerges three times and it will destroy itself. Note that you don't get the points for killing it if it self-destructs.

The semi-truck that shows up at the end of screen 4 on level three will self-destruct if you destroy the CAB (the blue section in the front of it). On this screen you actually get the point for it as well. It is easiest to kill it with machine gun and/or bazooka gun, but in the absence of either of these, throw grenades at the cab (leading the throw by about four inches). It is MUCH easier to destroy the cab rather than destroying all the attack sections that it drops off.

The three CPUs that show up at the end of screen 4 on level four can actually be destroyed with only 2 grenades (I had to do this once when my grenade supply got low), but the best strategy is to lob five grenades at one of the outside CPUs (note that you can only have four grenades per player in the air at any given time, so space them out a bit), then go for the CENTER one (with another five grenades). The final CPU can simply be shot with the standard rifle, and if you're standing on the opposite side of the screen from it, it won't be able to hit you. Don't waste any more grenades...

Once you learn how to defeat the final menace (at the end of screen 4 on level five -- the final level) you can get by it (rather) painlessly. Go all the way to one side. Use your gun to shoot out the two surrounding machines that are shooting at you. As soon as they are both gone, lob three grenades at the center machine. By this time, the two outer machines that you shot out have regenerated and are firing at you. Shoot them out again, followed by another volley of three grenades to the center machine. Repeat until the center machine is gone. This requires 20 to 40 grenades, so stock up on the last level (5-4). That is what that final level was for.

Random tips:

Airplanes are worth 10000, choppers 7000, tanks and trucks are 5000, 3000, and 2000 (I believe--someone may want to verify these last three). Killing people and motorcycles (and rocks) won't get you many points -- don't bother unless they get in your way.

A well-places grenade will destroy two choppers.

If you are in a corner and a chopper is firing at you--run farther into the corner. Even if you're already IN the corner, if it sees you trying to move toward the corner--you won't die.

If you find yourself trapped by incoming bullets, spin the trackball down and to one side (but mostly down). This will cause your character to "duck and roll". If you are rolling--you can't be hit.

Kill the snipers (the guys in gray bullet-proof suits). Half the time you'll get a grenade for killing him. If you don't, two medics will come running out to reclaim the body. Shoot these medics as much as possible! They will drop four grenades. Pick up these grenades as quickly as possible and shoot the medics again for another four grenades.

On the level one screen with the sliding doors: shoot out the doors immediately upon starting the level. This will stop the guys from lobbing grenades at you.

Airplanes are hard to kill. The best method is by using machine gun or bazooka gun on it. In the absense of a super-gun, you can lead a grenade ABOVE where it is on the screen. If you don't get it, and the three bombs are being dropped right on you, it IS possible to stand BETWEEN where two bombs are coming down. You WON'T die!

One last note: when there's nothing good to shoot on the screen, fire at a bush. This is the way to get extra gunnery! Sometimes you'll only get more grenades, but you'll eventually get a super-gun!

-------- COMMANDO -------- (Contributor: Mario Moeller)

Here's a hot way to kill the soldiers without going anywhere near them. At the end of each area, when the enemy soldiers are pouring out of the gate from their compound, move your commando to the bottom of the screen and shoot down. Your shots will come down from the top of the screen, killing the soldiers as they come out of the gate.

(Contributor: Allen Perry)

This will let you rack up big points and all the extra men you can

This should work on all commando games that are set on regular factory difficulty. I dont think there was a chip fix for this.

On the first stage there is a cliff on the right side of the screen. The bad guys will jump off the end of this cliff and attack you. If you walk until the bad guys START jumping off and then stop you can stand there and kill them until you get sick of playing or until you reach the max extra men.

If you plan on playing thru the rest of the game you should stop at the max amount of extra men. If you just sit there the enemys will get faster and faster so the rest of the game will be harder.

--------------- CRYSTAL CASTLES --------------- There's a 'continue option' warp on the first board. It won't take you any higher than level 8, though.

(Contributor: an unknown person) The first warp is behind the palace on the upper-right hand corner of the first board. Go there then jump. It'll take you to level 3.

The second warp: get the hat, run to an elevator, and at the back corner of the hidden ramp, jump before the hat expires. The warp always gives you four lives (not including the one you're on) and takes you to level 5.

The third warp is on the third screen of Level 5, titled "Crossroads." It is extremely easy to trigger; just move to the very upper left corner and jump. You will be transported to the first screen of Level 7, again with four lives to spare.

According to this person, there are no other warps.

(Contributor: Mario Moeller) Jump more than 128 times on the front corner of the first screen, where Bentley starts, to get a surprise on the next screen - don't warp though! (He notes that this is hearsay.)

(Contributor : Tad Perry)

A Trick : Jump 100 times or more in the front corner of the first maze. (It's best to trap the balls inside the maze somewhere.) It doesn't matter how many lives it takes you to jump this number of times. (It usually takes two full lives of constant jumping.) Clear the maze of gems and the name "ATARI" will appear in a banner across the screen at the beginning of level two. This is not heresay and the number is not 128.

------ DARIUS ------ (Contributed by: Dave Hollinsworth. A complete spoiler sheet.)

Compiled by Jeff "Koganuts" Koga Version Two--5/18/91

Special thanks to: R. Cody Buchmann, Wesley Allen Burkett III, Paul S. Casey, Jeffrey Edwar Coleburn, Dave Hollinsworth, Joe Kmiecik, Milton W. Kuo, Michael Mainds, Kevin Nomura (twice), and Robert Potter.

Progression of the bubbles: Weapons (red): Bullets --> Lasers --> Wave Shields (blue): Green --> Silver --> Gold Bombs (green): Single --> Dual --> Quad

Miscellaneous bubbles: Points (grey): Points Extra-ship: Bomb certain key spots on the terrain.

Power levels: There are 8 power levels (0-7) within each armament category. Your weapons, shields, and bombs improve as you go from 0-7: Weapons: The shots move faster and therefore recharge more quickly. Bullets increase in number and waves increase in height, thus destroying more enemies at once. Waves, once fired, will go through anything until leaving the screen to the right. Shields: They just recharge, but the better classes of shields absorb more hits. Gold shields will also protect your ship from collisions with objects as well as shots, but on certain screens that have lots of little squeezeways, gold shields can actually kill you by richocheting your ship back and forth until you die. Bombs: They get 'smarter' in seeking out targets.

How to complete the game: Completing the game is easiest with triple bullets. Explore the different paths this way, and when you're ready for a challenge, try to get wave. Lasers are not weapons so much as a handicap you have to endure while building to wave.

Recommended paths: Easy: A-C-E-H-M-R-X Favorite: A-C-F-J-O-T-Z Maxing (all categories): A-B-D-G-L-Q-W Maxing (shields): A-C-F-{K-P}-S-Z (not sure about K-P)

Easy route with moderate end creature: Down all the ay then up on the last level to finish with Great Thing (Zone Z). Slightly harder route with easy end creature: Down/up or up/down all the way to finish with Octopus (Zone X).

Hints for killing the bosses: B/C: Electric Fan Use twin bombs to trim away the little drones that come at you, and aim at the mouth where the laser fire comes from. The key is that those four ships that come out of him and chase you will vanish if they go off the bottom of the screen. So stay low and not too far back. When the ships come out after you, scoot forward along the bottom of the screen and they will swoop off the screen and die. Repeat as needed.

G/H/I/J: Fatty Glutton Generally, stay as far back as possible and try to blow up the tiny fish coming out of his mouth. This buys time to maneuver through the spread of bombs that he releases. Just move forward towards him and when he shoots the fish, pull back away from him. Don't try and get out of his line of fire and bomb either above or below him. If you do, the mines will begin to fire backwards. He can be crushed with triple bullets, but he is extremely difficult with lasers, and collecting red bubbles to get to wave is almost impossible. With triple bullets, you can afford to sit forward against him since your shots reliably detonate the fish he shoots at you, and you rack up damage against him. Just get right in front of him and just keep firing. He'll hit you once with the fish and then die. With lasers, the optimal weapons path, if done perfectly, gives you maxed lasers against him. You have to keep up a steady stream of lasers that're timed to detonate the fish as far out as possible. To do this, start a pulsatile pattern of lasers by tapping the fire button intermittently, then holding it down when you have a laser firing at regular intervals. But since lasers are pretty weak against him, you simply have to survive for a couple of agonizing minutes with fish detonating in your face. But when you do get past him, the first red bubbles on the next screen give you wave 0 and from then on you embark on an orgy of destruction. Using lasers is not hard at all if you know the pattern.

Z: Great Thing Not bad with a good weapon

Endings: Your ship lands on a planet and Proco and/or Tiat stand outside, with a sunset in the background. The guy playing the Darius game.

Music From the Darius Soundtrack--Taito Game Music Volume 2 Performed by Zuntata, the Taito Sound Team Manufactured by G.M.O. Records in Stereo Cassette: ALC-22912, 2,200 Yen CD: Alfa 28XA-166, ???? Yen

Side A (Original Side): 1. Captain Neo--Boss Scene 1 2. Inorganic Beat--Boss Scene 2 3. Cosmic Airway--Boss Scene 3 4. Main Theme-Chaos--Boss Scene 4 5. The Sea--Boss Scene 5 6. Boss Scene 6--Boss Scene 7--Boss Clear--Credits--Requiem

Side B (Arrange Side): 1. Main Theme-Chaos 2. Cosmic Airway 3. Inorganic Beat 4. Captain Neo 5. The Sea

---------- Fatal Fury ---------- (Contributor : David Hawk)

Moves List for Fatal Fury (All characters assumed to be facing Right) :

Joe Higashi : Fatal Blow #1 - Dragon Punch [A repeatedly]

Fatal Blow #2 - Rocket Kick [Down/Left, Up/Right and B]

Fatal Blow #3 - Cyclone Punch [Down, Down/Right, Right and A]

Fatal Blow #4 - Flame Kick [Down, Down/Right, Right, Up/Right and B]

Terry Bogard : Fatal Blow #1 - Screwdriver [Down, Up and A]

Fatal Blow #2 - Flash Kick [Down/Left, Up/Right and B]

Fatal Blow #3 - Napalm Punch [Down, Down/Right, Right and A]

Fatal Blow #4 - Lightning Fist [Down, Down/Left, Left and A]

Andy Bogard : Fatal Blow #1 - Windmill Punch [Down, Up and A]

Fatal Blow #2 - Acrobat Kick [Down/Left, Up/Right and B]

Fatal Blow #3 - Force Wave [Down, Down/Right, Right and A]

Fatal Blow #4 - Elbow Smash [Left, Right, A]

-------- GAUNTLET -------- (Contributors: me; Colin Smiley, Josh Hayes, Ryan Vurlicer, unknown Dave Morrison, Keith Goolsbey, Kerry B. Durham)

On any board, stay idle until you lose around 200 health. At around that time, all the walls on the board will turn into exits. According to Felix Lee, this isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's because in multiplayer mode, it's possible to get trapped. The exits would be the only way to get out. This trick doesn't work on some older Gauntlet machines.

The best character to play, in the *long* run, is the elf. His magic is just as good as the wizard's and his fight ability as good as Thor's. His ability to shoot through cracks in addition to all this (when he has the power potions) makes him the best (his speed factor makes him attractive for my playing style. I like to get through the levels quickly. The faster I get through em, the faster I get points...). The Valkyrie is the worst, although some people regard this as a challenge...

To manipulate the point value of Death, shoot him. Death's point value takes the following progression: 1000-2000-1000-4000-1000-6000-1000-8000, and then back to start. His value keeps from the previous game.

You can kill Death painlessly by teleporting on top of him.

Level 8 is the level that the previous game ended on. If you got a really good sequence of boards in a game and you want to repeat them, turn the machine off and on again after you've entered your high score.

In Gauntlet II:

Colin notes that the 200 tick trick is now the 900 tick trick. He says that the game doesn't seem to have an ending, just like Gauntlet I. (He's gotten past level 100). Others have claimed it isn't 900 but some other number. I get the impression this number can be adjusted by the operator.

In this game there are 'secret rooms'. To get to a secret room, perform a secret trick on a level. Some of the secret tricks are: * Teleporting into the exit * Pushing a movable wall into the exit * Keeping all the super shots * Not using invulnerability (this is almost always a good idea anyway) * Not touching a fake exit * Teleporting on top of Death and/or acid blobs * Not taking ANYTHING (the tick trick comes in handy here)

The hints it gives to the secret room don't necessarily apply to your current level, just as on Gauntlet I. The secret trick usually doesn't work, but it is always same for any given board. You're allowed one secret trick for every 15 levels or so.

Josh says: You can kill the acid blobs! Just drop 2 potions in quick succession. This works regardless of your magic ability. It also puts the dragon back to sleep momentarily. [You can also kill them with a teleporter. If there's a teleporter handy, that is. -Ryan]

The ? foods are NOT random. Grab a ? food on health mod 20 == 7. You'll get 200 health. [Interesting. Do the treasure chests and shootable walls also work this way? -JTR]

Couple of strategy notes: Reflective shots make the dragon easier. Invulnerability makes him very easy :) And remember that when generators aren't on the screen, they don't generate monsters.

Keith Goolsbey says (For Gauntlet I) :

I am an avid Gauntlet fan, and am the only Gauntlet player I know of who can live indefinitely playing as the *Warrior*. Playing Gauntlet as the Warrior is very different; potions are almost useless.

Anyway, my cheat allows you to strictly limit your health losses on *any* level to no more than about 200 health. It involves stalling the *walls*!

If you remain motionless (or basically aimless) and stall off about 30 health, all the doors will open. Everybody knows this, and the game even tells you about it. The game doesn't tell you that if you stall off about 200 health, all the walls will turn into exits!

The game designers had to include this because there are some levels which require you to pick up a key before you exit. If you are already filled up with keys, and the doors are all gone, then it would be *impossible* for you to exit, and you would starve to death.

What they didn't anticipate, is that certain levels of the game which are really difficult, which would require you to take massive health losses to finish, become very simple if all the walls are exits. Or they can be effectively skipped altogether.

Because the game has Monty-Hall levels with lots of food on them, you can use this cheat to only play levels which are a wash or increase your health dramatically, and cut your losses to 200 on all the really pain in the butt levels.

All I need to live forever as the Warrior is extra shot power! That way, I kill everything in exactly one shot. This allows you to do precision firing and gives you a level of control over your shots that no other character can achieve.

My high score was about 3million at about level 260 (I played to see if anything weird happened at 256). Then the arcade closed and booted me out. I had 30,000 health stacked up at the time and it took me about 20 minutes to kill myself off by sucking 30 weight ghosts. All on one quarter. I can repeat this stunt at any time on any Gauntlet machine; my only limitations are how long I have access to the machine and my own physical endurance.

Playing the warrior for 12 hours straight with all the extra power potions is an incredible adrenaline rush, because you end up sprinting through the levels gobbling up food and fighting everything in your path. I once played 50 levels straight without *touching* my fire or magic buttons! I still went up in health by about 2000!

God I love Gauntlet I.

Kerry B. Durham says (For Gauntlet II) :

I used to be a Guantlet II guru. (never played Guantlet I ...) I noticed that your Guantlet II high score is about 350K at level 35 or so. Well here some helpful hints to anyone who knows the basics:

Once you get to the thief/mugger levels you can wait for the thief to appear and shoot him. He will appear in the same space you start the level on, shoot him and his money bag will appear. Do Not pick up the money bag, it will cover his entrance onto the board, and therefor he may not appear until his entrance space is clear. I do not think this is a good tactic because of the amount of time wasted to do this. I only use this on long boards.

You may also stop the thief/mugger by pushing a movible block across your own path. The theif/mugger will follow your own trail - footstep for footstep! therefor you can run, find a movible block and circle around and cover your own trail by pushing the block to cover your trail. Note: if you re-cross your own trail, the theif/mugger will take the shortest route to catch you.

On another note: If you are playing two+ player you can kill almost all dragons with one player diverting his attention, or using an indirect attack. For example: you can find shootible walls or just stand in the right spot askew from the dragon. he will try to flame instead of fire-ball. if done correctly you will be standing a wall away from him. Then your partner can go around and shoot flame head while the dragon is flaming away.

I am sorry if these sound like advice rather than cheats, they seem like the natural play of the game, not out-right cheats or game glitches. (a glitch like teleporting on-top of a stopped thief, and your character appears to *be* the thief for the rest of the screen, even though you get no special powers). I sure wouldn't mind the address of the person who sent you the guantlet II cheat! :):)

For the record: my high score for one player/one quarter is 485K at level 58 and for two player is 890K at level 72 (I outlived my 'partner' for 30+ levels and 350K+ points) I do not think two player scores should be allowed, because as long as someone else plays, I will live. The game stops giving you almost *any* food on any screen after level 50 or so, you must open chests to eat!!! (when played alone, I meant...) And I used the ELF!!!

Hope this helps someone, please don't hesistate to email me at kdurham@eng.auburn.edu

(Conributor: James Reed)

On Gauntlet II (to avoid being starved),

After reaching your peak in health, find a level where you have many, MANY level 3 ghost generators behind a wall. Proceed to (by sitting there and shooting ghosts through what was the wall (but became exits) ) to increase your score to at least 2.5 mil. [The only way I've seen this done is to insert quarters into the other three players to you can get the 6x multiplier, then kill off the other characters]. When you leave the level, food will be plentful again, and, if you play correctly, you will have enough food to play through the next starvation stage (you need about 7000+ I believe) without taking advanatge of this trick.

BTW: I haven't done this, but I've watched a friend do it. His HS is over 100mil (I think -- it had one more digit than G II will display, but the machine kept track of it internally! Really weird to have a HS 32,000 appearing over 1,000,000 on HS list :) ).

-------- JOUST II -------- (Contributor: Barry Brumitt)

In two-player mode, make sure one player is standing where the bonus box appears (preferrable as a pegasus, this covers more area), when the other grabs a gold egg. This'll give you both an extra life. Most helpful.

----------- Magic Sword ----------- (Contributor : Jeff Lake)

Magic Sword is an excellent game. I have played this game extensively and swear I could play it blindfolded and still finish it.

There are three stages I feel one needs to take to finish the game on one quarter.:

1. FOOD: The duration of your game depends on your vitality and your vitality depends on how much food you can get and there are several tricks to accomplish this.

a.) Magic Scroll. Definitely the most important item in the game you could have. Unfortunately you can have it for only 2 levels per find. As stated before it allows better probability of food being dropped from monsters. The scroll is hard to find at the low levels(1-20+) so you have to depend on surviving for a while. The absolute BEST time in the game to have the scroll is, I think, level 33. The level with the swarms of Jellyfish. With average luck and prayers you can get 2 or 3 lobsters, and about 4 or 5 smaller food values like mushrooms and tomatoes. I've managed to get 3 FULL vitality levels(not bars) just from those jellyfish alone! The tough part is acquiring this very lifesaver(Scroll). The only way, besides hoping the ninja on that level has one(100-1), is to acquire one from the previous level, #32. To do this you have to hope and PRAY one of the Samurai gives you one when you kill them. This will not always work. There is however, an alternative way of getting a scroll. Ryan Vurlicer spoke of an alternative path that is more rewarding and more difficult. It is on level 32 of the ALTERNATIVE path that one can be GUARANTEED a magic scroll. The hard part then is keeping it to when you need it for the jellyfish. All those stupid skeletons dropping crystal balls can be a pain.

b.) Alternative paths. Take those RED levels!!! Sure they're more harder, but oh, that food at the later levels as well as the points are REALLY nice down the stretch. I can't remember the last game I've played where I have taken the regular route.

c.) Earlier Levels. Master those levels! Find every nook and cranie where food can be found. Don't get hit! Build you Vitality! By level 28, I've managed to get 7 FULL vitality levels(not bars).

2. COMPANION CHOICE:

Of the 8 different companions to chose from I will list them in the order of which I see is most valuable for survival.

1.) Lizard Man. Best in the game by far. His shot speed along with power makes him ESSENTIAL for certain Bossmonsters. 2.) Thief. His bombs are great but knowing where those randomly placed trapped chests are is a definite boon. Build him from the VERY start. 3.) Knight. Supposedly the best in the game. His shot speed is lacking and the opportunity to increase his levels is awkward and not well placed except at level 48 when he is guaranteed level 8. 4.) The others. Not worth taking EVER unless you want variety or a challenge. Try winning with the priest from ground zero. It's a bitch!

3. POINT MAXIMIZATION:

Only through learning the previous 2 steps can this one ever be contemplated. Whenever you find a necklace, grab it! Milk the 2 levels you have it of ALL it's points! Through the use of this, and learning where all the Blue Gems(flames) are you can get scores over 5,000,000. If you include the Diamond, 6 Mil.

MIND-BLOWING SCORES FROM HELL: Level 47. That's all there is to it. As long as you have a good amount of vitality(3+) you can grab the necklace and WRECK HAVOK on points. The biggest thing to note is that a necklace is available on this level. Grab it and go back to the platform at the beginning of the level and wait for those wierd things with the floating skulls around them to appear. Give a blast of Magic(hit both buttons). All the skulls turn into 8000 pt coins(16000 if you have the necklace). Repeat until time is running out or you are almost dead. The next level has SOOOO much food you can still easily finish the game. Using this method I've been able to get scores over 8 MILLION! With my personal high being 8,850,000 points. I might add that this is WITHOUT knowing about the 1 mil. diamond and a couple other gems Mr. Vurlicer pointed out. I, therefore, feel scores of 10 million are possible. My quest begins.

----------- MAJOR HAVOC ----------- Build up unlimited turns (for the very patient) by replaying level 13 (turning on/off the reactor and exiting) over and over again to win turns off points. (friend's trick)

There are four warps, which you enter using the paddle and fire button. Red: 23. Yellow: 46. Green: 824. Aqua: 315. The story behind the black warp: Long ago there was an arcade called the Video Palace, run by a guy called "Grungy Gil". We called it "Gil's Grungy Palace". He had a Major Havoc game that people were beginning to get tired of. Gil wanted to get rid of it. To prevent this, I started a rumor about a special "black" warp. This increased business fantastically, and saved the game until the end of the semester. I hear the rumor has gotten around... >;) To the best of my (or anyone else's) knowledge, there is no planet at the "end" of the game, or even an end to the game. Ian Novack noted that more than one warp may work for the green warp. He thinks 324. [Ok, but remember that 824 definitely works. -JTR]

Frank Gomez says: The last four levels repeat over and over forever. [So much for the planet at the end of the game... -JTR]

-------------- Marble Madness -------------- (Contributor : Eric Smith)

1) On the second level (The Intermediate Race) each player starts out on a platform and has to roll down a ramp into a maze. If you jump off the platform at the correct angle, you can land on the surface between the mazes and roll directly to the maze exit. Start at the center line of the side of the platform opposite the ramp, and aim for the right edge of the place where the platform and ramp meet. Reverse this for the right player.

______ /\ start \/\/\ /\/\/\ /\/\/\/\ \/\/\/\/ _____ \/\/\/\ jump \/\/ \ \/\ \

2) In the ultimate level near the end there is a maze-like area where you go up a ramp and have to negotiate several turns and go down a ramp. The walls of the up-ramp are short, and you can jump off the ramp and around the maze by going up the ramp, then back down and hard left.

---- NARC ---- (Contributor: anonymous)

While coming out of any door, move the joystick left. RIGHT after your character appears, move the joystick up. If you do everything correctly, your cop will be "stuck" to the wall, and will be able to walk on the wall to the next stage.

(Contributor: Joshua Abbey)

To get ridiculous numbers of points and, thusly, free men, you need to get to the end of the game, or at least where Mr. Big is. Once you've killed him (the little one *and* the big one), and you get to enter the treasure vault, just collect all the big gold blocks, and just wait. Don't do anything, just wait. After a while, the machine will send a pack of those annoying dogs after you. Let them kill you. You'll be sent back a stage in the game. And you have to fight your way back to the next 'bonus' exit door... once you do, mega-points and mega-men.

(Contributor: Mark Sachs)

Note the automatic teller machines present in a few places. March your character up to the machine and push into it; it should start spitting out money (evidence). Not HUGELY useful, but it's still kind of neat.

[ Neat ... so the programmers *do* pay attentions to details ... - JND ]

(Contributor: David Hsu)

An easy way to get free lives is on the first level. Right after you leave the subway, keep your joystick pointed up. If you do this, you will "stick" to the wall and nobody can touch you, though you can arrest tons of people (50 is the max). You can do this in other levels, though it does not seem to be as useful. One problem occurs right when you get out of the subway. There is a barrel which obstructs your path in/on the wall. You can just rocket it away if there are people behind the barrel (in respect to you). You can stay on the wall all the way to the passkey spot and into the door.

--------- Punch Out --------- (Contributor : Bill ?)

Here's the system for getting by everyone in one round of punch-out...

Warning: This system works on 9 out of ten Punch-Out machines, I have seen some where the first level is unusually hard and the latter couple of techniques don't work.

Glass Joe: So easy that you'd have to be trying not to win. But to be 100% sure.. Keep guard up till his eyes glow for a big punch, dodge, and hammer him with rights and lefts to the face. Repeat till down. Piston Hurricane: Concentrate blows, especially lefts, to the abdomen. When he backs up and charges in, hit him with a blow to the stomach as soon as he charges into you, he'll go down for the count after the 2nd or third time. Bald Bull: Fairly simple: Right, dodge, left left. Right, dodge left left. Look out for his upper cuts though (get out of the way! duh) and upon his bull-charge you have two options. A hit to the stomach when he is right under you puts him down for the count, but if your reflexes aren't optimum, you are better off at dodging and continuing the fight. Right to the face (or 2 lefts), dodge, right. NO BODY BLOWS TO BALD BULL except on the bull charge. Kid Quick: Soooo easy: Right, dodge, right right dodge right right dodge right right dodge right right dodge right right. (these all being blows to the head). VERY EASY as long as you don't lose your rhythm. If ya do get messed up you can usually recover with a a dodge and starting again. No blows to the stomach. This is basically what you'll be doing against Mr. Sandman. Pizza Pasta: Basically you're waiting for him to screw up. Use the kid quick system till he backs off (with the Come on! Come on!) and DODGE his hook. Then pummel him with rights and lefts to the head( ONLY the head), and he won't be fighting back. Repeat till he's dead. If he pins you up against the ropes with shots to the stomach at some point, just get your guard down there and sneak in some lefts and you should break free. Mr. Sandman, the champion: Kid Quick system exactly. Every now and then however he fires a very quick left or right to the head. When he hits you with one, dodge the opposite way of the hit quickly or you'll be going down.

----- Rygar -----

- A little after half way through stage thirteen (13) there is a hidden bonus which can only be gotten WITHOUT the extra which fires straight up. You MUST have the standard semi-circular attack.

When in the right spot, jump on the backs of enemies for extra height and fire upwards (semi-circular arc), nothing will seem to happen although it will make a sound like you are hitting something. After about 20 hits, a FLAG will drop which is worth 1,000,000 points...

- This is just a flaw with the graphics. When standing beside a rock, crouch and move away from it, the player will "hide" himself inside the rock and will be unreachable by most enemies for a short time.

- This is not a cheat, but many people don't realise it... Shooting the Question mark repeatedly will turn it into a shield. The trick is to recognise it before you pick it up, stop, crouch and shoot.

--- QIX --- (Contributor : Tad Perry)

1. Without drawing anything except a small block to get by a spark(?), go to the top middle of the playfield at the very beginning of the game:

+----------------------+ | ^-- here | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +----------------------+

2. Before the sparx come back, draw a rectangle going down:

+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | |___| | | |

3. And another across:

+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | +---| |---+ | | | |___| | | | +-----------+ |

4. Wait in the following location for the sparx to return:

+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | wait here ---^ | | | | | | | | +---| |---+ | | | |___| | | | +-----------+ |

5. When the sparx come to intersect again at the top of the screen close off the whole structure while the sparx are inside travelling thru the T-shaped structure just layed:

+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---| |---+ | | | | |___| | <--- Sparx will circle| | | +-----------+ this block here. | | |_____________________| |

NOTES:

1. You have to pull off the wall in the last step to let one of the two sparx move under you and enter the T-shaped structure. 2. Scale is insignificant. It's the shape of the structures that matters most. (An upside-down "T" inside a box, with the box closed up while sparx are on the "T".)

The sparx will now continue circling the top of the surrounded T and cannot escape. New sparx, when generated, will be trapped immediately. You can now concentrate on trapping the Qix and learn the type of patience you always wished you'd had. Regardless of your strategy for trapping the Qix you should always start off a game the way described here unless you're into death.

------- Robocop ------- (Contributor: Ian Jefferies)

Here are some cheats/strategies.

Level 1: The motorbike which damages you before you draw your gun can be beaten by jumping just before it comes on the screen. A shop window has a small menu type poster in it, jump around about there. When you land, punch the bike (it flashes green and doesn't damage you). Punch it when it returns to kill it. Needs to be pixel perfect ! When fighting the ED209, time your jumps to when it fires at you (hence jumping over its shots). When it moves to the left third of the screen, stand close to it. The weapons arm will now point at a steeper angle (more into the ground). Now move away slightly and jump away when ED209 fires, it's shots will go into the ground and not trap you at the left edge of the screen.

Level 2: To get extra health shoot the fat guy using a girl as a (+later) shield. He moves forward to shoot at you, shoot him then.

General: Bad guys come onto the screen when you pass a certain pixel. Move back and kill them off. Don't charge through the game. Learn the bad guy patterns (they are the same from game to game).

Target practice: Getting all of the targets (100% hit) gives *extra* capacity for your energy bar. (Bug: Missing one target sometimes still gives 100%, but don't rely on it!)

Level 3: Go over the top of the car crushers, and pick up the baby food. Try and save the Cobra assault cannon for the end of the level, it makes it really easy ! If you shoot just under the cab of the final enemy, you can kill the guy throwing grenades at you.

Level 4: Shoot the metal crushers with the Cobra cannon, or punch the fire button like crazy if you get trapped. The final bad guy is a crane which swings a steel ball on an extendable chain. *Don't shoot the wooden box* Stand on it and shoot the cab of the crane. Also try to save the Cobra cannon - by punching bad guys instead of shooting them - and use it on the crane.

Level 5: Don't charge through this level, especially on the conveyor belt. Mind the first guy armed with a flame thrower - you can shoot him before he shoots at you. The military ED209 at the end of the level can be beaten by crouching under the OCP logo when it charges. Jump and shoot the weapon arm when it retreats.

Level 6: Need to move through this level fairly quickly (time is a little tight). The walking coffee tables can be shot from the level below, and careful diagonal shooting can destroy laser emplacements one level up. Concentrate on laser turrets which are diagonally away from you - their fire is hardest to dodge. The last baby food on the level gives *all* your energy back. Try and keep the laser shots until the end of the level. When you reach the top level, move as far to the right as possible and shoot the military ED209 as much as possible before it wakes up. There is a fairly safe(ish) position just at the end of the military ED209's forward walk (like the end of level 5, but no OCP marker). Kill the military ED209 first. Tactics for the other ED209 are similar to level 1.

Level 7: Use diagonal shooting to destroy laser turrets one level up. (see also level 6 comment). The baby food stored in the box gives all your energy back. When you reach the single lift which goes up multiple floors, the best way to avoid being trapped on it by laser fire is to *jump* onto the next level just before the lift reaches it. Timing between the laser shots is critical. When this lift reaches the top, stop just short of the floor (you should be able to see/hear the light curtains and laser turrets) and then go back down as far as you can. The laser turrets and curtains sometimes disappear. The final ED209 can be destroyed by standing at the far left of the screen and jumping up and down. Missiles launched at you can be destroyed by shooting or punching. When the ED209 gets too close, use the tactic of level one. When ED209 is destroyed, kill Dick Jones (in the same way as a gunman holding a hostage is killed). The president is not killed by your gun shots (!)

Game difficulty varies, some bad guys take one shot to kill while a different machine will require 2 shots to kill the same guy. The former machine has really easy 'Friday the 13th' Jason 'Chainsaw massacre' 'Donovan' bad guys to kill, on the latter machine these guys are *mean*. Shoot at them while they are in the air. If they do hack at you don't give them a second chance, move away and make 'em eat lead !

---------- SLAP FIGHT ---------- (Contributors: Casey Barton, Mario Moeller, Lee Dormon, Robert Schmitz)

To have your ship upgraded to the best possible, just die without firing or moving at the beginning. This costs you a life, but might be fun.

Mario adds that the ship moves a little on the slow side when the cheat is executed, so you'll need to pick up some speedups as quickly as possible.

If you do don't fire a shot, but DO move your ship at the beginning of the game, and survive as long as the first pool (experienced players should know what I mean), then when you die you will begin just before the first 'boss' ship with full homings and speed...

------------- SPLATTERHOUSE ------------- (Contributor : Dave Hollinsworth)

On the stage with the worms shooting out of the corpses, you can move the character all the way to the right edge of the screen, and chop away. Just make sure whether the worms are leaping at your head, and down towards your legs.

On the stage with the animated painting (after taking out the flying knives), run right *at* the painting, and keep nailing it as it rebounds off the wall back at you.

For the stage where you go outside, and eventually fight the huge green dude with chainsaw arms, the trick is to carry both rifles with you. Get the first one, and when you find the second one, pick it up, which drops the first rifle a small distance before you. Move forward, drop the rifle, and pick up the fallen one. If you keep doing this, you can then bring both rifles to the end of the stage, and blow away the hooded chainsaw man.

Against the Alien-like creatures whose heads attacked you after severing them, an easy way to kill them was to sever the head, and stand and wait for the head to attack you. If you moved, the head would have the angle to hit you. This also goes for the skeletal dogs that leaped at you after the first time you hit them. For the blobular "baby" monster (also on the stage with the dogs) just keep hitting it and moving forward to hit it again.

On the stage where you fight your mirror doubles, I had a sequence that worked really well for taking out my doubles. I *believe* I jumped at them and attacked, then immediately attacked downwards then middle. Don't remember how it worked, I don't even remember the types of attacks there were. Oh, how was the "slide" attack executed. I don't think I ever figured it out.

I had some strategy for the Cross of Heads stage, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I believe I would stand just a bit further than one column (using the background as reference) from the cross, and keep chopping away, watching out for the occassional head from behind.

This was as far as I got. A general strategy for this game: you really need patience to win! Don't just run through the game all gung-ho, take your time!

Hint for the dude at the end of stage 5. You walk into the room, and it looks like you've found your girlfriend at last. Unfortunately, after a bit, she turns into a monster with fingers that flick out blades and recoil (a bit like Wolverine, perhaps). The range is long, 1/3 to 1/2 the screen, so you've got to be away from him and watch for them.

Anyway, he attacks in 3 rounds of 6. i.e. you hit him 6 times, it pauses for a bit, and then he goes for the next lot. For the first two, he always jumps towards you, then uses his fingers. So you get positioned, and when he's coming down, you punch him out of the air. But he might be closer, so be careful. You can also just walk under him, and try it from the other side of the screen. But you may cop some knifes in the back.

But it's better to face _away_ from him, and closer to the centre (just out of finger range). You can still punch him, but he'll end up on the other side of the screen, and you can get into position while he's recovering -- no danger from the fingers.

On the third set of 6, he changes his tactics. He'll do short jumps along the floor, using his fingers in between. He'll can kill you quite easily this way. If you attempt to get in close and duke it out (like I used to with the chainsaw dude before I discovered you could bring the second gun along :-) ), you may get him, but he's more likely to kill you. The right technique (mine, of course :-) ) is to slide attack him before he gets to you. This does some major damage to him, and you can hit him one or two more times before he gets you back. Now you can duke it out, or perhaps you can get away -- I always stayed, cost me two hearts, generally. And then he dies (yay!) and turns back into your girlfriend. Take a moment to mourn, then down into level 6.

--------- STAR WARS --------- (Contributor: Mario Moeller)

If on the tie-fighter dogfight stage, Darth Vader's ship is shot more than 30 times the player is given 27 extra shields. [*gasp!* - JTR] If you're really lucky you'll get 255 extra shields, but this is quite rare. [ Note : this is reported to be near impossible to do ... - JND ]

On the Death Star run, use the force to increase scores tremendously. Don't start shooting until the message "USE THE FORCE" disappears. This means dodging everything the Empire throws at you. You get a bonus for doing this. 5000 on the first level, which increases to as high as 100000 on the higher levels. [I'll vouch for that. -JTR]

------------ STRIKE FORCE ------------ (Contributor: Robert Potter)

To reach the ultimate bad guy without having to go through the entire enemy starship, you just play the LEFT player, and get yourself killed at the far LEFT end of the starship (the very beginning). When you reincarnate, you'll be at the far RIGHT end of the board, past the wall (or IN the wall if you weren't far enough left). The boss will not appear until you move to the left past where he should be (though things will start firing at you immediately).

Kill the boss, get your free credit, start again. ;)

Strategy tip: Kill dreadnaughts with one timewarp and one cluster bomb. You always get the time warp back, plus other goodies.

Score hogging tip: Clear out all the planets but one, fly around from starbase to starbase waiting for dreadnaughts to appear. Pick 'em off using above method. This gets boring after a while, of course...

--------------- TRACK AND FIELD --------------- (Contributor: Tony Mason. A game-busting guide.)

First, the triple-flapping technique. It's the fastest method I've ever seen for pounding the buttons. I would hit each button (left and right) with the middle three fingers on each hand, one hand at a time. The sequence is 4, 3, 2 (2 is the pointing finger), on each button. [Note that this technique also works on any other speed-intensive button pressing game. Try using this on the fire button on Sinistar sometime, for instance. -JTR]

Event 1 (100-m dash):

Nothing to say, except use the triple-flapping technique. Oh, and the gun going off happened at exactly 3.3 seconds after the 'READY' flag. A tie (in 2P game) gets you 1000 points.

At one point my friends and I got loony and made a little machine out of a lego motor and a gear. Results: (1) We got very fast speeds. (2) We got kicked out of the arcade. [A friend of mine claims to have used an electric toothbrush on the button versions, same results. -JTR]

Event 2 (Long jump):

Note that hitting the line at all gives you a speed boost of 50, hitting it in the exact center gives you a speed boost of 100. My personal best is 9.76.

Event 3 (Javelin throw):

42 degrees is the best angle.

A secret trick in this event is to throw the javelin upwards at 90 degree angle. You'll hit a bird for 1000 points. [Make sure you qualify! -JTR]

Event 4 (110m meter hurdles):

You'd be best off getting a friend to hit the jump button for you. A tie gets you 1000 points, just as in the 100m dash. Best time: 9.5 seconds.

A cheat in the two-player mode, on older machines: have one person win the race normally. The other player should take his time. After 40 seconds, the clock stops running down. Use a watch to ensure a 100+ second finish time. The + is how many seconds you get credited for :). I got 0.01 seconds once that way...

Event 5 (Hammer throw):

Perfect throw will have 1500 speed, 45 degree angle. 99.99 meter throw most of the time. [I've found that the best way to get good speed is not to listen, but to watch the bar at the bottom. -JTR]

Event 6 (High jump):

Note that hitting the buttons, even after you have jumped, really helps. Be sure to tap the jump button to ease yourself over the top, not hold the button down.

I use the background stuff to judge distance; when I get to a certain point I jump. PR: 2.50 meters, though it sure looked like I fouled...

If you foul the first two jumps and nail the third, you get a 1000-pt. bonus.

(Contributor : Tad Perry)

I believe you can also let time roll over in the 100 meters to get awesome records just as with the hurdles. (At least I seem to remember that I did it.)

-------- Vendetta -------- (Contributor: Ryan Tanner)

By the way, to freeze Vendetta (to get your money back since the stupid game froze again [nice when you're having a bad game]), simply hit Joe O. (forgot the last name) with a pail. Joe O. is the midlevel boss monster for level 2. This nocks him right out of the game and he goes floating by every 20 seconds or so. Saving the pail for Missing Link is fun too. Instead of sticking on his head like the other guys, it sticks inthe middle of his chest. It's very funny.

------ XYBOTS ------ (Contributors: Mario Moeller, and one unknown person)

On the first level, don't collect any money for totally massive bonus points at the end. And lots of cash.

You can shoot around a wall to your right by putting your gun around the corner. You can shoot them but they cannot shoot you.

--------- ZOOKEEPER --------- An obscure trick in an obscure game. On the coconut boards, when you jump onto the top ledge, you get some points. Jump off the ledge then onto it again; you'll get twice as many points. And again, for four times as many. The bonus keeps doubling until 300K per land. The best board to try this on is the board where the ledges are invisible. It's kind of hard to jump on then off, but so few coconuts are thrown that you have lots of room for error.

=============================================================================

*** The advanced cheat sheet ***

-------------- Blood Brothers -------------- The game is very similar to "Cabal" ( in fact it's basically exactly the same except that it has a Western theme instead of WW2 theme )

A "get as many points as you want" kinda cheat :

1) get to the second screen ( preferably without dying on the first screen ) 2) shoot the building on the right hand side of the screen and start shooting the trees in the background on the right. 20,000 points fly out from each bunch of trees. continue. 3) That is basically it. A few problems occur and here is how to counter them: a) 5 men run across the back from the left and throw grenades.. just shoot the grenades before they get to you eventually they come out less often, and will stop altogether b) the men on the right come out from the edge to shoot you same as above.. they stop eventually c) a plane flies over and drops bombs. same as a). It stops after some time. d) After a certain a,ount of time a bird comes out to kill you let it. Only 2 birds ever come out ( sometimes only 1 ) and then they also stop coming. This is why it pays not to die on the first screen. Another hint. on the first screen, the tin can be shot many times ( immediately ) to give you a free man. If you miss it then don't bother trying again, you only get one chance. Also the game can be set to give free men every xx000 points, if it is you are lucky and will continue to get planty of men.

hold your finger on the button to keep shooting the trees ( sticky-tape works well here ) and prepare to get *really* bored. Play the neighbouring game so that you can keep an eye on it.

Have fun !

ps. some machines ( copies especially ) have really slow firing, and it is quicker to press the fire button repeatedly. Don't bother playing these machines, they are really infererior and it'l take you 5 times as long to get a decent score. pps. I gave up after 21+ million, just too plain lazy

[ from another anonymous souce ... ]

The scores that you could reach is theoretically infinite, but I haven't had the spare time to do it for more then about an hour. I reckon that it would clock over at 100 million, but I've only managed to get 21 million ( or more precisely 21,450,100 )

Here's how to do it.. Play the first screen On the second screen, just shoot the object/guys on the right ( the building and the man in the building ) then start shooting the trees ( standing on the right of the screen so you won't get shot ) Every now and again some guys will throw grenades at you.. shoot or dodge them After shooting the trees for a about 10 seconds a 20,000 point bonus will fly out and land at your feet and you collect it automatically. Continue.. This is basically the trick. Points to note : 1) A bird comes out and kills you if you stay on the same screen for some time. Let it kill you. Only one or two birds come out, so it pays not to lose a life by mistake. Thereafter : no more birds. 2) The grenade throwers and planes stop after some time. 3) Games can be set to give you a free man every so many points, or never.. so find a game that will give you many spare lives to continue with when you get bored. 4) Killing the last man on the last screen ( easy, just shoot and don't bother dodging bullets ) gives you 1,000,000 so keep this in mind if trying to clock it & finish it.

------------- BUBBLE BOBBLE ------------- (Contributors: Mario Moeller, Bryan Martin, Seth Scott)

When the game is displaying the "BUBBLE BOBBLE" screen in attract mode, try the following sequence of joystick/button commands:

Left, Jump, Left, 1P, Left, Fire, Left, 1P.

It'll say "POWER UP!" at the bottom of the screen. The next game you play, you'll have all the useful powers (speed, fast bubbles, multiple bubbles). Then there's the ORIGINAL GAME cheat mode. This one gives you all the magic doors (even if you die. You will *not* get them if you die on non-OG mode):

Fire, Jump, Fire, Jump, Fire, Jump, Right, 1P.

Both cheats can be done during the one game. In fact, you don't even have to use these secret control sequences on the same title screen.

Bryan adds: After getting a high score, enter your initials as S.E.X. Start the next game as normal. The second item on the first level will be a pitchfork. Getting this item without bubbling the bad guys will get you mucho points. [How many? -JTR]

(Contributor : Seth Scott)

I've finished the game (one quarter for each player), and the one thing I don't know is how to get the 'true ending,' which I believe is related to the 'power-up' code...

Here's my Bubble Bobble lore:

1) Make it to level 20 without dying, and a door appears-- it leads to a 'secret tomb,' a level full of diamonds. There are secret tombs at levels 20 and 30, also.

2) Make it to level 50 without dying, and a strange, bee-hive-shaped door appears; enter it and you warp to level 70. DON'T kill the drunks on level 50, or the door disappears; bubble them and wait! Btw, with two players, only one of the players must survive unharmed to get the secret door.

3) Special item: the bell. If taken, a flash and a 'bell' sound will go off at the beginning of any level that will have some sort of destructive magic.

A few useful tricks:

*'Paffing' a Skel* : Skel is that nasty white monster that comes after you when you've taken too long; with two players, two Skels will appear. If one player is killed by 'his' Skel, then he can collide with his partner's Skel *WHILE HE IS STILL FLICKERING.* If the player's icon is still flickering, the other player's Skel will disappear (poof!), with no harm to the once-slain character.

*The Trick* : At the end of a level, sometimes all of the bubbles on the screen will inexplicably turn into food (even if there was no candy cane on that level). If the tens and hundreds digits of either player's score match when the last monster of a level is popped, then the bubbles will turn into food! Ex: scores of 10,770 1,350,990 or 576,000 will produce 'the trick.' Usually, my partner and I kill everything in a level, and as one player moves to pop the last monster, the other player will 'get the trick' by blowing bubbles against a wall until the score is correct. Notice that you _do_ get the points for popping the last monster, so if you're by yourself, you have to work your score so that the tens and hundreds digits will match _after_ the points for the last monster are added....

*'Blowing yourself through'* : It is possible (though quite difficult) to bounce on a bubble at the top of the screen and ride it 'through' the top, so that you emerge at the bottom of the screen.

A Brief List of Interesting Objects:

(note that these are named by consensus of my friends and myself... inventing one's own names for bubble bobble phenomena is in the spirit of the game!)

'Noah' : Aqua-colored cross; fills the screen with water when touched. Note that there is a slight delay before the monsters spin--- be warned, you can die before the monsters do!

'Hineage': Red cross; replaces taker's bubbles with fireballs, and monsters struck with these fireballs become diamonds. Limited number of shots. Ends with leve. (level.) 'The Bomb': Impressive, shiny black bomb with a fuse; instantly kills all monsters, turns them to diamonds, too.

'The Spectator': Very rare-- a good omen! Red, flame-filled bubble; whoever pops it gets 100,000 points and 'Hineage' for the next five levels!

'Candy Cane': Colors vary. Causes large, valuable piece of food to fall from the sky at level's end. Also causes an automatic 'trick.'

'Divine Intervention': Yellow cross; causes three lightning bolts to cross the screen, killing some or all monsters. Not very reliable.

'The Garter Belt': Looks kinda like a pewter ring; causes stars to rain down all over the screen, killing all monsters.

'The Clock': Freezes everything but players. Beware--- you can't touch the monsters while they're frozen!!!

'The Bank': Coffer-shaped; silver bank causes a 50,000-point diamond to fall at level's end, and a diamond trick; red bank: 80-k ruby, and a ruby trick. All alliances are off when the bank appears....

'The Killer': A ball-shaped, electrical shape; releases a bouncing, noisy ball of lightning that kills any monster it touches. Also, not very reliable, but better than nothing.

'The Skull': A horrible-looking human skull; invokes a red comet that crosses the screen, turning all the monsters red (and angry, and FAST!)

Misc: -The head in the first secret tomb is 'Rascal,' aka 'The Grumple Grommit,' --- this is what the level 100 monster looks like.

I will answer any question about any level (I know tricks to them all) by email: seth@cie.uoregon.edu

(I didn't want to send you 100 paragraphs for 100 levels!)

--------- CENTIPEDE --------- (Contributor : Tad Perry)

I was never good enough at Centipede myself to do it, but you can modify the Defender trick I contributed to solve the problem of no extra turns after 1,000,000 for an interval equal to the number of turns you have won. (Or you can just make sure you don't go under six turns at any time during the last extra turn period before 1M.) If I remember correctly, this modification (accounting for how many times 12,000 goes into 1M) was used successfully by an advanced Centipede player who I'd described the Defender trick to.

Plus, Eric Ginner had an incredible manipulation of this game where he figured out exactly how many mushrooms it took in a certain layer of the screen to keep fleas from dropping at all. He would basically build the board up like this (@'s are mushrooms):

+---------------------------------------------------------+ | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | | @ @ | |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| <-- Mushrooms here |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| keep flees from |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| dropping. The |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| Number needed |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| increases as |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| the score |@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@| advances. Flees | | always drop if | | there aren't | | enough here; | | Never drop if +---------------------------------------------------------+ there are.

The central tunnel guides the main centipede straight to you. The large empty section near the top to left and right cause the separate heads to travel a greater distance before getting to you thus allowing you plenty of time to pick them off. It's best to hit them strategically so that you can build up the mushrooms you need to keep the flee away. The exact number of mushrooms required and the scores where they increase are long forgotten, but as a rule, if the flee starts dropping when he wasn't before (even though the number of mushrooms has not changed) you just crossed a boundary. A flawless game requires great control and awareness of game logic such that the flee is *never once* allowed to drop. (Except maybe in the very begginning.)

An easier strategy (considered "cheating" by really good players) is to build walls in the lower left and/or right to trap the centipede in then hunt other insects (spiders, scorpions and fleas):

| | <-- The centipede enters from the top and gets trapped | @ inside. So do all heads that appear (there's a limit | @ because they eventually stop coming out). You must | @ kill off spiders coming from the other side so they | @ won't wipe out your wall or you'll have to build | @ it up again. | +----------------------------

INTERESTING NOTE: In test mode you can cycle through the different graphical objects used in the game (the player, a mushroom, a spider, a scorpion, a flee, and a grasshopper). Grasshopper?! Yep, the game was to originally have had grasshoppers but they were taken out. You can still see them in the test however.

------------- DOUBLE DRAGON ------------- (Contributor: Ryan Vurlicer)

"Ghost player": Notice that player one gets all the points for certain weapons. Notably the barrel, which is important because it is reusable. Should player one die off, while player two is still alive, player one continues to get points for the barrel. If this gets him over the extra-man mark, he gets a ghost player, which is limited in the kinds of things he can do.

Infinite points: Level One, one player grabs the whip when it comes out. The other player relieves the enemy who walks out with a bat of that bat. But he does *not* kill said enemy. Continue moving on until you're at the end of stage one. At this point the player WITHOUT the whip grabs the now batless enemy. The other player finishes the stage. Note that when the boss man is dead, the clock stops running down. Then the player tortures the batless one with the whip. 200 points per pop, and the enemy will NEVER die. Switch to non-whip attack to kill him, and resume normal play.

------ GALAGA ------ Try this on the first or second level (before you get your first free ship). Kill off all but the two rightmost (or leftmost) blue bees. Make sure that they are as far over on the screen as possible when they start diving, that'll make this trick go a lot faster. (You can expect to wait from 10 to 20 minutes for something to happen)

Then just wait. Dodge their shots. Eventually, you will notice the maximum number of shots on the screen dwindling to 3, then 2, then 1. Then 0 (but let them go by 6 times to make sure). You can kill them at any point to get a much easier game (maximum of 0-3 shots at a time).

Nate Renwick notes that this trick can work with just one blue bee. [True, but it tends to be slower... but on the other hand it is easier. -JTR]

This doesn't work on all Galaga machines. But I've only found two on which it doesn't.

Level 255: After this level some machines wrap around to level 0. Then you're stuck there forever until you turn the machine off. This places an effective maximum of 3.6 million on your score on such machines.

----------- Galaga Plus -----------

(Contributor: Allen Perry)

At the start of the first round push straight up untill you stop. DON'T shoot! Just sit there and let all the bugs form. Right after the last row of bugs get into formation a star will shoot from the top left side of the screen to the bottom right. If you time this right you can get up to 5 shots on it. After about 10 hits on the star (it will come out at random times during the game) it will transform your ship into a new ship that can shoot 3 shots on the screen ( 3 shots verticaly in a row ) instead of just 2.

---------------- GHOSTS N GOBLINS ---------------- (Contributor: Bert Loper)

There is a place in the cave scene (the short scene right after you kill the two big ogres), where you can get 100K before the time runs out and you can repeat this every life, getting 3 lives for 2 deaths (until the game stops giving extra lives at 980K). The spot is on the upper level to the right of the rock and just to the left of the second ladder. Move the joystick back and forth rapidly at the spot and fire each time you change directions. This causes a zombie to appear at the edge of the screen with each pivot you make and each shot you fire will kill a zombie. You can get 100K+ from this if you're fast enough!

It is well known that if you duck and shoot a tombstone 15 times, an angel appears and fires a bolt that turns you into a frog. Interesting bug: if you fire this bolt *just* as your time is about to run out, you'll turn into a frog INSTEAD of being killed by time over. It wraps around to negative time or something and you have virtually unlimited time. (He recommends standing two rock-lengths away from the rock, and firing the 15th shot at time 0:02. If you're just slightly late, the bolt will still 'reincarnate' you but your character will appear distorted and you will be stuck in a ducked position). Use this trick in combination with the above cave trick, and you're pretty much set. [This is classic material! -JTR]

----- JOUST ----- (Contributor: Tim Shay)

"The pterodactyl trick". Classic trick. Doesn't work on upgraded Joust machines, or on Joust II. Trick the last jouster on the stage to fly to the lava and get trapped by the lava troll. Then wait in the center of the middle platform. When a pterodactyl comes out, it'll fly right into your lance. The next part takes a fair amount of practice: when the pterodactyl has hit you, your character will be knocked back. Jiggle the joystick so that your mount is back in the middle of the ledge again. Keep doing this. Eventually there'll be a steady stream of pterodactyls, and you'll be killing 'em about 2 per second, for 1000 points each. When you make a mistake and get killed, the trapped jouster will escape.

On the last board in which this works (47 I think), the jouster will not escape.

(From John Yeates ...)

To check if you machine has the right ROM (the OLD rom) for this trick, on the RHS of the screen are two platforms like this: _____________ \___________/____________ \__________/

Come in from the right, and land on the lower platform so that your legs can't come down; you'll bounce along the platform. On old ROM machines, you will then fall down through the gap between the platforms; on the new ROM, you'll bounce off.

You can screw up Joust by killing a Pterodactyl right inside the screen border as it moves from right to left. (very hard to do. plus it's worthless, but it is of interest as it sometimes shows internal info on the screen if done at the right vertical height from top. different locations apparently cause different screw-ups.)

(Contributor : Chris Long)

The key to handling Shadow Lords is learning how to time their bounces at the top of the screen. Also, a good spot to be at the beginning of a wave is immediately to the left or right of a ledge and above. Shadow Lords will then appear and fly right up into you. My high score is over 2 million with several dozen men left.

-------- PAPERBOY -------- (Contributor: David McGrath. I'll vouch for this one...)

In the race at the end of the day, the end of it has a stadium with an audience, and a lawn with a fence on it. There's a bit of grass on the right side of the fence. If you steer your bike onto the grass, the bike will *not* stop! It keeps going. Do it once more, then finish the normal way. Your score will get really high. [In the millions -JTR]

(Contributor : John Joseph Gallagher Jr.)

- For Paperboy, I have been able to score millions by going through the training course without hitting anything (with papers) and then riding through the area between the finish line and the fence. This doesn't award the points right away. You still have to go on through the parking lot (which then messes up the whole screen (lots of added shapes, and color blocks not really corresponding to anything)). Then if you keep going (bike moving very slow toward right side of screen) the game will loop you back to the training course again. This is where you get 1 million points (or enough to make the high score run into the standing number (i.e. 1-10). The training course is the same but this time the screen is really messed up. Only the main obstacles are shown (i.e. any moving objects), but the background is totally screwed. If you are on easy way, it is relatively simple to make it through (again not throwing papers), but as I usually go hard way, it is touch to get the timing down. Anyhow the one time I made it through on easy way, I tried to do the same trick at the end, but this time it stopped and counted up bonus points. It then boosts your score another 1 or 10 million (I can't remember). Anyhow I only can get the machine to do two separate first runs (i.e. once through the training course for a million) or 1 single 10 million run (twice through), but after that it won't let you do it again for the rest of that credit. I also can do this on most machines I have played, but not all. My high score was 10,163,xxx something (basically 163,000 plus the extra it gave me plus it combines the initial 1 for the top 10 ranking with your score to give you an apparent score of 110163xxx.

------------- ROAD BLASTERS ------------- If you crash your car into one of the turrets at the side of the road, you'll get 8-10x the current value of a turret. When your score multiplier is up to 10, this is 16-20,000 points! Keep your score multiplier high and always crash into at least two of these babies every board, and finishing the game (or doing very well at it) is not tough. [Note: After a while it gets hard to crash into two turrets every board and still finish the board on time.]

Tip for strategies on level 49 and 50: Since level 50 is the last level, and the game gives you a complete recharge at the end of 49, accuracy doesn't count any more. Just keep firing as fast as possible.

When the game ends you get 1 million bonus points, and you're given a code. It encodes your initials and the number of quarters you put in. The game will probably tell you to send in your code for a free T-shirt, but this is bogus. The game is sufficiently old by now that Atari doesn't honor this offer any more.

Run into a "live" roadside tower (e.g. one that you haven't shot). It will run up your score like 20k points. (actually, the points vary, I haven't tried to reverse engineer the algorithm). [ This is an anonymous tip ... - JND ]

--------------- ROLLING THUNDER --------------- (Contributors: Richard Uyeyama, Felix Lee)

Okay, here's a couple from Rolling Thunder (Namco, brought to U.S. by Atari). First of all, something that some people don't know is the fact that you can visit the ammo rooms MORE THAN ONCE! The trick is, after having stocked up on your bullets from a particular room (say it was a MachineGunBullets room...) to go forward past the door approximately the distance of two jumps, then turn back, visit the room again, and find more ammo... This is especially useful on levels 2 and 7, where, when combined with another trick which will be detailed after this one, one is able to get MG Bullets up to the 900s (I think it resets to zero at 1000). Anyway, there's this section near the beginning of levels 2 and 7 where there're two platforms next to each other, above you, the first of which has a MG Bullets door. Having killed everyone up to that point, kill the guards on the platforms, fill up with bullets, then (you just exited the MG ammo door on the left side of the left platform) walk right, and the jump (while walking) such that you fall through the gap between the two platforms (while still drifting to the right), then either walk or jump one more jump-distance to the right, walk back left, jump up onto the right platform, jump from there onto the left platform, get more MG bullets, and repeat about 7 or 8 times (or less, if you're not quite sure you can do the rest of the level with such limited remaining time). The thing with the jump down through the platform-gap is that since you're drifting to the right as you're falling, it's quicker than jumping straight down from the platform, then walking to the right. But getting a whole buncha MG bullets is really useful, especially on level 7, what with the seriously time-limited level 8 being next, and the fact that level 10 is so much easier with the MG ammo. There's a trick to levels 5 and 10 also, but let me first finish up with 2 and 7.

The other trick on levels 2 and 7 is on the second half of the level (i.e. past the stacked boxes, and the gap), and has to do with the stairs. If the stairs always bothered you as being really slow to traverse, you can, via a programming glitch, skip most of them! What you do is go down the first set of stairs until you're on the left side of the screen (I think after the boxes and the gap you just have to go down a flight to the right edge, then down some more to the left edge). And then, stand on top of the landing that's just before you reach the floor. Inch towards the left edge of it until you're standing on the left edge. And then, walk left, falling off the landing, then as soon as your feet leave the landing, go right. You'll fall right through the floor (skipping the stairs), landing on the same landing one floor down. Repeat until you reach the bottom. With practice, it'll come really smoothly and instinctively. Once you get this down really well, time how long it takes you to get from the platform MG ammo room at the beginning of the level to the end of the level using this majorly-time-saving trick, so you can figure out when you should stop getting more ammo so you can safely finish the rest of the level on time. One note about this particular trick is that on level 7, the first (I think) landing, you probably don't want to do the trick on, because one of those white guys (that take four shots to kill) will appear almost on top of you when you land, if you do. But otherwise, it works exactly the same.

The explanation of the above glitch (this is my own hypothesis) has to do with the two-level screen that is used, in which there is a front screen, and a back screen, and when you're on the stairway or the landing, you're on the back level, and it seems that directly under the left edge of the left landing, the back level floor hasn't been defined, and so you just fall through...

And lastly, the most impressive glitch I know of in Rolling Thunder, and the one that never ceases to cause people to say: "What??? How did you DO that???" In levels 5 and 10, once you get to a certain point in the level (around halfway through), you come up against two boxes stacked on top of each other (i.e. you can't jump over it), and a platform above you (on which you jump and continue to the right). At this point, jump up onto the platform, then position yourself at the very right edge of the railing on the platform (you can only jump up/down where railing is present) which should correspond to the very left edge of the boxes, then (I forget if you have to be facing right for this to work, but I don't think so) jump down, which will put you at the very left edge of the boxes, then, making sure not to move the joystick to the left, walk towards the right, hit the jump button, and watch yourself get sorta caught between the botton and top boxes, then jump right again, clearing the top box and landing on the ground. Now comes the neat part. Don't fire at anyone, and don't panic, but simply go to the right and watch yourself WALK THROUGH EVERYBODY! Neat, huh? You can simply walk past everyone until you get to the last guy (the guy in the cloak). Then, if you have properly stocked up on MG bullets earlier on this (or another) level, simply hold down the fire button and watch him collapse an inch in front of your face.

The explanation for this one is pretty similar to that of the stairs trick. It's just that when on the platform, you're on the back level, and when you jump down, you land in a spot where the front level hasn't been defined. So you're still on the back level. I'm not sure of the explanation of the foothold between the boxes, but once you hurdle the boxes, you're still on the back level, and since everything past that point is on the front level, you can simply walk past/through everybody. That you're actually in the back level is pretty obvious when you walk past the screen in the computer room... One last not about using this is that on level 10, in that last area before the final arena, there's the "stairs-like" hurdles, and on each of these steps, one of those annoying white guys will appear. The thing you have to be careful of is that if you're in too much of a hurry, they will follow you into the arena (where you're suddenly on the front level again), where they can/will hurt you, or keep you busy enough that the guy in the cloak will. So make sure you have a little extra time to let those guys disappear off the screen (after you've made all of them appear) before going after the guy in the cloak in the arena.

Felix Lee adds: The reason the ammo trick works is because the game is divided into invisible "sections". Once you cross a section boundary the game forgets everything from the previous section.

-------- SINISTAR -------- Get down to 0 extra men. Fire a killing shot at the Sinistar and die just before he does. You'll get 255 men. Should help...

------- TEMPEST ------- This doesn't work on all Tempest machines. (However, if you find a Tempest machine that has high scores in excess of 900K, this is a good sign). Get a score in the form of XXYYZZ, where XX > 16, 29 < YY < 60, and ZZ is a code. Some codes are: 01 - Test mode. 06, 11, 12 - 40 free games. 46 - Start at any level you like (up to level 81). These are the only ones I ever bothered memorizing. In the test mode, you can zero the high score table; and examine the game parameters, but not modify them :( to the best of my knowledge. Any info to the contrary would be appreciated.

Steve Jacobs adds a smallish bug: when the fuseballs are at the top, and in the center of the panel, you can sometimes move through them if you spin the dial very quickly. (This works best on the boards that have 'ends', as opposed to the circular, triangular, etc. boards) This is a desperation play for use towards the end, when you've used both your zaps and the fuseballs are after you.

He also says (quite true): the fuseballs move up and down only on the lines between the panels.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet : jdeitch@umiami.miami.edu | Go Braves !! | "I hate it when I can't ---------------------------------------------------| trust my own technology !" "Thrills! Chills! Magic! Prizes!" -- Hurricane | -- Geordi LaForge

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