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