Favorite classic "bug?"
Sean Wagle
I got to thinking about the vigorous arcading I used to do ('81-'85) and
some of the unusual things I discovered playing certain games a LOT. Like:
Vanguard - There were a few targets you could hit, over and over again for
points before the screen scroll forced you to move on. (This was long before
"Mario World" style secrets were a deliberate pointgetting strategey...)
Qix - It was possible to actually NAIL the Qix between blocks. I did this
twice, but never figured out how to *make* it happen (depite spending many
quarters in pursuit of this secret.) Still, if you managed to do it, just draw
a "slow line" around the Qix (now just a humming line because it can't move)
and VOILA! Claim 99% of the screen.
Mr Do - You could cram monsters between two apples in a corner without killing
them, then proceed to literally clean up! A Mr Do screen looks pretty odd when
it's all black... because you've "been" everywhere.
Phoenix - Sometimes when you killed the boss creature, it would award you
200000 points (yes, that's 5 zeros, people.) I think the award was supposed to
be a random value of 800-2000.
Gyruss - When a level begins, deliberately allow ALL the ships to fly into
formation, at the center of the screen. (Normally you'd kill about half of
them.) The machine really can't handle animating all of them at once, and you
may see some strange effects.
I guess out of these, I'd nominate the "trapped Qix" as my favorite, cool
"bug". Any other nominations?
Kevin Estep
On Wed, 01 Jan 1997 02:35:31, SWa...@gnn.com (Sean Wagle) wrote:
>Phoenix - Sometimes when you killed the boss creature, it would award you
>200000 points (yes, that's 5 zeros, people.) I think the award was supposed to
>be a random value of 800-2000.
In my experience this happens starting with the 2nd boss screen (the
one with the purple escorts in a triangle formation). Often, several
of the escorts from the bottom row will drop toward you
simultaneously. When they begin to flap upward, hitting 3 or 4 (not
sure exactly) in a row will yield over 200000 points. Typically a
flapping bird is 200 points each, but in this case, the game is
obviously impressed by your quick shooting abilities! ;-)
Kevin
----------------------------------
Kevin Estep
----------------------------------
The Goldfish Pond/The Video Arcade
http://www.ipass.net/~kestep
----------------------------------
Phil Alexander
Crazy Kong had a bug where you run mario up to the first level, and
suicide off the right.
You fall through the floor and finish the first level...
(Not all the time, though)
Dig Dug: Kill all but one monster, use NO rocks.
Kill the last monster TWICE. Blow it up, and drop a rock on it. The
game will not advance until you drop the next rock (And eat the fruit!)
Lessee... There's the "Ramp" in Super Sprint, but everyone knows about
that...
I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
PS: Dave Theurer come out with anything else?
Phil
Greg Gibson
> I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
> fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
>
I forget the precise details, but from what I recall, you needed to end
your game on level 25, somewhere in the 190000-199999 point range (forget
the exact number). The final two digits of your score would allow
different things to happen, including a 40 credit award, and the ability to
start the next game at the green levels. There was more than one number
that would give the credits, one of which would actually register the
coin-counter in the machine (it was pretty funny to hear the
click-click-click after finishing a game).
--Greg
____________________
Greg Gibson
greg_...@thq.com
gre...@ix.netcom.com
Steven Zeuner (Zman)
Speaking of Super Sprint. I could score around 15 to 20 thousand but
was always impressed at how the high score table was completely filled
with million scores. Was there a trick to this or were these people
just that good?
Mr. Fabulous
In article <32CAAF...@sympatico.ca>, phil.al...@sympatico.ca
says...
>
>Crazy Kong had a bug where you run mario up to the first level, and
>suicide off the right.
>
>
>You fall through the floor and finish the first level...
>
>(Not all the time, though)
You had to slide about half of your foot off before you jumped. Also, in
the "Hot Coals" board, when you got the hammer, if you hit "Down" on the
joystick at the same time that the hammer hits the conveyor belt, the
hammer would stick to the belt, and you would be free of it. You could
stand someplace safe, and it would bash every "Pie" (Actually a pan of
hot coals), that came along, and give you points for it. I also heard
that there was a bug in the "Bouncing Hammers" board, but I never saw it.
>
>Dig Dug: Kill all but one monster, use NO rocks.
>
>Kill the last monster TWICE. Blow it up, and drop a rock on it. The
>game will not advance until you drop the next rock (And eat the fruit!)
>
>
>Lessee... There's the "Ramp" in Super Sprint, but everyone knows about
>that...
Not I..what was THAT one??
>I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
>fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
Score between 188,000 and 200,000, and die with the last 2 digits of your
score being "06" that was the 40 credit one, and I believe that "46" game
you the ability to start your game on the level of your choice..
The now Infamous Galaga "Look ma not shots" one. Save the last (1 or 2)
bees on a board, (They had to be the left most ones), and let them make
loops until they make 5 straight passes without shooting at you, then
shoot them, and nothing will shoot for the rest of the game. Also, if
you are playing a 2 player game, and player 2 scores over a million,
instead of flipping, it adds a million digit. Also, if you finish level
255, the game crashes. Just your ship, and space, but nothing ever comes
out, so nothing to kill you, so, you have to turn it off..
In the early releases of (A Data East game, I want to say Commando), you
could find 2 trees that made a "V" on the screen, scroll the trees down
to as far as you could, then get behind them, and hide forever, and shot
anything that came by, thus racking up TONS of extra men, and points.
On Pac-Man, you could "Hide". When you start your game, you are right
under a "T", on one side of the other, you could park your man while you
went to get a coke or went to the bathroom.
On Donkey Kong JR. After you beat level 9, it goes to A (Hexadecimal
obviously), then B-F, after you beat level "F", it just crashes..
On Defender, there was the "990,000" give you an extra man for EVERYTHING
you hit, and then withhold that many extra men after you flip over a
million.
Galaxian only shows 4 "10 Flags" and 8 regular flags, even if you get to
stage 49, it doesn't change.
Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
Doug Jefferys
Gotta be the sign-bit error that gave you 120 free cities out of
thin air at 800,000 points in Missile Command.
A related bug, 800,000 points in Battlezone will cause the game to
revert back to regular tanks instead of supertanks.
Later,
Doug.
--
Douglas W. Jefferys |
Preferred: do...@freenet.hamilton.on.ca |
`-----------------.
WWW: http://www.multipath.com/d.jefferys/index.html |
Gaymond Lee
Mr. Fabulous (zom...@cranberry.grp) wrote:
: On Defender, there was the "990,000" give you an extra man for EVERYTHING
: you hit, and then withhold that many extra men after you flip over a
: million.
My fave on Defender is saving/holding all the humanoids except for one and
setting everything down (make sure your ship is almost at a dead stop)
while saving the last one and watching the humanoids walk on top of the
screen and the last one continuously scrolling up and down the monitor.
Also, the swarmers can't shoot backwards so you can follow them safely and
blast away.
Gaymond Lee
Bayard
on my stargate, when a lander is the last enemy remaining in a wave and
grabs a humanoid and i shoot it and catch the humanoid just as its about
to hit the ground, the screen announces "2000!" and makes a sound.
does Defender also do this?
select information exchange
Mr. Fabulous <zom...@cranberry.grp> wrote:
: Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
: someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
On the challenge stage where you jump ramps, at the very end there is a
finish line surrounded by fences. IF you touch the corner where the fence
hits the finish line the game would crash and you would score alot of
points. I have never done this trick but was told of the trick by several
friends.
Gareth Hall
>
>
>Lessee... There's the "Ramp" in Super Sprint, but everyone knows about
>that...
>
Dunno that one please tell me more.
>
>I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
>fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
>
Yes, it was true, but they put out a new set of roms for it. Hopefully
one of the many rom archives around will have a copy of this set as
there were lots of other cool tricks associated with the "last 2
digits trick"
Mark Sheldon
SWa...@gnn.com (Sean Wagle) wrote:
>I guess out of these, I'd nominate the "trapped Qix" as my favorite, cool
>"bug". Any other nominations?
I always liked the way Defender would go silly when you managed to
carry all 10 humans at once, go at top speed and watch them stream out
behind you, then reverse suddenly while moving down and shoot some of
them!
----------------
Mark Sheldon
ms...@qits.net.au
Rodger Boots
Here's a couple for you.
On the original Atari Breakout, if some of
the bricks are missing, hold down the serve button while starting
the game. The missing bricks will NOT be reset, but the counter
that keeps track of how many bricks you've cleared WILL be reset.
The result will be that when you clear the screen the bricks will
NOT reset and you get screwed! I had one do this once due to a
stuck serve switch and am embarassed how long it took to figure
out what was wrong.
On Atari Sprint 8 the game doesn't look at the coin switches if
the tracks are being changed. But it still keeps the money!
So you have 8 kids go to drop in their money. But the first kid
to insert his coin would then hit the track change switch,
usually while the others were inserting THEIR coins.
Not really a bug, but enter the initials SKO during high score
registry on an Exidy Star Fire to get a "HI SUSAN" message on the
screen. The programmer's girlfriend (Susan) had those initials.
Chris Dalla
>I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
>fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
Yep. If you had a score between 180000 and 200000 that ended in 06, 11, 12,
16, 17, or 18, the machine would rack up 40 free credits if it had the
original ROMs. Somewhere after unit number 10000 or so, the problem was
fixed. Another one that was pretty useful was getting a score between 180000
and 200000 that ended in 46. After the game ends, wait for the multicolored
"Tempest" display to happen twice, then start a game, and it would let you
start at level 81 or something, which gives you an 898000 point bonus. Real
easy way to sweep the high score table.
-c
Chris Dalla
In article <5aeoml$p...@hole.sdsu.edu>, le...@rohan.sdsu.edu says...
Yeah, until you get to the swarmer reverse line. Swarmers and landers/mutants
had imaginary lines in the landscape Beyond which they couldn't see. All you
had to do was go there, keep crossing back and forth, and you could keep all
of the swarmers or all of the landers/mutants thoroughly occupied (you
couldn't really do both, since the reverse line for swarmers was in a
differene place than for landers/mutants.
-c
Chris Dalla
In article <5af74l$5...@news4.digex.net>, wal...@universe.digex.net says...
Actually, Stargate will do this anytime you catch a human just as it hits the
ground, not just if you've killed all of the enemies. It just happens that
that's the easiest time to do it. And no, Defender doesn't do that.
-c
Brian Swatch Plume
I would have to say MY favourite bug is the trick in Donkey Kong Junior
where Player 2 jumps into the water with the blue lockjaw guy at the exact
same time, and you resume your game with the same amount of men and points,
but you start at the beginning of that level.
I just remember my dad and I going around to all the arcades and doing that
trick. We would get unbelievable scores!
Also, if you did it with your LAST man you would get some REALLY COOL
effects on the screen. Like, you would only be able to climb up the rope
with one hand or something, and the lockjaws would come down sideways,
etc...the sounds were also weird.
Happy New Year, everyone! Hope to see you at the next Fullerton Auction!
Brian Plume
San Diego, CA
sch...@internetmci.com
>Score between 188,000 and 200,000, and die with the last 2 digits of your
>score being "06" that was the 40 credit one, and I believe that "46" game
>you the ability to start your game on the level of your choice..
>
Didn't Atari correct this "oversight" in a subsequent rom revision of
Tempest? On mine at home I have never been able to reproduce this.
Anyone know how to check the revision # on the machine?
Brandon
Zonn Moore
I like the Tempest "Demo" bug.
Put the machine in demo mode so you can press one of the start buttons to
advance to the next screen.
At the begining of a level, as soon as you here a shot being fired, press the
advance button, then spin over and let yourself be killed by the shot.
You will advance to the next screen but the Starfield will not turn itself off.
You can play the whole level with the background stars comin' at you, like
flyin' in hyperspace. Kinda cool!
-Zonn
george....@airdata.com
My favorite bug or *trick* was with Battle Zone. Nothing is more valuable than
a trick that allows a player to take a break during their quest for a score of
1,000,000+ (back when a million ment something).
The Setup: Allow a missile to get passed you by either hiding behind a block
(watch those sides) or by dodging it :)
The Trick: Once the missile has missed you, you watch it on the radar and just
before it leaves the screen, you start rotating your tank sharply in one
direction. The missile will try and get behind you and won't progress forward
off the screen - a kind of pause game feature for those all niters.
The Bonus: Now that the game is *paused*, let your friend watch it while you
take a break. As they continually rotate the tank left or right (make sure they
don't stop!), they can take pot shots at any unsuspecting saucers that might
wander into your continually moving path.
The Facts: 1) The flight characteristics of the missile are forward or left or
right <-> (not diagonally). The missile can only do one or the other, not both.
2) The programming places a higher priority on putting the missile on an impact
path (aligned with you) than on progressing the missile forward. This is most
noticeable when a missile first enters the screen and moves left or right to get
on "initial course" with you. 3) When the missile is at the maximum range from
you (almost off the screen), your tight circle forces the missile out of your
impact path. The missile will try and correct itself by moving left or right
(not forward). Since the circumference of the circle the missile is on is much
larger than yours, the missile is only capable of staying effectively neutral
*game paused*
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Pete Rittwage
Mr. Fabulous wrote:
> Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
> someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
The only "bug" I remember in Paperboy is the one where you drive past
the finish line on the obstacle course. The effect was basically that
you drove off into random places in the games RAM/ROM and the screen
just turned to trash. You could drive around in the trash, though, and
I "think" it would eventually wrap back around to the street. Anyone
confirm this?
Pete Rittwage
Gregg Woodcock
sch...@internetmci.com wrote:
: >Score between 188,000 and 200,000, and die with the last 2 digits of your
Yes, Atari fixed it. Put your game into test mode. If your spinner
readout uses Hexidecimal letters, you have the feature. If it uses a
rotating "compass needle" then you have the feature. This is from
memory so perhaps it is the other way around...
--
THANX...Gregg day 214.684.7380 night UNLIST/PUBL TEXAS NOT CANADA!
wood...@nortel.com or bn...@cleveland.freenet.edu
*CLASSIC VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR BUY/SELL/TRADE NON-COMPUTER (ARCADE/HOME)*
"If you quote me on this I'll have to deny it; I won't remember because
I have such a bad memory. Not only that, but my memory is *terrible*."
Al Kossow
From article <8522431...@dejanews.com>, by george....@airdata.com:
> My favorite bug or *trick* was with Battle Zone. Nothing is more valuable than
> a trick that allows a player to take a break during their quest for a score of
> 1,000,000+ (back when a million ment something).
>
This reminded me to post my yearly request for anyone who knows of
any bugs in BattleZone that will wrap the number of tanks. A long time
ago, in a little arcade in downtown Mt View, a guy would come in and
wrap the free tanks, but he'd NEVER do it if anyone was watching him! I'd
walk out into the other room, and walk back in, and he'd have done it.
Jim Buck
Hello,
I don't know if this was a bug or not, but it seemed like a rare
enough occurrence that it would be. In Phoenix (which I was heavily obsessed
with at the time), there was a very unique way of scoring some mega-points. On
the small bird screens (the first two screens), there were times when the
birds would fly back up and they would do so with their wings wide open. If
you were lucky enough to hit three such birds within a VERY short time (a
second or two - which basically means it was WAY more likely on the 2nd bird
screen), you got some weird points like 210,000. I only did this once, and I
was a very happy little boy when I saw it happen. :)
Jim Buck
jb...@sonyinteractive.com
Sony Interactive Studios America
Mr. Fabulous
In article <32CB91...@cedar-rapids.net>, rlb...@cedar-rapids.net
says...
>
>Here's a couple for you.
>
>On the original Atari Breakout, if some of
>the bricks are missing, hold down the serve button while starting
>the game. The missing bricks will NOT be reset, but the counter
>that keeps track of how many bricks you've cleared WILL be reset.
>The result will be that when you clear the screen the bricks will
>NOT reset and you get screwed! I had one do this once due to a
>stuck serve switch and am embarassed how long it took to figure
>out what was wrong.
Ahhh yes, that reminds me. If you held down the 1 player button on a
MS.Pac at the same time that you coined it. (Either dropping, or pressing
the service button when the "Midway Copyright" message was near the
bottom of the screen, it would leave the text on the screen, putting it
over some of the dots, no dots in those spots means that you can never
clear the first board, because you never increment the "Dot Counter" to
the appropriate point. Also, I never knew what caused it, but from time
to time when you started a game on Ms. Pac, you would get this funky
purple color on the first board instead of the normal Pink/Tan color
scheme..
Gregg Woodcock
Mr. Fabulous (zom...@cranberry.grp) wrote:
: Ahhh yes, that reminds me. If you held down the 1 player button on a
: the service button when the "Midway Copyright" message was near the
: bottom of the screen, it would leave the text on the screen, putting it
: over some of the dots, no dots in those spots means that you can never
: clear the first board, because you never increment the "Dot Counter" to
: the appropriate point. Also, I never knew what caused it, but from time
: to time when you started a game on Ms. Pac, you would get this funky
: purple color on the first board instead of the normal Pink/Tan color
: scheme..
If you turn the game off and let all the voltage bleed out of the RAMs
so that the data is lost, and then turn the game on, the first maze
for the first man for the first player will be purple. Somehow the
variable for the screen color isn't initialized or is initialized
wrong. This works for all my 3 Ms. Pac-Man machines.
James R. Twine
Chris Dalla <ccd...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<5agkv4$1...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>...
Hmmm... When I had my Stargate, this "2000 trick" only happened if you
landed one or more humanoids when no enemies were left on the level.
"Waittaminute..." I hear you say. "How can you land a human if all of
the enemies are gone, as the board will end?" Simple: There are two ways
that I could do it:
1: Kill all enemies but a lander, wait for it to pick up a humanoid, and
shoot it causing the humanoid to fall. (The level will not end if a
humanoid is falling.) Get under the humanoid at the point where it will
contact the "floor" (or just above it), and you will catch the humanoid,
land it, and since no enemies were left on the level, voila! 2000 points,
and a screen flash!
2: Catch a few humanoids, and kill everything but a few enemies. If you
can get the remaining enemies all on one screen (so that a Smart Bomb will
get 'em all), head for the "floor", and right as you are about to land the
humanoids, hit the Smart Bomb. As you land the humanoids, the enemies will
be destroyed (none left), and since you were landing humanoids at the time,
you will get the "2000 trick". (This method is a little more difficult! :)
One more Stargate bug for you: If you press (and hold) Smart Bomb,
Inviso, and Hyperspace at the same time, sometimes, if you survive
hyperspace, your ship will reappear, but Invisio will still "work", so your
ship will be visible, but you can still fly through stuff! You will still
lose Inviso "time" however. Note that you HAVE to keep the Inviso button
pressed, but you can let the other ones go!
Good luck!
BTW: There was something in the Arcade Cheat Sheet/List that mentioned
something about hitting Hyperspace as you entered the "Warp Gate" (I think
(s)he meant "Stargate") and causing a glitch to occur, kinda like an EKG
gone mad. I have NEVER been able to recreate this glitch!
-=- James.
James R. Twine
select information exchange <sie...@styx.ios.com> wrote in article
<5afadu$k...@nnrp2.farm.idt.net>...
> Mr. Fabulous <zom...@cranberry.grp> wrote:
>
> : Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
> : someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
>
> finish line surrounded by fences. IF you touch the corner where the
fence
> hits the finish line the game would crash and you would score alot of
> points. I have never done this trick but was told of the trick by
several
> friends.
Being a programmer, I take the word "crash" to mean that a executing
program comes (came) to an abrupt end for some reason. Payperboy did not
"crash" in this sense, but it did "Glitch", where at the end of the course,
of you went to the far right and went through the space at the fence, the
course would restart, but the music would be "stuck" (repeating the same 2
seconds of music over and over), and there would be random "garbage"
everywhere. You would then finish this "glitched" course, and collect that
crazy score!
But! -You had to be careful! Sometimes the trick would not work (it
would glitch, but no high score at the end of the course!), and sometimes,
you would hit something that would cause you to wreck your bike, and no
score! :(
As an aside, the funniest thing that I ever saw in Paperboy was while
watching someone play on Hard Way (With the Bikers, right?). At the
intersection, a bike came to a STOP (!), and when he processed forward, the
bike took off and HIT HIM! I never laughed so hard over something in that
game!
-=- James.
James R. Twine
Sean Wagle <SWa...@gnn.com> wrote in article
<5adesk$o...@news-e2c.gnn.com>...
>
> I got to thinking about the vigorous arcading I used to do ('81-'85) and
> some of the unusual things I discovered playing certain games a LOT.
Like:
Here is something that I can remember...
Anyone out there remember the game "Spectar(g)"? It was like "Targ".
Anyway, if someone was playing, and you managed to press the Two Player
button while they were playing, the game would no longer detect joystick
movements, as long as you kept the button pressed
This was a nasty trick to pull on somebody. I "discovered" it when some
little kid near by was pressing it on me! (Little brat! :)
Anyone else out there remember something like this?
-=- James.
Joshua Lehan
wood...@bnr.ca (Gregg Woodcock) wrote:
> : the appropriate point. Also, I never knew what caused it, but from time
> : to time when you started a game on Ms. Pac, you would get this funky
> : purple color on the first board instead of the normal Pink/Tan color
> : scheme..
> If you turn the game off and let all the voltage bleed out of the RAMs
> so that the data is lost, and then turn the game on, the first maze
> for the first man for the first player will be purple. Somehow the
> variable for the screen color isn't initialized or is initialized
> wrong. This works for all my 3 Ms. Pac-Man machines.
I remember a Ms. Pac Man at a beachfront arcade. People would play the
game barefoot. There was this part of the game, and I'll just say that
it was poorly grounded :-)
Sometimes, instead of getting zapped, you would get to play mazes in
that neat purple color! The high score stayed the same, so the machine
wasn't resetting or rebooting itself. I liked that purple color. I
never could get it to appear for me, though...
JoSH
______
\Josh/ Lehan
\ / mailto:kre...@netgate.net
\/ http://www.netgate.net/~krellan/
Joshua Lehan
"Steven Zeuner (Zman)" <sze...@cyberenet.net> wrote:
> Speaking of Super Sprint. I could score around 15 to 20 thousand but
> was always impressed at how the high score table was completely filled
> with million scores. Was there a trick to this or were these people
> just that good?
I noticed this with Paperboy and World Series as well.
There's tons of garbaged scores that are clearly fake, like 16,777,216
(2^24). Probably caused by bad memory or a dead battery, the bits are
getting lost every now and then...
Joshua Lehan
zom...@cranberry.grp (Mr. Fabulous) wrote:
> In the early releases of (A Data East game, I want to say Commando), you
> could find 2 trees that made a "V" on the screen, scroll the trees down
> to as far as you could, then get behind them, and hide forever, and shot
> anything that came by, thus racking up TONS of extra men, and points.
Absolutely correct! I saw that with my own eyes at Great America (San
Jose) a *long* time ago, back in the glory days when the arcade had 3
Commandos.
> Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
> someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
Atari RAM battery backup, after a decade or so, likes to pick nice large
random numbers. I just had finished posting about it when I read this
:-) Geez, hadn't checksums been invented by then?!
Chris Dalla
In article <01bbf9be$8368b340$8b40...@xenon.bettynet.com>, jtw...@prodigy.com
says...
Sounds more like a hardware design problem than a software bug.
-c
Outlane
1- I really liked getting 169 bonus cities when I reached 810,000 on
Missile
Command, At this point, the game when into a "Super Assualt" mode where
it would throw all missile and smart bombs all out at the same time. These
would last until the machine rolled over at 1M.
2- My all time favorite bug was on Gravitar. The bug was that you could
fly
your ship inside of the rocks and shoot all of the enemy cannons from
beneath. On the screens which pulled the ship toward the center of the
screen, (not the bottom) you could get inside the rock, let your ship
settle
into the center, then take a break.
Jon Norris
Dave Tickle
On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, Sean Wagle wrote:
> I guess out of these, I'd nominate the "trapped Qix" as my favorite, cool
> "bug". Any other nominations?
In Berzerk, I like the way a robot's bullet can pass through your
humanoid's neck because there's no pixels there. Not particularly useful
in terms of "cheating", but it's fun to try to make it happen if the
opportunity comes up. Actually, there's an easy way to see it happen...
try to get into a position where there's a robot slightly above and far
to the right of you, and remain still. When the robot moves down far
enough to shoot at you, its first shot will go through your neck. This
is easist to do on the wave of red robots when they're only shooting 1 at
a time.
Jason D. Bardis
wood...@bnr.ca (Gregg Woodcock) writes:
>sch...@internetmci.com wrote:
>: >Score between 188,000 and 200,000, and die with the last 2 digits of your
>: >score being "06" that was the 40 credit one, and I believe that "46" game
>: >you the ability to start your game on the level of your choice..
>: Didn't Atari correct this "oversight" in a subsequent rom revision of
>: Tempest? On mine at home I have never been able to reproduce this.
>: Anyone know how to check the revision # on the machine?
>Yes, Atari fixed it. Put your game into test mode. If your spinner
>readout uses Hexidecimal letters, you have the feature. If it uses a
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>rotating "compass needle" then you have the feature. This is from
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>memory so perhaps it is the other way around...
Eeeerrrrr, so which is it???
Is this some new logic (kinda like "new math")?
:)
-Jason
--
Jason Bardis(jaso...@nut.ucsb.edu www.engineering.ucsb.edu/~jasonbar)
The Simpsons.3DO.cycling.PWEI.LEGO.Tit Wrench.Battle of the Planets.Star Wars.
autocrosses/rallyes.Atari.mechanical engineering.Ministry.Tempest.NIN.
The Jitterbug.Bill Gibson.Robot Wars.Tim Burton.The Cult.fried cheese.
Anthony Walden
In Donkey Kong, on the blue level, if you lure one of the fireballs up to
the very top right. It will freeze and not move. Stand right next to it
and press jump repeatedly and you will score points each time you jump.
Anthony
select information exchange
This is quite silly but it is something that enabled me to score several
million points on Hogan's Ally. IN each stage (except for the bonus
stage) keep your gun pointed at the bottom of the screen and fire as fast
as possible. This will slow the game down and give you some extra time to
decide who is bad and who is good. I don't remember how high I could
score without using this method, but using the method it was easy to score
in the several millions.
Did anyone here use a pencil or comb as a lever to do well on
Track and Field??
Matthew Fries
> Did anyone here use a pencil or comb as a lever to do well on
>Track and Field??
A pencil works nicely. You can get even extra speed if you
double-flap. Double-flap was something that I used on Joust (hence the
name). Instead of just using one finger, or a group of fingers to
press and release the button, you alternate between your first and
middle finger. Give any teenager a 6 pack of jolt, and its hard to
keep them from doing this....
-----------------------------------------------------
Matthew Fries Minneapolis, MN USA
fre...@visi.com
"SPOON!" - The Tick
Matthew Davis
Anthony Walden <Wa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Anthony
You also could stand next to kong on the blue lever, press the jump
button then move the joystick towards dk while still in the air and
you would get 100pts. You could do this over and over.
Matthew Davis
David Choi - CNED/P96
Matthew Davis (matt...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: Anthony Walden <Wa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
: >Anthony
The only downside to all of this is that all the while YOUR timer/bonus
is always ticking away, not as fast as the 100 points per jump, but
fast enough that most players, even the experts, would not court death
by trying to play footsie with Kong.
Remember on the Japanese version (or those bogus other versions) of
"Donkey Kong" you could jump and fall THROUGH the bottom ramp on the barrel
stage and wind up at the top of the screen, ending the stage quickly? You
save time and bonus time points? This didn't work on the Nintendo of America
version of the game, however.
DCI #3
David Choi - CNED/P96
One of the more "useful" bugs was on Capcom/Taito's "Ghost 'n' Goblins".
The trick was to almost run out of time at the graveyard stage, (Stage 1)
bring out the tombstone demon (by shooting 10 shots at the base of a
tombstone) and die by running out of time. The spell cast by the demon
would revive your knight's bones and turn him into a frog. If you could
stay alive long enough to transform back into a man, then your reward
would be infinite time. You could stand around all day killing zombies
for points, earning lots of free cockeyes, ...er, free men (IF the arcade
was generous and had the game set to give continuous bonus men.)
Remember the Good 'ol days where games awarded bonus lives every X points?
There would be gangs of kids at arcades with long rows of bonus ships,
men, bases, cars, etc. (Hence the name: "free cockeyes" [1982, Yat Wah])
The WORST thing to have happen was to have the attendant/owner come
over and give us crap or shut the game off!!
NO KIDDING!! At one place, a little kid said, "All right, what did you guys
do to the machine?" (We were playing "Robotron:2084".)
"Nothing." we replied.
Apparently, the kid didn't believe us, so he disappears, only to come
back with the attendant a minute later. The attendant goes, "The game is
broke. You die, but the men won't go down."
We protest, "We EARNED those bonus lives." And we prove it them.
Another time, the SAME thing happened at a pool hall on "Stargate".
This time the attendant eyes us and the game over after we were playing for
about twenty minutes on the same credit. He declares that "The machine is
broke" and proceeds to switch it off.
Again we say that it's perfectly normal. The guy points to the big
"17-Defender ship" on the screen and reasserts himself, "No,no, the
game is broke." He shuts it off and gives us back one credit.
We start up the game once again and start building up the free cockeyes.
The attendant scowls at us and walks away. He does come back after about
another twenty minutes and shuts the game off again and doesn't give
us anything back this time.
Geez, some people....I bet this wouldn't have happened at "Flynn's"!!
DCI #3
David Choi - CNED/P96
Matthew Fries (lo...@my.sig) wrote:
: > Did anyone here use a pencil or comb as a lever to do well on
: >Track and Field??
: A pencil works nicely. You can get even extra speed if you
: double-flap. Double-flap was something that I used on Joust (hence the
: name). Instead of just using one finger, or a group of fingers to
: press and release the button, you alternate between your first and
: middle finger. Give any teenager a 6 pack of jolt, and its hard to
: keep them from doing this....
Yeah? Well the most skilled manual player I ever knew who ever put finger
to button on "Track & Field" carried around a small jar of vaseline to
grease his fingertips/button edge to allow for smoother button handling.
This technique proved to be so effective and impressive that all the other
kids tried to imitate their hero: they swiped some margarine from the
condiment counter (Hey, it was a Greek fast food restaurant first and
foremost.) and applied margarine to the buttons...eww! YUCK!
And for the ULTIMATE in the NEED FOR SPEED...
My best buddy in the whole world-wide world, Yat Wah, devised the most
ingenious method for getting maximum speed.
He took his 12 volt motor/generator, attached a stiff brush to the axle
and applied power to it. The whirling brush, when brought into contact
with the run button did indeed produce the top speed of 1500 cm/s!!
Unfortunately, the motor produced a lot of noise, tipping off the attendant
who then promptly came over and disallowed the use of foreign objects in
the sport.
Man, THOSE were the days...
DCI #3
ep6...@shellus.com
In article <32CEC8...@hotmail.com>, Anthony says...
>
>In Donkey Kong, on the blue level, if you lure one of the fireballs up to
>the very top right. It will freeze and not move. Stand right next to it
>and press jump repeatedly and you will score points each time you jump.
>
>Anthony
There's another "bug" in DK that allowed you to rack up points as long
as the bonus timer doesn't expire. On the girder (sp?) level, climb
all the way to the top and stand right next to Kong's foot. You have
to be careful not to stand too close or else you'll die when Kong stomps
his foot. When you get to just the right position, you can jump
in place repeatedly with each jump adding 100 points to your score.
george....@airdata.com
> 1- I really liked getting 169 bonus cities when I reached 810,000 on
> Missile
> Command, At this point, the game when into a "Super Assualt" mode where
> it would throw all missile and smart bombs all out at the same time. These
> would last until the machine rolled over at 1M.
I own a missile command and have scored well over a 1 Million and have never
seen
this. Did they fix this in latter ROM versions? I *thought* I remembered
something like this happening at a score of 500K back "in" 1980 but after I was
unable to duplicate it, I thought it was one of those myths.
Hey, I also remember a rumor of a trick in Battle Zone back in the early 80's
that allowed you to make the moon come down and score 1 million if you shot it -
any truth?
george....@airdata.com
In article <32CEC8...@hotmail.com>,
Anthony Walden <Wa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> In Donkey Kong, on the blue level, if you lure one of the fireballs up to
> the very top right. It will freeze and not move. Stand right next to it
> and press jump repeatedly and you will score points each time you jump.
>
> Anthony
I also remember that you could go up to the monkey and touch his leg and "jump"
backwards for 100 points on the blue level.
Jeff Kinder
Pete Rittwage <bush...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<32CC3231...@ix.netcom.com>...
> Mr. Fabulous wrote:
>
>
> The only "bug" I remember in Paperboy is the one where you drive past
> the finish line on the obstacle course........
> I "think" it would eventually wrap back around to the street. Anyone
> confirm this?
>
> Pete Rittwage
>
Yes that is true about Paper boy. There was a small section between the
finish line and the fence that if you rode in between, you would continue
on for 2 more obstacle courses. Once you crossed the finish line, your
score would tally up. It would usually go to 1,079,000,000.
The last six digits would be different than 000,000. I think it had
something to do with your original score. Then the game would go on to the
next day. Sometimes the score would stay, sometimes it would drop down to
the millions, and sometimes it would go back to what it was originally was.
The trick would work on easy street, middle road, and hard way. It was
just alot harded to do it on middle street and hard way because the
obstacle course was harded to complete.
Jeff Kinder
Advanced Entertainment
adva...@garden.net
www.garden.net/users/advanced/
Jeff Kinder
What was the "bug" on Atari's Super Sprint. I always saw some very high
scores on the high score table. I think they were in the billions or
something. They were so big that the ran into the "ranking no".
Jeff Kinder
Advanced Entertainment
adva...@garden.net
Jeff Kinder
>
> > Now MY question... I saw some EXTREME scores on Paperboy. I know
> > someone didn't play that long..Any you guys know what THAT trick was??
>
> Atari RAM battery backup, after a decade or so, likes to pick nice large
> random numbers. I just had finished posting about it when I read this
> :-) Geez, hadn't checksums been invented by then?!
>
> JoSH
>
No JoSH, there was a trick on Paper Boy, which I described, and there was
one for Super Sprint which I never saw how it was done.
Riccardo Pizzi
>Remember on the Japanese version (or those bogus other versions) of
>"Donkey Kong" you could jump and fall THROUGH the bottom ramp on the barrel
>stage and wind up at the top of the screen, ending the stage quickly? You
>save time and bonus time points? This didn't work on the Nintendo of America
>version of the game, however.
On the ripoff "Krazy Kong" version there are also invisible elevators
in the elevator screens. Anyone knows whether the USA DK has them or not?
Ciao
Rick.
--
__
/ \ Riccardo Pizzi, Network and System Administrator
\__/ .---. <pi...@iper.net>
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Tony Ramos
george....@airdata.com wrote:
>
> Hey, I also remember a rumor of a trick in Battle Zone back in the early 80's
> that allowed you to make the moon come down and score 1 million if you shot it -
> any truth?
>
other
stories of driving to or shooting the stuff in the background. It must
be
the 'virtual environment' quality of BZone that makes people believe
that there's
more to it than meets the eye.
Would be cool if it were true, then getting one million points in
Battlezone
really would be "shooting the moon"!
-Tony R.
--
Tony Ramos : http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~aramos
855 Chambers Rd., Apt. 15 : tony_...@fitch.com, ramo...@osu.edu
Columbus, OH 43212 : *** computer-mediated environments ***
(614)297-6352 : *** interface ** image synthesis ***
Sean Kovacs
David Choi - CNED/P96 <d3c...@acs.ryerson.ca> wrote in article
<5ar7ih$d...@ns2.ryerson.ca>...
> Matthew Davis (matt...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
> : Anthony Walden <Wa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> : >In Donkey Kong, on the blue level, if you lure one of the fireballs up
to
> : >the very top right. It will freeze and not move. Stand right next to
it
> : >and press jump repeatedly and you will score points each time you
jump.
>
> : >Anthony
>
>
> : button then move the joystick towards dk while still in the air and
> : you would get 100pts. You could do this over and over.
>
>
> The only downside to all of this is that all the while YOUR timer/bonus
> is always ticking away, not as fast as the 100 points per jump, but
> fast enough that most players, even the experts, would not court death
> by trying to play footsie with Kong.
>
> "Donkey Kong" you could jump and fall THROUGH the bottom ramp on the
barrel
> stage and wind up at the top of the screen, ending the stage quickly? You
> save time and bonus time points? This didn't work on the Nintendo of
America
> version of the game, however.
>
> DCI #3
>
I remember in the old days when Donkey Kong first came out there was a
helpfull trick for getting through the "Barrel" levels. You could climb the
ladders so that your head was even with the "walkway" above and the barrels
would ALWAYS pass right over you. They came up with a fix eventually that
caused this trick not to work anymore...
James R. Twine
Here is another one that I forgot about, although I am not sure that it
is considered a "Bug"...
On the Tron game that I had, if you turned on the Self Test switch while
playing, you could press the 1-Player Start button to instantly complete
the "Stage" (one of four) that you were on, and pressing the 2-Player Start
button would complete the "Level".
This was a neat way to get up to the "User" level(s) and try to learn
some new patterns for the Light Cycle stages!
BTW: Does anyone know FOR SURE that this either is, or is not a bug? It
sounds like something intentional to me, but I could be wrong.
-=- James.
James R. Twine
Chris Dalla <ccd...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<5am53o$m...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>...
> > Anyone out there remember the game "Spectar(g)"? It was like "Targ".
> >Anyway, if someone was playing, and you managed to press the Two Player
> >button while they were playing, the game would no longer detect joystick
> >movements, as long as you kept the button pressed
> >
> > This was a nasty trick to pull on somebody. I "discovered" it when
some
> >little kid near by was pressing it on me! (Little brat! :)
> >
> > Anyone else out there remember something like this?
>
> Sounds more like a hardware design problem than a software bug.
True... But I thought it qualified as a "bug" nonetheless (hardware or
software).
Remember how the term "Bug" came into being...!
> -c
-=- James.
Clay Cowgill
In article <01bbfcdd$8f3c8260$8b40...@xenon.bettynet.com>, "James R.
Twine" <jtw...@prodigy.com> wrote:
[...skipping screens in TRON with the test switch...]
> BTW: Does anyone know FOR SURE that this either is, or is not a bug? It
> sounds like something intentional to me, but I could be wrong.
I think it was documented as being the "rack advance" feature (just a
handy way to do exactly what you describe).
-Clay
Clayton N. Cowgill Engineering Manager
_____________________________________________________________________
/\ Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. cl...@supra.com
\/ Communications Division http://www.supra.com/
Glenn Mandelkern
As a preface to this thread, be aware that sometimes bugs are
put in on purpose. But first I'll point out one of my favorite
set of easter eggs, the ones from TEMPEST which really got me
addicted to video games in my youth.
In article <32cac86...@nntp.netcruiser>,
Greg Gibson <gre...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 01 Jan 1997 10:42:02 -0800, Phil Alexander
><phil.al...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
>> I used to hear rumors about getting a ton of free credits on Tempest by
>> fiddling with the last digits in yer score. Any truth to this?
>>
>
You have to have a TEMPEST machine that has the ROM that ends with 117.
>I forget the precise details, but from what I recall, you needed to end
>your game on level 25, somewhere in the 190000-199999 point range (forget
>the exact number). The final two digits of your score would allow
>different things to happen, including a 40 credit award, and the ability to
>start the next game at the green levels. There was more than one number
>that would give the credits, one of which would actually register the
>coin-counter in the machine (it was pretty funny to hear the
>click-click-click after finishing a game).
>
I've repeatedly posted here a detailed listing on these various codes
and the ways to go about getting them. Here is a summarized version:
1. Get any score about 180,000 in order to get these to happen.
Easiest way to do this is to restart a new game at Level 24
since its bonus is 188,000.
2. Get the rightmost two digits to be one of the following
to have one of these effects take place:
00 freeze screen
01 enter self-test
05 play the attract mode
06, 11, 12 get 40 credits and click the coin counter
14, 15 click the coin counter
17, 18 get 40 credits
46 enable next game to start on any SkillStep level
supplied by TEMPEST, up to Level 81
66, 67, 68 get the vectors to behave weirdly during attract mode
A spike is worth 2 points, except for its last shot which is
worth 1.
3. Once you have the desired score, kill yourself. Do not shoot
or superzap, just let enemies get you.
4. Wait for the effect to take place during the attract mode.
(For 46, I have found it best to start the next game after
the 2nd time the big word TEMPEST comes up.)
As noted above, sometimes bugs are deliberately placed into video games.
I believe TEMPEST came out when much pirating of video games was happening,
especially in foreign countries. As part of putting potential seeds to
follow during a lawsuit, a company could point out the contents of the
ROM's and ask a perpetrator what was the purpose of having certain
strands of code.
I remember that when word of these easter egss got out, such as when
Joystik published a list like the above one and an article on TEMPEST
where Eric Ginner (held a world record on TEMPEST at the time) talked
about the 46 bug, Atari responded by issuing new ROM's. Consequently,
the rare times you find a TEMPEST, it is very likely to have a 217 ROM.
I believe this ROM is the one in socket ROM4.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn Mandelkern "Hee, hee, hee, hee!" -- Questor the Elf
gma...@netcom.com "When passion runs deep,
San Jose, CA you're playing for keeps" -- Keith Emerson
Games, GUI's and Entertainment What does Motif sound like in the key of C++?
James R. Twine
Wait... One more!
Well, maybe this is a feature... I do not know, since I never had the
manual for it.
On Star Wars, there was a "Stop Action" or "Freeze Screen" DIP Switch
Setting.
When this was on, the game display would stop, yes, but if you ever
noticed, the cursor would still be active.
While this DIP Switch is set, pressing the Thumb button would "advance"
the game one "Frame". The trigger would allow you to fire. (Or is that
the other way around?).
One could use this bug/feature to try out the "Hit Vader 30+ times, and
collect 255 shields"" feature.
-=- James.
Joe Barlow
In <5apvff$o...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>, matt...@worldnet.att.net (Matthew Davis) writes:
>You also could stand next to kong on the blue lever, press the jump
>button then move the joystick towards dk while still in the air and
>you would get 100pts. You could do this over and over.
Actually, I believe the correct way to do the trick is to push AWAY from Kong with the joystick... can anyone confirm?
Joe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Joe Barlow (jba...@ipass.net) North Carolina arcade game collector
Looking for the following arcade games or components:
Thayer's Quest, Return of the Jedi, Dragon's Lair II, Cliff Hanger, Dragon Quiz
"Later, Space Invader!" "Ah, you must be Dirk... Dirk the Daring!"
- Dexter, from "Space Ace" - the time machine, "Dragon's Lair II"
Anthony Walden
The Tron maunal mentions this feature and how to perform it.
Anthony
Victor R. Laurel
Hehe, good story..
David Choi - CNED/P96 <d3c...@acs.ryerson.ca> wrote in article
<5ar986$d...@ns2.ryerson.ca>...
> One of the more "useful" bugs was on Capcom/Taito's "Ghost 'n' Goblins".
GnG Stuff snipped.
> We start up the game once again and start building up the free cockeyes.
> The attendant scowls at us and walks away. He does come back after about
> another twenty minutes and shuts the game off again and doesn't give
> us anything back this time.
I had that before, I wonder if this has happened to anyone else:
My brother and I were broke at a movie theater (We used to have our
parent's
drop us off to go see some silly movie, only to spend the money on video
games and never see the movie : ) so we just went around pokin' at the
games
when we came upon a peculiar phenomenon...
A Stargate was doing it's intro screen and definitely said Credit 0 on it.
We happened
to the 2 Player Start button and it fired right up! Weird thing though, it
only gave
us 3 guys per player (Remember, Defender was one of those Williams Classics
that
gave more players with extra quarters, 3 ships/smart bombs on 1 credit, 7
ships/smart
bombs for 2 credits. hehe I'm sure the difficulty was stepped up a bit
though ; ). My
brother and I played for hours!!!! Until one of the high school bullys
came around
(He also happened to be one of those theater ticket checkers) and smacked
us off
the game. My bro. and I (We were only 12 and 16 respectively) had to go
tell the
manager that the bully kicked us off the game (My Brother made the mistake
of mentioning
that it was 'Free') so the Manager calmed both sides by Firing the Bully,
and unplugging
the game. Two weeks later, the place burned down and 90% of the machines
were
lost. (You know, I never put the two together before, maybe the Bully
liked FIRE!!! hehe)
Oh well, just another little story to add to the board.
> Geez, some people....I bet this wouldn't have happened at "Flynn's"!!
Yeah, Flynn's was great, Space Paranoids, Light Cycles, and Video
Hai-Lai[sp?]
(If you read the book, you know what I mean). I'll bet that Flynn's has
The Last
Starfighter and the Empire Strikes Back two player back to back cockpit.
hehe
Later,
Vic...
--
Vic Laurel
mailto:VLa...@why.net
Video Game Collector and Restorer
Avid Warbirds Fan, find out more at http://www.icigames.com/
James R. Twine
Anthony Walden <Wa...@hotmail.com> wrote in article
<32D31B...@hotmail.com>...
> Clay Cowgill wrote:
> >
> > In article <01bbfcdd$8f3c8260$8b40...@xenon.bettynet.com>, "James R.
> > Twine" <jtw...@prodigy.com> wrote:
> >
> > [...skipping screens in TRON with the test switch...]
> >
> > handy way to do exactly what you describe).
> >
> > -Clay
>
Sorry... As I said, I did not have a manual. I found this out by
accident.
> Anthony
-=- James.
Doug Jefferys
James R. Twine (jtw...@prodigy.com) wrote:
:
: On Star Wars, there was a "Stop Action" or "Freeze Screen" DIP Switch
: Setting.
:
: When this was on, the game display would stop, yes, but if you ever
: noticed, the cursor would still be active.
:
: While this DIP Switch is set, pressing the Thumb button would "advance"
: the game one "Frame". The trigger would allow you to fire. (Or is that
: the other way around?).
:
: One could use this bug/feature to try out the "Hit Vader 30+ times, and
: collect 255 shields"" feature.
I remember trying this a few years ago, but it didn't work.
Did anyone try this with any success?
Later,
Doug.
--
Douglas W. Jefferys |
Preferred: do...@freenet.hamilton.on.ca |
`-----------------.
WWW: http://www.multipath.com/d.jefferys/index.html |
Matthew Davis
>:
>: On Star Wars, there was a "Stop Action" or "Freeze Screen" DIP Switch
>: Setting.
>:
>: When this was on, the game display would stop, yes, but if you ever
>: noticed, the cursor would still be active.
>:
>: While this DIP Switch is set, pressing the Thumb button would "advance"
>: the game one "Frame". The trigger would allow you to fire. (Or is that
>: the other way around?).
>:
>: One could use this bug/feature to try out the "Hit Vader 30+ times, and
>: collect 255 shields"" feature.
>I remember trying this a few years ago, but it didn't work.
>Did anyone try this with any success?
I can do it on mine, but if you forget about it you would burn the
screen real easy.
Matthew Davis
Marvin Martian
Mr. Fabulous wrote:
>
> In article <32CB91...@cedar-rapids.net>, rlb...@cedar-rapids.net
> says...
> >
> >Here's a couple for you.
> >
> >On the original Atari Breakout, if some of
> >the bricks are missing, hold down the serve button while starting
> >the game. The missing bricks will NOT be reset, but the counter
> >that keeps track of how many bricks you've cleared WILL be reset.
> >The result will be that when you clear the screen the bricks will
> >NOT reset and you get screwed! I had one do this once due to a
> >stuck serve switch and am embarassed how long it took to figure
> >out what was wrong.
>
> Ahhh yes, that reminds me. If you held down the 1 player button on a
> MS.Pac at the same time that you coined it. (Either dropping, or pressing
> the service button when the "Midway Copyright" message was near the
> bottom of the screen, it would leave the text on the screen, putting it
> over some of the dots, no dots in those spots means that you can never
> clear the first board, because you never increment the "Dot Counter" to
> the appropriate point. Also, I never knew what caused it, but from time
> to time when you started a game on Ms. Pac, you would get this funky
> purple color on the first board instead of the normal Pink/Tan color
> scheme..
Bummer, I tried it on mine, and it didn't work.
Sean Kovacs
Joe Barlow <PCCLAB9@ > wrote in article
<5aujsu$1s...@rtpnews.raleigh.ibm.com>...
> In <5apvff$o...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
matt...@worldnet.att.net (Matthew Davis) writes:
>
> >You also could stand next to kong on the blue lever, press the jump
> >button then move the joystick towards dk while still in the air and
> >you would get 100pts. You could do this over and over.
>
> Actually, I believe the correct way to do the trick is to push AWAY from
Kong with the joystick... can anyone confirm?
>
>
> Joe
You are absolutely correct. By pushing away you get the benefit of getting
the 100 points as well as insuring that you don't accidently jump into
Kong...
James J. Hoebel
Hello...
As with some of the others items mentioned in this thread, what I have
to offer wasn't really a bug, but a feature that was generally not
known...
My favorite feature: In Space Dungeon, if you visited each room at
least once you'd get a huge bonus at the end of the level....By doing
this, you could ignore the treasures (for the most part) and
concentrate on getting to each room at least once...As long as you
visited each room once, you'd get the bonus...By using this method, I
was able to get over a million points (without too much of a
problem)...Interesting note: Space Dungeon worked just like Defender:
You'd get a free man for everything hit from 990,000 to 1,000,000
until the score flipped. After that, you wouldn't get anymore free
guys until you'd "made up" for the ones you'd just won...Seeing as I
hardly ever saw scores near 1,000,000, I'd definately have to nominate
this feature as the #1 feature no one knew about....Any other
nominations? (By the way, I would nominate right off the bat the
Phoenix feature where if you hit several birds as they fly up you will
get 200,000 points...I didn't know about this before -- I'll need to
see if I can do that using the Spice-ulator....)...
Jim Hoebel
Reston, Virginia
JHO...@erols.com
Bruce Tomlin
Matthew Fries <lo...@my.sig> wrote in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting:
>> Did anyone here use a pencil or comb as a lever to do well on
>>Track and Field??
>A pencil works nicely. You can get even extra speed if you
>double-flap. Double-flap was something that I used on Joust (hence the
I remember when they put in new special buttons with raised edges
specifically to stop pencilling Track and Field, because it was wearing
the buttons out. I thought it was really cool that they were driven to
making that fix.
The Piper
Bruce Tomlin <bto...@crl.com> spewed forth:
i always thought they did that to prevent general slamming of hands like a conga
drum type of activity... the best method my friends and myslef always used was
the triple finger flap, that is the middle 3 fingers on each hand going L-432
R-432 in rapid alternation...with that we could fill up the last speed box when
we were really jammin...anyone ever beat 9.72 on the long jump? plus wed use 2
people on the high jump to get scores like 2.53 meters that was always a good
trick...plus wed cheat and use 2 people on the hurdles and get like 8.7 second
scores or even better. my memory is fading in my old age...wheres my cane?
Mr. Fabulous
In article <5bf6th$o...@nexp.crl.com>, bto...@crl.com says...
>I remember when they put in new special buttons with raised edges
>specifically to stop pencilling Track and Field, because it was wearing
>the buttons out. I thought it was really cool that they were driven to
>making that fix.
I also remember that some local operators were putting garden hose
washers inside the buttons to solve the problem of the "pounders" (Folks
who just beat the buttons with their palms, or fists). That was another
mod. There was also (much later) a trackball option for it. That was
kinda cool. You could get over 1500 on the speed meter by moving the
ball slowly but steadily.. (I bet it was a pot adjustment).
select information exchange
ews.visi.com> <5bf6th$o...@nexp.crl.com> <32dbc602...@news.one.net>
Organization: Internet Online Services
Distribution:
The Piper <thep...@one.net> wrote:
: i always thought they did that to prevent general slamming of hands like a conga
: drum type of activity... the best method my friends and myslef always used was
: the triple finger flap, that is the middle 3 fingers on each hand going L-432
: R-432 in rapid alternation...with that we could fill up the last speed box when
: we were really jammin...anyone ever beat 9.72 on the long jump? plus wed use 2
: people on the high jump to get scores like 2.53 meters that was always a good
: trick...plus wed cheat and use 2 people on the hurdles and get like 8.7 second
: scores or even better. my memory is fading in my old age...wheres my cane?
If you do the hurdle cheat you could get scores like 0.1 seconds if you
timed it right...
jtwine
Marvin Martian <mmar...@wwa.com> wrote in article
<32D55D...@wwa.com>...
> Mr. Fabulous wrote:
> >
> > Ahhh yes, that reminds me. If you held down the 1 player button on a
> > MS.Pac at the same time that you coined it. (Either dropping, or
pressing
> > the service button when the "Midway Copyright" message was near the
> > bottom of the screen, it would leave the text on the screen, putting it
>
> Bummer, I tried it on mine, and it didn't work.
I have only seen this trick work on the Ms. Pac-Man machines that had
the speed-up chip. I am not sure which speed-up enhancement it was, either
the speed-up-Ms.Pac-Man-but-noone-else, or the speed-up-the-whole-game.
I have never been able to recreate this bug on a "normal" Ms. Pac-Man.
As for the "strange maze colors", I, too, have seen it, but I am not
sure why.
-=- James R. Twine <jtw...@prodigy.com>
Systems Developer
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Howard Lurker
zom...@cranberry.grp (Mr. Fabulous) writes:
> There was also (much later) a trackball option for it. That was
> kinda cool. You could get over 1500 on the speed meter by moving the
> ball slowly but steadily.. (I bet it was a pot adjustment).
I was always a 'Karate Chopper' and had big lumps at the base of my
little fingers for ages where I had freaked. I used to get soooo hot
I would go bright red and sweat like a pig too. :)
Anyway... I once saw a joystick mod that was a big stick on a strong
spring that you could bash now and again and it would vibrate back and
forth racking up 'solid yellow' speeds. Plus the game had extra man
enabled AND continue to next round at end. I think I played (it was in
the Isle-of-Wight, Shanklin or perhaps Ride even?) for about 5 hours
until my mates dragged me back to the beach for some babewatching ;)
Howie.
--
Bing!
Geoffrey
Mr. Fabulous wrote:
>
> In article <32CAAF...@sympatico.ca>, phil.al...@sympatico.ca
> says...
> >
> >Crazy Kong had a bug where you run mario up to the first level, and
> >suicide off the right.
> >
> >
> >You fall through the floor and finish the first level...
> >
> >(Not all the time, though)
I remember that. I did that once as a kid and it freaked me out. I
thought Bizarrio (what I call him in this game since it was a copycat of
DK) fell into the cabinet. Of course, I was only seven at the time.
--
Geoffrey (Former Member of The BIZARRO Super Powers Team of The BIZARRO
World)
David Choi - CNED/P96
Bruce Tomlin (bto...@crl.com) wrote:
: Matthew Fries <lo...@my.sig> wrote in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting:
: >> Did anyone here use a pencil or comb as a lever to do well on
: >>Track and Field??
: >A pencil works nicely. You can get even extra speed if you
: >double-flap. Double-flap was something that I used on Joust (hence the
For those who may have missed this the first time, here is an encore...
Dedicated to Darryl:
The best "manual" "Track & Field" player whom I ever saw to put finger
to button was consistently able to achieve speeds in excess of 1300 cm/s
using two fingers on a single "RUN" button. He always carried with him
a small jar of Vaseline to grease the edge of his fingertips and also the
rim of the "RUN" button. No doubt this greasing of the contact surfaces
aided him in faster "flicking". Now there were others who would try to
emulate their hero: the little kids, not having any Vaseline of their own,
would grab a few packs of margarine from the counter (Hey, the joint WAS a
Greek souvlaki/falafel fast food restaurant.) and used margarine on the
"RUN" buttons in place of the Vaseline. (Bleah...Yuck! Kind of ruins it
for the next unsuspecting player to come around and start up a game.)
This one's dedicated to my best buddy in the whole world-wide world, YAT:
For the ULTIMATE in the NEED FOR SPEED, Yat devised something truly
ingenious. He was a student at a technical high school, so he was always
tinkering with motors and the like. So one day he came upon a really
bright idea. He attached a stiff brush to the axle of a 12-volt motor/
generator. He applied power to the motor and placed the whirling brush
directly onto the "RUN" button and got the top speed of 1500 cm/s without
any difficulty whatsoever. This worked well for a little bit, but like all
good things, this came to an end. The trouble with the motor was that it was
not silent, and after a while, the attendant, suspicious of the weird buzzing
noise, came over to investigate. Upon discovery of the "SPEED MACHINE",
the attendant promptly prohibited any further use of the device.
Oh, well. Easy come, easy go. But it did serve to prove that the sought-
after top speed of 1500 cm/s was not a myth, and Yat found it.
For the love of those days...
DCI #3
