Star Wars Arcade Playing Hings


furthermore: 
                              Star Wars Hints

Should you be lucky enough to either know an arcade that still has Star
Wars or even own the game yourself, here are some hints on how to play.
Please note that I did not write this document, so I can't answer any
questions about it!

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From: keith@worf.tcs.com (Keith Jarett)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting
Subject: Star Wars Play Hints (Long!)
Date: 2 May 1995 17:42:14 -0700
Message-ID: <3o6jh6$2pe@worf.tcs.com>

Anyone who wants to archive this post for a FAQ or whatever has my
permission to do so.

keith@tcs.com
Keith Jarett

This is an update of my July 29, 1994 post. After much practice, I have
achieved reasonable proficiency at Star Wars. A week ago I set a new
personal high score of 15 million and change on Wave 56. It took an hour
and 45 minutes! This was 5 million and 17 waves better than my
second-highest score two months ago. Of course my machine is set to Easy
with 9 starting and 3 bonus shields. I may change that after I reach Wave
99 once.

Here is a compilation of information from all four replies to my 1994
request for Play techniques for Star Wars. I have added a few of my own
observations here and there in square brackets. Three of these folks had
amazingly high scores, for example:

mzintl@plasma.ps.uci.edu (Michael W. Zintl) "walked away from the machine
with a high score over 30 million" on a two shield end-of-wave bonus. This
is just amazing!

gmandel@corp.megatest.com (Glenn Mandelkern) achieved a score of
"56,550,191. This was on WAVE 99, having gone through it many times.
Essentially once you're on WAVE 32, it's just like any other wave, the
number just does not increment past 99." Nice to know; I doubt I'll ever
see that for myself. I assume Glenn's machine was giving a 3-shield bonus.

Staffan Ulfberg says, "I used to have 6 starting shields, no extra shields
when death star is destroyed, and game setting on Hardest. Having the game
set up this way I have reached level 20 once. (Around 3 100 000 points if
my memory serves me well.)" Note that Staffan was NOT using the Force
(i.e., he was shooting at the fireballs in the trench), but reaching wave
20 with a TOTAL of 6 shields is phenomenal!

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Regarding the Force, Michael explains it:

"If you can get through the entire catwalk sequence without firing, you get
an extra bonus at the end. The bonus is 5000 at the end of wave 1, and goes
up to 100,000 for waves 7 onward. It's tough, but it can be done, even with
no shield damage."

Based on Staffan's score, I would have to say that one has a choice between
going for a high score using the Force or a high wave number shooting when
necessary. But sunshine@zeppelin.convex.com (Roger Sunshine) reports "I
find it much easier to navigate the trenches while using the force since I
can concentrate on avoiding things instead of shooting turrets and enemy
shots." [I agree! And besides, how could a Star Wars fan resist "Using the
Force"?]

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Of the play hints, the most helpful to me was:

: One specific question is: How do I avoid taking a hit from the
: fireballs defending the exhaust port?

From Michael:

The fireballs aim for the position you were at when they were fired, so you
need to decoy the enemy turrets.

When you clear the last of the catwalks, drop as low as you can and wait
for the turrets to fire. When they do, climb up and shoot at the exhaust
port. That's one way; another is simply to climb high once you've cleared
the catwalks and fire at the exhaust at your earliest convenience. It's
easier to hit the port from high up, since the [target is larger from that
angle].

You only need to hit the exhaust port once. Whatever you do, don't go after
the fireballs; they're a waste of time. When you hit the exhaust port, the
fireballs simply disappear, and you won't have to worry about them any
more.

Staffan sent me much the same approach, with the addition that: "if a
fireball is fired just behind a barrier, it is almost always possible to
avoid it by first passing the barrier and then making a sharp turn. Of
course I think this should be avoided when possible due to risk of hitting
either the fence or the fireball...

I like to avoid as many fireballs as possible without shooting them, and
give most of my attention to controlling the X-wing fighter's trajectory in
the channel. Try to shoot the fireballs as early as possible, to give you
more time to plan how to avoid remaining fireballs and fences."

Glenn gives another possible strategy, which I have not yet mastered:

After WAVE 8, every exhaust port ending is the same, i.e., a catwalk with 6
sections, then one with 2.

My approach to this is to aim the cursor very high towards the end so that
the topmost turrets in the ending area shoot, but the bottom ones do not.
This allows me to then sweep down fast after passing the 2 section catwalk
and shoot my one shot into the exhaust port.

[I was unable to avoid being hit by the fireballs from the topmost turrets
unless I swept down before the 2 section catwalk. Therefore my strategy was
to sweep low for the turret firing, then climb to shoot the exhaust port.
It worked fine for me.]

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The second helpful point was mentioned by Roger:

"I find it easiest to deal with the towers by drifting to the right
continuously and generally ignoring towers on the left side of the screen
(don't worry, the tower playfield is fairly small in both depth and width,
so they'll be back.)"

[This was a VERY helpful comment. I would now add that it often helps to
reverse directions once, and only once, after most of the tower tops have
been cleared. Reason: some of the tower tops are easier to hit (fewer
obstacles) from the left, others from the right. After a while you will get
a feeling for when to reverse field. Just use the Force! :)

I still have trouble clearing the tower tops on Wave 11, though.]

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In my request, I wrote:

: In the FAQ it mentions that you can get 21 extra shields by hitting
: Vader's ship 30 or so times, which is said to be nearly impossible.
: I would certainly agree, but any tips on how to do this would also
: be appreciated.

There was universal skepticism about this. I think it's urban (arcade)
legend.

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I also asked:

: When you change the difficulty from easy to hard, exactly what
: changes?

We don't seem to have a definitive answer here. Roger says: "Generally, the
number of shots outstanding at a time. The speed through the trenches and
towers may also increase, but I can't really tell (it seems way too fast as
is :-)"

Glenn, who knows PLENTY as you'll see below, says: "The rate of the
fireballs being shot by TIE Fighters, towers & bunkers and turrets."

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Miscellaneous hint:

Michael suggests: "If it seems like you're hitting the catwalks a lot on
the higher waves, try leading into them a little early. It won't feel
comfortable at first, but it does work, and you won't hit as many."

[Takes some practice to get this right, but it is a good hint.]

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Now I will quote the rest of Glenn's reply, since it was such an amazing
treasure trove of facts...

The things to learn about STAR WARS are its patterns in the three sections
making up the game. I'm primarily going to talk about WAVE 5 and up since
this is the fastest way to get a high score.

TIE Fighters

From WAVE 5 to WAVE 32, there are two basic formations based upon whether
the WAVE is odd or even. After WAVE 32 the TIE Fighter starting formation
is the same as for the previous even waves.

The key to this phase is to realize that there is only one ship on the
offensive. Also, there are at most 3 enemy ships on the screen at one time,
namely 2 TIE fighters and Darth Vader. In order to get heavy points off of
Darth Vader, try to get him with one of the TIE fighters around. Then shoot
him while he's on the offensive. After you shoot him, it'll be the TIE
fighter's turn to be offensive. Shoot that TIE Fighter's fireballs, but
don't shoot the TIE Fighter. Darth Vader will be idling close by and that's
when you should keep pounding on him. There is a small time that your shots
will not give you 2,000 points for shooting him, during that time you can
defend yourself from the TIE fighters fireballs.

Another thing to do is to shoot the fireballs in the order that they
appear, especially when you are bombarded by them.

[Keith's note: the words on the Death Star are "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU"
on the odd waves, and the designers' names on the even waves. I haven't
checked above Wave 32 yet. I don't get there very often. :) ]

Towers

WAVE 3 to WAVE 11 present you with the basic tower formations. WAVE 12 to
WAVE 20 then present you these same formations, but 4 towers are added.

From WAVE 21 up, you'll only see the tower patterns that came from WAVE 15
to WAVE 20. In fact, when the tower screen starts for WAVE 21 and up, if
you see TOWERS 31, you'll know that it's the same configuration of towers
seen on WAVE 19, which is 4 more towers than those from WAVE 10. The least
number of towers here will be 24, from WAVE 15 and 16, the highest is 32.

Another thing that helps is to think of the towers area as being the
surface of a spherical planet. If you keep going in the same direction,
eventually you'll return to the same spot. Applying this to the towers
area, if you spot a tower early that you miss, don't waste time trying to
go after that one tower by moving back and forth. This will cost you
time-wise for getting the others. Instead, keep veering to the right or
left (your choice) and keep going after tower tops. Eventually, the one you
missed in the beginning will reappear.

[If there are many laser turrets (the red ones), you can sometimes decoy
their fireballs by momentarily switching directions (right-left) just
before they fire. Then switch back to the original direction, and the
fireballs will not be in your way. You can also decoy the fireballs or
avoid them with up-down motion.

As a simpler strategy, you can do a maximum left or right turn and the
fireballs will not reach you. Of course, you may miss an opportunity to
shoot a tower top this way.]

Trench

The main thing to do in the trench to get the most points is to USE THE
FORCE. This means to go through the trench without firing. Only fire into
the exhaust port when getting near the end and the message appears saying,
"100,000 POINTS FOR USING THE FORCE".

If you really want to become good at the trench part, then USE THE FORCE
every time, even if the top of the screen reads SHIELD GONE.

        Each catwalk can be viewed as containing 8 sections
        ---------
        \ A \ B \
        /   /   /
        ---------
        \ C  \D \
        /   /   /
        ---------
        \ E \ F \
        /   /   /
        ---------
        \ G \ H \
        /   /   /
        ---------

Each of the sections may be present or not, thus allowing 2^8 combinations.
Of course, the all present and all-not-present cases are not seen nor used.
Not all 256 possible ones appear. But if you'd like a good exercise,
consider writing a program that displays all 256 combinations. Then take a
good look and think, where would I go if I saw this? Once you feel
comfortable with that, try thinking where would you go if you saw two
different ones back to back. Then carry this over to the game by learning
to look ahead into the distance to see what catwalks are coming up and
devising a plan.

You'll probably need to get into this mode of thinking in the beginning on
a catwalk-by-catwalk basis.

Again, the key to mastering the trench part is to recognize the repertoire
of patterns. 8 catwalks put together make up a catwalk set. There are 16
catwalk sets in each trench.

From WAVE 6 to WAVE 11, you will see several catwalk sets. From WAVE 12 up,
the catwalk sets will appear in random orders. However, the catwalk sets
themselves are those that you have seen from WAVE 6 to WAVE 11. WAVE 8 and
WAVE 9 contain the most.

So the key to getting ahead through WAVE 12 and up in the trench is to
recognize the catwalk set, (if you can name the WAVE you saw it in
originally, that'll cement the catwalk sets in your brain).

The trench has turrets that shoot fireballs. I like to coax the turrets to
shoot. They sense where my cursor is and will shoot. When getting to that
area, I can then turn opposite from them or have enough knowledge of where
fireballs are appearing in order to maneuver away from them.

[When you need to go through a small opening (such as the one open section
in a 7-section catwalk), you should *not* line up early with the opening.
Instead, position your ship elsewhere and wait until the last possible
moment to make your move. Then the fireballs will generally miss you.]

After WAVE 8, every exhaust port ending is the same, i.e., a catwalk with 6
sections, then one with 2. From my drawing above these would correspond to
CDEFGH, then EF. My approach to this is to aim the cursor very high towards
the end so that the topmost turrets in the ending area shoot, but the
bottom ones do not. This allows me to then sweep down fast after passing
the 2 section catwalk and shoot my one shot into the exhaust port.

Point the cyan cursor at the exhaust port itself. Realize that when you
shoot the exhaust port, all fireballs are extinguished. Don't bother trying
to shoot the fireballs first, just shoot the exhaust port.

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Created: 15 Apr 1996; Last Modified: 15 Apr 1996