Hints, Tips, & Tricks Compiled by Sandy Kettenhofen and Tuncer Deniz Wolfenstein 3D • At the beginning of level two, take some time and explore the opening room very carefully before proceeding. • There is a chain gun hidden on level two. Make a beeline straight for it, then double back and shred your enemies. • For the final villain, use “hit and run” tactics to pound him and then flee before he levels his weapon. Douglas Kiang Rebel Assault • For the first mission, always remember to ascend (joystick down) while making those sharp turns. • In the flight training mission with Ru Murleen, just imitate Ru’s flight movements and you’ll get through the mission relatively unscathed. • For the Attack of Tatooine mission, it is possible to blast all three tie-fighters within the first couple of seconds. If you’re lucky, you can get all three and complete the mission right away! • In the asteroid field chase mission, just remember that the asteroids come at you in the same sequence and location. If you play the mission enough times, you can remember when and where they will approach and react accordingly. It’s one of the longest missions, but be patient. • Cutting down the imperial walkers can be made a bit simpler by choosing to attack on the left side (the “A” side). • When fighting storm troopers, take the paths that go left, they’re a bit more forgiving than the other ones. • In the final mission are laser barriers that can be destroyed by blasting their bases. But you also have to worry about navigation. The way to go is to prepare your target sight so that it’s at the same level vertically as the bases. Then when the laser barriers come, just swing left or right (depending upon which way you have to turn to avoid the walls) and start firing away. When it comes time to launch the torpedoes, be patient—move your sight around until the “lock” signal lights up before pulling the trigger. Gary Le PegLeg • Avoid hovering near the edges of your screen; newly arriving aliens will appear and crash into you with little warning. • Immediately after you’re resurrected with a new ship, you’ll have a force field that will obliterate any object you run into. This is a good time to mow down any particularly bothersome critters. • Your level of firepower is reduced each time you die, so one of your major priorities upon returning should be getting more supply containers right away. • Since it often takes more than one shot to destroy an alien, an efficient way to get those guys completely is to move quickly back and forth in a limited area while firing continuously. • Your Goomers (bombs) tend to circle their prey before going in for the kill, so if you plan to use one don’t wait until the last second. Eileen Mullin Hoyle Classic Card Games • If you have a MultiSync monitor switch to the lowest resolution and use Hoyle's small window mode - this will result in the clearest graphics. • Select Options from the game selection screen and check Use Standard Opponents so you can skip the opponent selection process. • Clicking on the character's name in the opponent selection screen tells you the character's skill level at the chosen game. • To speed up the game, go to the Options screen and lower the detail slider to its minimum; raise the pace to its maximum; and then click on the Music button and turn off both music and speech • In Cribbage: remember that every second game the crib is yours. If so, and you have lots of good cards, you can safely place useful pairs in the crib. • In Crazy Eights: A good strategy is to play high cards before low cards. Also watch the number of cards the opponents are holding. It is often wise to save your eights to the end, but if another player finishes and you still hold them it will cost you 50 points. • In Gin Rummy: watch what cards your opponent picks from the discard pile as well as what she or he throws out. It is a good idea to avoid discarding anything she or he picks up. • In Hearts, a potentially rewarding but dangerous strategy is to 'shoot the moon' i.e. capture all the Hearts and Queen of Spades. It is dangerous in that it backfires if you miss just one card. - Darren Challis Alien Arcade • Experiment with the mouse speed settings for all the games to find your preference. I use the fastest setting because it has the quickest reaction time, important for the higher levels of the game. • In Andromedroids, try and build multiple robots at once. That way, you normally have a robot ready to accept whatever piece appears at the higher levels. • At the higher levels of Andromedroids, keep the overhead chute closer to the Mercurian Metal Bug Bin so that you can dump them as soon as possible. Try not to dump then in the construction sites because that effectively renders that site useless (unless you like feeding the MMBs). • Fungus patrol is a game of priorities and aim. When the spores first appear, mop up those closest to you (they’ll get to your bungee cord first). Do the same for the active fungi. • Learn how to lead the Nerdoids and Quasar Klutzes. This will allow you to deliver the goodies to them on the higher levels of the structures. Be patient and don’t waste your comics or bananas. • In Quasar Rain ignore the bananas — they only cause you to lose 5 points but letting a Quasar fall past you could cost you the game. Try using the highest speed setting on the mouse. • Although catching Happy Faces in Stink Snakes of Saturn is rewarding, your goal is to convert all the snakes. Consider the Happy Faces a bonus and only try and get them when you are sure that no Stink Snakes are going to get by. • Pies bounce off the back wall and can convert Stink Snakes to Happy Faces on the return journey. A salvo of pies at a posse of zig-zagging snakes will often convert most of them on the outbound and inbound pie tracks. Chris Myrick