The following is a grouping of helpful hints and cheats for various games on the Atari ST/Amiga. The come from the U.K. via some of the Atari ST/Amiga magazines available there. They are reproduced verbatim from the magazine article, including credits for the hints. Ninja Mission - Mastertronic If you are still playing this aging beat'em-up the Danny Esposito, from Sheffield, can help you in your quest with this useful cheat. Whilst playing, on entering a room, push the joystick in the direction of the enemy and hold down the firebutton This will freeze them, making them easy meat to beat up! Carrier Command - Rainbird Stephen Armstrong has flown in with a very useful bug for this brilliant strategy/sim which seems to be keeping so many of you busy. Whilst in the Walrus arming section, select nine Harbinger surface-to-surface missiles and put them in the AAV. Select the Avatar Chemical Laser and place it over the missiles. Then select the pod you want (ACCB, Virus, Fuel) and place it in the AAV. Then when you have launched the AAV look at its weapons and you will find you have BOTH missiles and a laser! On returning to the carrier any missiles you have left will be added to the ship's stores. Carry on doing this and hundreds of missiles can be yours. For those of you who find Carrier Command just a little bit too taxing, Mark Lawrence has discovered a great in-built cheat routine - this is how you get to it: go into the pause mode and type "GROW OLD ALONG WITH ME" (including spaces). You should now see the message 'Cheat mode active' displayed. Pressing the + key on the numeric pad protects your Mantas and AAVs from missile attacks. The - key can be used to turn this off. With the cheat mode acrive, pressing the following keys in sequence: 'Help', Q, S, Control, Alternate, gives a little message. Pressing the 9 key on the numeric key pad displays the current difficulty level, and the keys 6 and 8 have some other effect. Returning to the title screen, press the + and - keys to view all of the objects within the game. Pink Panther - Gremlin If you bought this appalling game, and you have my condolences, Andy Brightmore, who hails from Clwyd, has found a bug which may help you squeeze another five minutes enjoyment from it. On level one place a trampoline next to a wall, this will cause the sleepwalker to bounce up - hittimg the ceiling and die. Start a new game and this time you won't have to worry about the sleepwalker as he will just disappear under the floor! Starquake - Mandarin This game is absolutely brilliant and rates in my all-time top ten faves. The mysterious "Brod" from Hull and Darren Gallagher from Liverpool have sent in all the transporter codes. This makes progress that little bit easier. ADKEA HINDI TABET KWANG ROKEA SOLUN CWORE KALED DAVRO BORNO TSOIN FLIED NICHA LUANG CHING SOCHI Out Run - U.S. Gold Bless my barnacles! Those salty, saucy sea-dogs "The Portland Bill Lighthouse Crew", from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, along with Andy Slough, from Welling, Kent, AND our old friend "Norm" Tierney, from London, have sailed in with this brilliant cheat code for this excellent arcade conversion. Whilst playing, type in the word STARION and then press the following keys: B - Bogus extended play S - Advances yo on a stage D - Save screen picture T - Extra 10 seconds Q - Programmers information X - Exits game Bubble Bobble - Firebird Another of my all-time favourites. Apparently a massive score can be accumulated whilst on screen one. All you have to do is bubble the first two monsters, and then try to fill the screen with bubbles. Bubble and burst the remaining monster and the remaining bubbles should turn into fruit (usually bananas) each of which is worth 500 points. Thanks to Terry White of Worksop for that useful little tip. Rumour has it that this cheat works on several other screens! Star Trek - Firebird Jason Pycroft from South Glamorgan, has sent in this list of objects and their whereabouts, which should aid anyone still "boldly going where no man has gone before ..." CYCLOX EMITTER (For Security Bomb): Numux III (91.59.32) Local zone. DATABANK CONSOLE (Need ZMX device): Mines II (34.64.79) Reg. zone. FLUOX CANNISTER (For door): Nornal II (68.67.34) Local zone. KLINGON ADMIRAL: Xuziol I (72.47.44) Local zone. (You will need 2 Sona Emitters, 1 Cyclox emitter and a Tachyon gun.) KLINGON JAMMING DEVICE: Culun IV (19.71.61) Local zone. LOGIC EMITTER : Tozox II (41.46.17) Quar. zone. QUIZZING TRIGGER: Numux III (91.59.32) Local zone. ROMULAN JAMMING DEVICE: Larmos I (83.60.37) Reg. zone. SOLAR SCAN DEVICE: Sonax III (86.64.41) Reg. zone. SOMA EMITTERS: 1. Xuxiax V. Quar. zone. 2. Mokak II. Nr. Sines. TACHYON GUN: Hezior near Tozox. Goto planet furthest right (Reg zone) and turn to local. Hardball - Accolade This is a very tricky game to master. If you are still having problems then these guidelines from Andy L, of Rainhull, Mersyside, should help: Allstars are better than Champs. Only steal if you actually hit the ball. Try to get a lot of runs in early, as the computer team improves towards the end. Bunting rarely works. Halfway through the match, swap Laws for Wells and Wratten for Harris. The best pitchers are Oliver, Perez, Leary, Cook. The others will only be successful for a short while. Never pitch fastballs to the centre as they will usually result in home runs. Change pitcher after a few innings, because as they get tired their accuracy and speed get worse. Sundog - Mirrorsoft I must confess to having not played this adventure yet, though someone who has is Ling Li from Zummerzet, sorry, Somerset, who has found this useful bug. Apparently, you can get shields for 350 Cr to 400 Cr, depending where you are. To get them, go to a weapon store and click onthe rapid heal and then click on the "Yes", then instead of clicking on the rapid heal, go right of it, so you are on a blank space. Click now and you will have found a shield which you didn't have before in one of your carrying squares. Though it only says "Shield", after one hit it will say "Shield (7)". Trantor - Go! As well as sending in his Starquake codes, Darren Gallagher, from Liverpool, has sent in the following codes for all you last stormtroopers out the re: Computer, Terminal, Portable, Software, Graphics, Assembly, Language, Compiler, Keyboard, Operator, Sequence, Schedule, Personal, Digitise, Database, and Hardware. Thrust - Silverbird Here is a useful cheat from Simon Mayoh, from Dumfries in Bonny Scotland for all you out there who enjoy thrusting. Insert a disk like ST basic to force GEM to appear. Then insert your Thrust disk and get a catalogue of its contents. On the disk you will find, amongst others, a game editor and a cheat mode. On loading the cheat version the game seems to play as normal. But if you press the ESC key, instead of aborting the present game, you will advance a level until level 80. Defender of the Crown A small tip for this medieval classic from Martin Aston of Blurton (!). When buying soldiers, knights, etc. you needn't bother buying a catapult because when you seige a castle you are automatically given one! Terramex - Grandslam Bleurgh! Mediocrity at its best. Guy Thompson, form Oxford, along with James Wimble, from Abbey Wood, London, must like it though, as they have sent in some tips to help all you fellow sufferers out there. Henri Beaucoup or Wilbur Fortisque-Smithe are the best characters. Henri's key item is the Unicycle whilst Wilbur's is the Cricket ball. These key items are used in gaining the secret formula. Wu-Pong must give the flash, Herr Krusche the beer barrel, and Big John Caine the spurs. To pass the snakes use the flute. To use the balloon carry the bellows. To pass a chasm use the Acme expanding bridge. To be fired from the cannon use the large Gunpowder barrel and walk into the end of the cannon. To get the silver cross you must get the silver lining, take this to the anvil and, voila! Make sure you activate the Matter-transporters before you use them or you will be vaporised. You activate them by carrying the green energy crystal (from the low-gravity room) over the gold tray. Place the switch in the grey circular holder to activate the ferrying device. If you are stuck use the think command. Leatherneck - Microdeal Not content with his usual plethora of pokes, Mark Lawrence has sent in this cheat mode for this meaty "Commando" variant. Type in CUTHBERTNECK" and then press F3; this will give yur men protective shields. The only thing that kills you is your team- mates's bullets. F3 turns it off again. Addictaball - Alligata Before you press space, type IJC and the screen will turn black. Now press the function key corresponding to the level you wish to start on. Thanks for that little gem go to Paul Davies from Peterborough. Captain Blood - Infogrammes This is an incredible absorbing game. Though not many of you lot seem to have been playing it, judging by the amount of tips I've been receiving. Anyway, Robert Lay from Sutton Coldfield has sent in these useful pointers. At the start of a game you will automatically be in orbit around an alien planet. Transport down and try to find an alien, preferable Yuko; if it isn't Yuko it may be best to reload as he is the key to the game. Talk to Yuko abut his father, Maxon, and you will find he is in prison. He will also give you co-ordinates for Croolis-ulv, where you will find another alien. Whilst you are talking to Yuko he will give you the code 1010; this always remains the same. Go to Croolis-ulv and you will be given the co-ordinates for Croonis-var. Go there and destroy it, then go back to Croonis- ulv. The alien will now be nice to you; keep talking to him and you will get the co-ordinates for the Forbidden planet. Go to the Forbidden planet (Sinox), and you will meet a guardian robot. Give him the code you received from Yuko. Now watch what happens! Foundations Waste - Exocet Hoorah! Steve P. from Hull has been slogging away on this nifty debut release from Exocet. Steve, it seems, is a bit of a dab hand at this, probably due to the fact that he played it solidly for two weeks. Right, here's the lowdown: Familiarise yourself with the alien attack patterns on each of the four levels. These patterns do not change, so it is possible to shoot the aliens before they actually appear on the screen. The homing missile is the single most devastating weapon you can get. Once armed with these, don't collect the side-shooting missiles, because , if you do, you will lose the homing missiles. Be quick when collecting extra weaponry because, after a while, they will turn into enemy silos; these are invisible to your homing missiles and must be shot from beneath with your ship's firepower. The motherships must be destroyed with continuous firepower. Homing missiles are especially useful for speedy destruction. At the end of level 1 two motherships appear: i. Position your ship directly beneath the mothership and use continuous firing, scrolling with the mothership down the screen, being careful to avoid its missiles. ii. For the second mothership, position your ship alongside it, just above where the missiles are launched from. Being this close to it means that with your homing missiles, it shouldn't take long to kill. Each mothership is worth 5000 points. Level two has more motherships, but to aid your quest you can acquire a drone which when positioned onthe mothership will reduce it to dust. This tactic can be used until the drone disappears. When that happens, go back to the method of placing your craft alongside the motherships. Level three is the hardest. Steve recommends that you minimise your losses by avoiding any firepower and taking no risks at all. On destroying an installation, silo, alien, etc., the blue startws they yield are worth the following items - Laser fire, Shields for a limited time, Reverse controls (a real nuisance), and slow motion for a limited time. Though, generally, once you collect the homing missiles it is best to leave any blue stars, especially if you collect the slow motion or reverse control, both to which usually cost you a life. Level four starts off fairly tame compared to level three, until the last quarter. Possession of the homing missiles until the very last part of the level is absolutely essential to finish the game. Keep your ship centrally positioned as much as possible; the homing missiles will then have maximum effect and speed. The fun starts when you leave the planet and go into space, loss of the homing missiles here is fatal. If you do still have the homing missiles, try to keep them as long as possible. After a multitude of different aliens, you come across the mega-mothership which fires homing missiles at you. These cannot be avoided! Any blue stars that appear just before this point should be taken to try to get a shield. If you are in possession of a shield, then position your craft on the mothership and blast it continuously. After a while it will flash and explode; this still leaves the rear half to destroy but multiple hits will do the trick. After that yyou can put your feet up, assured that, once again, the galaxy is safe! Ahhhh!!!! Game Hints for Super Sprint, ECO, Time Bandit, Goldrunner, and Dungeon Master. Super Sprint - Electric Dreams This is one of the better arcade conversions I have seen, and it is every bit as tricky as its arcade parent. If you have managed to struggle onto level eight, then good old Richard Nellist from Stockton-on-Tees has a useful tip to gain you lots of extra points. When you start the race, instead of racing around the track, turn through 180 degrees so you are facing in the opposite direction and move to the left of the starting grid and face your car so its nose is pointing down. As the computer-controlled drone passes you, accelerate so you hit the drone and push it into the bottom wall, then crash into the wall yourself. When you reappear, move up again, get into the same position and destroy the next drone, and the next, and the next, and so on, until there are no drones left. Now as long as you do not finish the race, you can just continue collecting spanners and other point- giving objects to your heart's content! Ocean's indescribable ECO I don't really know how to describe this game - I mean, is there such a thing as a gene'em up! Anyway, whilst I wonder about that, here is a tip from Richard Nellist of Stockton-on-Tees in Cleveland: If you press Control-S whilst playing the game you will enter the gene design screen with another gene unlocked, making evolution slightly easier. Time Bandit - Microdeal Another game that is getting on a bit but is still playable now. S.Chohen from Milton Keynes has a useful tip which enables you to start and practise on any level. When starting a game, go to any place and you should see 1A at the bottom of the screen. To start on the level of your choice or to practise, press the up and down cursor keys to select the level. Also, the left and right cursor keys can be used to go to different time zones. This helps immensely in gameplay. Goldrunner - Microdeal This shoot'em-up is knocking on a bit now, but it is still one of the top vertical scrollers. If you are stuck on any level, the J. Aldridge of Hermitage in Berkshire has found a method for skipping levels. When you start a game, press the I key and you will be transported to the bonus round, if you press the U key it will then take you onto the next round. J. has also sent in the names to all the levels: MAGELLAN, FORTRESS, TRITON 3, STYX, TIRATIAN, EMBALL, FATAYSN, ICLO, MENESIS, BRELTISLOR, MORTEM, TASSIR, ZYLL, MANNDELIST, ZYTHUS, ENGELT. DUNGEON MASTER Playing Tips by Mitch The instant success of Mirrorsoft's latest best seller, DUNGEON MASTER, has brought with it multiple headaches for the staff at the Shoe Lane offices in London. The addictive power of this game, combined with the fiendish puzzles it contains, seems to have created an army of addicts who continually jam the Mirrorsoft phones begging for help with their particular problem. The Product Manager, Simon Knight, confessed that he was spending so long on the phone each day attempting to help desperate players, that he felt we could help by releasing a few hints for the desperate. The good news for anyone stuck on Level 1 of the dungeon, is that there only another eleven levels to go and, so far, no one in Britain has completely solved the game! Or perhaps you know better? Some useful hints from the Mirrorsoft magician are as follows: The iron keys which are required to open many of the doors are the same colour as the dungeon floor. Invariably the keys are to be found lying near the door but cunningly camouflaged. To see the keys you must have a brightly burning torch and be standing back from the location. Many problems can only be solved by moving quickly through or past the obstacle and you will be unable to do this if you are carrying anything. So the message is, "If you need to move fast - DROP THEM!" Teleporters are also capable of teleporting objects as well as fighters, so there are occasions when you could teleport something else to help solve your problem. Having problems opening a locked door? If logic and reason fails, why not try a bit of mindless violence with an axe? Falling down a pit does not seem the best of moves, but there are occasions when success comes after a fall. Finally, it is essential to draw scale maps for each level as there is at least one obstacle which is truly impossible to pass, and only a map will show that the location behind the obstacle can be reached by another route. A further piece of good news for DUNGEON MASTER masochists is that the game's creators will be releasing a further five fiendish levels for the game in the autumn. This add-on will enable you to transfer your existing band of heroes to the new locations or you may use the new character editor to create and draw new heroes for the game. Barbarian - Palace This tip will help all you frustrated and decapitated warriors out there. On the one-player game, roll into the middle of the screen and kneel down, then swipe at your opponent's legs. Due to a strange quirk in the program, the other warrior cannot retaliate and you should be able to get to the evil wizard with ease. Thanks go to Norman Tierney from London for that useful tip. P.S. In your letter, Norman you wrote asking for help in Police Quest, especially with the bikers in the bar. Well, our resident cocky know-all, Nick Clarkson, has the solution. When you first get out of your police car you must take the PR24 nightstick. Go into the bar and ask the bikers to move. They will get unruly and start to beat you up. Type "use nightstick" and they will leave you alone and move on. Nick also says that if anyone has trouble with any Sierra games, they can write to him via ST Action, and he will do his best to help - he claims to have finished them all. Super Cycle - U.S. Gold A bit silly this tip; but I'll bung it in anyway. At the start of a race, just leave the bike where it is. When the time runs out and the high-score table appears, you will be at the top! thanks to A. Codling from Gravesend for that unusual little quirk. Star Wars - Domark Is there no end to R. Henderson's tips! If you are fed up wrecking your mouse on this smart conversion, the plug an auto- fire joystick in port 2 and turn it on. Now all you have to do is move the cursor. I mentioned others - well, this cheat also works on Warhawk and Sidewinder, in fact any game that scans both ports. Pandora - Firebird Daniel Messinger has really got stuck into this average arcade adventure and sent in these following tips. Cheers, Dan The chemist wants some Shakespeare, which is in LT. Comms quarters. Give it to him and he'll give you a syringe. Find the diabetic and give him the syringe. He will also want Insulin - get this from the security officer in exchange for the sonic blaster. Take Insulin to diabetic, give it to him and he'll give you some useful information. When moving around, try to avoid the thief - he will take whatever you are holding. When you see him, blap him with the laser rifle. Go back to LT. Comm's room and take his I.D. Hold it and walk into the Commander's room (the room to the left). Pick up the objects and leave, making sure you are holding the I.D. or you will die. Avoid fighting droids or anyone unless you have to. Watch their movement patterns and sneak past them. Characters: Bank manager - Kill him (makes sense!) Wacobrain - Watch out!!! Dangerous. Thief - Holds: gold key, sonic blaster and kryptonite. Priest - Very dangerous - holds a lethal photosabre. If you can can get this can be very useful. Hooligan - Holds mace - avoid. Secdroids - Avoid. Ice creature - Dangerous - holds thermolance which is a very good weapon. Lord - Holds photosabre. Captain - Code white, SDI disk. Bubble Bobble - Firebird This tip was found out by someone in the office but I can't remember who! On losing your last life, keep holding fire down and a new set of lives will be yours, though your score will be reset. While I'm on the subject of this ever-popular conversion, MISS (yes a lady! Come on ladies, don't you play computer games?) S.P. Gulati from London asks: "How do you beat the big Baron on level 100?" Well, yours truly to the rescue! Jump onto the small platforms, collecting the green potion bottles. These potions allow you fire lightning bubbles, which are used by jumping down, alongside a wall, facing in the opposite direction from the Baron. Whilst floating, keep pressing fire and lots of little lightning bolts will rip into the Baron. After about a hundred he will become bubbled. Pop him immediately, and completion is yours! Football Manager II - Addictive Thanks very much to Rob Nengerman from Holland, for these useful starting tips for this average sequel. Take a team from the third division to start witth. In the lower divisions always play with four attackers if possible (you can normally play with two midfield players to do so.), make sure you always train with every turn and, most improtant: ALWAYS SAVE THE GAME AFTER YOU HAVE WON. If there is a match you lose, simply load the last position and try again, perhaps with another system. Livingstone - Alligata A few of you couldn't get Kenton Bush's infinite lives cheat to work. If you were one of them, R. Henderson from Merseyside has sent in another which is accessed simply by typing C H E A T. Ooooh!! Warhawk - Silverbird Nick Gudegast from Cheshire, has sent in a quick tippette for this budget blast. Once the game has loaded, press the F3 and, hey presto! When you play the game and get to the blue blob which changes the sound of your ammo, it'll give you fast continuous firepower without having to keep fire pressed. Ooh! Gunship - Microprose This is a brilliant sim. If you still want to cheat, but can't be bothered to type in Mark Lawrence's brilliant pokes from earlier Cheat's (lazy so-and-so), Greg Parsons from Nuneaton flies in to rescue you. First choose a really easy mission and complete it. Then take an extreme mission on any of the levels. If you should die on any of them, wait until the screen tells you what happened (missing in action or killed in action) then reset the computer without pressing fire and continue the game. Now you will just accumulate score, medals, ribbons, chat show apearances, etc... Little Computer Person - Activision I'm not so sure I should be printing this. I mean, does it count as murder? Anyroad up, if you are bored with your present pet person, simply follow these instructions from M. Tillet of Lowestoft. Open the folder called DATA and you will be faced by many files. Close the write-protect tab so it is enabled. Find the file HYBER and drag it to the trash icon, thus erasing it. Now load as normal, making sure the write protect tab is enabled. After five minutes a new LCP should move in, and if your are STILL not happy with it, just repeat the procedure. I must point out that I am in no way responsible for murdering all those little chaps. So if you want to do it, the risk is yours. Ikari Warriors - Elite Lots of people have sent in this tip. Too many to list, in fact. So, for anyone who fancies semi-invincibility, this is what you do. On starting, enter the first tank, and crash straight into the first pillbox. Now, quickly press "F1" to quit. Restart and do this again. Your tank will now be invincible, as will any tank entered hereafter. Captain Blood - Erratum A slight blunder in the last docs (Steve, your Pot Noodle allowance has been cut - Ed). caused much confusion amongst eager Captain Blood fans. The missing section of the tip is as follows: Once you have arrived at 'Sinox' and the robot asks you for the code, you should reply: 'Impossible not Sinox', and at the next prompt, reply incorporating the '1010' code into the answer. Stir Crazy - Infogrames If a big score is what you are after, then follow Cheeky (at least, I think that's what it said!), from Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire's advice. On the snoring level - six - go to the top left snorer and nudge him three times. Work your way down doing this and then across. Avoid the slop bucket, and get back into your bunk. If you do this correctly, the your % will go back up to 100. Repeat this once BoBo is awakened and you can go on forever. Gauntlet II - U.S. Gold Direct from U.S. Gold themselves, comes this brilliant cheat routine for loadsahealth! The cheat is hinted about by the between level message: "Locked treasure chests can insert helpful items". You will need two keys and two LOCKED treasure chests. As you open the first chest hold down the 'HELP' key. Having collected the treasure, open the second chest whilst holding the 'INSERT' key. as you unlock the second chest, an ankh (the symbol of life) should be revealed. Collect this, and a gong will sound, you should now have 50,000 health points, and 32,000 reflective super-shots! The reflective shot will vanish if you leave the level, and if you pick up an amulet, the counter will reset to ten shots. This cheat mode can be re-activated at any time. Platoon - Ocean This is a real tough cookie. The jungle scene alone is enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown. Anyway, nervous breakdown or not here is the lowdown on this difficult game-of-the-film, brought to you by yours truly. Cheat: Type HAMBURGER-HILL (the - is the minus key on the numeric pad) on the title screen. This allows you to use the following keys: F1-F4 advance you through the jungle with F4 taking you straight to the village. F5/F6 switches on/off a shield and activates a message calling you a cheat! N.B. Do not enter trapdoor with shield or the game will crash. JUNGLE AND VILLAGE: With a bit of practive (not to mention the cheat!), the route for this level can be memorized. I'm not sure if it is a bug or not, but it is possible to be shot if the enemy if off screen. To combat this, turn the game's music off, and on hearing a shot, jump. The sniper's hidden beneath trapdoors can be removed by a grenade, but this is slow and tricky so it is best to just jump over them. Ammunition is quite plentiful so let of a volley of shots each time you enter a screen. Having placed the explosives on the bridge, if you wait beside the second bridge and shoot any soldiers who appear, a package will be deposited. Collect this and a hit point will be removed and your morale will go up. On entering the village ignore the first three huts. Enter the fourth, ma king sure you shoot the hiding soldier. Search here and you will find a map of the tunnel system. Go to the last hut and search to the right of the sack of rice. You will find a torch. Enter the hut to your right and you will find a trapdoor. Go down and you will enter the ... TUNNEL SYSTEM Use the map on the right-hand side of the screen and only bother with the following rooms: The room at the top left-hand side of the map contains a geek captain. Shoot him and take the flares. Visit the rooms marked on the map and collect both the compass and the second set of flares. Then make your way to the exit (bottom right). The only real tips I can give for this section are: keep moving and fire in short bursts as ammunition is scarce. BUNKER The flares are in limited supply so throw a flare. Shoot the approaching soldiers using short bursts of fire, taking out as many as you possibly can. It is possible to see them without using flares but this does waste bullets. SECOND JUNGLE Keep firing! Time is your greatest enemy here. The quickest route is left, right alternately. That's it really! SERGEANT BARNES Collect the box. And avoiding Barnes' deluge of bullets, keep throwing your grenades. Move in close, and before long you should be on your way home...