Sneakers(Apple IIe) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0 copyright 2007 by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if you'd like to post it on your site. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 3. SCORING AND WAVE LAYOUT 4. WALKTHROUGH, WITH TIPS FOR LATER LEVELS 5. VERSIONS 6. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Sneakers is a very solid game that I always enjoyed on the Apple II. You just have several different levels, all featuring opponents with different quirks. Some enemies shoot, some ram you, and some do both. After going through eight different waves, you get an extra little umbrella shaped ship and get to do it all again. I think I got in parental trouble for describing the ship regeneration scene when you crash as pooping out a ship, but this game has a lot more than potential bathroom humor. Mark Turmell, the writer of this, is the creative director at Midway. I'm not surprised, really. Sneakers had staying power due to its variety and just that it wasn't quirky. It just went through options well, and the graphics were entertaining too. Compared to some other Apple games it's aged well. The sub-levels become of uneven difficulty as you move up, but other than that, it's a fun game where I felt accomplished solving level 1 and always wanted to see what happened after level 2. So I did and I wrote this guide for anyone else who was curious and maybe didn't have the time to futz with save states. This game is in the file_based folder in asimov.net(pub/images/games/file_based) and Ceiling Zero is the first game on the disk. 2. CONTROLS You really need the paddles for this sort of game as you can direct where exactly to go. Keyboard is too jerky and while you may need to estimate, keyboard does not offer the flexibility of just being able to stop and wait, which you need. Keyboard: arrows move, space stops and fires Paddles(mouse on AppleWin): moves you, button fires. You may only have one shot on the screen at a time, but once you hit something, you can fire again. So if you have enemies lined up, boom boom boom and you can clear a lot. While this is an artifact of emulation, on AppleWin you may wish to use a save state just before you solve a level. That is because when you reload you will need to click the mouse to activate the joystick/paddle emulation again, and if you click too long, Sneakers will have you fire a wild shot to start the new wave. On some later levels such as Cyclops L5 this can be fatal. You can't even move the mouse left/right to register a different paddle position if you are forced to shoot, because Sneakers only moves your ship so fast. I've also noted that occasionally you can hit a monster and the explosion still seems to kill you. 3. SCORING AND WAVE LAYOUT 1st wave: sneakers, 10 points each. 4 on 1st level, +1 up to 8. 100 bonus. 2nd wave: cyclops, 25 points each. 12. 150 bonus. 3rd wave: saucers, 30 points each. 8. 200 bonus. 4nd wave: fangs, 35 points each. 8. 250 bonus. 5th wave: h-wings, 50 points each. 8 up to 32, 4/8 more each round(?). 400 bonus. 6th wave: meteors. 12 for small, 85 for big. 500 bonus. I'm not sure how to get it, but when you kill meteors they don't come back. The level eventually times out. 7th wave: scramble. 4+1/level. 75 points for each hit. If you have x scrambles they only start disappearing when you hit #x+1. 8th wave: scrubs. 4+1/level up to 8. Scrubs go one way diagonally then the other, eventually making 2 formations of 4. You get the bonus for a level if you have 5+ ships remaining at the time you complete it. Default high score = 5000 though I think you can get 10000/level especially if you get the bonuses. As levels go on you get more points for the scrubs and for other extra enemies. 4. WALKTHROUGH, WITH TIPS FOR LATER LEVELS In some levels you will want to go to the corner, and in some you'll want to stand in the center. It's also useful to know when you can hit enemies a bunch of times in a row to make things quicker. And the one thing that's hard to teach, patience, is worth knowing when enemies get in a temporary pattern you can't hit. Sneakers: these guys are vulnerable as they go up. Don't let one push you near a corner. Try and kill 2 each as they rise and stand 5 widths to the side of one that lands. They move half as fast as your shots, so calculate that as they run across. As sneakers get bigger in number, the need to kill them off immediately becomes greater, as you can get trapped into one side, then into a corner, if you are not careful. But overall they are pretty slow and predictable. If they get into a corner they may bounce diagonally back and forth off a wall before going up. Cyclops: these guys descend and accelerate when you fire but otherwise go horizontally. So you can pick and choose where to fire. Your shots are a bit faster than the enemies, so that is how to aim. Aiming for the center is best too as an errant shot can bring the cyclops down. However, this is not all bad on the early levels--it makes hitting them easier. On later levels(4+) you need complete accuracy. You should take your time to line up the ships on the bottom, and there is no way to cycle them back to the top. Saucers: probably the easiest of these levels. You have 4 at the top cycling off the screen to the right and 4 at the bottom going to the left. Look out for small dirty bombs and the circular white bombs. I found I can get lazy and let the small bombs touch the edge of me, while the safest spot for the white bombs is just to one side--they zigzag. Concentrate on the lower saucers first and then the top ones will be easy since their bombs are harmless. Fangs: this is the 2nd easiest wave if you know how to handle them. Fangs are their own missiles, zigzagging down as knife/bone shapes at random intervals. The lower right is a safe place, so fire as you go there immediately, though you don't have to do so if nobody turns into a knife. Then you can nip in to the left and fire at the right side and work your way back left, killing one guy at a time and moving your hiding place left, too. Later levels have the fangs attacking you more often(I think) but none is terribly tricky. H-Wings: these guys are very nasty at later levels where they seem to keep coming at you. In general you want to stand in the center and fire away--tilt left or right to fire at a H-Wing that comes back off the wall. That is when they are most vulnerable and easy to hit, as you really have two chances to hit them, as they bounce back and forth. It's better to cut under an H-Wing early as it descends(easy chance to hit it) versus being backed into a corner, as the next one may do the same thing to you. Firing wild shots is OK here to start as when the screen is crowded, you may need to, and when it's not, there's no particular danger. --For later levels H-Wings appear at the top even if they don't make it to the bottom, and all you can do is try to cut through them. There's also a problem with crashing into an H-Wing continually and losing several guys in a row. I can't pinpoint it continually. Meteors: this is a bit less concrete about when you get the bonus, but it seems if you hit enough of the big almost-square meteors, you will pass to the next level. At any rate, if you hit the small meteors, they will not come back down the top of the screen. I used to hide in the corner to pass this level but that is not really the solution. The more small meteors you kill the more likely you will be able to zoom in under the big meteors. In addition meteors sometimes drop down on top of each other, giving you an extra chance to clear the level partially and get points. You need to learn to line up the center of your little ship. If you miss, it shouldn't be too bad to duck and fire again. So, in general, look for small meteors on top of each other or big meteors. You can pile up 1000-1500 points without doing anything fancy here, so oh well to the bonus if you don't get it. Scramble: this is, in my opinion, the toughest of the levels. You don't actually kill any enemies until you've made your (x+1)-th hit, where x=# of triangles on the screen at the start of the level. Then they all start disappearing. So you can see that the start of the level is pretty daunting. Triangles that are hit go faster, which isn't really so bad, because your best bet is to be able to stand under a triangle and fire at it, watch it go to the top, and fire just when it gets there. If you can get 2 such triangles then you can really fire away. Of course, the other ones will distract you with their random diagonal movements once they're near the bottom, and while you may be able to do a quick left/right jiggle, it may break up the flow. Just remember to stand under a triangle and fire at it when it's high up. Don't get frustrated if it goes off to the side. So for the start just try to clip one triangle and take it from there. Don't work too hard to shoot them across the board--keep them in one area as much as possible. Unlike other levels, the number of enemies here keeps growing. Remember also that the triangles can cut diagonally across the screen, so going to the corner can restrict your mobility without providing additional cover. By the way, if a triangle is shot and going up and you are killed, it continues up on restart. Scrubs: this is the most lucrative level. Basically when you hit a scrub, it drops slowly to the bottom as a sort of lethal dreidel, unless you keep shooting it, then it drops quickly. Then it disappears. You have to contend with scrubs going diagonally one way, then the other. First you need to make sure the scrubs don't push you into "their" corner(ie the lower right if they go DR) and then they become disorganized enough you can pick them off one at a time. The first few scrubs, you probably won't be able to shoot a bunch of times. The other scrubs will probably zap you on a diagonal. But the last 3 scrubs can net you big poins if you sit and shoot them. Whenever you shoot a scrub you should always provide yourself with space to go towards "its" corner, ie if they go DR, stay 1/3 away from the DL and shoot at them. --Later levels at a diagonal scrub behind, until you have 2 columns of 4. The game does not add a third column. For these later levels the best strategy is to cut under the scrubs and let them drop once. They then get more lumped together and are less of a threat to rake you, but you should still stay out of the corner. --Beware of greed on this level i.e. shooting the dreidel once too often. If you are killed by a dreidel or while it falls, the scrub that produced it regenerates. Also be prepared to move back to the center once you conquered the scrubs one way. End of FAQ Proper ================================ 5. VERSIONS 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs/honestgamers 7/31/2007, complete. 6. CREDITS ftp.apple.asimov.net for having the disk image of this old fun game. honestgamer for the chat that led to this FAQ & reminding me I wanted to see what happened on the later levels too. Thanks to the people whose names I forgot, who gave me the disc(well they gave my parents the disk and I got wind of it, so my parents couldn't pitch it) and even if I remembered them I'd forget where to put the umlaut. I do remember their last name had an umlaut. Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog, honestgamer and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet- banned message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of mine.