+==============================================================+ | Guide to playing Fire Electric Pen | | Nintendo 64, Hudsonsoft 1997) | | | | Version 1.0 Created by cascadingCoins (aka davyK) | | 1st Sept 2013 | +==============================================================+ 1.0 Purpose of this guide ========================= This game was only released in Japan and therefore comes with packaging and manuals written in that language. The aim of this short guide is to provide information to those who have imported a copy so that they can understand how to play and what options are available in order to enjoy the game as much as possible. It is quite a simple game and is pretty accessible to the importer who doesn't speakJapanese - but there are some options and features that are not immediately apparent and they are explained in this guide. 2.0 Description of the game =========================== This title is based around the old fairground style "steady hand" maze game where the player has to guide a metal hoop along a twisted piece of wire without touching it. It requires a cool head and a steady hand. This game offers a set of large and complex mazes ,some with moving parts, that the player has to guide a rod or pen through without touching the sides of the maze against a time limit. The mazes exist in 3D space but are mainly flat. For most of the game they are viewed side on and are presented in 2D and so gameplay is effectively in 2D. There are sections of some mazes that are twisted into the 3rd dimension and when the player encounters these the camera moves so that the player can see that section side on. If the pen touches the sides of the maze then the game ends (there are one or two exceptions to this - see section 4),Later, more complex mazes have checkpoints that add time onto the countdown timer when they are passed. The game records the 5 best times for each maze and also shows a best accumulated time for all mazes. Times are saved to backup memory in the cartridge. This is mainly a single player game but there is also a 2 player split screen race mode. 2.1 Basic description of gameplay --------------------------------- The player selects a maze and then one of 4 different pens (see section 4 for more details). The player is given a 3D flypast of the maze before the camera settles on the starting position using a side on 2D mode. This flypast can be skipped by pressing A. Mazes are too large to display in full on the screen, so the player has a zoomed in view and the screen scrolls as the player moves. There is a map of the whole maze at the bottom right of the screen that shows where the pen is in the maze. There is then a short countdown from 3 to 0 and play begins. A timer at the top left of the screen starts to count down to zero and the player must use the analogue stick to move the pen through the maze as quickly as possible without touching the sides. In normal play touching a maze wall results in "Game Over". The player is then presented with 2 options - try again (displayed on the left and is highlighted by default) or Exit (displayed on the right) which brings you back to the main title screen. Select the option you want by highlighting the desired option by pressing left or right on the analogue stick and press A. If the player successfully completes a maze then the time is saved if it is good enough to be in the top 5 times - the player can enter his/her name using a Western alphabet against the time. 3.0 Controls ============ The player moves the pen through the maze using the analogue stick. Pressing the A button or Z trigger increases the speed of the pen. Menu options are selected by using the analogue stick to highlight the desired option and pressing A. 3.1 Controller pack support --------------------------- The controller pack is not supported by this game. Best times are stored on backup memory in the cartridge. 3.2 Rumble pack support ----------------------- The game supports the rumble pack - it makes the controller shake when the player touches the sides of the maze. 4.0 Options & Menus =================== From the game main menu there are 4 options: 1. Single player mode 2. Two player versus mode 3. View best times 4. Options 4.1 Single Player Mode ---------------------- This is the main mode of this game. A player selects a maze and a pen and tries to complete the maze without touching the sides against a time limit. 4.1.1 Maze Selection -------------------- There are 6 mazes in this game (as far as I know at the time of writing!). The last attempted maze is selected by default. If the player has just powered up the console then the 2nd maze is currently selected. Press left or right on the analogue stick to select the desired maze. For easier mazes go left, for the more difficult mazes go right. Press the R button to view the 5 best times for the selected maze. Press A to start playing with the selected maze. 4.1.2 pen Selection ------------------- There are 4 pens to select from. pens 2, 3 and 4 essentially offer 3 different speeds and levels of sensitivity as far as I can make out. Press left and right to select a pen - pens to the left are the slower ones, pens to the right are faster. The left-most pen is a "training mode". You can collide with the walls 3 times before ending the game; however if you complete the maze using this pen your time will not be recorded. Press A when the selected pen is highlighted to start playing. 4.2 Two player versus mode -------------------------- This mode allows two players to race simultaneously through a maze. Player 1 selects the maze and then each player selects their pen before racing on a split screen view of the maze. Collisions with the maze wall don't end the game - the pen is only moved back a bit in the maze to a point just before the collision. There are checkpoints in the maze and points are awarded for passing them and bonuses are awarded for passing multiple checkpoints without hitting the maze wall. Players can't collide with one another. A tally of wins is displayed in a status area at the bottom of the screen. 4.3 View best times ------------------- Select this option to view the 5 best times recorded against each maze and the total accumulated best time for all mazes. Press left and right to see best times for each maze. Press A to be presented with an accumulated total time made up of the best time for each maze. Press A again return to the main title screen. 4.4 Options ----------- The option mode offers 6 settings. 4.4.1 Stereo/Mono ----------------- Default option is stereo which is the left hand setting. Highlight the right hand setting for mono sound. 4.4.2 Other settings -------------------- The rest of the options are switches and can be set to ON or OFF. Left hand setting is ON, right hand setting is off. Background music (BGM) - self explanatory. Default is ON. Commentary - this game has fairly manic Japanese commentary - you can switch it off if you find it off-putting. Default is ON. Level Map - This appears at the bottom right of the screen if enabled. Default is ON. 3D-pen - Normally the pen appears end on - so just looks like a circle as you move through the maze. If this option is enabled you can see the whole pen - and see the handle moving to reflect the position of the analogue stick. It is displayed in a semi-transparent way and doesn't change gameplay , just some people may prefer seeing the whole pen. Default is OFF. Ghost - Once a maze is completed, a record of the controller input made by the player is saved and if that maze is tried again a "ghost" of the last completed run is shown as the player moves through the maze. This is quite a common feature in driving game time trial modes - it lets the player see if he/she is ahead or behind the last successful run. The ghost can't be saved to the cartridge or the controller pack. Once you switch the console of it is lost. If you complete another maze the ghost is overwritten with the new one. Default is ON. Select the option you want to change using up and down on the analogue stick and then use left and right on the analogue stick to change settings. Press A or B to save the settings and return to the main title screen. 5.0 Opinion =========== This is quite an unusual game - I certainly haven't come across anything like it before. Apparantly it is based on an actual Japanese TV game show - and it has plenty of great "gameshow" style music which all adds to the fun; especially with the mad commentary. Graphics are functional. Everything is nice and clear which is what you need for a game like this - busy backgrounds would probably get in the way and obscure things. The overall layout is well designed and the zoomed in view shows the player enough of the maze at any time. It works very well. Control is vital in this game and the N64 analogue stick seems up to the task - I certainly don't feel that it was the stick's fault when I fail. However the analogue stick will need to be in good condition. There are lots of tight squeezes and a loose stick would make gameplay harder than it already is. The two player mode is pretty good too - the split screens obviously means a slightly smaller view of the action but it is big enough and the scoring mechanism means you can still have fun even if you can't complete a maze. There seem to be only 6 mazes - but this game is extremely difficult. The first maze will probably be completed without too much trouble but then from the second one on it gets incredibly hard. The time limits are really tight and it forces you to move quickly - but even then there are times where you will have to slow to a crawl because of some extremely tight spaces. The "one hit and you are dead" mechanic means that this game is for patient gamers only who have no issue with having to try the same maze over, and over - and over(!) again - but success is extremely satisfying. The later mazes become extremely complex and whacky - and even have boss sections at the end that have you avoiding the moving parts of huge robotic figures that are embedded within the maze - I suspect it will be a long time before I get to experience that part of the game despite the small number of levels. It is a shame that the controller pack isn't supported as it could have been used to save ghosts of best times but then that would involve swapping the rumble pack in and out and would be fiddly. Would have been nice to have the option though. If you like importing Japanese games, are looking for something different for your N64 (and your analogue stick is in good shape!) AND you are a patient type of gamer then I can recommend this one. It seems to go for quite low prices and brand new copies seem to be still available. My guess is that this was a budget release back in the day.