Championship Lode Runner FAQ (Apple/NES) by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net version 1.0.0 This FAQ is copyright 2000-2005 by Andrew Schultz. Although it was LODES(ba- dum-bum-CRASH) of fun to make, it also took, er, lots of time to write. Therefore, please do not re-distribute for profit without my prior consent(i.e. please ask nicely to use my materials first with SPECIFIC queries and use my name please!) The maps were created with the help of a thirty-line C program and the disk image at apple.asimov.net. Long live(sic) automation! For access to graphical representations of these maps, go to (segue to SHAMELESS PROMOTION:) http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762/loderunner/lodemaps.htm where you can check out whichever level map you please of both Lode Runner and Championship Lode Runner on the Apple. Other platforms should have only minor differences. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762/loderunner/main.htm is my generic Lode Runner page. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 1-1. WHAT IT'S ABOUT 1-2. LODE RUNNER FRANCHISE 1-3. APPLE/NES DIFFERENCES 1-4. FAQ SHORTHAND 2. CONTROLS 2-1. APPLE 2-2. NES 3. ENEMY AI, SKILLS AND STRATEGY 4. SCORING 4-1. APPLE 4-2. NES 5. LEVEL WALKTHROUGH 5-1. MAP LEDGER 5-2-0. APPLE DEMO LEVEL/NES LEVEL 1 5-2-x. LEVEL X(APPLE) [search for 5-2-(level#) for that level's walkthrough] 6. CHEATS 6-1. BYTE EDITING 6-2. PASSWORDS 7. VERSIONS 8. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION 1-1. WHAT IT'S ABOUT The object of Lode Runner is to pick up all the gold pieces on a screen and then get to the top, where you have another level. There are basic pieces for Lode Runner as well--ten of them. EMPTY SPACE: you can walk through it. BRICK: you can run across it. You can also dig into it, to create an impression that lasts six seconds or so. You or enemies can fall in. Enemies are trapped once they fall, but you can freefall into the space below. When it fills in, it can kill you--or enemies, who regenerate in various places at the top of the screen. CEMENT: you can run across it but can't dig it. Very dangerous without brick around, or... LADDERS: you can climb up these and often shuck and jive your enemies on them. You can also fall off them to the side, fool bad guys coming at you from below. You cannot dig a brick under a ladder. ROPE: you can't dig a brick under a rope, but you can walk across a rope when there's no brick under. You can fall off them, down to the ground below. FALSE BRICK: you will fall through this unless there's a rope or ladder directly above. Then you have the choice to fall in. These can trap you quickly, or they can provide you with a hidden secret passage to make things easier. Because they look like bricks, you need to learn how to map these out. GOLD CHEST: you can't dig under a gold chest, but you get points for collecting it. Once every gold chest is collected, you can reach the top of the level to advance to the next one. Enemies can pick up gold chests or release them, and if they drop into a brick-hole with a brick-hole right about it, the gold chest doesn't appear, but it gets counted as collected. ENEMIES: reddish guys keeping you from your goal, although sometimes you can make them fall into pits and use them as bridges. YOU: self-explanatory. The guy that needs to collect all the gold. 1-2. LODE RUNNER FRANCHISE Championship Lode Runner was the second title in the Lode Runner series of games. It started with Lode Runner, which had 150 levels on the Apple including an editor(and a high score list! That drove me wild!) before moving to a shorter, tougher game with 50 levels. Not counting various ports, which feature many of the rather easy levels from the original Lode Runner copied over, there was then Lode Runner (Returns) for the PS/PSX and Lode Runner Extra, which featured bombs and other weapons and even timers and backgrounds that actually WORKED. Lode Runner Online allowed people to share levels made with the Lode Runner Extra/Returns engine, and Lode Runner 2 was an intriguing 3-d version that sadly did not achieve commercial success. Each one contained creative puzzles but Championship Lode Runner may well have packed the nastiest, simplest ones of all. Perhaps it was just that I had stick figures and a green screen to work with. It seemed so abstract and a puzzle and maybe even stick figures flopping around on the PSX made the future Lode Runners seem too much like a regular game for me. 1-3. APPLE/NES DIFFERENCES The Apple version also offered people who won the game an AWARD CERTIFICATE!!!! Those solving Championship Lode Runner were entitled to a certificate from Broderbund. You just sent a code(on a sticker on the package) in, along with its counter-code(revealed after you won the game and typed your code in) and got a nice framed certificate. It even let you put in a 20-letter message like the game. Pasta Fazoo with special sauce! The NES's ending is dumpy, kicking you back to level 1. On the NES you can start from level 1-10 at will, although you can start even later if you have the right password. You can also restart a level before you die if you are crafty...or trapped, with or without enemies coming at you! Enemies can also lean into a chest and a dug hole on the Apple to kill you, but on the NES, you get killed if you step on where a monster's about to appear. On the Apple, you suppress them until they're about to appear. Also monsters don't suppress each other on the NES--the dead monster regenerates somewhere else. Which is useful in some levels. On the NES monsters can also bounce out of holes one after another and are more likely to be able to escape after being in 3 holes in a row. 1-4. FAQ SHORTHAND Occasionally I'll refer to N/S/E/W which should be equivalent to U/D/R/L i.e. Up down right left. I'll use one-letter abbreviations and 2L means two left, SSE means DDL or 2D 1L, and sometimes I'll call your enemies robots, monks, guys, or whatever. Chests may be coins or whatever. It should be clear, but then again you don't need any more distractions when learning how to beat this tough game. A 1-rope also refers to a rope of length one, and similarly for an x-ladder. There's also a distinction between the top of the ladder(how far you can go) and the top rung. Also you need to watch for the distinction between digging right and digging from the right(just the opposite.) A 4-3-2-1 dig means dig 4 holes, then 3 in the space you created, then 2 below that, then 1. Dig-R means dig right, etc. 2. CONTROLS 2-1. APPLE Keyboard controls ctrl-k: toggle keyboard ctrl-j: toggle joystick(left/right buttons dig left/right) ctrl-l: load game(when not playing) ctrl-s: save game(can't be used when your man is active. That turns off the sound) Keyboard controls: U=dig left O=dig right I=up K=down J=left L=right ctrl-a=kill your man. Useful when you're trapped and can't move. ctrl-s: toggle sound ctrl-r: kill game Enter: see high score list +/-: speed up or slow down the game The joystick is actually a bit more awkward for me. I like the keyboard because you can put one hand over UIJ and the other over OKL. When you dig/go left/right you actually use that hand and I find that to be more intuitive. 2-2. NES A=dig right B=dig left directions=move that way if you can down=fall through false brick or off rope start=pause screen to look around(the NES only shows part of the screen at once and in fact is very nasty about not showing you what's to the left or right--which ever direction you're going. So often you have to track where monsters are and it breaks the flow of the game.) You can scroll around as you want, but push start to get the game going again. You can hold left/right and push a dig button to move one square, dig, etc. To move up/down and dig you need to hold both but release up/down to dig. Push select and start to bypass the annoying level-start music. This saves a lot of time. There's no way to save yourself from the panorama view of the level or the pause before the new level, but you can also look at it as a slap on the wrist for restarting a level you know you can't win. 3. ENEMY AI, SKILLS AND STRATEGY Note that you can't walk over a solitary enemy as easily on the NES as on the Apple. It's also harder to play chicken with an enemy. And if you start a level falling on an enemy, you have to tap down-right-down-right to go run to the side. Enemy AI: They generally go to the left when they don't know where to go. Enemies are about half as fast as you are. They even fall half as fast. If you are digging as you move, you both go at equal speed. Enemies also try to get on a level with you, where they could walk over and get you if no blocks were in the way. So if an enemy is in a pit and you're on the left and another enemy's on the right, they won't try to reach you. But if there's a wall between you at the bottom of the level, they'll run at you. A bizarre bug allows monks to stick gold in a place you can't reach. Say they're circling a ladder at the top, with a rope left of the top rung. One can release a gold chest when falling off to the left. The monks can get it back as they circle around, but it's darned annoying. Although monks always pick up gold they run by, they also tend to leave gold chests at random, but if you can get them to run across a long stretch you can usually get them to give theirs up. Also one monk moving around a ladder and running in circles should eventually leave the gold at the top of the ladder--monks can't pick up gold where there's a turn from the top of a ladder to brick. This is useful to know if you seem to have gotten all the gold in a level and don't know who might have the last one. It's a lazy man's way to get monks to cough things up. 4. SCORING CLR is more level-intensive than score-intensive but it's always fun to keep score nonetheless. 4-1. APPLE 500 Pick up a gold chest 2000 Get to the top of the level 100 Get a robot to fall in a hole 100 Hole closes on a robot The scoring's a bit inflated over Lode Runner(33%, except the gold-100%) but hey, it is a tougher game. There are 10 high scores in the list at the end. They are ranked first by the level achieved, and second by your score. This is to reward puzzle solving over getting stuck on a hard level with a lot of gold chests. In Championship Lode Runner, you get an additional 20-letter message after completing level 50. But if someone takes your saved game and re-solves with a higher score, he takes your spot over. That's life, I guess. Remember that saving a game during play loses you a saved life in one of the ten save slots but doing so the first time before the start of a level gets you a bonus. For that reason, always save your game after completing a new level, unless you have a way to outright cheat. 4-2. NES You only get points at the end, 100 for each enemy trapped in a hole, and 100 for each pile of gold, 0 if they are sunk. You don't get any points for restarting a level. No end-of-level bonus. Also, you only get a maximum of nine lives, although you can get a password to continue later on. 5. LEVEL WALKTHROUGH 5-1. MAP LEDGER 5-2-0. APPLE DEMO LEVEL/NES LEVEL 1 + X----X $ $ XXX~~~~XHXXXXXXXXXXhXXXXX X XHX ~ h ~ ~ $ XHXHXXXhXXXX$XX XX XX XXX XHXHX$XhXXXXX$XX XX X HH XHXHX Xh XX$XX XX HH HHXHXXXh XX$XX XX HH HX h XX$XX X XXX XXXHX h XX$XX **********XXhXXXXXXXH XX$XX hX$HX H XX X $ XHhX X H XXXXXXXXXHXXXX**XXXXXXXXHXXH H X X H $ H H5H $XXXXX$ H XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX5HX The NES version is slightly different: X+ X---X $ $ XXXX~~~XHXXXXXXXXXXhXXXXX X XHX ~ h ~ ~ $ XHXHXXXhXXXX$XX XX XX XXXX XHXHX$XhXXXXX$XX XX X HHH XHXHX Xh XX$XX XX HHH HHXHXXXh XX$XX XX HHH HX h XX$XX X XXXX XXXHX h XX$XX **********XXhXXXXXXXH XX$XX hX$HX H XX X $ XHhX X H XXXXXXXXXHXXXX**XXXXXXXXHXXH H X X H $ H H5H $XXXXX$ H XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX5HX This level covers several concepts and strategies that will be used in varying complexity later in the game. I'll footnote this walkthrough and outline everything at the end. Dig right immediately and run right. Your object is to get to the ladder right of the pit--you can't get there without clibming on the bad guys. (1) Then go up the ladder and take the two gold chests at the top and come back down. (2) You can dig left and fall to save time, but that's just a convenience here. The next chest to get is the suspended gold. There's no immediately obvious way to get through to it--dig left and you can't reach, dig above and you're trapped. The solution is to dig the squares 1U1L and 1L of it. Wait to dig the 1L1D until 1U1L starts to fill in. Then dig the square over the gold and fall in. (3) Now you'll have to use your enemies to clear out the gold on the right. Dig 1R of the pit where the enemies fell and go right and down. They'll run at you but one will get stuck! (4) Run to the top of the ladder and wait. (4a) Once he's covered up, pause the screen and look around for where he is. (5) He should eventually fall into the hole near the top with the money. (6) You shouldn't have to get anyone else unless a monk falls into the hole right of the one with the gold. (7) Once the mad monk falls into the hole, stand 1U 1L and dig right. Hold left on the controller and dig right again(you can actually hold left and A,) not letting the controller go. The mad monk will fall right. Now you need to fall into the long hole you created and repeat the hold left/dig right all the way down. (8) Wait for the bad guy to run off and fall and dig a hole for him. From there it is one on one combat with an enemy. He should have gone to the left. Once you get him covererd up(make 2-3 holes between you) you can climb down the suspended ladder, digging both squares to the right of it. Fall right. (9) Now there's a chamber in the lower right and some gold that you can't quite grab below it, because there's a false brick below. (10) The solution is to dig the squares 3U and 2U of the gold chest and fall right onto it. Time to get the gold next to the suspended ladder. The diagram below shows what order to dig things in. (Dig left and run right.) 123 $H4 5 Of course you need to remember to go to the top of the ladder before falling left. (9) again. Now you're ready for the final bit. Fall into the lower left and now you need to climb up the ladder, get a gold chest, and come back. (11) Running straight left and back isn't too taxing and neither is digging again and holding the controller down/left to get the second. Be sure you pick up the chest before retreating--you have time to run into the wall a bit. The final part is a real trial run. Dig left and hold left/down. When going down the stairs hold right/down and then when going right hold right/up. (12) After falling right, just hold right. Get the gold, left/up til you fall, left, left/up, right/up and you'll escape. Note the ladders that appeared. (13) It should be pretty simple to get to the top. (1) You can walk or drop over enemies. You can also walk down into them, which is dumb, but on the NES you can push down sometimes which allows you to go right/left. A weird quirk. (2) Lots of times you must do something immediately or you'll miss out on a gold chest. Sometimes you'll find this out the hard way but if you start in/near an area that doesn't seem accessible from anywhere else, that's a sign it needs to be cleared first. (3) Sometimes you'll need to un-trap a bad guy from a safe place. Here I only need one, so I only release one. (4) Bad guys will run at you if there's solid ground between you, and you're level with them. Obstacles be damned. (5) This is an important finesse on the NES. If you don't know where the bad guys are, you don't know how or where to distract them. (6) If not, you can always try again. There are 3-4 places where an enemy can fall from to start a level. Sometimes it'll mess your effort up if they fall in the wrong place, and sometimes you'll need them to fall in the right one. (7) There's nowhere for the monks to fall uselessly here. But even if they did fall into the holes to the right, you could dig a square next to them to get them out. (8) You can combine digging and running in order to ease the strain of pushing a bunch of buttons--or to make sure you dig all the holes you need to. (9) Enemies can pick up gold chests, too. Sometimes this makes inconvenience, especially when they get trapped and you can't dig/kill them out, sometimes it works OK. (10) If you walk into a gold chest but there's air/false brick below it, you'll fall before you can get the chest. (11) For whatever speed you are playing at, you need to calculate how long it takes to fill in a hole. You can run a little over the width of a screen in the time it takes to fill a hole up. (13) Sometimes you need to see where ladders appear in a level so you can figure which gold chest to get last. Often if one seems impossible to pick up without being trapped, it is the last, as a ladder will appear to buoy you up. But ladders can also release monsters you needed to trap. 5-2-1. LEVEL 1 H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H H $ $ $$$$ $ $ $$ H H $ $ $ $ $ $ $ H H $$$$ $$$ $ $ $ $ H H $ $ $ $ $ $ $ H H $ $ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $$ H H - -H H~~HHH~~~HHH~~~HHH~~HHHH~~~H H+h h h h h h h h H HXHX h h h h h HXXH HXh XHH h h h h hXXXh XH HXh hXHX h h HXH h XH HX hhhh hHHX$$HHH hhhh XH HX XH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX This solution is a bit tedious if you mess up at the end, but you don't have to put a bunch of stuff together as you do for the NES version. You just get the two bad guys to fall into the bottom. Stand in a bottom corner and they will run to you. Move to the other one and wait until they're under the gold chests. Then pick up the chests that make the "hello" before running over the two robots to get the last two chests. Support ladders will pop up, and you'll find an easy way to the next level. MESSAGE: HELLO...WELCOME 5-2-2. LEVEL 2 $- ** h$h - + $ H~~~~~*~*~~~~H~~~~**~~~~~~~H H~~~~$*~~*~~~H~~~~*~*~~~~~~H H~~~***~~~~~~H~~~$*~~*~~~~~H H~~~***~~~~~~H~~***~~~~~~~~H H~~~~~~~~~~~~H~~***~~~~~~~~H H- $$$ - -H H $ $$ H H~~~~~~~~~~~~H~~~~~~~~~**~~H H~~~~~~~~**~~H~~~~~~~~~*~*~H H~~~~~~~~*~*~H~~~~~~~~$*~~*H H~~~~~~~$*~~*H~~~~~~~***~~~H H~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~H H *** $$$ H H H H$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$H SOLUTION: The key is to isolate all bad guys on one side. The rightmost robot will chase you up the ladder. Here you can just hang out a couple of squares to the left and wait for him to follow you. Then you can drop down on the note below and drop left. You can wait for the only bad guy on the left to follow you down. Try to collect one of the suspended gold and then go right and up the right ladder one square. You may have to wait for everyone to go all the way left, but after they do you should be able to pick up the other two suspended golds with the same method. One the NES you can just wait until they're off the screen. For the next but you can circle around to nexxt to the UR note. Fall down two ropes so that the enemies will come at you but be blocked. Let everyone come right. Then go up to the bottom of the top set of ropes when they almost catch you. Run left when everyone's on the ladder and fall and go left. Now every time you're on a rope, or in line with one, your enemies will go to the right. This allows you to clear out the right. The only thing left to do is pick up any gold your enemies might have. You can probably just have them come after you to the left. Then you can run up the ladder and go right and this often lets you pick up any gold they may have missed. You don't have any holes you can dig, so sometimes you just have to have bad guys chase you back and forth. They'll eventually give up the gold chest to the guy behind them. You can also shake the gold chest out by going to the upper right and waiting for someone to unload it--the risk here is that a gold chest may be left UR of the ladder and you may need the bad guys to pick it back up. At any rate it's pretty risk-free, if tedious, to have the bad guys chase you back and forth and then go to the top to shake the gold out so it's at the top of the ladder, and you won't have to do the latter bit more than once or twice. BTW, here are ways to use the side squares to squeeze out of a mess: Hang out right of the DL music note and head to the top of the stairs. Run right and fall when the other guys come after you. You can also stand on the DR of the right stairs to push the bad guys up. They'll circle around but you can go up and left and wait and fall and sneak under as they fall with you. (Apple): you can calculate who has what gold by your score at the start vs the end. This level gets you 21000 points. Add 21000 to your start and there are (that/500) chests left that enemoes are carrying. (NES): It's harder to determine when enemies have gold or not. Maddening really because you don't have access to scores. Best to try to split your enemies up so that if one leaves gold the others need to walk around longer to pick it up. MESSAGE: MUSIC MAESTRO 5-2-3. LEVEL 3 HHHHH$HH-HHHHHHHH+HHH h HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* h HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* h $HHHHH-HHHH$HHHHHHHHH*XXXXXX HHHH************************ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHH$HHHHHHHH-HH$HHHHHHHHHH ************************HHHH HHHHHHHH$HHHHHHHHHH$HHH*HHH$ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*HHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*HHHH HHHH$HHHHHHHHH$HHHHHHH$*$HHH HHHH**************HHHHH*HHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*HHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHH-H$H$H*HHHHHHHHHH ***************X**H$HHHHHHH$ SOLUTION: Split second timing is required to get past the bad guys, but it can be done. Note that if they are running at you and between two ladders, you can gain a little time on them when you go down. But you should be fast enough to get by the bad guys even in the cramped spaces. There's no way to drill a hole, of course. If you get stuck in the 2-high places and need to fake an enemy out, wait left of an open space and climb when your enemy is next to you. Be sure to collect all chests as you go by the first time--you'll need to make trips in(to the bottom central) and out. You should be able to go left and circle around the first enemy. You don't want to spend time getting the lower of the two because that allows the other bad guy to get close. Just wait when you're on the left side and then climb down. You'll outrun the enemies. Now you should be able to duck and weave and get everything before going out--although you'll want to make sure that the two enemies behind you stay that way, i.e. on the right edge and that they don't turn the lower right corner. Now while it is possible to sneak back past the bad guy it may be safer to drill a hole for him--it requires perfect timing to use the ladders to move around him when he's not on one. In this case you may need to duck past the two bad guy sooner than you'd expected. You could also lure the other two into the corner if you are able to time your dig so that it envelops your enemy. One other thing: the way to get enemies to release their gold chests is to have them turn a corner on a ladder. So you may wish to sucker them into that just to make sure they don't have anything. Otherwise you'll have to retreat and go through the mess again. Remember that you always want to use as much space as you can and run straight from the bottom of an area to the top and back down again. MESSAGE: LADDERS GALORE 5-2-4. LEVEL 4 H ~~~~~~~~~~~~~h~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ $h$ H $ HXHX -$ H H************H************** H h H $h$ H - $ XXHXXH $ - *************H*************H h H $h$ H $ HXXXHXXX $ - H H************H************** H h H $h$ H $+ XXXXHXXXXH $ - ?? SOLUTION: This is a nasty little level that requires thought without feeling particularly elegant to solve. It's easiest to take out the lowest bit and move up, but the details require some ironing out. Your best hope with the first enemy is not to kill him. That's one bad guy to avoid later. So drop down the first 2-ladder in the center, dig on the left, and go to the right and wait and dig there, but not the rightmost. Then fall to the left. The bad guy should go back up the ladder and cycle where he was. Now you need to get rid of the enemies guarding you from going right. If you drop in you're toast. One solution is to dig the two squares to the right and go down one--the enemies run into the new spacesand get gummed up there. This will require a scramble at the end, so we won't get into it. Alternatively you could dig the 3 holes to the right and sucker the 2 guys in, digging holes on the left to run past and leave one behind. It's best to go down the ladder to drag them over in any case. If you're really good you can sucker both of them in and they'll both go down the nearest ladder so they won't regenerate. You can repeat things up to the top row when you get all the chests. Now there's a problem--the ladders expanding once you've got all the gold have you trapped. The solution? To wait until the bad guys are congealed. Then go into the upper left(you should have gotten the top right gold on the cement last) and wait for the bad guys to come over. Drop down. They'll fall to chase you, but you can run back over them. If you are stuck on the upper left there really is no hope. You just have to remember that there either should be a gold chest in the upper right, or the enemy coming by will drop one when you dig a hole for him. The key thing here is to note that this is a one-way level. You zig-zag your way to the top. Therefore you can trap robots(they tend to fall down through the center), but you will have to make sure that if robots do fall behind you(as you work your way up) that they aren't holding any chests in the meantime. MESSAGE: DROL HOLE (NES): May be easiest to trap bad guys inside bricks. You'll need to pause to see what bad guys are up to on the side though they tend to drop from below. For them to come after you stand on the concrete level. 5-2-5. LEVEL 5 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXh + $ X h H*X*X*X*X*X*X X XXXXXXXXXXXH H*X*X*X*X*X*X*X X XXXXXXX XH H $ X XXXXXXX XH HX*X*X*X*X*X X X X~XXX~X XH HX*X*X*X*X*X*X X X~XXX~X XH H $ X X~X X~X XH H*X*X*X*X*X X X X~X X~X XH H*X*X*X*X*X*X X X~X X~X XH H $ X X~X X~X XH HX*X*X*X*X X X$X$X$X$X$XH HX*X*X*X*X*X XVXXXXXXXXXH H ----H HXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX Solution: Climb all the way down the ladder. The four robots will run to the left and drop in the gap. You then should run over them and take out the right side. The only way to do this is to take four trips up the big right ladder. First, dig the leftmost square at the top of the ladder and jump down. There's a false brick below. Don't worry. Second, dig four holes at the top, then three, two and one so that you wind up left of the right rope. Then dig and drop all the way to left of the gold- -no false brick beneath it. But on the bright side you can walk in to get the center gold. It's easiest to dig from right to left at the top. xxxx Xxxx XXxx XXXx~ x~ x~ x~ x~ x~ Now you can just mirror your actions above to pick up the gold below the left ropes. Next, dig down ten times while on the ladder, to your left. Pick up the gold and come back out. The left side is complete. Now walk across the robots again and dig right three times, so that when you go left and down on the ladder they'll walk towards you. You'll only want to leave one robot so he is easier to fight against. Once the robots have run all the way they can towards you, go back up the ladder and wait for them to get covered. Now you can dig right and move left continually to get the lone remaining robot to come after you. One the NES it's easy--hold left, push A. Your strategy is to stand right of the ladder, 2 or 3 squares, and dig when the robot comes nearby. Then go 2 squares down the ladder and watch him go to the right and fall in the hole so you can walk over him and get the gold. Stand over him and dig right and walk left to dump him back in the hole. If he's the only one stuck in the hole after this, you can repeat the process. Although you'll need him to be as far left as possible before you dig him out. If things mess up then you'll need to get another guy to drop into the hole. That's easy enough--go to the bottom of the ladder. On the NES you may want to pause and restart in order to see if/when only one guy has fallen. When he does you can move up the ladder, wait, and fall back down. It's easiest to fight against one guy. Once you've cleaned up the gold, go to the bottom of the ladder and all the enemies should fall into the pit. You can walk over them to level 6. MESSAGE: FOUR IS COMPANY 5-2-6. LEVEL 6 H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H HX X X X $ XXX X X H HXXX XXX X X X X XXX H H $ $ XXX $ +H H X X XXX $ XXX X XH H XXX X X$ XXX X X XXXH H$ $ X X X X - H HX X X X XXX $ X X H HXXX XXX $ X X XXX H H $ $ X X XXX $ H H X X XXX XXX $ X X H H XXX X X X X XXX H H $ X X XXX - H H X X X X XXX$ $ XXX H H XXX XXX X X X X H H --- $ XXX $ $H Solution: This goes a lot easier if you are able to trap some robots. But you will still have to un-trap a few, and while it's possible to trap bad guys at the top, there's no way to get them out if they have a gold chest. The best start is to go to the top and drop to the left of the U where you started. Drop on the enemy that fell in and drop right. Another will come up the ladder. Sneak under him and go up the ladder so he falls into a U above. Now you can clear out the right: fall between the N and the U just below the rope and dig under where you fell. Fall again between the N and U and fall off to the left three times the right. Now at the lower right, climb up until you are over the U with the gold chest. Wait to drop on the gold chest until the enemy is right next to you. He'll fall in. Now comes a stretch of digging one way and moving the other. Dig left and move right. Fall on top of the bad guy. Dig right and move left and fall on him. Dig left and move right. Dig right and move left. Now he will wind up with some gold, but don't worry about him right now. You should be able to clean out the rest of the board, as everyone is trapped. You'll have to dig through the N in the upper left and drop right of the UL-most U. But then the time will come to release the final enemy. Drop right of the middle U and dig through the N and drop. Dig left of the bad guy and run right. Chances are the bad guy will leave his gold behind when you climb up the stairs, but if not, you can drop on top of the N on the right and dig a hole for him to fall him. If he did leave the gold behind, just let him drop into a U at the top. He's toast for good. But you don't have all the gold yet. The enemy in the far right still has a chest. dig the block right of him, from the left. Run up the ladder. Drop down where he was and quickly dig right. He should get stuck in there. Now you can fall to the DL and get the gold there. You will want to dig the guy at the very bottom out, and that will get you the final gold. If you are quick about things, dig right and go left as your enemy falls. Then you can slip right, dig left and fall through and beat your opponent to the ladder. But you can also wait after digging him out--in that case the best bet is to dig left and wait for the enemy to climb the ladder and fall where he may when you climb a square up it. The last bad guy with a chest is on the far left. Dig to get him out and then fall into the square where he was. Dig left and walk up the stairs. He had a gold chest you didn't see because it would have popped up onto a brick square. MESSAGE: THE U N 5-2-7. LEVEL 7 HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H H H $$ H H $VV$ H H XVVX H H $ $XVVX$ $ H H X$X $ XX$X H H $ $XXX X$ XXX$ $ H H X$XXX $XX$ XXX$X H H XXXX XXXX XXXX H H $ $XX $ $X XX$ $ XX$ $ H H X$XX X$XX XX$X XX$X H H XV $ $XXX XXX$ $ VX H H XX X$XXX XXX$X XX H H XX XXX $$$$$$ XXX XX H H + HXXXXXXH ---- H Solution: The key is to get the robots to fall in the right places. This may take a couple of tries. You can just get them to fall, period, the first time after you circle to the UL. One will probably fall down the center, but the important thing shoudl be that none chases you unless they have to. Only re- mobilize one at a time to save yourself a headache, then fall down only when they are on the ladder above where you want them to fall. You'll need one to fall in each of the squares at the top of the pyramid, but it probably won't happen on your first trip down. Try to fall when one is right at a ladder above one of the center squares. Next you'll want to shake the robots out. Be sure that you can get them to fall down the top sides of the pyramid. One should have fallen into each of the top holes, but if not you can move up and down the ladder on that side to make him fall. Once everyone's in, drop through the false brick and fall onto the robot in the inner pyramid. Dig him out of his hole until he falls to the bottom. Climb up the stairs and drop down when he is just over the false brick he didn't fall through last time. Note that you may have to dig an enemy out of the top facade of the pyramid to get back to this guy. That shouldn't be much of a problem, though. Note through this all we haven't dug holes for the robots--this shouldn't happen until you've cleared as much as possible from the under-pyramid. Then you can start digging away and letting regenerated bad guys fall into holes you don't need to keep track of any more. There is some question as to what to do if enemies fall into consecutive holes and the top one still has a gold chest--in that case, knock the lower one out first. Also if you're having trouble getting enemies to go down the left center, you can get them to go down the top hole on the left side. Just dig right and go left. MESSAGE: PYRAMID TRAPS 5-2-8. LEVEL 8 H$HXXH$H**H$HXXH$H**H$HXXH$H H**H HXXH H**H HXXH-H**H HXH HH-H**H HXXH-H**H HXXH H**HH HHXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH HH H*H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH-H*H HH HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXHH HH**H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HH HXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXH HH H**H HXXH-H**H HXXH H**HH HHXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH HH H*H HXXH H**H HXXH H**H HXXH H+H**H$HXXH$H**H$HXXH H**H$H Solution: The quick start is to head right-ish and dig for the first gold and then come back up. Wait for the hole to heal and for the bad guys to lump together. Head up/right and, at the top, you should have the time to grab the gold quickly before going down. Go left at the second double-ladder. At the bottom there's one gold chest. Get it, go U/R and dig for another. Go to the very top. Then fall back down left. You should be able to have the time to dig left at the bottom to catch an enemy. You can go back up the stairs right when they come at you. It may take some time but eventually one will follow you. When he does, dig a brick to the left and go U-R-U-R until he falls in and then walk back over him. He'll use the ladder to go to the diagonal below you, putting him out of commission. You can try this again, although you may need to wait 1 square from the bottom first. You also may need to go U-R-U-R to get guys to follow you, or they'll go off to the left and play "prevent." You can then dig to the left again, run past the guy you dug, and go 1U of the bottom. The bad guy above will be circling and when he goes to the right you can go up and make it past him. From there you can grab the gold at the top of the stair, come back down and go UR, getting the gold and digging right to make it to the next diagonal. MESSAGE: EIGHT WAS GREAT 5-2-9. LEVEL 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXh X hXXXXXXXXXXh XX -HHH HH -h h-HH HH -Xh $XX $X $XHH HX$ XX$ XX$h $XX $X $XHH HXX$ XX$ XXh XX $X $XHH $ + H XX$ XX$ XX X $X $XHH $XXXXH$ XX$ XX$ X $ X $XHH $XX XXH$ XX$ XX$ HXX $XHH $XX $$ XXH$ XX$ XX HX $XHH $XX$HXXH$XXH$ XX$ XX H $XHH $XX$HX XH$XXH$ XX$ H$XHH $XX$HX $$ XH$XXH$ XX$- HXHH $XX$HX $XX$ XH$XXH$ XXH HHH $XX$HX $XXXX$ XH$XXH$ XH HH $XX$HX $XX$$XX$ XH$XXH$ H H$ XX$HX $ XX $ XH$XXH$H XXH $XH XXXXXXXXXXXX HX $HXX Solution: This one is not so bad, because you can deal with the monsters individually once you get off to the right. First you'll want to make sure that the rightmost one doesn't fall into the second cascade on the right-hand side or you'll never get his gold chest. That involves not falling anywhere. You can go off to the left, dig left and fall left, but you need to do it quickly. Then fall to the left a bit and watch everyone go to the right. Off on the left you have one guy to deal with--fall left and dig left. When he goes in the hole, climb up the ladder and dig the square to the right. Fall into it and go 2R U. Your enemy will fall into the hole. Once it starts to cover him up move UR. You should be able to see if he has reappeared on the left and so if he's moving right. Unless he falls to the left you can proceed with clearing the left. You'll fall and drop left for two cascades of gold, but for the one in the corner, just dig left, drop in, get the gold, dig left, and fall in and dig right. This leaves the arrowhead and the right. Wait at the bottom and climb up the ladders(hold up/right) and drop on top of the arrowhead. Dig to get in. Now you can just dig down to get the cascades of gold. Three trips: left under the ladders, right under them, and through the center(dig above the gold pair, under that, and under that.) Now how to clear the right, where all the enemies are? Get them to enter the arrowhead one at a time. To do so, climb DR from the top of the arrowhead, dig right, and wait at the bottom. When someone comes by, run up the ladder. Dig the right square at the top when he's about to get there, so he coughs up any gold he has. Then go down the ladder to the left. He'll circle up, right and down and left, falling into the arrowhead center. Repeat four more times. The right is not hard. You can just drop down the first cascade, but for the second you need to dig below each gold chest after you pick it up. A ladder will appear to the right of the final gold chest, which is in the upper right corner. MESSAGE: ARROWHEAD 5-2-10. LEVEL 10 H~~~ XXXX $HH XXXXXXXX H $XX$XXX $H $XX X H $XXXX$XX $H $XX$HXXXXXXX H$XXXXXX$X H$ ~XX$H XX HXXXXXXXXX $H ~X H XX H ~~$$X$$X H$ ~XH $X H$ XX$XX$ $H ~XHX HX +H $XX$XX H$ ~XHX$HX$HX$HX XH XX$XX$ $H ~XH*********X -XH $XX$XX H$ ~XH X XH XX$XX$ $H ~XXXXXXHXXXXX XH $XX$XX XH ~XX$ XHX $X <-nothing on the left ledge of the 0(NES) $H XX$XX$X H ~ X -XHX XX <-NES has no monster XH XXXXX H XX XXXHXXXX H~~~ XXXXX XHHHHHXXX h Solution: This has a definite order to how you must pick up the gold. The first thing to do is go right so you don't land on the bottom with no escape(*NES note below.) Then pick off the three gold chests on the left of the one. Next are the chests inside the one and to the oeft. Go to the top and dig the leftmost square until you get to the edge of the one. Dig right and you'll catch the rope that will get you the two adjacent chests. From there dig right, left, etc. until you get to the bottom. Climb back up to the top and dig right three times, getting the gold chests. Dig again to pick up the two gold chests, then dig right, left, etc. until you get the last chest, where you should dig right again. Climb up the alternating ladders all the way(hold up continuously and left/right alternately) and fall off to the right, then drop down the ropes until you get to the last one. Dig the right of the two squares and crawl through the ladders to get inside the zero. Pick up the two upper chests leaving four chests you can't just crawl in and get. For these you can just dig up everything in sight and get them all. The remaining two chests are a bit tougher. The right one first-- Dig the two bricks directly to the right of the ladder's top two rungs. Wait a couple of seconds and dig the brick right below that. Then after the bricks regenerate, dig above the gold chest and pick it up. (NES: just get the left chest the same way as the right.) APPLE: Dealing with the robot on the left is best done in two steps--first, get the robot out of the way by digging him out and trapping him. Then, proceed as in the right. Even if the robot regenerates inside the 0 just dig the two bricks left of the one over the gold chest and proceed as before. Getting out is a tricky proposition but the best way to go about things is to get to the top of the left stair on the zero and head sharply down and right and down. When you hit the bottom floor it left and you'll be just in time to grab the stair. MESSAGE: TEN (NES:) this level is tricky to start out with. Because you need to tap down- right-down-right quickly to make it to the ledge on the right, or you'll fall on top of the monster and just sit there. The good news is that you can keep resetting until it works. 5-2-1. LEVEL 11 H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H H + H H XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX H H X $ X X $ X X $ X X $ X H H X*XXX XXXXX XXXXX X*XXX H H X X X X H H XXX*X XXXXX XXXXX XXX*X H H X $ X X $ X X $ X X $ X H H X*XXX XXXXX XXXXX X*XXX H H X X X X H H XXX*X XXXXX XXXXX XXX*X H H X $ X X $ X X $ X X $ X H H XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX H H X X X X H H- X X -H XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Solution: The chests in the center are the easiest to pick off. Do so, and pick up the chests in the top of the end structures, but remember that robots always run left when they have a choice. Therefore, do not let both robots get trapped in the "pit" by having them drop from the second-from-right structure because you need them to complete the level. Also, it is a risk to kill the robots, so be warned. They may fall into the center after they reappear. It's actually more convenient to have an enemy on each side(less waiting to fall on them to get to certain gold,) you are stuck with neither of them in play. Only dig one hole and be sure he can follow you after they get out. The inner structures' gold is easier to get, so you just need to dig into them and drop and dig six times--be sure to land outside the pit in the center. Neither one differs in execution. As for the structures near the edges, the ones with the cement blocking easy pickups, the right side is the easier, so let's take care of that first. If you're above the second-from-right structure(put yourself at the very right of it), wait until the robot on the right is above the first-from-right structure(if you need to bring one over then you can just wait at the top for a while.) Drop down on top of him and move right. Voila! You couldn't dig to get here, but you can jump on a robot to. Repeat again for the bottom chest. The left side requires you to drop down on top of the leftmost structure, fall left, dig a hole for the robot, climb up the stairs, and jump down on top of the robot. If you're worried about timing, try digging on the right side of the structure for a small head start--more ground for each of you to cover, and you'll make it up faster. MESSAGE: CHAIN REACTION (NES:) the first of the password-guarded levels. 5-2-2. LEVEL 12 h ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H Xh V - X X - X X X H $Vh $X$ $V$ $X$ $V$ $X$ H V XVXhXXX XVX XXV VVX XXX H X h X X X X X H $X$ $Vh hVh $X$ $V$ $V$ $X$H VXX XXXhXXVhVXX XVV XXX XXXH X X - X h X - V X X H $V$ $X$ $Vh $V$ $X$ $X$ H V XXX XXX XXXhXXX VXX VXV H X X X h X X X H $X$ $X$ $V$ $Xh $X$ $X$ $X$H VXX XXX XXX XXXhXXV XXX XXVH X $ X $ X $ X h X $ X $ X H + HXH HVH HXH hX HXH HXH -H XXH H H H H H H H H H H HXXH Solution: This level requires consistent evasive action. Often you will be on the left side of the structure(brick with ladders two tall on each side) with a robot on the right and by moving up and down on the ladder you can fake him out. Not for the faint of heart. Also, you may need to drop two robots into crosses that have false bricks to their centers. But you can't do that right away. The most immediate thing to do is head for the right immediately, where you'll just have to dig a hole for one enemy, who is coming down the right ladder. What's more, once you've dug the hole, just have him follow you up the ladder and stand left of the second cross. Drop him down the center. One gone. Now you can clear the other guy out. Hide in the DR ladder again. You can probably count on him releasing his gold chest by the time he makes it all the way over to the right. Once all four guys are over by the right you can climb up. All four will follow you. But you only want the lead one to drop two crosses left of the first. Two down. Now there comes a cycle of getting everyone over to the right and getting them along the ropes and dropping down when they get close. You can run under them and around. The important thing is not to get trapped at the bottom-- there are ways out of this, but they are tougher than the walkthrough(running over a guy between two ladders, digging a hole for one guy and running down and right when the other crosses) and in fact your toughest job may be to make sure enemies fall onto gold chests so you don't have to take the time later. They generally pick them up and drop them at the bottom. Also on the ladder to the right you may wish to move up above the first cross--that helps enemies who are stuck to fall. You don't want them hanging around as you drop. You want them at the top so you can beat them to the ground. As for the exit, don't follow the ladder the game makes for you. It leads to a trap. Instead go along the right. This should not be a problem if you have been leading your enemies along the rope. MESSAGE: CROSS YOUR T 5-2-3. LEVEL 13 * *************************h *h+H H$H H$H H$H H$H H$H H*h ***H*******H*******H*****H*h *H*H$H H$H*H$H H$H*H$H*H*H*h *H*******H*H*********H*H*H*h *H$H H$H*H*H*H$H H$H*H*H*H*h ***H*****H*H*H*****H*H*H*H*h *H*H*H H$H*H*H*H$H*H*H H$H*h *H*H*H*****H*H*H*H*H*****H*h *H$H H$H*H$H*H$H*H*H H$H*H*h *H*****H*H*H***H*H*****H*H*h *H*H$H H*H*H$H*H*H H$H*H*H*h *H*H***********H*H***H*H***h *H*H H$H H$H H$H*H*H*H*H-H*h *H***************H*H*H***H*h *H-H$H H*H H$H H$H*H$H H*H Solution: Another one of those no-dig levels. The point to remember with this level is that, if you are level with a robot, he will follow you. Also, robots go to the left and up when they can't follow you. Let's look at the upper left bit and see how to do things. You'll want to fake this enemy out continually. H* H*******H* H H H H*H* **H*****H* H*H*H H H* H*H*H***** H H H H* 1 2 3 4 You'll use ladder 3 to move up and down. Move to the top of it, down and to the left and up to get into the top left part. Move down and to the right to get your enemy to go down the left-side ladder. If you want the enemy to get trapped inside the structure, wait until he's close to you and go up ladder 3. Go right and up and the enemy will run at you. This leaves him that much more trapped and will come in handy when you bring the other guy over. The big problem chest is the one in the lower left. We'll get to that later, but if you try to track it down now, the robot will actually come after you. But first, after sticking the left robot in the top, you can clear out everything at the top and walk into various side places to clear them out. To do that just follow ladder 4 down and wait for the enemy to run at you from the right. Retreat and go up and right. When he's on the same level as you, go up and left and up ladder 3, then up and right and up. He'll run past you into the same trap the other's in. Now you can run past where he was blocking you before. Clear out everything but the bottom bit. Now for the final chest--the solution is to let the bad guys pick it up for you. You can go to the bottom row and get the gold and the bad guys will be on the other side. Retreat up the stairs and see if the chest is gone. If so they've picked it up. If not then you need to go down and back up again. On the NES this is tricky because you may have to pause to see if anyone's gotten the chest. On other systems you can just go back up the ladder when someone picked up the chest. Go back up ladder 3. Now you can get a bad guy to release his chest by climbing down and up continually. You can stick them both in the upper left compartment and then drop down and climb back up once they run at you. Eventually one will release his gold chest, whether next to you or in the compartment. If it's next to you you can get them to go right in the compartment(4R2U of ladder 3) and then move in, but if it is in the compartment, go down ladder 4 quickly. This should finish the level. MESSAGE: MAZOLIA 5-2-4. LEVEL 14 Level # 14 + - - - - - h XXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXH XXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXH XXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXHXVXHXXXH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH XXXHXVX XVXHXXX XVXHXVX XXXH XXXHXVX XVXHXXX XVXHXVX XXXH XXXHXVX$XVXHXXX$XVXHXVX$XXXH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH XVX XXXHXVX XXXHXVX XXXHXVXH XVX XXXHXVX XXXHXVX XXXHXVXH XVX$XXXHXVX$XXXHXVX$XXXHXVXH H$HHH$HHH$HHH$HHH$HHH$HHH$HH XXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXH XXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXH XXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXHXXXH Solution: This level features a lot of false bricks to fall through, and if you know where they are it can help a lot. Note that every other break between the ladders at the top is diggable, so you can often get a break by going to the top, waiting for enemies to cluster there, moving to the first row of ladders and then going down when enemies get close. They'll have to backtrack a bit and that can allow you to go all the way right and get to the far right ladder where you're usually very safe. The NES is particularly obnoxious as enemies can ambush you out of nowhere, so if you can have all five in the screen area at once, that is a big help. But you may just need to hit pause in the upper right to see where the remaining gold chests are. Then you can go down to the first set of ladders, wait for the enemies to come over, and sweep left. And that is mostly what this level is about. Sweep right to start and get to the upper right corner. Then sweep left. Here's how to go about things. Climb down to the first ladder row and wait for your enemies to come near. Then drop down and get the chest on the left(very important--it's a pain to pick up later) before going right and climbing up the ladders. The robots will fall through the false bricks, meaning you can climb back up to the second level. You can probably run across here safely(pause and check on the NES--if not, go up to the next row) and once you are right of all the robots(count them--there's five) you can dig holes for them to get any stray gold. Then go to the UR. Some bad guys may follow you, which actually makes things easier. Dig holes for them to make sure they have no gold(this'll usually kill them) and then, after dropping down to the lower level to sucker everyone over, go back right, dropping down when a bad guy is near. Here you may need to inspect the tops of ladders to see if any bad guys left anything. You also may need to sweep along the bottom before coming back up. MESSAGE: NEW YORK CITY 5-2-5. LEVEL 15 - +$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ h H~ H~ H~ H~ H~ H~ H~ H~ H~ H H H H- H H H- H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H ~H H H H H H H H ~H H H H H H H ~H H H H H H ~H XXXXXH H H H H ~H X$XXXXXXH H H H ~H XXXXXXXXXXXH H H ~H XXXXXXXXXXXXXXH H ~H X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXH ~H XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXH h XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXH Solution: This level's not terribly complex, but it has a nasty twist, and it's tedious to go through the ladders twice. On the Apple you have to be exact but on the NES you can hold up/right to get through that bit. Pick up all but the last gold chest on the ladders. By now all three robots are taken care of--two are in natural holes and one has created the first half of the bridge you'll need to get back across. Step on the robot at the top, dig to the left, and go to the right. He'll fall down a bit and you'll want to dig three holes after you fall down, followed by a few more on that level. This creates space for you to trap the robot that just escaped. Dig a hole beneath one that will close up, in order to trap him. Then go on top of the second robot. Dig to the left and go to the right again and this robot will fall to the floor. You now have a bridge, so climb/fall to the last gold piece, and go right to complete the level. MESSAGE: MAGICAL GOLD 5-2-6. LEVEL 16 HHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H $XX ** $ *H$- **$ *H $H H $XX **-$ *H$ **$ *HH H$XX $ ** $ *H$ **$ H HXX HXX ** $ *H$ **$H H* $ HVX ** $ *H$ *H H ** $ HXV ** $ *H$ H H$ *X XX $** $ **H H*H$ ** $ HXX ** $ H H$ *H$ ** $ HVX **+H H*$ *H$- ** $ HXV $XH H **$- *H$ *X XX $X**H H$ ** $ *H$ ** $ $X* H H*H$ **$ *H$ ** $ $X* H H- *H ** *H XX XX H HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHXXXXXXXH Solution: A good way to get a nice start os to go right, wait two seconds, and dig and walk into the structure left. Dig just as one guy approaches, drop, get the chest, and dig left and drop. Wait a bit and dig left and right under that. The point is that you will escape but the bad guy won't. This makes one less guy to deal with when clearing out the upper right. You can probably just dig in the bottom right to delay him long enough or kick him over to the left when he regenerates. If you mess this up originally you can just bring someone else over by waiting in the UR and falling down and trying again. The upper right is just a matter of falling down the right ladders. The main nuisance here is that bad guys run at you rather quickly and on the NES you have to plan ahead, pause, etc. Now you may want to test out the false bricks. Drop in the UR diamond, right side. There's a false brick under the top ladder. Get the gold above it and drop through the ladder, Get the gold below and dig your way out. This ensures that the bad guys that will fall in the two natural holes won't have any gold. Your next objective is to drop one bad guy into the hole in the upper left diamond and another into the hole in the center diamond. Sometimes this can happen by accident and on the NES it is irritating to have to scroll around to see who's where. To make matters worse you may run left a while and be near the left of the screen, which just isn't fair. Safe places to get guys to fall when you are in the DL include the 3rd- highest ladder of the diagonal walk. The places to stand on either of the far ladder to get bad guys to fall in the right square are: (left) level with the left hole or 1 above it. (center) level with the top ladder in the first diamond There's some confusion about if bad guys have gold chests and fall into natural holes, but you can shake them out by dragging them all right or, better yet, going to the DR after wiping out the right and then clearing out the upper right and having them then come over to the right. They'll drop what they have. MESSAGE: RUNAROUND QUILT 5-2-7. LEVEL 17 h h $ h h H*XH- h h HX*H $ H*XH H**H H**H H**H H+ $ $ HX*H $HX*H $ $ H **H $ $ hH**H H*X HX*H- H**h$ H**H H*XH $ H**$ HX*H $ Hh**H$ H** H $ HX*H- H*Xh HX*H HX*h $ H**h H $ H - $ h**H H** hX*H H*X*H H*XH $ H**H $ H H*XH $H**H HX*H H H**H HX*H H*XH H*XH$ H**H H h h -h h$ h$h h h $h H********HX **X**HX ******** Solution: The first part, the right side, is trivial. You just have one guy to circle around. You'll want to keep him for later, however. Just remember that the gold off to the left that you have to fall to get will lead you back to the left. Also note that the stuff on the bottom is off limits until you get someone to drop into the natural hole on the right. That someone is the robot on the right. Once you've cleaned out the right, making sure the enemy robot didn't keep a gold chest, you need to find a way to lump your enemies together. The rest of the level is about suckering the enemy into the DR corner and then running around them--you don't have to bring everyone down as you can dig a hole to get rid of one. Drop onto the left center gold and you should have time to go down and right and dig at the next big ladder. Then go down and right and dig and jump off to the bottom. Wait in the DL and circle around. Keep doing this until you've managed to pick up all the gold on the left-- fall through to get gold, go to the DL, wait for everyone to fall, and climb out. Note that if someone falls off to the right, you need to drag him back over left, as otherwise you risk having him fall into the lower right where you won't be able to do much because of all the cement. The guy at the bottom right should have fallen by now. All you need to do is dig above the suspended gold in the DR to grab it and go right to pick up the chest and left for the other two. If there is no chest, the guy in the hole on the right has it. Dig him out and dig him a hole to pick up the gold. The ladders should appear. Run by him, up and out. The key step here is to twist by the four guys on the left and lump them together. MESSAGE: SUSPENDED GOLD 5-2-8. LEVEL 18 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX + ~ XH XXH XXH XX XX XX~XXXHXXX~XHXXX~XHXXX~X XXH XX~XVXHXXX~XHXXX~XHX$X~X XXH XX~XVXHXX~ XHXXX~XHXV~ X XXH XX~XVXH ~ XXH ~XH XXXXXH XX~XVXH XXXXHXVX~XHXXXX X XH XX~XVXHX XXXHXXX~XHXXXX X XH XX~XVXHXX$XXHXXX~XHXXXX$ XH XX~X$ HXVV HX$X~ HX $XXX XH XXXVXXXXXXXXXVXXVXXXVXXXXXXH hhh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- -H h hh h hh h hh h h - H hh h h hh hh hh H h h h h h h H hhh hh h h h h H Solution: Some nice one way traffic after some really tough levels, although there are several "gotchas" that first time players will get stuck in. The letters in the structure say trap so we'll go through by letter. "T": Dig the rightmost hole and fall through. False bricks! If you'd have dug and fallen from the ropes you'll fall below the structure, where bad guys are just waiting for you, and there's no way back up. "R": Digging from the middle of the ladder down causes you to get stuck in a false brick, so you have to go up the ladder, dig the rightmost hole and the one below that. Falling to the next rope dig to the right, go down, dig two to the right, and dig the left square below those. You'll drop onto the gold and through a false brick. "A": Climb all the way up and dig the rightmost brick, then on each rope you can(except the bottom one,) dig left before falling. You can walk right and get the gold chest there. "P": There's a false brick below the top gold, so just dig over to get that. There's one to the left of the lower of the two remaining, so again go to the top of the "P" and dig the rightmost square. Drop and go left and dig right. Then dig as follows: x Xxxx XXxx XXXx$ X $xXX This'll allow you to pick up the remaining two and now you can fall through the false brick. There's one question left--how to deal with the bad guys. Just wait for them to come down and stand at the base of the Y. Climb up when everyone's on the ground and they'll run past. Fall right and walk up to level 19. MESSAGE: TRAP FOURTEEN Level # 19 5-2-9. LEVEL 19 ~~ * ~ *** ~ ** XH*$X**H X$X* HX $X* H~$ XH XX$ *H ** HX$ X* H X X****X *H -H*X *XX H X* $ X***HX***X**X** H X** V H* HX ~~ ~~~~H XX$* V*H **X**X* $ *X *V* X** **H ~ **X***X **$** ** **H *X$* $X***V*** * ~~ **H *X *** ~~~H **$ $ H **H H H ** XH *H HX*H~~~~ *H ** XH*XX *HX*X H - X-* H *X $XX* H*$XX**Xh X*X HVh ***XXX HX**XX $XhX$* H*$*h$ *$ XH*H +X** *h*X H V h* The first of the functional yet ugly levels! It's still less of a hassle than 16/17 because you don't need to track guys off the screen from you on the NES. Solution: Wait a bit--the robot 5R3U of you will drop down. First order of business is to deal with the remaining mobile robot. Climb up the jagged stairs and then go east. Dig the only brick and have him fall in. Go over him and head NW. Dig the brick W, get the gold chest, dig E, get the chest E, dig E, and dig the brick S of that. Again dig the brick and climb over the robot except this time dig the two bricks SE and SSE of the ladder's top rung. Fall E, get the gold, and dig the block S of it. Wait for the robot to run to you and fall into your pit and then jump through the hole. It's not as split-second as it seems, as you can run to the hole as he starts to fall He'll get trapped where you'll now be able to walk across him. Do so and once across, dig the first brick E, then the ones SE and SSE of it. Circle back around and there is a gold chest near the top with bricks to W and E and cement N and S and SE. Dig the W brick, then dig the E brick to get that one. Once you've fallen go E and N to the top of the ladder. Dig E, wait a bit, dig the hole S of that, wait, dig the brick S of that. Once the top brick regenerates, dig it again, go E to fall and pick up a chest, goW and dig E. Drop, go 3 E and drop down(fake brick)then drop through another fake brick 4S4E of where you fell(right when the ladders zag back.) Go left and then drop on top of the robot between the brick and cement. Dig W and go E. He'll fall a bit, and dig below where he used to be. Now pick up the gold chest 2N of your starting point. It's got cement on 3 sides of it. A diagram is below of where to dig and when. H1*H X*2 H *$34*