+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                       | L U N A R   R E S C U E |
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              GAME:  LUNAR RESCUE
          PLATFORM:  ARCADE
             GENRE:  ARCADE SHOOTER
           CREATOR:  TAITO 1979
AUTHOR OF THIS FAQ:  Kevin Butler AKA War Doc
            E-MAIL:  kevinb(at)technologist(dot)com
       FAQ VERSION:  1.01

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

    UNIT   I:  INTRODUCTION

1.  Legal Stuff
2.  Version Information
3.  Acknowledgements
4.  Welcome
5.  Overview

    UNIT  II:  GAME INFORMATION

6.  The Game

    6.1  The Controls
    6.2  The Playing Field
    6.3  Scoring

    UNIT III:  STRATEGIES

7.  Playing the Game

    UNIT  IV:  CONCLUSION

8.  Conclusion

_______________________________________________________________________________

To find a particular chapter or subchapter do the following:

1.  Highlight the chapter or subchapter name you wish to find.
2.  Press CTRL-C
3.  Press CTRL-F
4.  Press CTRL-V
5.  Press CTRL-F
5.  You will arrive at the desired chapter or subchapter.

_______________________________________________________________________________

                                **************
********************************* U N I T  I **********************************
                                **************
+=================+
| 1.  LEGAL STUFF |============================================================
+=================+

This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal
private use.  It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advanced permission from the author.  Use of this guide on
any other web sit or as part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and
a violation of copyright.  All content in this guide is Copyright 2003 by
Kevin Butler.  Only the sites listed below have permission to publish this
work or to display it:

www.gamefaqs.com
www.cheats.de
faqs.ign.com

If you wish to put this guide on your site, e-mail me and ask.  Save yourself
the headache of putting up with lawsuits and whatnot because you failed to ask
a simple "Can I post your guide on <insert site>?".  If you wish to use info
in this guide, please acknowledge that you have done so.

If you see this guide on any other site then the one listed above, please
e-mail me.  If you wish to ask questions or give input to this guide, please
e-mail me.  Just have Lunar Rescue as the subject so I know it isn't another
kooky vendor trying to sell me hair gel or another XXX site telling me I have
new friends.

+=========================+
| 2.  VERSION INFORMATION |====================================================
+=========================+

Version 1.0   7/27/03:  A guide is born.

Version 1.01  8/28/03:  Fixed a couple of errors.

+======================+
| 3.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |=======================================================
+======================+

The following are a list of people or organizations that have made this FAQ
possible:

My wonderful family (who has had to put up with the tapping on the keyboard)
Taito for making a great arcade game
GameFAQ's for putting up this FAQ

+=============+
| 4.  WELCOME |================================================================
+=============+

Welcome to my FAQ for Lunar Rescue.  Since the game is just a shooter that goes
until all your men are killed, there is no walkthrough per se.  Instead it will
be broken up into the game itself and strategies for survival.  Input is
appreciated along with constructive criticism.  If you wish to e-mail me
thoughts on this FAQ, better ways of doing things, other strategies, etc., feel
free.  Make sure you put Lunar Rescue as the subject.  If you don't, I'm liable
to discard the e-mail as spam.

+==============+
| 5.  OVERVIEW |===============================================================
+==============+

Lunar Rescue was the follow-up game to Space Invaders.  Unfortunately, it was
released at the same time as Asteroids, which pretty much eclipsed most games
until the 1980's.  Lunar Rescue is actually a little more complicated then its
Space Invaders cousin.  You actually have to keep track of a few more things to
successfully make it through this game.  This is one of those "sleeper" games
that didn't get a big following since Asteroids was also out.  Good luck in
rescuing the astronauts.

                               ***************
******************************** U N I T  II **********************************
                               ***************

+==============+ 
| 6.  THE GAME |===============================================================
+==============+ 

Lunar Rescue is a combination two-dimensional simple flight simulator and two-
dimensional shooter.  You start the game by floating within your mother ship.
You then either must release your lander or after a pre-determined period of
time, the mother ship will forcibly eject it.  You first have to navigate
through 6 rows of asteroids to make it to one of the landing platforms.  You
have 6 platforms initially but each landing will eliminate one since there is
1 platform per astronaut you have to rescue.  On your return trip up, the
screen changes and now you have saucers trying to destroy you with laser fire.
Again, you will either have 3 or 6 rows of saucers depending if there are
meteors in the area.  You then must successfully land in the docking bay of the
mother ship to get credit for a successful rescue of 1 astronaut.

 ____________________
/ 6.1  The Controls /__________________________________________________________
--------------------

The controls on this game are very easy.  It may, though, take just a little
bit of time to get used to them since one button actually serves a dual role.

-  Two buttons that rotate your spaceship right and left

-  A dual thrust/fire button.

 _________________________
/ 6.2  The Playing Field /_____________________________________________________
-------------------------

You actually have two playing fields, so to speak.  One with asteroids on your
way down to the landing pad and the other with saucers firing at you on your
way back up to the mother ship.  I have included an example of what these
fields look like:

    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |   FUEL  800                              P P  <- MEN RESCUED      |
    |              _____                                                |
    |             /_____\ <- MOTHER SHIP                                |
    |             \|___|/                                               |
    |                                                                   |
    |                        _                                          |
    |                       / \ <- YOUR LANDER                          |
    |          *            \_/                **                       |
    |         ***           | |                *** <- ASTEROID          |
    |          *                                *                       |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                  **                               |
    |  MEN LEFT TO RESCUE              **                               |
    |     |                                                             |
    |   __|__                  ____________                             |
    |\  | | |                  \      50  | <- LANDING PLATFORM        /|
    | \ V | |    __________     \_________|                           / |
    |  \P V |    \   100  |      \   100  |                         _/  |
    |    \P V     \_______/       \_______/        _______        _/    |
    |      \P______|_150 |_________| 150 |_________| 150 |______P/  1   |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |   FUEL 900                               P P                      |
    |              _____                                                |
    |             /_____\                                               |
    |             \|___|/                                               |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                        __                         |
    |                       __              /__\ <- SAUCER              |
    |                      /__\                                         |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                _                                  |
    |                               / \                                 |
    |                               \_/                                 |
    |\                              | |                                /|
    | \          __________      __________                           / |
    |  \P        \   100  |      \   100  |                         _/  |
    |    \P       \_______/       \_______/        _______        _/    |
    |      \P______|_150 |_________| 150 |_________| 150 |_______/  1   |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+


You control the spaceship to avoid the asteroids and get back through the
saucers for a successful rescue.

 _______________
/ 6.3  Scoring /_______________________________________________________________
---------------

Scoring in this game is pretty simple:

Large Saucer:  30 points
Small Saucer:  50 points
Platform:      50, 100, 150 points

Each man rescued has an increasing value until stage four where it is at its
maximum.  The values are:

Stage 1:   50 points
Stage 2:  100 points
Stage 3:  150 points
Stage 4:  300 points
Every stage after stage 4 is 300 points

Fuel remaining is added to your score (i.e. if you have 560 Fuel left, then add
560 points to your score) at the end of a wave.

You start with 3 landers.

                               ****************       
******************************** U N I T  III *********************************
                               ****************       

+======================+
| 7.  PLAYING THE GAME |=======================================================
+======================+

When you start the game, your lander will be sitting in the docking bay of the
mother ship.  You can release your lander by pressing the firing button or wait
until the mother ship forcibly ejects you.  It's better to do it yourself lest
the mother ship ejects you on top of an asteroid.

-  Fuel is a precious commodity in this game, use it sparingly.  You only have
   800 units of fuel to rescue 6 men.  If you burn all your fuel off on the
   first rescue, you will have nothing to fall back on for the other 5.

-  When you leave the mother ship, try to navigate through the asteroids with-
   out using any fuel.  Since your lander doesn't accelerate during the fall,
   you will be going at a constant speed down.  Try to maneuver between the
   rocks to land on a platform.  You also don't need to decelerate when
   landing, you just land.

-  Try to knock out the harder platforms first.  What I mean by this is land on
   the harder to reach ones first on the sides.  A good strategy is to get the
   right hand-one first, then the two left-hand ones, then finish by landing on
   the three in the middle.

-  If you must use fuel, use quick bursts to get into position to land on a
   platform.  Fuel burns up very quickly in this game so some quick shots to
   the thrusters should keep you out of trouble.  Keep in mind, as the waves
   progress, the asteroids move faster and become more numerous.

-  Once you've landed, the little guy will run over and get in your lander.
   The screen will then change and you will see 3 to 6 rows of saucers blocking
   your path.  Again, as the waves progress, the saucers and meteors get faster
   and more numerous.  There are a couple of different strategies for this
   section:

   -  If you only see 3 lower rows of saucers, look to the upper right or left
      corner.  More then likely, some meteors will be coming diagonally down to
      the opposite corner.  The best solution is to quickly blast a path
      through the saucers and get above the meteors trajectory.

   -  If you see 6 rows of saucers, then you need to blast a path through them
      to get to your mother ship.  Keep in mind that the fire button acts as a
      dual fire/thrust button.  When you fire, you accelerate yourself up just
      a bit.  In other words, no point blank shooting or you may end up taking
      out the saucer with your lander.  When you have cleared a path, use the
      fire button to get yourself quickly above the saucers.

-  The saucers firing just drop their shots on you.  Because of their numbers,
   you may find yourself surrounded by enemy fire.  The best solution is again
   to blast a path through them.  Once a saucer is destroyed, it doesn't come
   back.  Also keep in mind that you can only have one shot on the screen at a
   time.

-  Once you get 1 row from the bottom of the mother ship, it will stop and open
   its docking bay door.  If you are too far away, you will fail to dock with
   the mother ship and get destroyed by the top of the screen.  If you hit the
   side of the mother ship, the man you are rescuing will unfortunately fall
   from your lander to his death to the planet below.  Plan out the best
   strategy to make sure that you stay in the middle so you can catch the
   mother ship with minimal effort.

-  Before stage 4, you get a cute intermission from the aliens of Space
   Invaders telling you to "Fight".

-  Also, after you complete a wave, every man you rescued says "Lucky" as they
   are counted toward your point total.

                               ****************
********************************  U N I T  IV *********************************
                               ****************

+================+
| 8.  CONCLUSION |=============================================================
+================+

I remember seeing this game sitting in the corner of an arcade.  There weren't
many people playing it so I decided to try my luck at it.  It did turn out to
be a rather addicting game.  I think one reason was because instead of one
game, you actually had two games.  One to navigate through asteroids and one
to blast enemy ships.  I'm sure that I more then helped Taito recoup its money
invested into making this game.  Unfortunately, it is very rare to find this
machine anywhere.  However, through the miracle of emulation, a whole new
generation is realizing what we "old" folks enjoyed those many years ago.  In
addition, www.shockwave.com is bringing many of these classic games back.
Check out their site to see what ones are there.  I hope this guide helps you
in being able to get the most amount of gameplay for this game.  If you do have
other ideas or thoughts, please e-mail me and share them.  Who knows, maybe
I'll start a Q&A Chapter in this guide if enough people ask the same questions.
Anyway, thank you again for reading this guide.

To see other FAQ's I have written please go to:

           http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/32691.html

           ~~~  No trees were harmed in the making of this FAQ ~~~