There
are many strategies that will improve your end score - and will
certainly help you have a more fun game. This area will grow over
time as I get around to putting more strategies.
Strategy
1 - Ship Movement and Location
On earlier levels the far right or left hand side of the screen
are fairly safe places to hang out when aliens are coming onto the
screen (especially until you learn their habits). It is tempting
to use the edges as safety zones during game play - but remember
that the 'big' sub-boss aliens on various levels specialize in lateral
shots and they aim specifically for the corners. They also 'track-shoot'
(i.e. they aim ahead of your current pattern) so keep moving back
and forth to throw them off.
Strategy
2 - Firepower
When deciding on firepower,
consider a few things.
Overall, DOUBLE SHOT is probably the most
useful when you don't have the cash to buy the SUPER WEAPON or better.
DOUBLE SHOT is fast and you can have a LOT of them on the screen
(with EXTRA BULLET options). You can also get a nice even spread
with it - especially with AUTO-FIRE bonus. It is also easier to
target your enemy (great for taking out the HURRY UP ship).
TRIPLE
and QUAD SHOT have great spreads, but they fire too slow for anything
really practical. These weapons are, however, most useful in the
WARP MALFUNCTION levels.
Of the 'upscale weapons' - FIREBALLS are
the most bang for the buck. Since you can't 'catch' one of these,
you'll have to buy it. It ain't cheap, but it is cheaper than most
and gives great firepower.
Remember, when it comes to EXTRA BULLETs,
one or two levels can make a great difference. Know where your favorite
weapon 'peaks out' and keep mental track of its current 'level'
of EXTRA BULLET while playing.
Adding AUTO-FIRE to a maxed out weapon
makes you quite powerful.
Strategy
3 - Maximum
Points and Cash
There are many ways to increase your
score and financial portfolio. A few things you might NOT realize
are ...
First, gems are worth points. Sometimes a LOT of points.
Don't dismiss the idea of wasting the whole alien fleet with a GEM
BOMB - those gems really add up.
While it is easy to dismiss a RANK
MARKER that you already have, grabbing it will give you points in
leiu of the rank stripe.
A great deal of points (money too) can
be made in the METEOR STORM - so NEVER pass up a free ride (you
can't die in the storm so it is a win-win scenario). If you make
it through the storm, prepare for serious rewards.
The MEMORY STATION
can also be instrumental in your success - know what you want when
you go into it (I always look for an EXTRA LIFE).
Enemies you would
rather avoid (like the THIEF SHIP and the LASER SHIP) can be worth
big points if you take them down. Other 'secret' ships (like the
MONEY SHIP - buy GAME SECRETS to learn about him) can offer you
TONS of cash.
Keep your eye out for the BONUS MULTIPLIERS (x2 and
x5). They can really change things.
Lastly, there are BIG points
to be made on the KAMAKAZE LEVELs. While it might be easier to simply
avoid the baddies and take a 'passive' role during these deadly
stages, by wiping out each full wave in turn gives you a supreme
point value (which doubles for each set you destroy). The point
value for a 'completely killed' wave is displayed briefly. Wipe
out full waves during the kamakaze attacks and see how many points
they are worth collectively! You can do the same thing with the
individual levels, if you are powerful enough to destroy the whole
wave as they come in.
Strategy
4 - Playing
the Mini-Games
There are two mini-games within Deluxe Galaga.
Both are engaged by catching a bonus dropped by a dead alien. The
games are METEOR STORM and MEMORY STATION.
METEOR STORM is a very
basic 'dodge the rocks' and stay alive until you make it all the
way through (progress is shown on the little radar on the right).
Naturally, the further you make it, the harder it gets (faster,
more rocks, etc). You are racking up points the whole time you are
in the mini-game. Catch rocks with numbers on them and get points.
Catch boxes with numbers on them and get money. Get hit by anything
else, and you're done (you do not die - just continue in the regular
game). To my knowledge, there is no 'safe' place to hang out. But
I can tell you some tricks to make it easier.
Unless you
have about a level 2 EXTRA SPEED, forget about being able to make
it through the whole storm. I just don't think it is physically
possible.
Going through together with a buddy will also lower your
chances of success (seems easier with one person). Here is the best
tip: use your fire button to accelerate through the storm (if two
people are going through at the same time, BOTH fire buttons have
to be pressed at the same time. I know what you are thinking: "WHY!!??"
During the first 1/3 or so of the storm, there are very few meteors
to dodge. Acceleration will get you through FASTER. It also gets
your reflexes ready for later on in the storm when things really
DO move fast. Try it - you'll agree with me.
Try throttling your
speed up and down (to catch the goodies).
The MEMORY STATION is
your simple timed version of Concentration - uncovering boxes 2 at
a time to try and find a match.
Goodies you can win in this game
are: money, points, E-X-T-R-A letters, an EXTRA LIFE, xC (which
is a free credit to let you 'continue game' another time), BONUS
MULTIPLIERS (x2, x5), RANK MARKERs, EXTRA TIME (adds a few seconds
onto your evolution), and the dreaded Skull and Crossbones that
will immediately end your MEMORY STATION experience.
This is mostly
a game of chance, folks. There isn't much strategy behind the original
Concentration either. What I will tell you is this.
Know what you
want before you go in.
If you want an EXTRA LIFE (always my goal
- and happens to be possible about 25% of the time) then start the mini-game looking
for it. Uncover as many boxes as possible. You'll have time to get
to them all - so score what you want, don't just 'go for matches'
because half the time the matches are RANK MARKERs, E-X-T-R-A letters,
or things you nay not really need (if you do, knowing what you want is key to success).
As a secondary, I go for cash (the
green numbered goodies). Anything else I get out of it is a benny.
If there is a Skull and Crossbones, chances are you are gonna get
it anyway - so no use tiptoeing around.
Strategy
5 - Level
Preparation
Just like with the original Galaga, you should
think ahead to different levels. In the original Galaga, you would
always want to make sure you had two ships before hitting the 'challenging
stage'. With Deluxe Galaga, there are several levels you should
'prepare' for.
The KAMAKAZE LEVEL is probably the most useful to
be prepared on (see FIREPOWER above for more).
Other levels include
the 'big boss'es (you can't have enough lives or firepower for those
levels - a few levels of SHIP ARMOUR doesn't hurt either), the BONUS
LEVEL (similar in may ways to the 'challenging level' of the original
Galaga - have at least a DOUBLE SHOT with some EXTRA BULLETs).
Lastly,
know when you are going to go through a WARP. WARPing happens just
prior to entering the shop where you can spend your dough. It is always nice to have some bucks to spend, but unfortunately
you don't always have control over this.
Next, prepare yourself
for a WARP MALFUNCTION.
These seemingly random events will hurdle
your ship out of WARP and into a 'nothing but sub-bosses' level
where death is easy to come by - since they all shoot laterally.
Various types of aliens appear on these levels (all of them are
the same each instance, though) and it various as to how many there
are.
Like the sub-bosses of the regular levels, dealing a death
blow to these aliens will always render you a RANK MARKER - although
it should be noted that more times than not, it is one you already have. You get a lot of points in the WARP MALFUNCTION levels though.
I haven't figured out a way to trigger one while WARPing, but I
am sure there is a way.
You return to the WARP after killing them all, and you can have multiple WARP MALFUNCTIONs (we've seen 4 in
a row as the maximum). Downright gruesome.
The last thing about
level preparation is knowing where the aliens will enter the screen
from. This makes good sense and seems like a rhetorical strategy,
but when you reach higher levels, you will BEG to know where they
are gonna come out from.
Strategy
6 - The
Deadly (Random?) Alien Ships
There are at least three ships
that seemingly appear randomly during the game - the HURRY UP ship,
the LAZER SHIP, and the ever-dreaded THIEF SHIP (which can actually
be disabled in configuration).
The HURRY UP ship isn't really random
- he appears when you take too long to finish a level.
He randomly
drops 'semi-guided' rockets down on the players which are naturally
deadly to the touch. Fortunately, he simply passes over the top
of the screen and vanishes (always to come back, even if destroyed).
Destroying the HURRY UP SHIP drops a RANK MARKER (a good thing -
as you'll learn later) and lowers the level of rockets that fly
down at you.
While some folks say you can destroy the rockets by
shooting them, I simply don't find that true. The best (and really
only way) to save your own ass is to position yourself RIGHT in
their path until they get close to you, then quickly move to one
side or the other. The rocket will normally fly past you (out of
sight, but still there - so get clear) and go into a dead loop pattern
and blow up. There are times when there is NOTHING you can do about
it - just suck it up - but you will learn how to play the rockets
off as often as possible.
The LAZER SHIP is a random ship that comes
out from time to time and shoots a hardcore laser beam at the players.
The beam is big, fast, and deadly. While I seem to recall killing
him at one time, I haven't been able to prove to myself that I can, so take that under advisement.
The THIEF SHIP is the nemesis of
the game. Sometime at random, this goon will fly onto the screen
and suck all your money from your ship (the effect is cool anyway).
He'll give you some chances to blast him (and I imagine he has some
good cash on him) - but like the LAZER SHIP, I have been unable
to whack him (unloading QUAD SHOT continuously wasn't enough) but
maybe with a good weapon you can kill him.
The LAZER SHIP you can
dodge, the THIEF SHIP you cannot avoid.
Finally, there is a MONEY
SHIP in the game.
It is very difficult to get to, hard to kill,
but will rain riches down on you from the heavens when you kill
it.
There is a way to make the MONEY SHIP come, but I won't tell you how to do it, but you can buy GAME SECRETS
to tell you (or cheat and look at the area below the Strategies
- all the GAME SECRETS are available on this site).
Strategy
7 - The
Miscellaneous Stuff
RANK MARKERs are
a good thing.
They increase your 'end of the game' extra points.
They also can be used (another GAME SECRET) to net you a cool one
million points.
SHIP ARMOUR is the only permanent 'protection' you
have in this game, plus it is cummulative. They are fairly frequent
during the game and cost MORE than an EXTRA LIFE so don't make light
of them.
The SHIELD bonus is only temporary and tends to run out
just when you need it the most. Shield + KAMAKAZE LEVEL = BIG POINTS.
There is a MIRROR MODE bonus - very
rare - that will give you TWO ships that run in 'mirror' to each
other. It is far to easy to lose track of which of the ships is
your REAL one. Keep them close together and enjoy the extra firepower.
The MYSTERY BONUS (the little question mark) can give you just about
anything in the game that can be 'caught' including money, points,
EXTRA BULLET, EXTRA SPEED, and just about anything else. You may
get a DRUNK MODE bonus from the MYSTERY BONUS too, which will temporarily
reverse your controls (cool huh?). It is short lived, so stay out
of harm's way until it wears off - since it usually wears off just
as you are getting used to it (plunging you into the hands of the
enemy). Learn the value of a dollar. BLUE COINs are worth the most
at $200 - if you get a MONEY BOMB or shoot down the MONEY SHIP,
be sure you go for the concentration of the most valuable coins.
Seems like another rhetorical strategy, but you would be amazed.
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