~~~==MadTV FAQ==~~~ o o \ / \ / \ / xx=====\======/=============xx // __\____/____ //| // /__[====]___/\ // | // / \ x // | // x--------------X // | xx==========================xx | || d || | ||M M d || | ||MM MM aaa ddd || | ||M M M a a d d || | ||M M aaaaadddd || | || TTTTT v v || | || T v v || | || T V V || | || T v || | || || x ||==========================|| / ||__________________________|| / ||*o o o o o * * * || / ||__________________________||/ xx==========================xx aaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaabaaaaaaaaa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: 1.0 Introduction a. About the game b. About this FAQ c. About me d. Version history 2.0 The Interface a. The controls b. The TV screens c. Statistics and time 3.0 The Building a. Map b. The rooms i. The Porter ii. The info board iii. The supermarket iv. The screenplay agency v. The movie agency vi. The advertising agency vii. The real estate agency viii. Betty's office ix. Your office x. News studio xi. Boss' office xii. Archives xiii. Studios xiv. Misc. 4.0 The Basics a. Planning a day b. Making money c. Ratings and Image i. Mechanics ii. Sammies iii. Transmitters iv. Satellites 5.0 The Long Run a. Your objectives i. Beating the opposition ii. Marrying Betty b. Events c. Programmes i. Programme types ii. Buying and selling d. The news e. Advertising explained f. Making your own programmes 6.0 Epilogue a. Tips b. Credits c. Legal Stuff d. FAQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Introduction ================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. About the game MadTV was a German title developed by Rainbow Arts. It revolves around managing a TV station; filling programme blocks up, deciding what gets put in the news, obtaining advertising contracts, out-doing your opposition etc. The concept is well executed and the game is very fun. To win, you must perfect the art of juggling quality programmes with budgetary concerns, squeezing in the right adverts at the right times and maximizing both profit and viewers. You can download the full game here: www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Mad+TV+1 b. About this FAQ This FAQ was created as there are only two other sources on the game that I could find (both located at the site where you can download the game). I had quite a few questions when I first started playing the game, most of which were answered by those two documents, but some which I had to find out the answers to myself through experimentation. I wrote this FAQ to help those few people who have discovered this game and to explain the basics to people just starting out. P.S. Sorry for the terrible ASCII art c. About me This is the first FAQ I've ever written, so I picked a game without any present FAQs. You can contact me, Bob Johnson, with tips or questions about the game here: Sierra Quebec Uniform India Golf India Alpha November @ Hotel Oscar Tango Mike Alpha India Lima.com Simple enough to figure out, that's just to prevent spam bots picking up my address. Some simple rules to remember when mailing me: 1. Make sure that the spelling and grammar are good enough to be understandable 2. Check the guide first before asking me 3. Don't send me files; I'm not a complete idiot 4. Do send me any tips of your own; I'll put them in the guide and credit you 5. If you wish to put this FAQ on your site, just ask me and I'll check your site out and most likely give you permission to post it, except for some sites *cough* Charlie Charlie Charlie *cough* d. Version history 0.05 (19/08/05 12:00) Wrote the intro. 0.45 (19/08/05 15:00) Wrote up to Making Money. 0.7 (19/08/05 19:45) Wrote up to Programme Types 0.99 (19/08/05 21:30) Wrote this line to say that I had reached version 0.99. Now I just need some questions... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 The Interface ================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. The controls Left click/enter = Move character/select option Right click/ESC = Go back a screen/ Deselect Cursor keys/mouse = move cursor ( for some odd reason it moves very sluggishly using the mouse, for me at least) b. The TV screens Very simply put, these two screens show the current programme and a family watching it. The left screen displays the programme, news or an advert, depending on the time. It will display a different screen for each show type (Superman for Sci-fi, a kissing couple for Love Story, a stadium for live events etc.). You can change the station to a rival network by clicking on the different coloured buttons. The right screen is an inverted TV set, showing a family watching the programme. You can tell how well you're doing depending on whether the whole family is watching or if there's a sleeping grandpa in front of the screen. c. Statistics and time The $ sign next to the box of numbers indicates your money; multiply by 1,000 to get your total cash ($200 = $200,000). The little couch and decimal numbers indicates the number of people currently watching in millions (0.65 = 650,000 people). This can be increased by showing better programmes, building transmitters and satellites and putting new news on. This is basically the number adverts rely on to be successful (more on that later). The heart bar indicates your relationship with Betty; it can never go higher than your current image. You need to get this to 100 to win the game ie. eliminate both rivals and increase this rating by buying presents and broadcasting certain programmes (more on that later). The time shows the ...er...time. You work from 17:00 to 1:00 and broadcast programmes between 18:00 and 0:00. At the end of the day, you'll stop whatever you're doing and call the elevator to get out of the building. The next day, you'll come in and go straight to the boss' office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 The Building ================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Map To help you, I've designed a map of the building: 13 Betty's Office 12 Real Estate Agency[][]Peace League* 11 Churchill's office SunTV News Studio [][]Boss of SunTV SunTV archives 10 Advertising agency SunTV Studio [][] Weapons Dealer* 9 FunTV Studio [][]Duban Embassy** 8 Brian's office FunTV News Studio [][]Boss of FunTV FunTV archives 7 Movie agency** [][] F.D. Embassy** 6 MadTV Studio [][]Screenplay agency 5 Archie's office MadTV News Studio [][]Boss of MadTV MadTV archives 4 [][]Anti-smoking* Tobacco Lobby* 3 Psychiatrist* [][]Bio-control* 2 Laundry room* [][] Supermarket 1 Porter [][] Info board * means these rooms have no use (you CAN free them up though...) ** means these rooms can be affected by events b. The rooms - To move between rooms, use the elevator or click on them (whoever calls the elevator first gets it first, though). i. Porter - Drunk chap with huge moustache. Can inform you on what's happening today. ii. The info board - A map, just like mine. What's this? The labels can be switched around... iii. The supermarket - Smoking guy in front of all manner of products. Here you can buy presents for Betty, or equipment for your shows/series. iv. The screenplay agency - Guy scribbling away at desk with files behind him. You can buy screenplays for series and shows here. Good ones are pretty expensive and need a larger studio, though. v. The movie studio - Black haired guy sitting at desk behind some assorted movie files. Where you'll get most of your programmes. You can buy new programmes, sell old ones and bid on special, better ones. vi. The advertising agency - Bald guy with glasses sitting next to a load of files in an otherwise empty room. Where you'll go to get advertising contracts. They have conditions attached, though. vii. The real estate agency - Bearded guy sitting next to a map on the wall. You can rent studios here; they're pretty costly, though, and you need a free room (the further to the right a room is, the bigger the studio can be). viii. Betty's office - Blonde woman sitting at desk, next to three picture frames. The picture frames indicate relationship (the higher, the better) and are colour-coded. There's also a chart in the upper left-hand indicating Sammy progression. ix. Your office - A graph, a computer on the desk and fan mail (depends on your image). Where you organise the schedule for the day and the next one. You can also add more broadcasting tower on the map on the right, view your budget, ratings, messages, adjust the game settings as well as save/load by clicking on the picture next to the door. x. News studio - A board and a guy sitting at a desk in the background, facing a camera. You can adjust the news displayed here. The more costly it is, the better it is for your ratings. You can change it throughout the day to increase ratings. xi. Boss' office - Angry guy pointing angrily at a graph looking at you angrily. You can pay back loans and take them out, or quit your job here. You report to the boss every morning. xii. Archives - Happy guy with white coat and glasses who may turn green at any point. Click on him to see what programmes you own, and move them to your green case for selling. xiii. Studios - Bald chap with monocle and cigarette holder in his mouth in front of an empty set. You can produce your shows and series here. I say studios as you'll probably have more in the future. xiv. Misc. - All kinds of crazy scenes. These rooms are useless, although pretty funny to look at. You can free them up to make room for your studios. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 The Basics ============== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Planning a day Planning a day is pretty simple; you have 7 blocks of programmes and adverts to fill up. Here's an example; News Programme Advert 18:00 National Geographic Series (Sumatra and its flora)| SUN 1/3 19:00 Back to the Future | La Baguette 1/1 20:00 Back to the Future | Superfurni 1/5 21:00 Doctor Zhivago | Superfurni 2/5 22:00 Doctor Zhivago | Superfurni 3/5 23:00 Doctor Zhivago | SUN 2/3 0:00 Doctor Zhivago | SUN 3/3 To place a programme in a slot, click on the bookcase icon, then select the genre. Choose the programme, then just put it down. To place an advert in a slot, click on the list icon, then on the sponsor you want. Place it in a small slot. The numbers, eg. 2/3, show how many you need to place to fulfill the contract. Some basic facts you should know: 1. The news are broadcasted every hour on the hour and their quality can affect ratings for the next programme. 2. Adverts are broadcast every hour just before the news. 3. If you don't put an programme in a slot before it's due to be shown, nothing will be on TV and nobody will watch. 4. If you have nothing but news from the previous day, NOBODY will watch the news, having a detrimental effect on the next programme's ratings. 5. Hardly anyone will watch culture programmes. Only put them in when you are aiming for the Cultural Sammy, or want to impress Betty. 6. Never leave and advert slot open; a tiny reward is better than none. 7. Plan the next day to some extent, so you don't have to hurry. 8. Try to get a rough idea of how many people will be watching a programme. 9. Prime time shows naturally get more viewers; take advantage of this. 10. Put series on early, as people watch them more this way. b. Making money There are two ways to make money; fulfilling contracts and selling programmes. Of course, if you just sell programmes, you'll run out of showable programmes, so you've got to show adverts. Pick the easy contracts for the first day, like Aunt Lizzy's, Andrae Design, Bikeshop, Lufthansa and Toughwhip, as these don't even need people watching to be fulfilled. Sometimes, you'll want to wait until you actually have a programme showing before deciding whether or not to take a riskier contract. Action movies and comedies generally get higher ratings, and Sci-fi doesn't hurt either. If for some reason you've got a great programme, but aren't getting a lot of viewers, chances are that a rival is displaying something better or equally good. Check by changing channels on the TV. To bolster ratings, you should check the news studio every hour or so, as new stories can come in at any time. You can also buy transmitters; however, these are expensive and need to be maintained, so think before you build a new one. Feel free to sell old movies if you're getting a better one to replace it eg. replacing Third Man with The Godfather. A big factor in planning your schedule is how recently a movie has been shown. People don't mind so much if the movie was made recently eg. people get fed up of La Strada faster than Breakfast at Tiffany's. c. Ratings and Image These are very important to the success of your station and to bringing down enemy networks. i. Mechanics Ratings are affected by the number of people watching compared to other stations. The twist is that the PERCENTAGE viewing is what counts, the opposite of what is needed for adverts. So a huge network which reaches 30 million of its 100 million viewers will get lower ratings than a tiny one that reaches 4 million of its 5 million viewers. Ratings are taken every hour and can be viewed on your computer by clicking on the graph button. The light bar is for the news, whilst the dark one is for programmes (only this one counts). You can also check other networks' ratings. An orange arrow indicates an image change for you. The network with the highest rating gets an up arrow and recieves 1 image point from the lowest rated network, which gets a down arrow. The middle network neither gains or loses an image point or has an arrow. Image is very important as it affects whether or not you can get advertising contracts and the maximum relationship points you can have with Betty. If a network's image drops below 20%, some advertising companies won't take out contracts with it. At 10%, almost no-one will deal with them. If you see a rival go below that mark, they're almost certainly doomed. If a rival goes below 20%, take advantage of it and pressurise them, unless your other rival has more to gain. In that case, try and play them off against each other. If you go below 20%, you still have hope. If you go below 10%, reload. ii. Sammies This is the other way to recieve image points. There are four types of Gr-, I mean Sammies: Cultural (4pts), Independently Produced Series (6pts), Independently Produced Show (6pts) and News (8pts). The winner receives the stated number of points from the other two networks; ie. winning the Cultural Sammy would get you 2pts from both of your rivals. Your boss, Mr. Raffer, will inform you the day before the competition starts. You can see how well you're doing by looking at the chart in Betty's office. Here's some tips for them: Cultural: Easy; just buy some highly-acclaimed programmes from the movie agency (they're all very cheap). Just make sure you don't lose more points in ratings than you gain from winning it. Indie Show: Quite expensive; purchase a decent show from the Screenwriter's Agency and fill it with the best MCs, singers, special guests and phantasy. You should win if you show it during prime time the next day. Indie Series: Not really worth going for, unless you already have one made. The computer doesn't seem to be to interested in this either on the easier difficulty levels. News: Easy and very helpful, if a little expensive; just subscribe to the showbusiness and sundry news agencies the day before and only put the best (most expensive) news from each category up. Update it whenever possible, and you should win. iii. Transmitters These are your basic way of reaching your audience. The cost and maintenance depends on how many viewers they cover. To buy one, left-click on the map on the right of your office. Move it until you're happy with the location and left-click to place it. Red areas on the map mark heavy populations, pink areas medium ones and grey zones light ones. This chart shows the cost of buying and maintaining transmitters: Population reached (millions) Cost Maintenance 0.0 - 2.0 $50,000 $10,000 2.05 - 4.0 $100,000 $20,000 4.05 - 10.0 $250,000 $50,000 10.05 + $500,000 $100,000 As you can see, you can build a lot of cheap transmitters or a few expensives ones for the same price. My advice? A lot of cheap ones is better, as you can construct them over time, rather than having to wait. iv. Satellites There are only two of these, one for the west, and one for the east. You'll probably want to use these later on, as they have blanket coverage. The maintenance costs are one-fifth of the buying cost, but it costs MUCH more to build the transmitters in the long run. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 The Long Run ================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Your Objectives These are the basic aims you need to have in the long term in order to win the game. i. Beating the opposition - To marry Betty, you have to have image at 100%. To do this you must obliterate the other two networks. This also has the benefit of letting you use the elevator more easily. The way to do this is to broadcast better programmes to a bigger audience as well as making more money. Easier said than done, I might add. ii. Marrying Betty - To marry Betty, you have to get her heart meter full, and then buy her a honeymoon voyage ($1,000,000). You can fill it up by buying her presents and broadcasting her preferred culture programmes. As you buy more of each present, the effect lessens. You can check how many times they've been bought at the supermarket. b. Events Some days, you may be getting into the elevator and notice some strange things; why have the names of your film library and the Free Duban Embassy switched places? Why is one of your rivals coming up from the ground floor? And where's that bearded gentlemen with a bomb headed? There are two events I have encountered; one, the bombing of either of the Duban embassies, and two, the impounding of the movie studio. You can find out if an embassy bombing is planned by checking on the political news. The porter will tell you if the movie studio's going to be impounded if you talk to him. Another way to see if something's up is if one of your room names has been swapped with another room's name. If so, head down to the info board IMMEDIATELY and swap the switched the name with one of your rivals' room names. The impounder (a man in a coat) or the terrorist (an Arab with a cartoon bomb fizzing away) will arrive at a random time during the day. A good idea is to save before they come, and find out when they will come. That way, you won't have to stand vigil over the info board, as your rivals will attempt to re-switch the labels; instead, you can go down half an hour before the impounder or terrorist arrives and switch the names back. The effects of sending a bomb to a room or impounding it are shown on this table: Bomb Impounding Office $50,000 damage, prevents access Prevents access to programme to programming schedule for day schedule for day News Studio $50,000 damage, prevents news Prevents news from being from being changed for day changed for a day Studio Frees up room Prevents access to production for day Boss' Office $50,000 damage Not sure Archives $50,000 damage, destroys Prevents access to films random film for day Any other room Frees up room Not sure c. Programmes As you probably guessed, these fill up your schedule. There are quite a few different genres. i. Programme Types Love story - Soft movie; can be comedic. Moderately liked by audience. Examples: La Strada, Rebel Without a Cause Action movie - Exciting movie; thrilling. Strongly liked by audience. Examples: Die Hard, Jaws Comedy - Funny movie; enjoyable by all. Very strongly liked by audience. Examples: The Life of Brian, Manhatten Epic - Heavy, long movie; classic. Moderately liked by audience. Examples: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben Hur Whodunit - Intense, complex movie. Well liked by audience. Examples: The Godfather, The Untouchables Culture - Elitist dross; boring. Strongly disliked by audience. Examples: Culture Today, The Three-Dimensional Human Live - Sports event or the like. Intensely liked by audience. Examples: Launch of the Super Shuttle, Wimbledon finals Show - One off celebrity-fest/gameshow. Strongly liked by audience. Examples: Let's Travel!, The Knowledge Game Sci-fi - Tense/exciting alien/robot adventure. Well liked by audience. Examples: Star Wars, Alien Sundry - Everything else! Moderately liked by audience. Examples: Citizen Kane, Tucker Series - Episodes from a certain genre. Very strongly liked by audience. Examples: National Geographic, Star Trek: The Next Generation Watch out for X-rated movies; if you broadcast them before 21:00, you could get in trouble... ii. Buying and Selling There are three ways to buy a programme: 1. Buying direct from the agency: go to the movie agency, pick up the film you want and drop it in the green space. 2. Bidding on programmes at the agency: go to the movie agency and click on the guy's face. To place a bid, click on the film/event you want to buy, and, if yours is the highest bid at the end of the day, you get it. Movies/Series/Events are generally better if you have to bid on them. 3. Making your own. This is how to make shows, and get new series. Go to the screenplay agency, a pick a screenplay. Then take it to an appropriately sized studio and obtain a shopping list from the director, then fulfill it. The programmed will be ready in a day or two. N.B. You can only sell programmes, not screenplays. The price is affected by four factors: critics, box office/press/Betty (culture), when it was last shown and when it was made. The first two and last one always remain the same and affect the price the most; the better the critical acclaim, the better the box office gross and the more recently it was made increase the price. The 'current' bar decreases as you show the film more, and affects how many people will watch the film, and its resale price. It will gradually recover, depending on what kind of movie it is. I think epics take the longest and action/comedies take the shortest. Series never grow old. N.B. Broadcasting a culture programme with a high 'Betty' rating will boost the heart meter. d. The News There are three types of news: political, showbusiness and sundry. You start out subscribed at $1,000 a day to the political news, but can also pay $10,000 a day for showbusiness or sundry. The advantage of being subscribed to the others is that you will have more opportunities to change the news. Changing the news for newer stories affects ratings positively. Simply click on a story and move it into the desired box. There can be up to three items running at the same time. More expensive news is better news, so try to always buy the best. New news may come in at any hour, on the hour. If you only have news from the previous day, or no news, no-one which watch at all. e. Advertising Explained An advertising contract has 7 aspects; name of company (irrelevant), slogan (irrelevant), bonus, penalty, number to broadcasted, number of days alotted and viewers required. A contract will look something like this: BikeShop BikeShop on top! Bonus: $5,000 Penalty: $0 min. 0.00 (=0%) 1 advert in 3 days The time limit includes the day you took the contract out on, so try not to take out contracts at 22:00 or later. If you meet the terms of the contract, you recieve the bonus. If you fail to fulfill it, you are fined the penalty. A good idea is to take one short-term contract out (2 days) along with two medium-term ones (3-4 days) and a long-term one as well (5-7 days). Make sure the long term ones have harder conditions to meet, as this way you can always fill a break with the right kind of advert. f. Making your own programmes At some point you'll want to make your own programmes. This costs a fair amount, so wait until you have some decent cash. You can do this by buying a screenplay from the agency and putting it an appropiately sized studio. Then, click on the director's face and ask for a shopping list. Go down to the supermarket and click on the guy there. Choose 'equipment'. Now you'll have to hire actors and choose the scenery. Once you've chosen what you want, go back to the director and click 'production info' to hear his thoughts on it. If you don't like what you see, you might want a new shopping list. If you are happy, click 'start production'. You'll be informed as to when it will be finished, and receive a message once it has been completed. There are two types of programme that you can make: i. Shows - These are one-off affairs which can only be used once. The screenplay remains, so you can make another afterwards. Making a show costs between $20k and $150k, not counting the cost of the screenplay. You can start making these pretty early on. The special 'Trendy' show is like a survey; it tells you what the audience wants to see in the near future. ii. Series - These are a lot more costly than shows, costing between $50k and $200k an episode, and, with up to ten episodes, this can cost you in the long run. However, audiences love them and never grow tired of them. If you have the cash, this is an excellent way to hammer the opposition in the early evening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 Epilogue ============ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a. Tips Some final tips to help you on your way: -Always save just before the day ends. This way, if there are no good screenplays/movies/advertising contracts available, you can simply try again. -Always go for the News Sammy: it really is worth it. -If a rival has a truly excellent programme in his schedule, don't try and compete with it; let them win that hour of ratings, and attack them when they have average programmes running. -Try and get your relationship with Betty to ~25% as soon as possible, as you receive the master key at that point, allowing you to access all the rooms in the building! You can now see what your rivals are planning, but can't change them. -Whenever the impounder or bomber is due to arrive, save on that day and wait to see when they will arrive. Then, reload, and make for the info board 30 minutes before they are due to arrive. Now you don't have to guard it from your rivals. -If you're not sure about a contract, don't take it. Alternatively, save before you take it. -Making a big move, like producing a series, or purchasing a satellite, deserves its own save. -Save often. -Play as Brian, the green guy, as he has the best position of facilities; being near to the movie agency, advertising agency and screenplay agency. -You know you have enough money when you no longer have to sell movies to buy new ones. -Experiment. b. Credits www.the-underdogs.org for showing me this game, and many other great games. My computer, for letting me write this FAQ in less than a day. CJayC, for running GameFAQs. You, for reading this FAQ. c. Legal Stuff This FAQ is the intellectual property of Bob Johnson and cannot be used without his permission. (c) 2005 Sites allowed to publish this FAQ: www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com d. FAQ Coming soon!