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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olution: 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* 
fact, you might want to let them get your chests and bring them down the 
board. Note that going to the top is trouble if anyone is trapped--they may 
reappear up there. But if you can leave your enemies behind then you can run 
up there and get everything.

The best place to trap enemies is on the platform of alternating cement and 
brick. You have a back-door out and it takes them forever to recover. You 
probably want to reach the right side of this first so you can drop right, 
fall and get the very DR chest, which is a tricky one. The bad guys tend to 
try to drop through the hole and not climb down the ladder, which provides 
you an easy way back up. You can wait at the foot of the ladder for the last 
guy to fall off--when there are two left you can work your way around them. 
Even 3 really because only 2 will be on one side.

But your basic procedure should be to locate a loose gold chest and pick it 
up and then have the bad guys run after you and get behind you so you can 
make it back up. Once they're all behind you, you can go to the extreme upper 
right, and they will head to the upper left. That'll allow you to sneak back 
down. For the last bit it's okay just to take what they leave behind if you 
can't force it from them on the striped areas. But remember to have them 
follow you, without you digging, for the last bit. You'll be able to see if 
you've got all the chests because there will be a ladder in the UL.

MESSAGE:  BARREN BOARD

    5-2-6. LEVEL 36

  hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 
  h  -      ~~~~~     +   h 
  hXXXXXXXXX  H  XXXXXXXXXh 
  hhH~H~H~H XHHHX H~H~H~Hhh 
  X~H~H~H~H~XH HX~H~H~H~H~X 
  X~H$H H$H~XHHHX~H$H H$H~X 
   XXXXXXXXX HHH XXXXXXXXX  
             H H            
             HHH     XXX    
             HHH    X~~H $  
HX ~~~~~$    H H   X $ HXXX 
H*$ ~~~ X    HHH~~ * X H~~  
HX*X$~ XHX*X*XHX  X    H    
H  X*X*XH   - H X*X*X*X*X $*
*H      *X X*XHXH   $   $ X*
X*X*H$XH      $ HX*X*X*X*X*X

Solution:  You can trap both robots in the enclosed structures that flank the 
ladders, and in fact it's possible to do so right away. Just dig the top 
square of the left edge of the right structure. Then go down and get the gold 
chests and come back up. Climb down the far ladder when both guys are inside, 
dig a hole and drop in.

The rest of the level features the usual duck-and-run to pick up gold chests. 
The right is the easiest. On the rope right of the lower bit of the ladders, 
dig right and drop and dig left. Go up the ladder to the right, get the gold, 
go left on the rope and drop and keep going left. Wait for the holes to fill 
back up. Then dig right, drop, dig left. Go up the ladder but take the right 
rope this time. Drop right and come back left.

Now for stuff on the left side. Again, go on the right rope and drop and dig 
left. Go left along the bottom, climb the ladder, dig left and get the gold 
and run back before the brick closes. Then dig into the top of the left 
structure for the two gold and dig and drop down. From the top rope dig 
right, drop and go right and dig right. You should be able to get the 
remaining two gold pieces and climb up with time to spare.

MESSAGE:  BI PLANE CLIMB

    5-2-7. LEVEL 37

                          h 
     H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hh  
     H~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~XXXH   
     H X X X X X X   X X H  
   HXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  XXX  H 
   HX XXXX X XXX X VXXXX H  
   HXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXVXXXXH   
 - HXXX XXXXX XXXXXVXXXX H  
HXXXXXXXXXX XXXX $ VXXXX  H 
HXX~XXXXXXXXXXXXVXXVXXXX   H
HXXXX  $XXX XXXXVXXVXXXX  H 
HX   HXXXXX XXX~VX~VX~XX H  
HVXXXHVXXXX$ XXVXXVVXXXXH   
HVX~XXX~~XXXX~~VXXV~~XXX H  
HVXXXX~~~~XX~~~~XX~~~~XX  H 
H   HH  - HH  $ HH $  HH + H

Solution: Climb halfway up the right ladders until both robots are adjacent. 
Drop down to get the two gold and return to the middle. This will preclude 
any nonsense about robots having the gold when they fall into gaps. Now 
you'll want to climb 2 rungs away from the top and wait. Move above the 
rightmost single rope after going over the top and wait until the closest guy 
is above the next-right rope. Drop down. So will he. He'll fall down the 
corridor of false bricks. Jump on top of him and push left after passing the 
single square which will trap you. You'll fall left of the gold. Go left to 
the rope and push down.

Keep track of where the bad guy is as you will want to get to the top and 
push this guy just left of where the other dropped. 100% accuracy isn't 
important as you only need the first two gaps free for the ultimate big dig, 
and if you miss this time you don't have distractions for the next one. Drop 
down so that the other robot falls off in a right gap. Now for an easy gold 
piece. From the left ladder dig a pair of squares to the right, dig and 
repeat, and dig to get into the passage below. From there, dig from the 
ladder to the left. It's an easy way out.

Now if the bad guys aren't in the right position you can start at the square 
right of the guy to the left, dig right, move left etc., release him and go 
to the UR of the castle. Drop when he's above a square more to the left.

The final chest is the toughest and I will just illustrate where to dig in a 
diagram.

     H . . X
   HXX....XXX
   HX X... X
   HXXXX...XX
 - HXXX X..XX
HXXXXXXXXX. X
HXX~XXXXXXX.X

This isn't anything you haven't seen before, and digging once you get the 
gold makes an easy out. Of the castle and level.

MESSAGE:  CREEPY CASTLE

    5-2-8. LEVEL 38

+HHHHXXXX HXXXH~~~~~XXXXHHHH
HXXXH~~~~~HXXXHXXXX XXXXHXXH
HXXX XXVX-HXXXHXXXX~~~~~HXXH
H $-$- $-$H $ H$ $  $$  $  H
XXX **VX XHVXHXXHX VXVX XVHX
XXX  $VX XHVXHXXHX $XVX XXHX
XVX XXVX XHHHHXXHX VXVX H HH
$$ $~~~~~~~~~  $H $ $   $ $ 
XX VHXX-XVXX XVXH XVXH XXVV 
XX VHXX XVX$~HHHH X$XH~~~~~~
XX VHXX XVXX XXXH XVXH XXXX 
$ $ H   $ $  $$ H $$ H  $$ $
XHVHXVHVXXX XXXXHVXXVHXXXX X
XHVHXXHVXXX XXXXHVXXVHXXXX X
XHHHHHHVXXX XXXXHVXXVHXXXX X
$H$$$$$$$$$$$$$$H$$$$H$$$$$$

Solution: Overview first. Don't try to challenge all five robots unless you 
can lump them together. And once they are, keep them lumped.  Then you should 
have time to run by them. The best way to do this is to use the leftmost 
ladder that touches the ground.  Climb all the way up it, wait, and then 
climb down.  Wait for any robots on the far left ladder to come over as far 
as possible(don't let the ones on the middle touch the ground) then scoot 
back up the ladder.  Your place on the ladder determines the direction of the 
robots on the ground to some extent, so tinker with it. You don't need to 
know the details; one rung works, the next doesn't.

But the first thing to do in this level is to run down the ladder and right 
to get the gold under the cement. Wait for the monsters to stabilize and then 
dig right and fall down the center of the rope. You can climb to the bottom, 
where four monsters will come at you. Sneak over them with the ladder-row 
below the bottom when they get near, and you can run right, onto the tall 
ladder in the right. One rung up and you have the bad guys lumped. Now you 
can go take a short run for a couple of chests and come back, but the guy at 
the bottom will chase you, so don't take too long before going back to the 
second rung.

You can actually let them get pretty close to you before moving up the ladder 
turns them away. So you can clear all the stuff near the ladder. And when you 
are ready to take off, go to the bottom of the ladder once the enemies are 
immobilized and wait for them to follow you. Climb up to the first ledge and 
you should see all five chasing you. But go up slowly so you can see when 
they twitch back and forth. If they all follow you then you can head to the 
DL with ease.

You can go left at the top of the ladder and across the very top rope. Then 
you'll stand in the DL and walk across the ladders over the guys coming at 
you.

Here's what to do on your trips to the UL:
1) drop on the cement and get the two gold chests there
2) drop on top of the gold to the right of the cement(false brick over it)
3) go to the very UL, via the ladders, and dig right twice. Dig over the gold 
chest and drop through the false brick.

Through all this it's important to make sure the enemies are lumped together 
after your each move, before you decide to drop down.

However if they do get undone near the end, what sometimes happens is that 
three guys get stuck on the big ladder and two are in the left. In that case 
you can just go up the right side ladder one square. The guys will fall to 
the right. You can sneak under them and do the next thing you need to in the 
upper right.

What you need to do in the upper right is really pretty trivial--basically, 
fall on top of whatever gold chest you need, and if there's no false brick, 
just dig to drop in. There's no way to trap yourself. You just have to 
remember that you can bunch your enemies by climbing to the top of the right 
ladder and then make them fall off the ladder by going to the 2nd-lowest 
rung. But if you get on the center ladder and push up, someone may just block 
you and sit there if he gets down far enough.

MESSAGE:  BROTHERHOOD

    5-2-9. LEVEL 39

 -         ~~          +    
   HXXXXXXX   XXXXXXH       
   HXXXXXXX   XXXXXXH~H~ hh 
   H    XXX   XXX   - H h  h
H~~H    XXX   XXX     H h  h
H  H   XXX     XXX    H  hh 
H  -  XXX       XXX   H     
H    XXX $$   $$ XXX  H h h 
H    XXX XX   XX XXX  H hh  
H    XXX         XXX  H h hh
H    XXX  XXXXX  XXX  H     
H    XXX  XXXXX  XXX  HX*XXH
H     XX   XXX   XXX  X $ XH
XXXXXHXXX  $X$  XXX~~~X X XH
X $ XH XXXXXXXXXXX~~~~XX XXH
X X XH   XX   XX           H

Solution: You can spend a lot of time figuring out how to dig what and where 
and eventually you'll wind up digging the enemy out of the picture. But you 
need him for the DR gold.

Fall down, wait for the robot to come at you, go W, and dig E.  When the 
robot falls in, go all the way E and one rung S.  The robot will go W, S, and 
fall in E.  From 
there go to the top of the ladder. Dig W, go S, dig W. Wait a bit and dig W 
below that before digging where you originally dropped the robot. You can 
walk on top of him to get the gold chest.

Go to the lower right, wait for the holes to heal, and then race the robots 
to the top. You don't have to beat them badly, just enough to make sure you 
can dig out the right eye before they get anything done. You'll also want 
either both or none of them to drop. With one left there's the potential for 
a guy to close you out on the left, and if you go back right the other guy 
will drop to the left.

Dig the 4 leftmost bricks, then the 3 after you've fallen a level, then 2, 
then 1. That'll get you 2 chests and falling off and going E will get you 3. 
Depending on how many guys have dropped, go left(2) or right(0--and let them 
drop the next time).

Now you want to fall west and dig left twice, drop and dig left. There'll be 
a small problem with the one guy regenerating--keep squashing him until he 
falls into the wabbit and goes left. Now you can take out the gold at the 
bottom.

4X1
$ 2
X 3

The usual here: dig 1 and 2, wait a while, dig 3, go over 1 and dig 4. The 
final bit consists of a 4-3-2-1 dig over the left eye and then dropping right 
to get the final gold chest and get out.

MESSAGE:  OMEGA WABBIT

    5-2-10. LEVEL 40
                            
H~~~~                       
H +- HXXXH  ~~~~~~~~~  HXXXH
H   XHXXXXXH  ~~~~~  HXXXXXH
H  XXHXHXXXHXX     XXHXXXHXH
H  XXHXHXXXHXX XXX XXHXXXHXH
H   XHXXXHXXXX  H  XXXXHXXXH
H    HXXXHXXXX XHX XXXXHXXXH
H   XHXHXXXHXX XHX XXHXXXHXH
H  XXHXHXXXHXX XHX XXHXXXHXH
H  XXHXXXHXXXX XHX XXXXHXXXH
H   XHXXXHXXXX XHX XXXXHXXXH
H    H HXXXHXX XHX XXHXXXHXH
XH  HXXHXXXH   XHX   HXXXHXH
XXHHXXXXX $   XXHXX   $ XXXH
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  H

Solution:  Although you can get one of the gold chests, you have to rely on 
the robot for the other. The good news is that the left(trap the robot) is 
very similar to the right.

You can just run around to the left and then you should be able to figure out 
from the diagram how to bore down. You need to switch ladders a lot.

H123H
X45XH
X.HXH
X.HXH
H.XXH
H.XXH
X.HXH
X.HXH
H.XXH
H.XXH
X.HXH
X.HXH
 .XXH
X.  H

  There are some controller tricks to make this faster. On the NES you can 
just hold down A/B and let up on the down button to dig, then switch over, 
etc. You should have enough time doing things manually as well. The main 
nuisance is switching between ladders after every two digs.

Now you must drop the robot into the area with the other gold chest. He will 
walk left after he falls so it's not too tough to climb to the top left bit 
and get him to follow you. Then drop down to the lower rope and go right and 
climb down the ladder. He'll fall and go left and you can now work on the 
left.

So you just dig down as before but with a few differences.

H321H
HX54X
HXH.X
HXH.X
HXX.H
HXX.H
HXH.X
HXH.X
HXX.H
HXX.H
H H.X
XXH.X
XXX. $

Now you need to move up the ladder, left, and into the DL so the enemy comes 
toward you and gets enveloped by the healing brick. There's a small chance 
he'll give the chest up right away, so you may need to do this more than 
once. But it's not terribly esoteric. You can run up and be waiting for when 
he's gobbled up, and that'll kick you to the next level.

MESSAGE:  TAX MAN

    5-2-1. LEVEL 41

         -    h           Xh
XX   HXXX     h  X XhXXXXXXh
   XXH    XhXXXXXX XXX    Xh
     H  X XXXXX  X     HX Xh
 XhXXXXXX        XXXXXXX  Xh
 XXX    XXXXXXX       -  XXh
                X  XXXXXXX h
XXXX XX   +  XXXXH X       h
       HXXXX     H     HXXXh
 HXX   H   $ XXXXH HXXXX $ h
XH   XXX HXXX      $    HXVh
 H  $    H     $ HXXX   H   
 XXXXXXHXX XXXXX H    XXXXH 
 $   - H     $   H        H 
XXX XXXXXXH XXX  XXXXH  HXXX
          H          H  H   

Solution:  Getting all the chests isn't hard. The main trick is to realize 
that you can use one of the enemies to move a chest to a better location. 
That chest is the one DL of where you are. Go to the ladder right of it, top 
rung, and have the robot pick it up and take it up the ladder. That will drop 
it on top of the ladder, where you can pick it up last.

The rest of the work consists of killing all three enemies and making sure 
that they go into the three holes at the top, which is really annoying on the 
NES. Once you've gotten the final gold(saving the UL 'til last) you have to 
go right, walking over enemies as they drop down. The ladders appeared when 
you got the last gold, and you should have just enough time to run 
consistently right and over the robots to the top. The error margin between 
crossing the first and the second guys is slim but you should be able to wait 
for the third. The big long ladder is on the far right.

MESSAGE:  HOMICIDE

    5-2-2. LEVEL 42

     ~~~~        hh-        
    H    XXXXXXXh  hXXXXXX  
  HXXXXX X     Xh  hX    X  
  HX   XXXXX   X+hh X HXXXXX
HXHXXX X   XH  XXXHXX HX X X
HX   X X   XH   X H   HXXX X
HX  $X X XHXXXXXXXH   HX   X
HX XXXXX XH      XXXHX XXXXX
HX X X X XXX  XHXX  HXXXXH  
HXXXXX XXX HXXXXX   HX  XH  
H  X     X$H X XXXXXXXH XH$ 
H  X  XXXXXX X X - X $HXXXX 
XHXXXHX -X X X X   X  HX -X 
XH  XHX $XXXXX X   XXXXX  X 
XH  XHXXXXXX   XXXXX   XVXX 
XXXXXH            X     V   

Solution: Get the robot out of the way so you have time to figure how 
to get the chests. This is not trivial as there are not a lot of squares. But 
the easiest way to do so is to head down the ladder and go right. Dig left, 
drop, dig left and the enemy will be trapped. Don't celebrate ASAP as he may 
wind up regenerating where he started, but eventually he'll go to the UL(deal 
with him later) or UR. If you want variety, go to the bottom of your current 
structure and dig right twice.

To pick off the first gold chest, the suspended one, look at the following 
wall:

H1
H2
H3
H4H

Dig 1, wait a second, dig 2, wait a second, and dig 3. Now wait for the holes 
to start filling up. Once 2 is full, dig 4 and go back to the top and dig 1-
3. Fall down for the gold and climb up the ladder. Run left when 4 is 
covered.

Now at the top ladder above the natural pit, dig right and go down four 
times. Then dig left and dig the three squares to the right. This allows you 
to get the gold on the right ledge and come back.

At the ladder where you started dig L, go D, dir L. On the 1-ladder dig L, D, 
dig L. Fall in and go up the ladder to the left and dig left and work down. 
Go left and up to the top. Let's chip away at that gold across the 2-pit.

     ~~~~
    H
  H6XXXX
  H7
H1HX8X
H2   X
H3  $X
H4 XXX
H5 X
HXXX

Dig 1 and 2. When 1 gets covered up, dig 3 and 4. Then go up and dig 6 and 7 
and go back down and dig 5. Then dig 8 and drop for the gold.

Now for the last uncovered gold(the bad guy has the last one.) Run across the 
rope and dig down. Then...

XXXX
X
XX1
  2H
  3H
8HXXXX5X
9H
0X4  6HX
  HXX7XX

Drop left of 1, dig and dig 2 and 3. Run down the ladder to the left and dig 
4. Then dig 5 from the right, fall in and dig 6. Dip in and get the gold and 
dig 7 to get out of all of this.

Now go back to the top. Dig 1, 2 and 3 as before but this time dig 8, 9 and 
0, fall left and dig left. Dig the corner square and now drop through it and 
dig 3-down the left side so you have a place to dig a hole when the enemy 
comes out. Go back up and dig right, go down, dig right and fall left. Dig 
right at the ladder, get the gold, and run to the top.

MESSAGE:  ETCH A SKETCH

    5-2-3. LEVEL 43

   XXXHXXX        XXXHXXX   
 XXX  H     XXXX     H  XXX 
 X    HXXXXXX  XXXXXXH    X 
 XXhXXXX            XXXXhXX 
  Xh     HXXX  XXXH     hX  
V XhXXXXXH        HXXXXXhX V
V**h********H  H********h**V
V  h   $ X  H  H  X $   h  V
V**h******H* ~~ *H******h**V
   h      H X  X H      h   
-X h XH + HXX  XXH - HX h X-
 XXXXXHXXXXHX  XHXXXXHXXXXX 
-    XHXX$ HX$$XH $XXHX    -
XX  XXH X~~HX$$XH~~X HXX  XX
XXX   H  XXXXXXXXXX  H   XXX
XXXXXXXXH          HXXXXXXXX

Solution: The plan is outlined below.

1. Get all the enemies lined up down the left chute. One will come inward 
towards you and the others will fall down on top of them. If anyone gets in 
the right chute, dig the block on its left and run left and dig right, 
climbing up the ladder a rung if you need to deflect enemies temporarily. 
Repeat until everyone's on the left. If anyone gets stuck in the middle, dig 
on the rope, fall left and dig the two blocks and use the ladder to dig down 
into the center. You can use the bottom conduit to get guys to come over.
(If only one or two guys are left you can just dig into the area beneath the 
chute where you don't want them to fall, to speed things up.)
2. Climb up the ladders to the level of the gold. Get the enemy to take it 
and climb back down. Make sure he carries it back to the pit.
3. Collect the gold you can. That means the stuff in the center pit(drop for 
it) and the enclosed gold(dig right mid-ladder and left mid-ladder on the 
left, vice versa on the right)
4. Let everyone out and repeat 1. for the right, but mirrored.
5. Climb up. It shouldn't be too bad to clear bad guys out although if you 
are desperate you can now drop them down the center shaft. Just get on the 
rope, dig left and fall left if they are coming from the right. Eventually 
you'll clear all the enemies from one side.

MESSAGE:  STACK ATTACK

    5-2-4. LEVEL 44

                  +        h
 XXHXH1XXXXXXHXXXXXXXXXHXXXh
   H XHX     H XHX     H X h
 XXHXXHXX XHXXXXHXXhXXXXXXXh
  H h H     H   H  H     H h
  XH  HX  XXH  XHX XH  X H~ 
 X H  H  ~ XH  XXX  XHXXXH  
 XHX XH23$XHXH     X H   XH 
  HX  XH4~HX H~XHX   H XHXH 
  H    H5XXX-XX H X0XX  HXH 
 XH ~ XH6~  X  XH     ~ HXH 
 XH  X HXXX7 H8 H Ha$XX HXH 
  H  HXH~~~XX 9H  HHX~~~HXH 
 XXH H  H    XHX X HXXXXXHH 
   XXXH~ H~~~~H~~~XX~~~~~H  
            -               
Solution: One sweeping movemet gets both gold pieces.

The map is diagrammed to see what to dig, when. Just dig 1 and then drop down 
and run across 2 and dig it, then dig 3. Fall left and wait at 2 a couple 
seconds before digging 4. Go 1L1U and wait for 2 to reappear. When it does, 
go to the rope and drop to get 4. Go left and dig right. Down and dig 
right(6) and go right and dig(7).

Fall right and climb up the stairs and the next part requires you to be 
pretty quick. Dig(8) and fall right and dig left at the ladder (9) and climb 
up and drop right. Then immediately dig right, drop, 1L and dig right to get 
the other gold chest. Go back left and drop down. Go left to the ladder and 
hold up/left to get back to where you dug 0. Once 0 heals, you can climb up 
the ladder and follow the winding path to the next level.

MESSAGE:  CAN OF CORN

    5-2-5. LEVEL 45

XXXXXXXXXXXXX               
X+ X  X $   X H   ~~~~~~~~~~
X  X$   HX $X~H   H         
XXXXXHXXXXXXX-H  hH XXXXXXX 
X  X$HX  X$ X H h H $XXX$XX 
X$ X HX$    X~Hh  H X$XXXX$ 
XX XXHXXXXXXX     H $XXX$XX 
X $X HX $XH X     H X$XXXX$ 
X   $HX  X$ X     H $XXX$XX 
XXXXXHXXXXXXX     H X$XXXX$ 
X~~X HX~~X  X     H         
X~~X HX~~X -X     HXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX     HX  HX  $X
XH X     X        HXXXXXXXXX
XH-   X $  HX     HX   XH $X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Solution: there's a lot of repetition here especially with the part on the 
right side. You need to use the enemy in the right to get some of the gold 
out of the block, and some fancy digging will get the upper left block where 
you start.

Fall, go E, dig W.  Fall W, fall E, and climb up the ladder. Get the chest 
and the suspended chest to the W, climb up the one rung ladder, dig east for 
two more chests. This is the simple bit.

   H0
H1XXXXX
H2  X$
H3$
H4XX87X
H5 $9H
H6  a$
HXXXXXX

Here's how to get the encased chests.

UL and UR: you'll pass back to get the UL so you might as well start with 
this anyway. Dig #1 from the right. Then wait 3 seconds and go to dig 0. Drop 
left to dig #2 and then, when 1 fills in, 3 below that. Dig over the UR chest 
to drop on it. Run left.

DL: Dig 1-4. When they start to fill in, dig 5 and then right of 1. Go back 
down to dig 6 and fall through right-of-1 and dig right.

DR: Dig 1-4. When they start to fill in, dig 5 and go back up and dig 0. Go 
back down and dig 6. Then curl over and right-of-1 and the 7-8-9-a tetrad. 
Climb down the bottom of the ladder and run left. You've covered the upper 
left.

Now from the top of the big ladder, dig left, move down, etc., until you open 
a hole to the bottom. Fall into it and go right. Go over the next bump on a 
one-way trip to the right side. 

You need to use the robot on the right to get a few chests. You only need him 
for the two bottom chests on the left and here's what to do so you can kill 
him off soon after for the messy DR bit. Wait a bit to make sure he's fallen. 
Then you can just drop on the 2nd-left square on the block, dig left when 
he's near, and run over him and fall left. Then climb up the ladder. When he 
drops by, run over him. You can even wait on one of the gold chests you've 
grabbed as he will land on the platform and fall left again.

You can just dig over the UL gold to get it. For the ones on the right you 
can dig the rightmost 2, then dig down the 2nd-right tile. Except for the 
last one. For that, you'll have to come back and repeat as before, except dig 
the block over it to fall into it.

The same applies for the gold on the left. Dig 3x(2nd 3rd and 4th left) and 
then dig the 3rd and 4th left for one gold and keep digging. You'll get all 
but the DL one. Again, you need to repeat the process but this time when you 
have the chance, dig the square above it to fall through for it.

Now on to the bottom right.

H1XX32XXXX
H4  H5  $X
H8XXX76XXX
H9   0H $X
XXXXXXXXXX

For the top chest: Dig 1. Wait 3 seconds. Dig 2 and 3 from the left. Drop 
left and dig 4. Circle around 1 when it reappears and dig 5. Run right and 
get the gold and go back.

For the bottom chest: Dig 1-5 as before, same pauses. But now instead of 
getting the gold chest, dig 6 and 7 from the left. Circle back left, dig 8 
and 9, and climb over the 1. You will need to re-dig 2 and fall through. Dig 
0 after doing so. Run right to grab the gold and run left.

It's possible you can get both chests with one looping motion after another 
but this is the safest way to do things. When you're done, ladders that 
zigzag back down appear. Climb up them to win.

MESSAGE:  TENEMENT LIFE

    5-2-6. LEVEL 46

       -h     h-            
** **  *h  +  h**  *  ***** 
* * *  * h H h * * *  ***   
*   *  *  hHh  *  **  ***** 
XXXXXVXXX*XHXXXXXXXXXX -XX  
H~         H ~  ~ $~$$XHXXXH
H  $XXXXX$XHX$HX HX HXXH  XH
H $$XXXXX$XHX***VVXHXVX$XXXH
H$$$XXXXX$XH $    ** $   $ H
HX$XXXXXX$XHV**XVXXXXXX**XXH
H  **V$V***H* $VVX $X* $***H
XXH**$$$***HXHXXX*XXXXXXXXXH
X H*$$$$$**H*$       $   $XH
XHXXXXXXXXXH****** XXXXX**XH
XH $ $ $ $ H XXXXXHX$     $H
XXXXXXXXXXXX* XXXXH-XHXhXXXX

Solution: You need to keep the two active enemies around to drop them into a 
hole. So fall left so that the one doesn't get trapped in the "N" above. 
Climb down the ladder and across the single ropes. When the guy chasing you 
is on the second one, drop down and he will fall down too, through two false 
bricks. Clean up everything else in the immediate area and go back up the 
main ladder. Dig the leftmost square at the top and now clean out the left 
area.

Drop left to start, go up the left ladder and fall right off the rope, then 
get the remaining gold. You will need to go all the way back up the center 
ladder and dig left three times to take out what is left. Fortunately some 
false bricks help you a lot here.

1234X
567XX
x98XX
XabXX
*V V*

Dig 1-9 and then dig a the first time through, then b the next time. The 
third time you'll have to shift 5-6-7 and 9-8 over and dig above the other 
false brick to get everything. Basically you have 3 diggings of 4, 3, 2 and 1 
squares.

Now you can release your enemy and go across the ropes. Remember to dig once 
so he coughs up his treasure. Drop at the third rope as before, so he lands 
on top of his buddy. Now you can drop on top of him and get the chest that 
was guarded by the false brick before!

You shouldn't have a problem with the stack of gold left of the ladder. 
You've done this before. Dig the top three bricks next to them, then wait to 
dig the bottom one, and loop over. It's time to take out the right bit.

Dig right of the ropes and fall through the brick below. Shuck and jive the 
enemy--don't kill him, but dig so he can escape, go to the bottom, dig so he 
can escape again, and go to the top. Dig right twice and go up the ladder to 
the left. Stand on the top run until everything fills in--he won't run after 
you or into a hole.

Now you have to sucker him into that hole at the bottom. He doesn't have a 
chest and can't get one, so he'll be safe. What you need to do is drop down 
the ladder, dig left, and get the gold chest below and whatever's below that. 
You can't cross to the left yet but you can dig over the 1-rung ladder and 
drop down. The guy will drop 2R of you and you can walk over him. There's one 
more compartment to dig over and you will need to dig the right square to get 
out. Now your final act on the right should be to stand on the 1-ladder and 
dig left, run right, and dig left too get the robot out of the hole. Run 
right when you do and climb up the stairs. He'll join his pal, which means 
that you can now run across them! Dig to get back to the left(top of right 
ladder, d-L D d-L D 4L 2U d-L and run left.) Now fall on the two guys you 
stuck so long ago. Dig left and fall and get the remaining two chests. You 
can run right now...over one guy there's a good chance you'll die, but over 
two, none. The ladder should appear in the hole where you dropped the robot, 
and you can walk across it. One more dig back across to the main area and you 
can climb up the center ladder to the top.

MESSAGE:  MINE IS YOURS

    5-2-7. LEVEL 47

H ~ -  -  -  -   ~  ~  ~ +~H
HX XX$XX$XX$XX$XX XX XX XX H
HXX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXH
H XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XH
HX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX H
HXX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXH
H XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XH
HX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX H
HXX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXH
H XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XH
HX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX H
HXX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXH
H XX$XX$XX$XX$XX$XX$XX$XX$XH
HX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX H
H                          H
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Solution: This is easy and elegant if you take it one enemy at a time. The 
first thing you can do is to get rid of the gold pieces that aren't guarded 
by enemies. For instance, you can start in the UL, dig right, fall right, 
etc. Then start at the open square below that, etc.

You'll want to take the rightmost robot out first. Stand 1U1R of him and dig 
right. go 1L, dig right and push 1L. On the NES this is accomplished easily 
by pushing A, then holding left too. When the robot falls, fall on top of him 
and repeat the strategy.

When he gets to the bottom, dig a hole for him so he coughs up the gold he 
took. Run up the right ladder. Then stay at one of the niches. This will make 
him follow you, which you want. Go as far left as you can and dig right. Fall 
in when he's on the second rope. He will fall into a hole he canot get out 
of. Dig right and drop right(hold right and A.)

As a final touch go back up and dig the hole right of the guy you trapped. 
He'll drop further, leaving you one more space to perform this trick again.

Repeat with two of the other three guys--although you'll have to drop one 
when he's on the third rope as there's no space left on the second. With the 
fourth guy you don't even need him to chase you anywhere. You just need to 
get to the top.

Now, to get any one robot out it's not too bad.  Stand NW of him, dig E, 
go W, dig E, go W.  The robot will fall down and you can repeat.  Start 
with the rightmost one.  Once you've gotten to the bottom, wait a bit so 
that when you fall you can dig to the left and catch the robot you 
released so you can run across him.  Once you've released the fourth 
robot you should be able to make it to the west ladder and get out OK.
MESSAGE:  TEMPLE OF TOMBS

    5-2-8. LEVEL 48

         h        h         
         h        h         
    X    h        h    X    
    X**VXHXV****VXHXV**X    
    X$$VXHXV    VXHXV$$X    
    XXX *HX XXXX XH* XXX    
       **H**    **H**       
   X**V*HH*      *HH*V**X   
   X$$V*HXX*V**V*XXH*V$$X   
   XXX *HX$$V**V$$XH* XXX   
      **HXXX ** XXXH**      
  X**V*HH   ****   HH*V**X  
  X$$V*H            H*V$$X  
  XXX *H            H* XXX  
  -- *HH  +       --HH* -   
XXXXH HXXXXXXXXXXXXXXH HXXXX

Solution: Setting everything up for this level is tedious, but the main bit 
is actually not too tough. You'll need to keep digging until you have one bad 
guy in each of the 4 holes 2S of the top ladder rung. Once you have that 
there are different strategies for the outside and inside ones.  For the 
outside ones(we consider the left side but the right side is a mirror image), 
fall onto them, go west, get the two chests, dig east.  Repeat twice and when 
you're at the bottom, dig west.  Leave the robot there.  For the inside one, 
again fall on the robot, go two east, and dig west.  Go west and dig west(or 
east, if you still need to fill a hole.)

Note that getting the inside gold chests means that there is that much more 
work to get a bad guy out, so you might as well just pile them up.

The only problem is if one guy falls on top of the other. Then you want to 
release him and move to the main bottom part with all the bricks ASAP. Also, 
if you have one guy left over after everyone's in place, if he is on the side 
then you will want to take care of the inside and then kill of the remaining 
oddball, dropping him into the corner somewhere. You don't want him greeting 
you when you come down the outside.

If enemies get stuck on the right edge, go down quickly to the right and come 
back up. Same for if they get stuck in the extreme left although you need to 
take a bit longer then. You'll want to stay on the bottom usually as if you 
climb up the ladders it can cause enemies to drop in spaces you don't want 
them to.

MESSAGE:  AZTECA

    5-2-9. LEVEL 49

XXh                     hXXX
XXXXXh-     +       -hXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXhHXXXXXHhXXXXXXXXXX
     $    HV   VH     $     
   HXX    HXX$XXH    XXH    
HXXXX  HX HXXXXXH XH  XXXXXH
H     HXXhXXXXXXXhXXH      H
H  - HV XhX  V$ XhV XH  -  H
HXXXXXX$XhX$XXX XhX$XXXXXXXH
H     XVXhXXXXXVXhXVX      H
VXH      h       h      HXXX
VXXXXHX hXXXXXXXXXh XHXXXVVX
V$  XHXXhHX $X$ XHhXXH  X $X
XX$  H XXHX VXV XHXX H X  XX
XXX  H   HXXXXXXXH   HX     
XXXXXHXXXH       HXXXHXXXXXX

Solution: This is one of those random levels where you just have to let stuck 
robots regenerate where they may and run at a weakness when you see it. There 
are two tricky technical bits here, getting back on to the center 
structure(you need to walk over guys that have fallen down) and transferring 
from the right side to the left. Fortunately you start off in the center so 
you don't have to jump on a falling regenerated robot to get on it twice.

So let's look at each way through the center structure. You'll want to dig 
one of the top corner squares and fall into it. Wait for it to heal and then 
dig to the inside. Circle around, dig the other corner square, drop and dig 
inside. Now you want to dig 2 squares and then 1 so that you land on the 
center brick, which is a fake.

To the left you must dig left, drop, get the gold and dig, but to the right 
you can grab the bold and fall through.

Now clearing out the right is not too bad. The bad guys tend to gravitate 
towards the left anyway. There's probably only one guy over there to start 
off. You can dig to make it past him and climb above the encased gold under 
the diagonal ladders. At the top, dig, D, dig left and fall left and right. 
Then get back on the stairs and circle back up.

Getting the DR gold may be trickier. You may want to wipe out the sole bad 
guy or maybe even just lead him back up to the top and leave a couple holes 
for him to work out of. At any rate you need to dig the brick 4L2D of the 
gold(by the outside ladder touching the base) and the square over the gold 
and drop in. Next you'll want to get the gold from the lower center 
object...dig over it and dig right once you've fallen through.

There are several ways to get bad guys over to the right. Most involve going 
down on the right outside ladder, waiting for them to come over, and reeling 
them in. You can get three this way and that should be enough.

You can try to trap the bad guys where you got the gold, but it is risky and 
only works once. Hang out at the bottom of the outer ladder and let one enemy 
come over. Dig the square right, walk in, and dig a square 4R of the ladder. 
When the enemy comes after you, run over him when he falls in the hole and 
dig right. He'll have to wait a bit to make it left, by which time his way 
out will be covered. This can help immensely.

Just standing on top of the bottom structure and digging holes on the left 
end may work as enemies tend to hang around there and walk up the ladder into 
the holes, but it's not reliable unless only one or two are left. Then you 
can sneak in and get to the main left part. But the best bet is maybe to have 
everyone on the left and to bring them over to the right and sucker one or 
two to follow you up the right side, then flip over. You also want to 
remember the trick of having one guy moving up/down on the ladder after you 
released him with the hole and one guy landing above him. The guy on top 
won't be able to move, so just dig a hole next to where they are and you'll 
get two for one and be able to sneak in, if there's nobody else on that side.

Once two guys are on the left you should be able to work up the left side to 
dig a trap for them(or just string them out so you can get the gold in the 
small 1x2 structure--where people on the inside ladder can box you out) and 
be closer to when they drop from the sky to regenerate, too. You just don't 
want to be stuck on the center block with people on each inside stair. If you 
must, when on the left, go down the outside stair to bring bad guys over. 
Then worry about bringing them back right later. It's better to be safe and 
have the right cleared out than to worry about three guys on the left.

Note that the ladders appear to connect you to the center structure once 
you've got all the gold chests, so beware that this may cause difficulties.

MESSAGE:  430 AM

    5-2-10. LEVEL 50

+      ~~    ~~ ~~~~ X $-$ $
-XH  H*  $ *HX$X$X   XHXVX H
*XXXXX*HX XXHX X XXXXHHXX  H
*XXXXX*H X XHX~~ X$XXH XX~ H
        H   HXXXXXXXXH  $  H
HXXXXXXVH   H~~X X$XX  XX XX
HX  XH XHX $X HX$ XXX**  XXX
HX$ X $XHXX X HXXX$H       $
H XXXXX H  X  HX$XXH~ $ XHXX
HX HX  XH  X-XHXXX$H XX $HX$
HX$ X $VH   XXHX$X  HX$HX X 
H XXXXX H    XHX  -XHXHHXXXX
HX  X  XH    ~H $ XHH XX   $
 X$ X $XH   H $ X XH     HXX
$XXXXXXXH   H X X*HH HXX HX$
        HX  X X*  H  HXX$HX 

Solution: a worthy level 50, where I seem to miss something every time I go 
through it again. There's not a lot of administrative overhead or time taking 
tasks that don't make you think--lots of puzzles packed into the puzzle. So 
after a paradoxical little start, let's concentrate on the chests to the left 
of the 2-wide pit at the bottom.

Go two squares right, dig left. Jump right and dig left at the ladder. Go 
left and climb up the ladder. The monster will climb, 
go right, and fall, if you wait. Don't pick up the gold above him; you can't 
start on the DL box that way.

H1XX32X
H4  XH
H5$ X $
H X76XX
HX HX  X
HX$ X $V
H XXXXX
HX  X  X
 X$ X$ X
 XXXXXXX

You need to tackle every chest except the very DR one here. Dig 2-1 to get to 
the box area and then dig 1 from the right, wait 3 seconds, and dig 3 and 2. 
Drop onto 1 and then dig 4. When 1 regenerates, dig 5 and then loop around to 
dig the two below 3. Then dig 6 and 7 and fall left. Dig 8 and 9, then over 7 
and then the two squares below 6. Grab the two golds and go left. Dig right 
at the bottom two rungs, drop right for one gold and drop left for the other. 
Circle around the big ladder and dig left twice to get the final gold in the 
rectangle.

Now take the gold over the bad guy. Dig right and go left. You may have to 
dig 1U2L of him, dig right and jump on him, but on the NES you can just dig 
left while on him, run left and dig right twice quickly. On the Apple you 
need more exact timing and you can't dig him out or he'll catch you, and it 
is a very tricky move.

Now climb up the stairs/rope/stairs and drop off the rope. Dig 1 and 2, drop 
through them and climb up the ladders. Grab the gold 1U1R of the entombed man 
and dig him out(3) while holding left. Go back left and dig 4/5. Dig below 
4/5 and below that. Get the gold chest and dig right to land on the ladder.

~~~ X $-$ $
X   XHXV3 H
XX21HHXX  H
X$45H XX~ H
XXXXH  $  H
X$XX  XX XX
 XXX**  XXX

Now you can clear out the mess in the lower right. More diagrams for a 
situiation requiring moderate accuracy. Dig 1 and 2, move in quickly, dig 3 
from the right and then 4. Run back out. Be on the rope so you can quickly 
dig 1 and 2 again. Then dig 5 and 6 and, when 3 heals, 7. Drop down. Run back 
out. Don't forget the gold chest UR of 1 when you're done.

        $
H~ $ XH37
H 1X  H4$
 H2$H6 5
 HXHHXXXX

And another diagram for the DR.

      $
    H57
H21 H6$
H43$H8

Dig 1-4 to make it to the very corner. Get the chest before digging 5, then 
dig 6 and run back out. Now dig 7 and 8 to make it back out.

Now there are two more gold pieces to get before you go back to the main 
area. But first at the top of the ladder(U R 2U R 2U) dig left. Get the gold 
1U2L of the rope and dig below it to get the one below it. R dig-L fall left 
and get the gold 1U1L of the enemy. Stand on him and dig left, run right. Get 
the next gold and let the enemy out again. Now you can walk over him and get 
back to the UR.

~~~ X $-$ $
X   XH5VX H
XX21HH6X  H
X$34H 7X~ H
XX89H  $  H
X$ab  Xc XX
 XXd**  XXX

This time is even trickier and demands more precision than the last. It's 
easier to forget the gold chest in the UR, especially on the NES with its 
restricted view, but here's how to make sure of things. The right maneuver 
starts off like the first time and even seems simpler. After digging #4 you 
need to go directly right and up and dig down the ladder. You can fall left 
to dig 8-9 and a-b before you climb the ladder, fall right and run across the 
enemy to the top right to get the gold. Then fall back left and dig right to 
release the enemy(c) before falling left and digging left to escape onto the 
rope as everything blocks up again.

Now dig D2R, DR and R2D of the rope.  Your enemy will fall in. Dig him out 
with a dig-r and drop left. A ladder will drop to the base of the level. Take 
it and run 2R. When the robot starts to climb down the ladder, climb up. 
He'll go up and left and fall into the natural pit! Now you just have to dig, 
as before, 2U2R and 1U1R of him and dig left over him and run right. Circle 
back to the top and drop onto one of the gold chests. Dig right to fall into 
an area and then it's dig right, drop, dig left, get the gold, dig to fall on 
the gold, and go back up to the top where you can drop onto the gold you 
didn't get.

The next time you go back to the top you'll win the level. But don't get too 
pleased if you're playing the NES version. You're just cycled back to level 
1. Grr. Some reward.

MESSAGE:  YOU ARE A CHAMP

  6. CHEATS

    6-1. BYTE EDITING

Byte-editing Championship Lode Runner does have a few quirks.  The save files 
you create have a devious trick to them.  And although you can't directly add 
a life to a game in progress, byte-hacking allows you to add as many lives or 
levels as you want to saved games.  This is probably more useful if you want 
to try out a certain level, as Championship Lode Runner is much more fun to 
solve than cheat at.  Still, if CLR mysteriously wipes your save file(as it 
did to me) you are in luck.

      6-1-1. APPLE HIGH SCORES

For the Apple, high scores start at offset 0xcf00(hexadecimal) in the disk 
image and occur every eight bytes.  Each high score takes up eight bytes.  
The first three(0-2) are the initials, in ascii plus 0x80.  For instance, A 
is 0x41 ascii so it's shown as 0xc1.  The fourth byte(3) is the level, and 
the next four bytes(4-7) are the score digits(but NOT the hexadecimal 
representation of the score!)  So, for instance,
c1 d8 ce 11 00 12 53 00
Would mean that AXE got to level 11 with a score of 125,300.

      6-1-2. APPLE SAVED GAMES

For the Apple, saved games start at offset 0xcd00(hexadecimal) in the disk 
image and occur every 16(0x10) bytes.  Each saved game takes up 16 bytes.  
The first 8(0-7) are as above for the name.  Byte 8 tells the level that will 
appear on the screen in hexadecimal.  Byte 9 is the actual number of levels 
you've solved.  THIS IS IMPORTANT if you want to start at a certain level.  
Byte 10 is the number of men you have--FF puts it at 255.  Bytes 11-14 are 
the digits of the score.  Again, C2 CF C2 20 20 20 20 20 25 10 A1 98 76 54 00 
00 00 is an example of some hacked data. BOB is the name of the saved game. 
But Bob will find himself on a Level 37 that looks suspiciously like level 
17. His consolation is that he has 161 men and a whopping score of 98765400.

Saved games were organized so that the first time you saved, you did not lose 
a life. But on subsequent attempts, you did. It was possible, thus, with 
several game slots, to get more than just (lives + (lives+1) + ... + 1) = 
(lives^2+lives)/2 chances at a level. With the NES you get arbitrarily many 
chances and have a password, and with Apple emulation you have save states, 
but even save games were unusual in the Apple's heyday.

    6-2. PASSWORDS

The password for each level is specific to that level. You need to push in 
one direction then hit the A button--it's an eight-icon code.

   gol
cem   bri
   lad

ruulddul 11
rurrldrl 12
rulrrdrr 13
urrldrru 14
rrdrdrrr 15
uuududuu 16
lduudrlu 17
luuudrld 18
ulddulld 19
ludllrlr 20
drrdrrdd 21
lullulld 22
drrrrrru 23
rluulrul 24
dudlludl 25
ddurrruu 26
uuddllul 27
ldlddrrl 28
rrlululd 29
dlllullr 30
luluulrl 31
udldudld 32
dluurdrd 33
urlddull 34
ulrllrur 35
durulddr 36
luruuldd 37
uurluurd 38
luuullll 39
ullurruu 40
ururuldd 41
uurldruu 42
urruurlu 43
ururddrl 44
dlllruur 45
udrrrrld 46
udrduduu 47
ddrurudd 48
rullluul 49
rlrlllld 50

End of FAQ proper

================================

  7. VERSIONS

11/28/2005: Version 1.0.0 sent to GameFAQs, proofread, and fixed for the NES 
version of the game as well.
4/9/2000: Version 0.5.0 distributed by Andrew Schultz after being re- solved 
4/7/2000 1 AM(originally ~1991). Maps, solutions(rougly[sic, I think] 
proofread), messages, and basic information. 


  8. CREDITS

****
MM1 stuff: thank Adam Lamontagne
thank the NES contributors

Once I thought that the future consisted of a bunch of people getting 
together and making Lode Runner tourneys of hard levels. I didn't see it 
could be for all games.