Blitz(Acorn Archimedes) - Walkthrough Version 1.0 Copyright July/24/2008 by Apathy000 savage_clown@hotmail.com Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Options III. Basic Controls / What's on Screen IV. Weapons / Powerups V. Strategies / Tips VI. About Balls VII. Level 1 VIII. Level 2 IX. Level 3 X. Level 4 XI. Level 5 XII. Level 6 XIII. Level 7 XIV. Level 8 XV. Level 9 XVI. Level 10 XVII. Cheats and Codes XVIII. Final Thoughts XIX. Copyright I. Introduction The object of this game is to destroy all of the balls on the screen before time runs out. For a game based on just bouncing balls this is surprisingly good. I think the only problem with this game is that they do not give you the passwords once you complete all the scenes in a level. However, once you have them you can restart the level instead of having to get there from the beginning of the game with only two lives. Your character gets a bunch of different pickups that do various things and make the game fun to play. Later in the game you will start to see walls, and ball-spawning-things, and ladders; all of which all you more decision about how you want to go about completing a scene. There are 5 scenes for each level and there are 10 levels total. When you complete a level you go back to having three lives, the life you are using and two extra ones. II. Options In the title Screen you get a list of buttons for the game, the option J (jump), which allows you to enter codes to jump to a level, and text that tells you to Press the Fire button to start the game. III. Basic Controls / What's on Screen 1. Basic Controls P = Pause ESC = Quit (if you are in-game then you quit to title, if at the title screen, you quit to desktop) S = Sound (toggles whether sound plays or not) J = Jump (pressing J takes you to a password input screen) Player 1 ------------ SPACEBAR = Fire(fire weapon, and used to start the game) Z = Left (move left) X = Right (move right) G = Up (use to go up ladders) V = Down(use to go down ladders) Player 2 ------------ ENTER = Fire(fire weapon, and used to start the game) 1 = Left (move left) 2 = Right (move right) - = Up(use to go up ladders) + = Down (use to go down ladders) 2. What's on Screen a. Lives - In the upper left corner of the screen are red hats. These represent how many extra lives you currently have. b. Score - Top left of your screen is the your current score. c. Timer - On the top middle of the screen. If you fail to kill all the balls on screen by the time the timer reaches 0, you die. There are power-ups that will increase the timer by 10 seconds. IV. Weapons / Powerups At the start of every level, all power-ups will be removed and you will start with your basic Single Arrow attack. Walk into an item to collect it. When you defeat a ball a random powerup has the chance of appearing. a. Box with a Single Arrow - This will make you have the basic shot you start with. This will fire a line of rope upward until it hits something, then it will disappear. This weapon will start to move upward from near your character's feet. b. Box with Double Arrows - This will allow you to have TWO shots onscreen at once. MUCH better than the single. c. Box with a Single Claw - This will make you have a weapon similar to basic shot you start with one difference. This will fire a line of rope upward until it hits something, and then it will latch on to the what it hit. If no balls hit it within 5 seconds then it will disappear. This weapon will start to move upward from near your character's feet. d. Box with Double Claws - This will allow you to have TWO of the shots that cling to the ceiling onscreen at once. This is better than the single obviously. e. Gun - The power-up for the gun look like a vertical dotted line with a small black square on the bottom. The gun fires very rapidly and is the best weapon for clearing out balls. It does have on failing. The weapon fires from the top of your character, and that means that while you are invincible you cannot kill things that are lower than the your character's head. However if you are not invincible than this is the best weapon. f. Bomb - Collecting the bomb will do 1 damage to all balls that are not already in their smallest form. This will break the larger balls into smaller ones. g. Gun - The power-up for the gun look like a vertical dotted line with a small black square on the bottom. The gun fires very rapidly and is the best weapon for clearing out balls. It does have on failing. The weapon fires from the top of your character, and that means that while you are invincible you cannot kill things that are lower than the your character's head. However if you are not invincible than this is the best weapon. h. Candy/Drugs - I do not know why it looks like some drug pill, but I assume its candy. It allows you to move faster for a short while. Effects do not stack. i. Beer - Makes all balls bounce off the ceiling for a short while. Dangerous one to get, since the balls will go back to bouncing on the floor without warning. Also the original height of the ball will be the new height of the ball as it bounces on the ceiling. Getting a second beer while the balls are already bouncing off the ceiling will extend the time. There is a glitch with this power-up that sometimes occurs. If you get the beer when a ball is near a barrier or the edge of the screen the balls will sometimes "fall through" it. If the balls go outside of the screen then the game just makes them spawn back in the level after a second or two. j. Shield - Makes you invincible for about 5 seconds k. Grape - Best power-up in the game without a doubt. It freezes all enemies on screen, AND it makes you invincible. V. Strategies / Tips -You can edge the ladders. If you go to the top of a ladder, but do not fully expose your head, you can keep shooting up with no chance of getting hit. Makes most of the later levels extremely easy. Not sure if this is a glitch or not. -Try to eliminate balls that are of immediate threat to you first, before going after ones that are in area that needs to be opened by you shooting it. -Go after the small balls first, before the larger ones. -Shoot accurately. -Watch out for balls that are in the EXACT same position. If you kill one the other will destroy you utterly without mercy. Those little balls are dangerous! -The best combination of power-ups in the game is to have the Gun and some power-up that gives invincibility. With the gun's rapid fire you can destroy most of the balls in the level the short time you are invincible. VI. About Balls There are several levels of balls in Blitz. The larger the ball the more balls you will have to defeat. When you shoot a ball that is larger than the smallest size then it will spilt into two smaller balls. These two new smaller balls will then fall left and right of the location of the death of the larger ball. If the ball is the smallest size possible than it simply is removed from the scene, and no new balls are spawned. A. Level 1 Ball - Does not spilt into smaller balls. Its size is very small. B. Level 2 Ball - Splits into two Level 1 balls. A tad bigger than the Level 1 balls. C. Level 3 Ball - Splits into two Level 2 balls. Large, bigger than the Level 2 balls. D. Level 4 Ball - Massive balls that cover something like a 1/10 of the screen each. Once shot they separate into two Level 3 balls. Rare balls to encounter, I doubt there are more than 12 in the game. Depending on how the scene is set up, the balls will bounce a certain height. Sometimes the balls will bounce only knee height off the ground, and other times they bounce almost the entire height of the level. As well as height, the distance it moves horizontally also varies from scene to scene. When you get a beer the original height of the ball will be the new height of the ball as it bounces on the ceiling. **There is a glitch with the beer power-up that sometimes occurs. If you get the beer when a ball is near a barrier or the edge of the screen the balls will sometimes "fall through" it. If the balls go outside of the screen then the game just makes them spawn back in the level after a second or two. VII. Level 1 A boring level for the first few scenes, then it picks up around scene four. A. Scene 1 The easiest level in the game. There are no obstacles. All there is to this is a single level 2 ball. Extremely easy, just three shots will finish this level. B. Scene 2 There is one Level 3 ball. 7 shots to kill destroy this level. C. Scene 3 Now the game starts to get a little harder. There are two rows of nine balls to either side of you. They start to bounce away from you which is a good thing at this early scene. Follow one of the sets and start eating away at the set when it bounces off the far wall. if you cannot kill the entire set quickly you need to move under it to go to the other side as the other set will be bouncing towards you. D. Scene 4 The round starts off with two sets of four Level 2 balls. This level of difficulty will persist throughout the game pretty much. Shoot quickly and pray for excellent power-ups like the grape, shield, gun, and candy. Remember, the grape freezes the enemy and makes you invincible for a short while, the shield only makes you invincible for a bit, the gun has a very high rate of fire, and the candy makes you move faster. E. Scene 5 There are two rows of nine balls to either side of you. Like the Scene 3, but here they are all not the same height. This makes dodging them a little harder. You also need to kill a couple in order to go under all of them or you will not make it in time with your basic speed. VIII. Level 2 This level is pretty annoying for the unfortunate color choices. The background is mostly green and the balls are green as well. A. Scene 1 There is one large Level 4 ball, with no obstacles. The level 4 ball will spilt into two level 3 balls, then each level 2 ball will spilt into two level 1 balls. Move to the right initially to avoid its first bounce. B. Scene 2 There are three small balls bouncing on the bottom, and a three-part barrier with a tiny opening on the right side. On top of the barrier is a level 3 ball that is too small to fit through the crack. Shoot it to break it into smaller pieces. C. Scene 3 The red barriers on this level are invincible while the blue ones are destructible. In the middle of the level there are 6 red barriers and on the left side there are 4 blue barriers. The two types of barriers meet in the middle, and on top of the barriers are two balls. A level 2 ball and a level 3 ball. Shoot the far right barrier and start shooting the balls from that opening until they are gone. D. Scene 4 In the top right corner is a box with a blue destructible bottom. The box contains a level 3 ball, and level 2 ball, and a level 1 ball. At the top of the level outside of the box are two balls, a level 3 and a level 2 ball. E. Scene 5 This level has the potential to become very difficult if you shoot poorly. On the top of the level a blue barrier and a red barrier join to for a line, keeping a level 4 ball on the top part of the screen. The top of this line forms the top of a box in the middle of the level. On the bottom left corner of this box is a blue section that allows you to get at the balls in the box. However you have to be careful, because if once you shoot out the blue section in the box, then you can shoot the blue barrier that keeps the level 4 ball away from you. IX. Level 3 Finally the nasty green background is gone. Level 3 introduces ladders which can be exploited by not going fully up them. Then you can fire up at everything above you without the possibility of taking damage. A. Scene 1 A barrier divides the level into two halves, and you have to destroy the light colored part of it to get at the balls. Only one level 3 ball and a level 2 ball. B. Scene 2 The level is again divided into two parts by a barrier. However you get to use something new, a ladder. To get at the balls you can go up the ladder or destroy the light parts of the barrier. I suggest going up the ladder and only sticking your gun out, and shooting them. You cannot be damaged if you do not go too far up the ladder. Easy scene to beat. C. Scene 3 There is a cage hanging above you with balls bouncing inside. As you might have guessed, you have to shoot the bottom to release the balls. Shoot the very edge of the platform to have a few balls fall near you as possible. D. Scene 4 Two boxes on the upper edges of the screen contain balls. There is also a platform with a ladder leading up to it. I suggest using the edging trick with the ladder to shoot the balls in the box in the upper left corner. Then go kill the balls in the other box. E. Scene 5 This is a repeat of Scene 3 but with two cages. Use the same strategy you used to beat Scene 3. X. Level 4 Even though this is an early level I still find it one of the most difficult to beat. A. Scene 1 Odd how one of the hardest levels in the game in so EARLY, its not even halfway past yet! There are two sets on either side of you, and each set has 10 level 1 balls. You cannot simply move under them this time. As the set bounces closer to you, you need to wipe out four of them otherwise you will not be able to dodge under them. You also need to hope for some invincible powerup to make this scene easier. B. Scene 2 Most interesting scene so far. There are two platforms with ladders leading up to them, and two boxes on the top left and right. There are balls in the boxes, and two balls on the right and left sides of the screen. They set the balls so that they WILL bounce over the platforms, just barely, but they will. You need to get of the nice illusionary safety of that place. Go down the ladder and take those balls OUT! Then deal with the balls in the boxes one at a time. C. Scene 3 This is also extremely difficult to beat consistently. There is a short barrier in the middle of the screen and above it are three level 3 balls. On the bottom of the screen and these short barriers with ladders on either side. This restricts your movement severely. The balls with a far distance horizontally per bounce and move FAST. I suggest moving to the far left of the screen and trying your fortune there. Keep trying to eliminate one ball completely, and then moving to the next. Once you get a good power-up get as much use out of it as possible. D. Scene 4 No obstacles here, just two sets of five level 2 balls. It sounds like it should be more difficult than Scene 1, but it is in fact easier. Still a bit hard, but definitely easier. E. Scene 5 You are placed high on a platform with a ladder leading down to the ground. On either side of you there are two level 4 balls that move all over the place. You need to go down the ladder fast or you die. The ladder leading down to the ground is partially protected by barriers. You can move through the barrier and shoot the two level 4 balls that will go bounce on either side of the barrier. XI. Level 5 This level introduces balls that spawn in the middle of the scene. Almost all the scenes have these low hanging barriers, and when balls get underneath there they do not give you much room to shoot them. Contains one of the hardest scenes in the game, scene 5-3. A. Scene 1 Super easy scene to beat. All the balls bounce in a wave. Stay at a point where you can just continually shoot upward to destroy the two sets of balls that move in a wave. B. Scene 2 There are destructible barriers that go across the middle of the screen. The lowest point is in the middle and the peaks are on the edges of the screen. Run to the left side and destroy the second to last barrier. The bouncing balls normally get stuck in the middle, but for a short time they bounce near the top. Destroying that barrier will make some of the balls drop the bottom. If you wait too long you will have to destroy one of the barriers at the low point, and that will let out all the balls. C. Scene 3 Besides the last scene of the last level this may be the hardest in the game. There are barriers along the middle, but they are staggered. Two faces spit out balls that bounce on these staggered barriers and after a time will bounce on the floor. The height of the barriers makes getting underneath the balls difficult when they start bouncing on the ground. Besides that difficulty, the balls will also come at you from both sides simultaneously. I suggest going to the extreme right or left of the screen and keep shooting up. This will hit some balls that appear from the faces. HOPEFULLY you will get a good invincibility power-up and the Gun, and be able to wipe out a lot of enemies and get even more power-ups. If not....well. Good luck. D. Scene 4 This scene is pretty cool. Balls spawn from the sides of the walls and are in a little half box, and they will eventually work themselves out of it. The balls on this level bounce from the top of the to the bottom. E. Scene 5 Interesting scene where two level 3 balls are on the screen, and faces will spit out level 2 balls as time goes by. They will even spit balls out when the timer is 5 seconds. The scene finishes when you can clear the screen of all balls. You only have 45 seconds to complete this. Get a power-up and go wild. XII. Level 6 This level is quite a bit easier than Levels 4 and 5. Nothing new is introduced here. A. Scene 1 No obstacles combined with three level 3 balls that do not move fast makes this scene pretty easy. Do this thing! B. Scene 2 Two level 4 balls bounce around this scene. Not much different from the above scene. The balls move a good distance horizontally, but you should be able to handle this now. C. Scene 3 There a lot of ladders and platforms on this scene, but the balls are stuck at the top. Use the ladder trick to destroy them until you get an invincibility power-up. If you do not get that then you should at least get a claw. The hardest part about this level is that you have only 35 seconds to destroy all the balls. You will most likely finish with less than 5 seconds on the clock. D. Scene 4 Two cages with balls along side two level 3 balls. Take out the ones outside of the cages first, if you do fire and accidentally release the in one of the cages, then the scene will become a bit frantic feeling. E. Scene 5 There are three barriers that divide the level into sections. The sections have a missing section that allows the balls to bounce down. The middle barrier has a blue section that can be shot out. The bottom two sections have ladders that go up to the next level. Use the ladder exploit here. Go to the top, but not too far and hold the fire button. If you get the bullets you can just hold the fire button and destroy everything like a giant colossus bringing down a 2000 ton hammer down upon a cross-eyed farm animal. XIII. Level 7 I like the cool placement of the barriers in this level, really shows that they were enjoying making this game. A. Scene 1 The balls are in this little cup made out of small barrier sections, looks like a wine glass (what is with this theme here? Guns, grapes, beer, and now a wine glass?). Wait until the balls bounce out of the cup and take them then. B. Scene 2 Small sections of barrier form an X across the center of this level. At the two sections on the top of the X, two sets of 12 level 1 balls will bounce down. I command you to go to the right corner of the X and shoot all of that set as they bounce down. The other set will get caught in the bottom section of the X for awhile, but they will work themselves free to bounce right. Wait for them there, and shoot them as the wave of balls bounces at a good height. C. Scene 3 A level 4 ball and a level 3 ball bounce freely, and some balls are trapped in box in the upper right corner with a destructible bottom. There is a little barrier on the right side with ladders on both sides. You have to use a ladder to get up the platform on the left to shoot the box in the upper left corner. When you shoot that box you need to hightail it back to the ladder. Then shoot from the ladder and kill the rest. D. Scene 4 There are two boxes in the air with no tops and faces in them. In the air are two level 2 balls, and the face will spit out level 1 balls. You need to kill this round quickly, because you only get 45 seconds. E. Scene 5 Many levels of horizontal barriers on this scene. The barriers here have small holes in them for a reason. When you break down the larger balls at the top the small balls will fall though and cause problems for you. The balls do not bounce very high so you pretty much need to use the ladder trick or the claw power-up to kill some of the balls. Try to get an invincibility power-up and finish this quickly. XIV. Level 8 The only real potential stopping point is the final scene. Everything else is of sub-standard difficulty at this point. A. Scene 1 There are a couple platforms with the lowest one having two ladders going up to it. Two level 4 balls are on the top. Just use the ladder exploit and you should destroy most if not all of the balls. B. Scene 2 This is the worst level in the game in my opinion. The color choices were disgustingly similar for the background and the very small little barriers all over the place. Brown on brown, how wonderful. Even the texture looks the same. There is a level 4 and a level 3 ball on the top. Nothing can get through the tiny barriers unless you break those larger balls to level 2s and level 1s. C. Scene 3 The first part of this scene is easy. You start in a little box area on the bottom with ladders going to the top of the box. There are two level 4's, and they will bounce over the platform. The level 3s will ALSO bounce over, but level 2s and level 1s will not. Once all the balls are at level 2 or lower, then you need to go and get them on the sides. You can go through the two sides of the box to do this. D. Scene 4 This is a copy of Scene 2, but with only level 2 balls. Just keep shooting and moving carefully around the middle area while the balls fall down. E. Scene 5 The Scene has the same obstacles as Scene 3, but instead of two level 4 balls, it has 8 level 3 balls in two sets, one for each side of the box you are in. Bust them all to level 2s and level 1s and then go back down the ladder. You can go through the sides of the box to attack a ball a ball or two then run away when threatened. Move quickly since you have a LOT of balls to crush this time around. You will have to hit 56 balls in order to defeat this Scene. With 90 seconds to do it in, means you get about 2 seconds per ball. XV. Level 9 For the second to last level this level is quite easy. Nearly every level lets you use the ladder exploit, which you should be VERY familiar with by now. You should be able to defeat this level while only encountering minor resistance. A. Scene 1 Four medium sized platforms float around the air with 4 level 3 balls that will bounce down to you. Just deal with them as usual. The first scenes are easy for each level, and this is no exception. B. Scene 2 This scene has one long platform along the center with breakable sections and a ladder leading to the top of the platform. Above that platform is a cage with more balls (Just who is doing this? Putting balls everywhere, in cages, in boxes...). Rip the hearts and intestines out from the luckless fools that are not protected from you with steel bars, then go through the BOTTOM of the cage and tear the cowards to shreds. C. Scene 3 Wow, really easy level. There are two platforms that cover the entire length of the screen and a ladders going up to them. A cage exists above the upper platform. Shoot the cage open and run back down the ladder, then use the ladder exploit to win. D. Scene 4 A level 4 ball and a level 3 ball bounce around with no obstacles in the way. The level 4 ball really moves far horizontally in this scene, otherwise it is just like all the other obstacle-less scenes. E. Scene 5 Two horizontal platforms remove any chance of unity. This is even worse than Berlin after WWII. Further exacerbating the situation, fringe groups segregate the middle country from each other (perhaps due to religious extremism?), while creating a safe haven for the "Ladder" and the privileged ones who use it. These barriers of segregation are transparent to the honourable individual with the power to eliminate any individual within the separate countries. After all unstable elements are "removed", you still have the upper country to deal with. Luckily for you, the "Ladder" is there for exploitation and to bring great honor to your family. XVI. Level 10 Since this IS the last level it is the hardest level in the game, as it should be. For an object of high status to be beneath one of lesser status is an offense against heaven, and this game understands such things. Scene 5 is especially difficult with lots of balls moving spastically everywhere. If you die anywhere it will be on Scene 5, it is really is that difficult. A. Scene 1 Two faces on the upper corners spew forth vile red substances in the form of red balls. If I had to rate the vileness, I would rate them a moderate "Level 2". A barrier separates the North from the South. There are destructible portions in the middle that can be shot out. All together you must eliminate 30 targets. Of moderate difficulty, since the small balls tend to group together and will be difficult to shoot with only your basic shot. B. Scene 2 A barrier covers the bottom area and a lone ladder leads up to the platform. Use the ladder exploit to destroy the balls one of the faces spits out. The other face is up in the corner in a box with a destroyable bottom section. Go after the balls in a box after the others are destroyed. There sure are a lot of targets in this scene. Each face spits out EIGHT level 2 balls, that makes 48 shots required. C. Scene 3 A large heathen face overlooks a loyal citizen from the east. It sends forth balls in a never ending stream until all over balls are defeated or you run out of time. There are more balls bouncing in a box in the upper left corner of the screen. Everything about this level is about speed. Failure to eliminate everything from the screen before the timer reaches 0 results in failure, and loss of honour. D. Scene 4 This is a tricky as heck scene. There are very short little barriers placed in various locations in the sky with small balls that bounce very high. Due to the randomness of the placement of the barriers it is hard to see where some of the rapidly moving balls will go. Even though there are only 12 level 1 balls here, the difficulty is that of a level with a heck of a lot more. E. Scene 5 Oh man, this scene is HARD. There are these vertical barriers that come down a bit more past the middle of the screen. Within the first 5 seconds of the level you already have two level 2 balls and a level 3 ball coming at you either side. The placement of the balls and the direction they fall will assure your death unless you move quickly to a side and start shooting for all your worth. Besides the extreme difficulty in even surviving the first 5 seconds, if you shoot and MISS a ball while still in the middle section you will break the bottom of a horizontal platform that is holding a level 4 ball up top. It is a major league bad idea to add the level 4 to the mess while the other balls are still loose. To defeat this monstrosity you need to move to the left or right side and shoot that first ball FAST. Then you will have a good chance to beat this scene. The trick to this level is surviving the first five seconds. If you can do that, then victory is almost assured. XVII. Cheats and Codes A. **verified Level Code 2 SIERRA 3 MOUSE 4 HERBERT 5 COMPACT 6 FERRARI 7 GELESBY 8 PLANE 9 DESKJET 10 EARNEST **Press the letter "J" on your keyboard at the title screen. Then you can input your level password. XVIII. Final Thoughts This is a game I would have loved to have while I had free time in school. It is not too demanding and it is unexpectedly fun. Far better than the simple and boring Minesweeper, and the other various card games. It does get boring occasionally while waiting for a ball to get near you if it has to work its way across a platform, but that is the nature of the game. Maybe if they made the last two balls move faster it would improve game play, or maybe that extra little feature would make the end of the levels much more difficult. Hard to tell. Anyway, this is a decent, fun game that offers more than it does at first glance. I give it an 8 out of 10. XIX. Copyright Jan/16/2008 by Apathy000 aka Michael Zacka This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Sites that have my permission to use this guide are gamefaqs.com.