Venture FAQ v. 1.0.0 (Atari 2600 game) Copyright 2001 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net This faq is copyright 2001 Andrew Schultz. I am not associated with Atari in any way but wanted to help preserve the memory of some games I remembered from long ago. Also, this is my first Atari 2600 FAQ, and I finally found a game I could write about. If you wish to post this on your website, plase ask me by name with a polite email. Thanks! Even though Venture's a bit unfair, the game still has a bit of a hold on me, and the idea of hunting for unique specific treasures is appealing. I like lots of old Apple games as well. Check out my page at: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 **************** SCORING AND CONTROLS MAPS ODD LEVELS EVEN LEVELS STRATEGY AVOIDING HALL MONSTERS ODD LEVELS EVEN LEVELS THE LONG TERM VERSIONS AND CREDITS **************** SCORING AND CONTROLS So, just how do you control the nice little smiley face who, if he's really so happy, should cut out of this suicidal mission if he can? The scoring is pretty straightforward. You get 200 points * (level #) for each treasure you pick up and 100 * (level #) for each monster you kill after you've got the treasure--although their corpses(deadly) remain for about two seconds. You get 0 points (* the level #, if you wish) for taking monsters out before you get the treasure, so all in all, those six digits in your score probably aren't necessary. Winky can be killed by a hall monster(immune to arrows) in the hall or room view or by a regular monster or by the walls in the wall room, where he cannot shoot. In the rooms, you can move Winky in any of the eight directions, and if there's a small dot next to him he can fire in the direction he's moving, or last moved. He can't ever have two shots at once, although the shot is recharged if fired into a wall, corpse or monster. Stray shots will cover about half the screen before dying away. Bumping into a wall while moving diagonally will cause Winky to stand still and not to move in the unobstructed direction, unless the wall is at the very bottom, when Winky glides at regular speed. Exiting a room means getting into the area in front of the door--if the door leads right, you need to be just to the left of it. When Winky is in the hall, you can again move in any of the eight directions as above, and the same thing happens if you bump into a wall or a doorway of a room you've entered. Except for the bug where you touch the south left wall of the spider room. Sometimes you'll bounce inside it, and you won't enter it until you escape through the door. Another bug is that monsters at the left/right edge of a screen may partially appear on the other side, which can kill Winky. Winky goes just as fast as the hall monsters/regular monsters for the first few levels. Which means that if a hall monster has a bead on Winky, he's had it. Winky also must enter the space in front of a door to exit a room. So when you're close to the exit and a monster's close to you, it's better not to risk banging into a wall, which will kill you for sure. MAPS Ledger: * = wall ! = monster(NOTE: these are reset each time you die/leave a room.) Inside the rooms are basically the hall maps scaled to fit the screen--in the case of the spiders/key, this means that the room is "taller" on the inside. ODD LEVELS for Venture: *** ************* ******** *** * * ! * * *** * SNAKES * * WALL * *** AND * ROOM * *** * APPLES * * *** * * * * *** * * * *** ********** * * * ! * * * * * * * * * * * * ! * * ******** *********** * * *********** **** **** ****** * * *********** * * * * * * *SKELETONS* ! * ****** ** * AND * * * ** * CHEST * * * ** ** *** ! * * ** * * * * ** * * * * ! ** * * * ******* ** * * * * ** ******** * * CYCLOPS * ** * * * AND ** * * * NECKLACE * ** * * * * ** * * ************ ** * * ************* EVEN LEVELS for Venture: **** **** *************** * * * * * KETTLE GOATS* * * * AND * * * * * * URN * ** * * ** ! ****** ****** * ****** * * * * ROBOTS * * * *** AND*** * * *TREE* **** * * ** ** * * * * *ST* * * ** ** ! *UM* *** *** * P* * * **** * * *** *** * GRIFFINS * * AND * ! * CROWN * * * ****** ***** ! ****** * * **** **** ! **** **** ******** ******** * * SPIDERS AND KEY * * ******** ******** **** **** **** **** ! * * ****** STRATEGY GOOD BASICS If a monster touches the square Winky is drawn in(not necessarily Winky himself) you'll lose a life. Be forewarned. If a monster touches Winky's arrow, he won't die. Also, Winky only needs to touch a treasure to pick it up(not just with his arrow.) This is useful if half of a corpse is decaying over the treasure. Don't shoot corpses. They will take longer to decompose. Line up a bit away from a wall. If a monster's hugging a wall, you can nail him, and if he's going toward the wall, you can shoot him. Shooting a monster against a wall lowers the probability its corpse will block your path as well. Monsters usually don't change direction until they bounce off walls, and they don't re-change direction very quickly. Plan to exit on the right if you can, as hall monsters tend to appear in the upper left. AVOIDING HALL MONSTERS Hall monsters, like monsters in rooms, always reset when you enter/exit the hall. For odd levels, avoiding them is not too tough; you can visit rooms in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion, cutting out most of your time in the halls. If you are killed after finishing a few rooms, go the other direction(i.e. counterclockwise instead of clockwise.) For even levels, a bit of luck is required. In any case, it is best to move diagonally to avoid hall monsters. You each have the same moving potential(i.e. one horizontal and one vertical) so if you go straight and they go diagonally they can close in on you. Thus, if you are far from a door in a room and a hall monster appears, you may be out of luck. The maps above may show you rooms it is safest to complete first. For instance, in the odd levels, the bottom two rooms are your best bet, and you can move between the top two rooms very easily. ODD LEVELS WALL ROOM Not too bad. I prefer to enter from the right, go down, sneak to the center, and retrace my steps. Obviously you want to exit the center just as the walls push out. The tough part is steering through the walls without getting stuck, and the best way to get out is to move right a bit, then down, then right and down and left. If you're quick with the joystick you'll be able to find the way out. Getting in is easier, as you just have to approach the vertically moving walls and then go up. The pixels are big enough that you can probably line up the wall with the edge of Winky. SNAKES AND APPLES This isn't too bad. You might want to enter from the left and exit through the east, taking care of the topmost snake first, which you can maneuver around. If you must kill the other two snakes in the narrow corridor, you can even afford to shoot them in the middle of the passage. To get around them, remember diagonal movement is as fast as vertical movement, so use it. CYCLOPS AND NECKLACE I like to enter from the right and exit the other way if a hall monster isn't chasing. The big challenge is to shoot the cyclops that contests you. Hug the wall and shoot or wait for him to bounce away from the wall. Once you're by him, there's lots of space. SKELETONS AND CHEST This is the toughest one, since you have to go in the corner and back out. Naturally right is the best way to leave, and when you do you'll want to motor up to avoid the hall monsters. Right is also the best way to enter, as it's a shorter path to the chest. This is a combo of the snakes and cyclops--As the Atari doesn't penalize you for not solving a room I would recommend leaving if you take too long to kill a skeleton. EVEN LEVELS ROBOTS AND TREE STUMP They might be ettins, and it's probably not a tree stump. But this is a document on strategy and not aesthetics. So here I recommend entering from the right and leaving that way--be prepared to shoot immediately. Then shoot diagonally to see if you can knock another off. You'll probably have to kill at least two so you'll want to do it quickly before the hall monster notices what you're up to, as the corpses will block the way out. KETTLE GOATS AND URN With the T in the middle, this is the most complex room. It's also a nuisance--very hard to nail one of the kettles/goats without blocking your way. You may want to leave the room if you don't nail one pronto, just to buy time. When you get to the treasure, you may have to shoot a goat, but leave a part of the treasure you can touch without getting killed. GRIFFINS AND CROWN They might be gargoyles. Or possibly second-rate Cyrillic characters. But in any case, your best hope is that one goes off to the side and you can shoot to the left and right. If you must fire up, don't fire at the crown, or you'll lose precious time retrieving it. SPIDERS AND KEY There's a spider very close to the left entrance, so you may want to try the right side. The spiders bounce around a bit, but if you can anticipate where they are going, you can knock them off. THE LONG TERM The levels repeat themselves with the only real difference being that later ones are faster and by level 4 the monsters are faster than you are. By level 4 I have a hard time getting in a room without a hall monster taking me out. ************** VERSIONS/CREDITS: 1.0.0: 2/22/2001 submitted to GameFAQs. I actually played this game on a monitor that lost the R from the RGB, making Winky(unless he has a shot) invisible in the rooms. It's quite difficult that way--even more than in standard mode--and gives an option the Atari didn't have :). videogaming.org(Greg Chance)/classicgaming.com for having the ROM of this game which I used to play and is somewhere in storage zophar.net for the emulator which allowed me to break this game down much more quickly.