----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cosmic Conflict FAQ and Strategy guide for the Odyssey^2 by Sam Skinner Copyright Sam Skinner 2008-2018. See the final section of this guide for more information on the copyright *NOTE TO NEW READERS* Please read the copyright section before any other section of this guide the very first time you access this file. Guide started on 05-17-2008 Version 1.00 completed 5-17-2008 Version 1.01 completed 09-25-2018 My E-mail = Arguro AT hotmail.com Please direct any questions, comments or corrections to my e-mail. Thanks. Also, let me know what you think! I need some feed back! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To jump to any section, press crtl and F and enter the code that is in parenthesis ( ) in the box that pops up. Introduction (CCINT) Controls (CCCON) Strategy (CCSTR) Frequently Asked Questions (CCFAQ) Version History (CCHIS) Copyright Information (CCCPY) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction (CCINT) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings and welcome to my guide for Cosmic Conflict for the Magnavox Odyssey ^2. Cosmic Conflict is a simple game that simulates space ship flight. You play as the commander of the Centurion, a space ship charged with guarding an out of the way part of the galaxy. Suddenly and without warning, the aliens residing on the planet Badnewsia decide to launch an all out attack on Earth and you and your space ship are the only thing standing in the way. You now must destroy all fifteen ships before running out of time. I'd like to know what you think, so please feel free to e-mail me with any comments you may have, as well as any questions you may think of. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls (CCCON) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Action Button fires lasers Joystick Left moves space ship left Joystick Right moves space ship right Joystick up moves space ship down Joystick down moves space ship up You can hold the joystick in any diagonal direction to move diagonally that way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strategy (CCSTR) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The game is played from the first person perspective. You are basically looking out of the window of your ship and you must fly around and look for things to shoot. You can only move up, down, left and right. There is no "z axis" on which you can move. This is due to the limitations of the Odyssey ^ 2. There will be a box on the screen at all times with four lines around it. It looks something like this: __________ _____ | | | | | | | | | |_____| | __________ This is essentially what you aim with. The lasers will shoot at the middle of the inside box. When you see a space ship on screen, line it up with one of the lines outside of the box so that it moves towards the middle. Shoot when it is halfway through the line and you will get a direct hit every time. For diagonally moving space ships, you need to line it up where two lines would cross if they extended on forever. There are essentially three types of enemy space ships within the game. While each type has several variations, they are not important. You will see ships that move left and right only. You will see ships that move diagonally up and down only. You will also see ships that move towards you in a number of directions. These are the most important ships as they can cause harm to you. Whenever one of these ships is on or near the screen, the screen will flash red and the word "ALERT" shows up on screen. These ships are the hardest to hit. Also on screen will be two numbers. The one in the lower left hand corner of the screen will be 15 or less. This number indicates the amount of enemy ships you have left to kill. The number in the lower right represents your mega joules, which is essentially your time. It starts at 1,000 and counts backwards. You lose one tick on the timer for every second, 10 ticks for every time you fire your lasers and 50 ticks every time you get hit by a Kamikaze space ship. If this timer reaches 0 before the one on the left says 0, you will get game over. It is imperative that you do not fire unless you think you can score a hit. It is also important to quickly move out of the way of an incoming space ship if you cannot hit it. After turning the system on, press 1 on the keyboard and you will immediately begin the game. Use the joystick to fly around and look for space ships. They will be in ample supply and you should have no trouble finding one quickly. It is wisest to look for the easiest to shoot ones first. Look for the flat ships that move left or right. Get your target square just ahead of the ship and fire. Any ship that you see on screen will disappear completely if it is removed from the screen. This is due to the Odyssey's limited hardware. This means that if any ship is coming at you with an "ALERT" message, you can quickly move to any direction and it will disappear and not hit you. This is always a good thing to do if you cannot immediately identify where the ship is and what direction it is moving in. The incoming ships will move in a number of different ways. They will come diagonally at you from either the top left, top right, bottom left or bottom right. They will also come at you straight from the left or the right. They also have one more direction they charge at you, and that is head on, with no movement. These are the easiest to shoot of the incoming ships as you just line them up in the middle of the box and fire. The other ones are much harder to shoot. You will need to wait until they come in closer and are easier to see. Don't be afraid to shoot three or four times at the ship. Remember that you only lose 10 seconds per laser shot, which means it will take a lot of time to lose all your mega joules. You will want to keep moving at all times. You should not wait for the ships to show up on your screen. Instead, go searching for them. They will be easy to find if you move around. Do not be afraid of getting lost. Since you cannot move forward or backward, you cannot move too far from the ships. You will get different messages when you destroy all 15 ships. Contrary to popular belief, these messages are not dependant upon how much time is left when you destroy the last ship. They are generated at random. There is no reason to try and gain a better score other than for personal accomplishment or bragging rights amongst your friends. Remember that the left to right ships are the easiest to shoot and should always be sought out first. Don't be afraid to run from the incoming ships, but don't run every time either. If you do, you will run out of time before you can destroy all 15 ships. When the game ends, either from running out of time or destroying all the ships, the system must then be reset to play again. Many Odyssey ^2 games are like this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions (CCFAQ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: When was this game released? A: The copyright date on the cartridge is 1978. Q: Who made this game? A: Magnavox developed and produced this game for the Odyssey ^2. Q: Are there any similar games on other systems from the same time period? A: There are, but I cannot remember for the life of me what the titles are. There is a game on the Atari 2600 that is a lot of fun that is just like this game. If you know the title to this game, or any other similar games, please e-mail me so I can include it here. Q: What is the fastest time that this game has been completed? A: While I do not know the fastest time ever, I do know that a person over at Atari Age (www.atariage.com) by the name of Chronogamer finished with 794 seconds remaining. My personal best is 587. If you have a faster time, please e-mail me a picture of it and I will include it here. It must be conducted under normal circumstances (no emulator enhancements) to be accepted. Q: Where can I get this game? A: For a game this old, you will have to look online. I bought my copy on eBay for 65 cents. You may be able to find inin specialty game shops that have been in buisness for twenty years or more. I have seen a few Odyssey ^2 games dust covered in a forgotten corner in those long standing shops. Q: My game freezes every time I finish, just after the message scrolls across the screen. Is it broken? A: No. All Odyssey ^2 games that I have played all freeze when the game is done. You must press reset on the keyboard in order to start over. Q: Are there and cheats for this game? A: I do not know of any. There are/were some cheats posted on Gamefaqs for this game, but they are fake as there is no place to input any password within the game. There are also no levels contained within the game so jumping to a different level using those posted cheats is impossible. Q: Why do you write guides for such old, simplistic, and probably 'never played by anyone any more' games? A: There are a few reasons. The main reason is I have fun doing it. Writing for any game, no matter the age, forces me to play it thoroughly and causes me to beat a game I otherwise wouldn't play. Also, there are some people, believe it or not, who have trouble figuring out even the simplest of games. Not everyone out there who reads this is as adept at video games as you or I. This guide is mostly for those people. Q: Does this game have a two player option? A: No. This game is only for one person at a time. You can play with a friend though, you just have to hand off the joystick every game. Q: Can I host this guide on my site? A: No. I do not allow anyone to use my guides without expressed, hand written permission. I do not give permission unless I am asked, specifically, about this guide. I do not like automated e-mails. I will most likely only allow my site to be hosted on a small website, usually one centered around the game or system my guide is for. For more information, see the Copyright section of this guide, at the bottom. Use of this guide without my permission is considered theft and will be reported to the proper authorities. Q: How do I contact you about this guide? A: E-mail is the best way to do so. My e-mail can be found at the beginning or the end of this guide, just remember to take the numbers 123 out of it because they do not belong. I keep them there to prevent auto scanning websites from obtaining my e-mail address. Alternatively, you can also contact me via MSN using the same e-mail address of on AIM using the screen name ArguroDeXill. While I am almost always online, I am not always at my computer and it may take as many as 8 hours to get a reply from me. Just be patient if this is the contact method of choice. I am not ignoring you, simply doing something away from the computer. Q: What other guides have you done? A: Just simply click on the name Arguro at the very top or the very bottom (orange text in a black box) of this guide and it will take you to my contributor page. From there you can see all the different things I have contributed to Gamefaqs. Q: I really like your guides. Can I donate money to you in support? A: If you really want to, you can send a Pay Pal payment to my e-mail address which is at the top or bottom of this guide. Please understand that any donated money does not mean I will name you in my guide. It also does not mean I will do any special work for you and it certainly does not give you any rights to host this guide or publish it anywhere. I do not want the user to feel obligated to pay me in any means. This is a free guide for personal, private home use. I will not reject your offer to pay me, but I do not want you to feel it is necessary. If you do decide to donate to me, please only donate what amount you are comfortable with, even if it is a single penny. Once a donation is made, it is final and there will be no refunds. This is an odd question and I debated about adding it for a long time, but when I saw other FAQ authors had a similar question, I felt it would be a valid addition. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version History (CCHIS) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.00 completed May 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am Mountain Time Version included the addition of the entire guide, including all sections. Guide is completed and will no longer be updated unless a severe error is pointed out or unless I get a request to add/correct information. Six total pages when printed (15 KB) Version 1.01 completed September 25th, 2018 at 2:47 PM Mountain Time Version included the resubmittal of the guide in full to gamefaqs. I also corrected a few small typos and updated my e-mail and mane. Six total pages when printed. (16.0 KB) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright information (CCCPY) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is the copyright of Sam Skinner 2008. This guide may not be reproduced on any website or in print form without my expressed, handwritten consent. The user is hereby granted permission to store this guide on his or her hard drive under the following conditions: 1. The hard drive may only be accessed by the user and his or her immediate family; 2. The guide is kept fully intact, i.e. no section, paragraph, word, letter or punctuation mark is missing from the guide; 3. This section is kept stored with the guide and is read before any other section is read when the individual accesses the guide for the first time. The user is also hereby allowed to print this guide in any fashion as he or she sees fit, provided that this section in its entirety is included with the printed version. The printed version must not be sold or given away under any circumstance. This guide may only be hosted on one (1) website, that site being www.gamefaqs.com. If you want to use this guide on your website, you must send me an e-mail to Arguro123 AT Hotmail.com *REMOVE 123* and please specify which guide you want to host. I ask that you specify so that I know you actually are interested in my work and that I am not reading an automated e-mail that scans FAQS for email addresses. If you do not specify the guide and include specific reasons why you would like to host it, I will NOT allow to host it at any time now or in the future. I reserve the right to determine what sites may and may not host this guide as well as the right to as for monetary compensation for the hosting of this guide as I see fit. Failure to abide by these rules set forth is a violation of US copyright law and is subject to prosecution. Further use of this guide is considered acceptance of these rules set forth. If you do not agree with these rules, do not use this guide. Cosmic Conflict and the Odyssey ^2 are registered trademarks of the Magnavox Consumer Electronics Corporation, 1978. I am not affiliated with this company in any way and any implication, assumption or aforementioned association is purely accidental and unintended.