Dark Tower (Vectrex) FAQ V 1.1 by Tifas Revenge November 22, 2008 Table of Contents 1. Version History 2. Legal Stuff 3. FAQ 4. Gameplay Guide 5. Credits 1. Version History Version 1.0: 7/20/08 - First Release Version 1.1: 11/22/08 - Second Release, added Credits, submitted to GameFAQs 2. Legal Stuff All material in this FAQ is copyright 2008 Tifas Revenge (John Reeske) and may not be posted on any other website but GameFAQs without my express permission. All GCE Vectrex material made by Smith Engineering including "Dark Tower" may be duplicated freely for non-profit purposes as stated by the owners of the copyright to the Vectrex system and their games. For more information on the Vectrex and its games, please visit www.vectrexnews.com. 3. FAQ Q. What Is Dark Tower? A. Dark Tower was a prototype game released in 1983 for the Vectrex but never officially hit the shelves due to the video game crash of 1983. It is an action/adventure hybrid where you control a warrior that must solve a riddle of a Dark Tower lying deep within a mysterious forest. Q. How can I play Dark Tower? A. You can play it either on an emulator such as ParaJVE or DVE, or if you own a Vectrex, you can look for the actual cart on Ebay for purchase. It was reproduced by many fans, but the original GCE prototype cartridge releases are very rare and may be worth a lot. Only one prototype is known to exist. Q. Wait a minute.... Aren't emulators/ROMs illegal? A. Yes they are, but don't have a cow! The owners (Smith Engineering) of the Vectrex condoned the duplication of all Vectrex materials in the mid 90s, allowing fans of the system to produce emulators and ROMs legally for the Vectrex on different platforms. Visit www.vectrexnews.com for a list of Vectrex emulators. I recommend ParaJVE. Q. What is the object of this game? A. The object of this game is to collect all 4 keys: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Brass. Then, you must solve a riddle to enter the Dark Tower similar to mastermind. Once the riddle is solved, you will have beaten the game. Collecting more treasures and buying more equipment will increase your score however, but you might die if you ran into too many battles or death events. 4. Gameplay Guide A. Getting Started As you first start up this game, the Words "Dark Tower" will appear along with a fanfare theme. Then, when the Game # screen will appear press buttons 2 or 3 to select your game level, 1 being the hardest, and 4 being the easiest. You now will appear with your first warrior in the overworld. B. The Overworld While in the Overworld, to move your warrior backwards or forwards, press up or down, and to change directions, press left or right. If you notice on the upper part of the screen, it will act as a compass and tell you which direction you are traveling and how far you have traveled in that direction until you either change directions or move backwards instead of forwards or vice-versa. To access your inventory, press and hold button 1 down. In your inventory, you will start out with 5 lives, and have 0-3 keys depending on the game level (1-4). When exploring the forest, pay attention to the types of trees, as they correspond to a unique area in the forest, and there are 4 types of forests: Elm Forests (Southwest Section), Spooky Forests (The Dead Zone, Northeast Section), Pine Forests (Northwest Section), and Maple Forests (Southeast Section). There is also a "Dark Forest" were there are no trees at all located in the center of these 4 forests which contains the Dark Tower at a certain point in the game. If you reach the boundary of any forest and cannot see any trees at all (with the exception of the Dark Forest), you will be surrounded by fog and get teleported randomly elsewhere in the overworld. This can also happen at random anywhere inside the forests as well. As you explore the overworld, you will come across chests, bags of gold, keys, and random events. To open a chest, press button 4 when you are close enough, and then you will activate a random event, gain treasure or lives, or possibly nothing will happen. To grab a bag of gold or key, just simply walk up to it until you hear a fanfare. The position of all items on the overworld is fixed once you start the game, but different each successive game that you play afterwards. In other words, just because you saw 16 chests in the Spooky Forest doesn't mean they will be there if you restart your game from the beginning. C. Random and Chest Events 1. The Fog Event - Sometimes if you are wandering around in the forest, you may randomly be teleported by fog (indicated by a lot of lines and a mysterious theme) elsewhere, and the same thing may happen if you open a chest. You can prevent this if you have a "Scout" in your inventory which can be bought from the Mage. This event also happens if you wander outside the boundaries of the forest and then scouts will not help you. The "Scout" has 4-6 uses each time you encounter fog. 2. The Death Event - If you wander around the Spooky Forest (and sometimes other areas) for too long, you might die, or if you open an unlucky chest. You will hear the Death Theme, a few lines will appear, and you will lose a life in either case. In order to prevent this, you must have a "Healer" in your inventory which can be bought from the Mage. You won't die at random if you don't move your warrior in the overworld. The Healer has limited uses, so beware. 3. Mages - If you open a chest and hear a fanfare, a mage will come out and either tell you to Be Gone if you don't have enough gold, or will trade you items for gold depending on how much gold you have. The magician sells you extra lives for 10-20 gold, a Healer for 15-20 gold, a Scout for 20-30 gold, Keys for 30-69 gold, and the Crystal Crown for 60-69 gold. The Crystal Crown is worth 1500 bonus points and serves no other special purpose in the game other than bragging rights. After you open a chest that hade a mage in it, the Battle Event will occur, so don't open it again unless you are prepared for a fight. 4. The Battle Event - This event is the most common of all the events that happens when opening a chest. You will hear a quick "Death Theme" and now you will be in an action sequence where you must throw ninja stars at enemies that look like cows to survive. Move your warrior left and right by pressing left or right, and throw stars with buttons 2 (left), 3 (center), or 4 (right). Dodge the ninja stars that they throw at you to survive, but if you cannot, you will lose one life and hear the main Death Theme (healers won't save you here). If you manage to kill all the enemies, you will receive treasure, lives, or be told to be gone. This event is also triggered if you are greedy and open a chest that contains a mage or treasure a second time. You must kill about 20 enemies per event, and each enemy killed is worth 125 points. 5. The Dark Tower - If you collect all 4 keys and make your way into the center of the overworld where the Dark Forest is, the Dark Tower will appear. Walk up to it and then you have to try and solve a puzzle which is similar to Mastermind. You must place the 4 keys in the correct order to beat the game, or else you will be teleported elsewhere by fog (unless you have a scout). Use button 2 to move the arrow cursor to select which place, and button 3 to change key types, and button 4 to solve the puzzle, but make sure to use each key only once. If you see any keys still left before you are teleported by the fog, those keys are correctly placed. You get 3000 points and beat the game if you solve the riddle correctly. 6. Game Over - If you run out of lives either by the Death Event or losing in the Battle Event, your game is over. If you solve the puzzle of the Dark Tower, the game is over as well, but you get 3000 points, so don't solve the puzzle until you are satisfied with your score. D. Items and Scoring 1. Each Extra Life (Reserve Troop) earned = 100 points 2. Each Bag of Gold = 100 points 3. Killing each enemy = 125 Points 4. The Gold Key = 1000 points 5. The Silver Key = 900 points 6. The Bronze Key = 800 points 7. The Brass Key = 700 points 8. Buying a Scout = 300 points + an extra life 9. Buying a Healer = 300 points + an extra life 10. The Crystal Crown = 1500 points 11. Solving the Dark Tower Puzzle = 3000 points and Game End E. Strategies While playing this game, you can get lost easily, or find yourself dying often. It is advisable that you stay away from the Spooky Forest until you receive enough gold to buy a healer, as this will protect you from the death-trapped chests and areas in the Spooky Forest which can kill you. If you find yourself lost in the forest, look at the trees, and then wander in a single direction until you see the trees change shape, and then you'll have an idea where you are. If you run into boundaries and get teleported elsewhere, just pay attention to the tree types and you'll get a rough idea of where you are. When you are engaged in the battle event, try to hit the enemies before they release their ninja stars at you. It pays in this game to be quick and aggressive towards your enemies and hit them before they can attack. Getting used to the controls and positioning of your warrior while in battle is key for survival, so if you wish to just practice the battle events, keep opening a chest that has a battle event, and you will be able to replay it as many times as you wish until you run out of lives. If you are playing the harder levels or just want a higher score, you should save up gold and buy your keys, so you may have to activate a lot of battle events. If you can master the battle event, you are a master of Dark Tower regardless of whether you solve the puzzle or not. If you are ready to solve the puzzle of the Dark Tower, you can easily tell if you are close to the center of the overworld when you see spooky forest trees along with the normal tress of the forest you are currently in. You can also travel to the edges of one forest and the next and then turn a respective 90 degrees and walk towards the center. The forest layout is always the same for each game, even though the items are placed in the forest differently. 5. Credits/Thanks www.gamefaqs.com and CJAYC for hosting this file. ParaJVE for hosting the freeware emulator and games for Vectrex Emulation. GCE/Smith Engineering for making great games back in 1983. The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN, James Rolfe) for playing the Vectrex in his Star Trek Review, which inspired me to pick up the emulator and try it out.