This is the kind of thing I've been waiting for for a long time.
Unfortunately, I don't have much, it's much better if I demonstrate things.
however:
StarTropics (1990) and StarTropics II: Zoda's Revenge (1994, Nintendo IRD / NOA) (NES, Nitendo internal):
don't overuse your auxiliary weapons, you won't get more
really try not to use any potions until you get to the boss
just generally be careful about use; weapons, potions, lamps, Rods of Revealing (quiet, Kreshna)
JIYF-- jumping is your friend
explore-- they're action/adventure / RPG type games, as far as possible on the NES
ST II-- figure out when to use your psychic attack-- and the first boss: there are patterns in the motion tiles, use them to your advantage, and for the love of Mike please don't try to get too clever in any boss fight (1 or 2), they're all pretty straightforward (except the last one in ST II)

Illusion of Gaia (SNES, Enix, 1994):
also, you should explore
without giving anything away, whenever you come to a strange spot and you've recently gotten a song, play it
use your herbs, you get way more than you get of potions in ST
use your dark powers, but again please don't try to get really clever with them, most of them take a little time
I'd recommend not trying to get all the Red Jewels until you've beaten the game once or twice, and then you probably won't find them all without looking for like a year, there are good lists on-line telling you where each one is, and the place you get to go after you've gotten them all, you don't need to kill everything, so I'd suggest enough to get past to the end (kind of short)-- and you Psycho Slide under the stairs

I'd put something about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but the Internet is probably filled with tips about it

A simple tip and obvious tip that I somehow always fail to follow myself -

In the Dizzy games, select an easily reachable spot and store all the items you have not yet found the uses for there. I've more than often had to look all over for an item I'd found previous in the game.

And another tip for Rick Dangerous - play it with the "POOKY" cheat (type POOKY in the highscore). I wouldn't even consider it cheating, especially not if it's the first time you play the game. It allows you to start over on the level in which you died instead of having to start the entire game over. And this game is so incredibly unfair with all the traps the first time you play it so playing it this way is much more enjoyable (until you know where all the traps are, the game becomes easy when you do).

Duck Tales - do the level of which the name is written in blue text on the world map. This gives you a much faster mode of transport so you won't have to fly anymore (flying is fun but you need to beat .. that other duck, forgot his name :p).

Shadow of the Beast 2 - do NOT use the axes until it's obvious that you have no choice but to use them. Otherwise, the game will become impossible.

dodongo dislikes smoke

I like turtles.

Battlehawks 1942: Dive Bombing Tips
by Lieutenant Kreshna "Iceheart" of Imperial Japan Navy. Or US Navy, depending on mood.

Well, like I said in this thread, I purchased Lucasfilm Games' Air Combat Classic, and I started the package with Battlehawks 1942. Despite lousy graphics and PC speaker sound, I found the game to be exciting......

....except the motherf***ing dive-bombing mission.

See, I've done everything by the book. I start diving from 7000 feet, and struggle to make a 70 degree dive while keeping my plane perfectly lined up with the target. And then, while

still in a 70 degree dive, I release my bomb at around 2000 to 1000 feet....

....and miss. Aaaargh!!

Turned out that the "Tactics" section in the Air Combat Classic manual is full of shit. Well, at least when it goes to dive bombing section. Yes, you CAN hit the target if you drop your bomb somewhere between 2000 and 1000 feet while diving at 70 degree, but ONLY if you make a PERFECT approach to the target. Not only this requires you to gauge the precise moment when you should start diving, but the target makes your life more difficult by moving, not to mention avoiding the flak and enemy fighters.

It is not surprising that such tactics only work in the "Dive Bombing Fundamentals" training, where the carrier sits still and where you are free to make an ideal approach to the carrier.

Guess what? Such thing just doesn't work in actual combat, where the carrier is moving, where you approach the carrier from less than ideal angle, and where you are busy avoiding flak bursts and enemy fighters.

I tried "Dive Bombing Fundamentals" training mission ad nauseam, tried "Dive Bombing in Combat" ad nauseam, and keep questioning myself, "why dive bombing is so hard in BH1942 while it was cakewalk in Their Finest Hour?" Yes, the first time I played TFH, it was without manual (borrowed the floppies from a friend and lent him Cabal in return), so I played the game with "gut instinct" and found dive-bombing to be a breeze (in contrary to level bombing).

Fortunately, I eventually remember that the easiest way to guarantee a hit is releasing your bomb at point-blank range. That is, below 1000 feet and when you are really up close and personal with the target.

Warning: ONLY release the bomb when you are THIS close!

The good news about dive-bombing point blank is that you don't really need to dive at all! See the pic below; I only "dived" at 10 degree at most, and it was a guaranteed hit no matter what the manual says.

"Dive"? What is this "dive" people keep talking about?

Better news, you don't have to worry about making an ideal dive-bombing approach. Since you don't have to worry about estimating when and where to start the damn 70 degree dive, you are free to pursue more productive activities, like gunning down enemy fighters. Of course, Vals and Avengers can't exactly dogfight, but Battlehawks 1942 was made long before the mantra of "realism, realism, and realism!" plagued (and considerably shrinked) the flightsim genre, so yes, I don't need Zeros or Stukas to be an ace despite my sucky-sucky deflection shooting skill.

Oh, and don't worry about collateral damage. The manual says that real WW2 pilots release their bomb above 1000 feet to avoid damage from the explosion. Fortunately, in this game, I just fail to notice any (the damage, not the explosion).

So get back on the plane, pilot, and do it right this time!

It is strangely satisfying to see a carrier smoking like that, and it feels even better when you're the one who pulled the trigger.

Note:
The pics above were taken from the training mission "Dive Bombing in Combat"; the entire mission was recorded using DOSBOX movie recorder, and then the frames were "extracted" using PrintScreen button while playing the movie in Windows Media Player.

Gunship 2000: Random Tips
by Colonel Kreshna "Iceheart".

It's nice to see people are playing Gunship 2000 again, so here's some miscellaneous tips, in no particular order.

Submarines are for cheaters

If you got the Island and Ice expansion pack, create a custom mission in Antartica where all the enemy are submarines. Remember to assign a couple of subs as Primary and Secondary target, then play the mission with the highest difficulty setting.

Some people may see this as easy ticket to get CMOH. However, this cheat actually serves as the least risky way to boost the ability of your wingmen! Do this a couple of times and you'll have very capable wingmen in no time.

Low yo-yo? With helicopters?

Firing rockets is difficult. Most of the time, you need to pull up in order to align with your target, and you'll gain altitude unless you simultaneously reduce the collective while pulling up. Problem is, you can lose altitude and crash if you overcompensate with the throttle. Even with HOTAS controller (I was using WCS Mark II at that time), it is still not easy to find the right cyclic/collective combination.

The easier way to fire rockets is not messing up with the collective at all, but how to do that without gaining altitude? The answer is low yo-yo maneuver: dive first, then pull up when you're ready to fire the rockets.

The game is realistic. Yeah, right....

In real life, the purpose of hellfires is for killing tanks, while rockets and cannons are for soft targets. That should work the same in Gunship 2000, right?

Wrong.

Actually this comes straight from Bob Guerra's Gunship 2000: The Official Strategy Guide: use hellfires for infantry and light vehicles, and use cannons and rockets for tanks. The reason is that tanks don't have SAMs while many soft targets have. Thus, you should preserve the longer-ranged hellfires to attack SAM-bearers from safer range. After you eliminate those threats, you can close in and use your cannons to eliminate tanks with impunity.

pduke001 wrote:

Ninja Gaiden - Just kill yourself.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is beatable though, took forever but me and my bro managed it!

Ninja Gaiden 2 is beatable though, took forever but me and my bro managed it!

Yeah, I agree

(I actually don't, this is just a test for QuickQuote+)

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"Prisoner of Ice" -- DOSBox 0.72 for Linux
=================================================

This post is intended specifically for users of DOSBox 0.72 for Linux, who want to run the game, "Prisoner of Ice"; either the full, commercially-distributed CD (which I have, $4.69 total cost on eBay) or the CD-rip version, available on many abandonware sites. The game runs best if all game files are copied to hard disk, then using the created directory and its subdirectories as an emulated CD drive. That is how I chose to do it, and the game's performance and playability is actually better than when I first ran it on my AST 486DX2-66 MHz machine. Some of these tips listed here should be readily adaptable to other operating systems.

1. The directory </home/myuserID/msdos/> is mounted as my C drive in DOSBox by typing:

mount c /home/myuserID/msdos/

2. The "Prisoner of Ice" game-files directory is found at:

/home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/

and under the <prisoner> directory are three subdirectories, named as they are found on the game CD. They are:

/home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/savesvga/
/home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/savevga/
/home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/video/

Copy game files on the CD to the corresponding directory and subdirectories on hard disk. The file <__ICE__.PAR>should read as follows:

LANGUAGE_LETTER=A
OPTIONS_PATH=c:\imotion\ice

Edit the file, if it does not. For my installation, no changes were needed.

3. To mount the D drive, as an emulated CD drive, in DOSBox I type:

mount d /home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/ -t cdrom

So, once DOSBox has started, I type:

mount c /home/myuserID/msdos/ <Enter>
mount d /home/myuserID/msdos/prisoner/ -t cdrom <Enter>

This process of mounting drives can be automated, eliminating most of the typing, but since I play one game completely through before beginning another, I do not bother with special configuration files or autoexec lines.

4. The game can be played in either of two display modes, by selecting <D:\ICE320.EXE> or <D:\ICE640.EXE>. I use <D:\ICE640.EXE> to start the game. The first time the game is started, a directory <C:\IMOTION\ICE> will be created, where game configuration files and saved games will be stored. Configure the sound card for sound effects and music before beginning a new game. My sound configuration is set for SB16. Once the game is configured, two files will be seen: <ICE.CFG> and <ICE.PCK>.

5. My </home/myuserID/.dosboxrc> file is copied below. My </home/myuserID/DOSBOX.CONF> file reads the same. I cannot guarantee that my settings will give equally good performance on other machines, but I would advise keeping cycles=6000, or possibly slightly lower, for "Prisoner of Ice", to avoid compressing the timed sequences too much, which could make the game unbeatable. On my machine, cycles=3000 is too low, and is not recommended. Note that I do not use aspect correction or scaling for this game, which would slow performance.

=================================================
START .DOSBOXRC AND DOSBOX.CONF
=================================================
# This is the configuration file for DOSBox 0.72 running "Prisoner of Ice".
# Lines starting with a # are comment lines.
# They are used to (briefly) document the effect of each option.

[sdl]
# fullscreen -- Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.
# fulldouble -- Use double buffering in fullscreen.
# fullresolution -- What resolution to use for fullscreen: original or fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).
# windowresolution -- Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.
# output -- What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb.
# autolock -- Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.
# sensitivity -- Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror -- Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority -- Priority levels for dosbox: lowest,lower,normal,higher,highest,pause (when not focused).
# Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.
# mapperfile -- File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.
# usescancodes -- Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=/home/myuserID/MAPPER
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
# language -- Select another language file.
# memsize -- Amount of memory DOSBox has in megabytes.
# machine -- The type of machine tries to emulate: hercules,cga,tandy,pcjr,vga.
# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.

language=
machine=vga
captures=/home/myuserID/msdos/temp/
memsize=64

[render]
# frameskip -- How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.
# aspect -- Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler -- Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# Supported are none,normal2x,normal3x,advmame2x,advmame3x,hq2x,hq3x,
# 2xsai,super2xsai,supereagle,advinterp2x,advinterp3x,
# tv2x,tv3x,rgb2x,rgb3x,scan2x,scan3x.
# If forced is appended (like scaler=hq2x forced), the scaler will be used
# even if the result might not be desired.

frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=none

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: normal,simple,dynamic,auto.
# auto switches from normal to dynamic if appropriate.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions DOSBox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this value too high results in sound dropouts and lags.
# You can also let DOSBox guess the correct value by setting it to max.
# The default setting (auto) switches to max if appropriate.
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=dynamic
cycles=6000
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will
# probably lower their sound quality.
# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering
# but sound will also be more lagged.
# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=30

[midi]
# mpu401 -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.
# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
# This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
# config -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put
# the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.

mpu401=intelligent
device=oss
config=

[sblaster]
# sbtype -- Type of sblaster to emulate:none,sb1,sb2,sbpro1,sbpro2,sb16.
# sbbase,irq,dma,hdma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA address of the soundblaster.
# mixer -- Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the DOSBox mixer.
# oplmode -- Type of OPL emulation: auto,cms,opl2,dualopl2,opl3.
# On auto the mode is determined by sblaster type.
# All OPL modes are 'Adlib', except for CMS.
# oplrate -- Sample rate of OPL music emulation.

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

[gus]
# gus -- Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.
# gusbase,irq1,irq2,dma1,dma2 -- The IO/IRQ/DMA addresses of the
# Gravis Ultrasound. (Same IRQ's and DMA's are OK.)
# gusrate -- Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.
# ultradir -- Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory
# there should be a MIDI directory that contains
# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used
# with Timidity should work fine.

gus=false
gusrate=22050
gusbase=220
irq1=7
irq2=7
dma1=1
dma2=5
ultradir=/home/myuserID/msdos/ultrasnd/

[speaker]
# pcspeaker -- Enable PC-Speaker emulation.
# pcrate -- Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.
# tandy -- Enable Tandy Sound System emulation (off,on,auto).
# For auto Tandysound emulation is present only if machine is set to tandy.
# tandyrate -- Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.
# disney -- Enable Disney Sound Source emulation. Covox Voice Master and Speech Thing compatible.

pcspeaker=false
pcrate=22050
tandy=off
tandyrate=22050
disney=false

[joystick]
# joysticktype -- Type of joystick to emulate: auto (default), none,
# 2axis (supports two joysticks,
# 4axis (supports one joystick, first joystick used),
# 4axis_2 (supports one joystick, second joystick used),
# fcs (Thrustmaster), ch (CH Flightstick).
# none disables joystick emulation.
# auto chooses emulation depending on real joystick(s).
# timed -- enable timed intervals for axis. (false is old style behaviour).
# autofire -- continuously fires as long as you keep the button pressed.
# swap34 -- swap the 3rd and the 4th axis. can be useful for certain joysticks.
# buttonwrap -- enable button wrapping at the number of emulated buttons.

joysticktype=none
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true

[serial]
# serial1-4 -- set type of device connected to com port.
# Can be disabled, dummy, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# Additional parameters must be in the same line in the form of
# parameter:value. Parameter for all types is irq.
# for directserial: realport (required), rxdelay (optional).
# for modem: listenport (optional).
# for nullmodem: server, rxdelay, txdelay, telnet, usedtr,
# transparent, port, inhsocket (all optional).
# Example: serial1=modem listenport:5000

serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
# xms -- Enable XMS support.
# ems -- Enable EMS support.
# umb -- Enable UMB support.
# keyboardlayout -- Language code of the keyboard layout (or none).

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=US

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
=================================================
END .DOSBOXRC AND DOSBOX.CONF
=================================================

6. If the game crashes and an error message is displayed just after Captain Lloyd is grabbed by the tentacled monster very early in the game, the drives have not been mounted correctly. The crash is due to the game's autosave feature failing to locate the savegame directory.

=================================================
My system specifications are as follows:

Compaq Deskpro EN, Pentium III 933 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, RivaTNT2 AGP Card, 17-inch HP L1720 LCD Monitor, Mandriva Linux 2007.0, DOSBox 0.72
=================================================