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.
