MASH(2600) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0
by Andrew Schultz schultw.andrez@sbcglobal.net
Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and
I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I
could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if
you'd like to post it on your site.
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OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS
3. GAMES AND STRATEGIES
4. VERSIONS
5. CREDITS
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1. INTRODUCTION
MASH may not be innovative, and the controls stink, but it's still a fun
game. It has four separate sub-games, all of which require an interesting
containment policy in easy mode when you start and considerable strategy if
you 1) wish to play hard mode or 2) try to play easy without surgery. The
variety is interesting til you realize just how nasty it is for your
helicopter to avoid moving trees. Well, it's about as goofy as the TV show
could be, but like the show, not in a bad way. It beats down a LOT of other
Atari games based on 80s culture(Hi Pac-Man! Hi E.T.! Hi arcade port rip-
offs!) Games like it, and Porky's, were the Atari at its best with its weird
interpretations of pop phenomenons that had to fit into 4K. The first high-
tech poetry I guess.
2. CONTROLS
The fire button is not used, and the joystick moves your forceps or copter
around the screen without acceleration.
One thing you do not want to do(with emulation at least) is to reverse
direction quickly in your chopper. Release the keys then change. A 45 degree
turn is okay, but 135 or 180 is not.
Sometimes if you flip direction after hitting a tree, you go through it
A = hard difficulty, generally giving the computer 99 points. He also plays
smarter, which is lethal, since he knows exactly to the pixel how to get by
the trees.
B=easy with Burns dumbing down at the end for you to sneak a win. He gets no
point bonus.
Games 2x are 2-player.
3. GAMES AND STRATEGIES
Games 1-2: Welcome to Korea
When you first play this game, you'll probably be able to eke out a victory
pretty regularly, but not by much. That's okay--the strategy of containment
works well and will serve you well in games 3 and 5, too. Eventually you'll
be good enough not to need the bonus shrapnel round, but til then, if you
keep within 100 points early on on easy difficulty, you should be okay.
Early on you want to build up your per-rescuee bonus, only grabbing 2 or 3
guys before returning, but when the enemy goes back to base you can clean up
the corners. Or you can leave him the last guy in the corner and shut him out
while you clean up. If you are mean, you can block him into the corner and
let the tank shoot him down.
At the end you will want to grab 5 guys and return, and Burns doesn't seem to
change his ending strategy for this, so you often can nip him at the end. You
may also be able to jam him into the trees in the UL and release him only
when a tank fires. In general you want to be away from the tank after it
wasted its shot, with the exception a funny trick where, if stuck in the DR,
you can get shot and get an easy ride home. Beware, though, that you need to
drop your passengers off. They're still on the copter. And you still got
points for them. Don't worry.
Another funny trick is to get shot at the top and you can fall to pick up
rescuees. It's not as practical but it is a nice consolation. Still, in
general, getting shot is very bad and if you can 1) push Burns against the
edge of the board and clean up while he's gone and 2) avoid it yourself, then
you are in good shape. A lot of this is knowing how to cut diagonally past
trees and learning where the enemies might be on recharge, which can bounce
you back for some weird reasons. Quick moves in and out with at most two
adjustments work well, but sadly there's no real way to tell when you're just
before surgery. That might help you know if you should go for the last guy.
While it took a while to beat Burns passing up surgery(the guy CHEATS and
runs through trees,) I never had much fun at extra difficulty as there are
just too many ways to get caught by trees as Burns doesn't. You really have
to play containment there and NOT make mistakes in surgery, where you need
every last point. Also if you make one mistake, take a deep breath and get
back to basics. Chaining unforced mistakes is a great way to dig a huge hole.
The scene swtch provides ample time to evaluate your position.
At the start, don't get mad if Burns gets a few in a row--he ha to go back to
base, then it's your turn(leave a guy on the right.) Similarly, you'll never
blow him out, though you can do pretty well piling up surgery points for a
big win instead of a last-minute one.
Also keep in mind that on difficulty A you need only cut the gap 10 points
every 100 to be doing OK. Also Burns does not seem to understand that 999
wins so he often flies to base with 984. Cheap but fun laughs, like the show.
Games 3-4: Colonel Potter
The moving trees in the middle are just stupid, really, but without them the
game would be too like #1. Containment works here as well--avoid getting hit,
and if parachutists are on your side, drop down to get more points for
picking them up. If the enemy comes over, go to the top of the screen. Again,
Burns kows how to get through the trees and for you it is trial and error, so
I generally stay on one side and make sure I have a chance at half of the
paratroopers. If I can I try to push him into tank fire, which really opens
things up.
Games 5-6: Cease Fire
Smaller helicopters and no tanks. Seems like an easier version of #1 but the
computer can really zip around. You should follow the same strategy as above
but you won't be able to block him out now--with the exception being in the
DR corner. Hard difficulty is nearly impossible here and I've gotten wiped
with just a couple surgical mistakes.
Games 7-8: Surgery
This is the easiest of the games. It is a sub-game of 1-6 and the basic idea
is that you may want to overshoot the shrapnel to remove in some cases.
Always when possible so a false move won't joggle the shrapnel into a side of
the body-maze. It is worth a bit of extra time to do this as the punishment
for failure is pretty steep and you should be able to get 5 pieces--you have
no control over their point values, so speculating there is wasting time.
While the pieces in the esophagus are worth the most points and the
easiest(approach the 80 pointer from above) you can just be careful with the
cheap 25- and 15-point ones. The best solution is:
1. move the forceps diagonally to get near the shrapnel
2. approach the shrapnel from the side so that a small false move doesn't
touch the body. Whatever part of the forceps touches the shrapnel, sticks
3. move the shrapnel vertically--you don't have to be exact
You'll learn there are only a few places it can be moved from, and you'll get
a feel for what to overshoot and what you can grab. Ironically the toughest
and least rewarding may be the DL one that is a straight shot left. Also for
the UR and UL passages you need to move the shrapnel completely out of the
body, which is different from the lower bit as the shoulders slope.
With Burns getting 6 points per second I've held him under 500 making two
mistakes. By the way, if you find yourself losing close games in 1-6, take
the time here to try to get a perfect game or two.
End of FAQ Proper
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4. VERSIONS
1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 10/23/2007, complete
5. CREDITS
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they
are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done.
Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow
Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog and
others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned message
board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of
mine.
Thanks to AtariAge for the HTMLized manual and the ROM.
Jeff and Duane for showing me this fun game so many years ago. And Porky's
too.
