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|_____|_____|_____|_____| Off The Wall |_____|_____|____|____|
|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯| Atari 2600 |¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|
|_____|_____|_____|_____| FAQ |_____|_____|____|____|
|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯| Version 1.00 |¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|
|_____|_____|_____|_____| Mike Truitt |_____|_____|____|____|
|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯| Tuesday, February 17, 2004 |¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|
|_____|_____|_____|_____|_______________________________|_____|_____|____|____|
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Contents:
I About this FAQ
I I Version History
I I I Game Basics
I V Srategy
V Extras
V I Notes & Thanks
•============================================================================•
| I ABOUT THIS FAQ |
•============================================================================•
_________________
Mission Statement
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I was looking through a bunch of my older games and was wondering to myself
why I didn't write any FAQs for these classics. So I decided to write a guide
for one of my favorites. That is why this guide is here today. I hope it can
help you out.
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Legal Notice
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•============================================================================•
| I I VERSION HISTORY |
•============================================================================•
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Version 1.00
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I have all of the FAQ completed. There really should not be any more
updates for this FAQ. If there is, then I will be sure to post it.
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Last Updated:
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Tuesday, February 17, 2004
•============================================================================•
| I I I GAME BASICS |
•============================================================================•
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O B J E C T I V E
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The objective of Off the Wall is to score as many points as possible
without loosing your ball. You will be able to score points by hitting
blocks with the ball, getting power-ups, and lastly - hitting the dragon
above the blocks.
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G A M E B A S I C S
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Once you start the game a ball will fall down from the left hand side of
the screen, you must move the character at the bottom of the screen (Kung
Fu Lu is his name, if you are interested) until he is under the falling
ball. At which point he will use his staff to deflect these "magical
balls". As long as Lu keeps the ball in the air he will not die. However,
if the ball falls to the ground Lu will die. Do not be alarmed though --
Lu was granted five lives as a child.... for the obvious reason.
You will begin the game with a standard wave of blocks, if you and Lu are
good enough to clear all of the blocks you will move onto the next wave of
blocks. Note that you can also get to the next wave of blocks by hitting
the dragon that is atop of the wall. For every wave of blocks that you
clear, you will recieve one extra life.
This isn't your mommy's game of breakout (well actually, it probably is),
but for all intensive purposes, it isn't ok? Once you get past the first
wave of blocks the evil blackbird comes along and will deflect the ball
back at you if you hit it, so be careful....!?
No matter how crafty the dragon and blackbird are, they did leave
themselves vulnerable. Every once in a while a Special Power Token will
fall down, and if Lu is able to pick it up he will be given special
abilities. Good Luck Lu!
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M O D E S O F P L A Y
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There are three different difficulty settings for Off the Wall. They are
Peasent, Student, Master. These, of course, refer to the varying level of
skills that workmen had in the middle ages. You can begin the game on any
or all of these skill levels. If you are able to destroy all four waves of
one difficulty setting, then you will move up to the next toughest, if
applicable.
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Peasent
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This is the easiest mode of play, the ball will be travelling at a
relatively slow pace. This mode is meant for beginners to the game.
Once you have a few games under you belt, you should have enough skill
to begin at the next level up, that is if you haven't gotten there
already.
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Student
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Student is slightly harder than Peasent, but there shouldn't be too
much of a problem adapting to this setting. Just focus your attention,
like you should have been, on hitting the ball and using the power-ups
and you should do fine.
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Master
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Master is the hardest level in the game. Keep that in mind while the
ball is flying at a rapid rate that will keep you on your toes - if
they don't then you are some sort of super-human and are wasting your
time on this game. If you are not a super-human, then just practice and
Master should become managable eventually.
On top of having three different difficulty settings, off the wall also
comes with a one-player mode and a two-player mode. In two player mode you
will try to beat the score of your opponent. After one player dies the
second one will come in and play. One player mode challenges the player to
beat their own high score.
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C O N T R O L S
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•===============================================================•
| Joystick Movement | What effect will it have on Kund Fu Lu? |
•===================·===========================================•
| Joystick - Left | Moves Lu to the left side of the screen. |
| Joystick - Right | Moves Lu to the right side of the screen. |
•===============================================================•
•============================================================================•
| I V STRATEGY |
•============================================================================•
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Angles are your friend
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When Kung Fu Lu decides that he would like to hit the ball, try to hit the
ball at an angle. At first, this may seem like a bad idea because the when
the ball is travelling at a great angle, it is not as easy to see where Lu
must be to hit the ball when it finally makes its way back down to the
bottom of the screen. However, this is not the case - well actually it is
- but it is advantagious for you to do so because when the ball hits the
blocks at an angle, it will take more blocks away, and will often travel
through some and take out many more than a strait shot would.
Like I said, this method has its decanter... when the ball comes down, it
is much harder to hit. So before you rely on this strategy too much, make
sure that you have enough skill to be able to back it up.
______________________________
Watch where you are going, Lu!
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One thing that seems to happen much more often than what one would expect
is that you will move Lu much faster and further than he needs to do,
which causes him to over-shoot the ball, thus wasting one of his precious
lives. Seriously, don't let Lu die.
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Hit the dragon
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If you are able to hit the dragon a total of six times in one level, then
he will die. This method of winning is much easier then knocking out the
blocks. So go after the dragon as soon as you can.
___________________
Take out his knees!
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Well not the knees actually, because a giant wall does not have knees, or
any body part for that matter. However, similar to a crippling knee injury,
attack the sides of the wall. If you are able to take out the sides and get
the ball up to the top, it will bounce around for a long, long time. With
the ball at the top of the screen, you will score massive points in a very
short period of time. It will also give you one of the best opportunities
to attack the dragon.
___________________________
Once upon a midnight dreary
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Unfortunatly there are no cool poems called "The Blackbird" so just go
with this one ok? Anyways, the bird was originally meant to hurt you... if
you hit the bird while the ball is travelling upwards, then it will come
back down at Lu. This can be used to your advantage in the opposite
manner. If the ball is comming downwards, then the bird will make it
bounce back up. If you are able to time it well enough to hit the bird, do
so.
__________________
Power-ups are good
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Throughout the course of the game you will find that power-ups will fall
down from the screen. The power-ups will help you out in various ways....
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Magnetic Paddle
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The magnetic paddle icon is just an "M" falling from the screen.
Basically, what this power-up icon does is... if you hit the ball and
it is right of you, it will travel to the left. If it is to the left
of you, the ball will travel to the right.
The magnetic ball can really be used to your advantage when attacking
the dragon. You can pretty much just move back and forth under the
dragon until he gets hit six times. Keep this in mind...
___________
Mega Paddle
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When you see an icon falling that looks like it is a flame, this would
be the Mega Paddle. Once you get the icon your staff will become much
larger than normal, allowing you to make a mistake for a while.
_____________
Mystery Token
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An icon falling from the sky with a question mark indicates that you
have the mystery token. There are four different things that the
mystery icon will do for you. The one bad thing it cand do is speed up
the ball, making it harder to hit. However, it will also stop the
blackbird on occasion. It also has the abiity to give Kung Fu Lu an
extra life. Finally it will give Lu some extra points. The amount of
points that Lu will get depends greatly on his level. Here is a chart
on how many points Lu will get.
·=========·======·
| Peasent | 50 |
| Student | 75 |
| Master | 100 |
·=========·======·
If you are not secure enough with your ability yet, you might want to
think twice about getting the mystery token because of the one negative
effect it can have. It does pay off in the long run to get this icon
though.
____________
Nuclear Bomb
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This icon is distiguishable by its bomb shape. After picking up this
icon more blocks will be taken out at one time whenever the ball hits
it. You will be able to take out a large chunk of the screen by doing
this. Doing this with the "Take Out His Knees" strategy.
____________
Zig Zag Ball
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This icon is shapped like a "Z" that is falling from the blocks. Once
you pick up the icon the ball will travel in a zig-zag pattern. Don't
worry though, every time the ball is falling back down to the ground,
it comes down in a strait line.
Don't think that just because you picked up a power-up icon that you will
have that ability forever. If you look at the upper-right corner of the
screen, you will see that there is a pie chart that steadily decreases.
This pie chart is a representation on how much time you have left for that
specific power-up. All power-ups take the same amount of time to wear out
except for the magnetic ball, which you only get half the time as
everything else.
_____________________________________________
The basic "keep the ball in the air" strategy
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This strategy is fairly basic, as you can probably tell by the name. All
you should do it just keep the ball in the air, and not worry about
anything else. If you do this well, you should be safe.
__________________________________
Know how the ball will will bounce
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After a few minutes of playing and hitting the ball you should notice that
the ball will bounce differently depending on where you are hitting the
ball on the paddle. The ball will react differently if it is hit in the
center of the paddle or if it is hit on the outside of the paddle.
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Center Hits
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Center hits are the best kind. You will want to hit the ball as exact
to the center as possible. If you can do so, they will react in the
same way in which they came. If they come in at on angle, they will
leave at the same angle, only the opposite direction.
___________
Center Hits
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In \ / Out In V^ Out
\ / V^
\/ V^
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_________
Edge Hits
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Edge hits hit along the edge of the paddle (really?) and have a much
less predictable reaction. Generally, they will go out at a much wider
angle in which they came, making the next shot even harder to catch
than the previous. Try to get as few of these as possible.
_________
Edge Hits
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In \ _/ Out In V / Out
\ _/¯ V /
\ /¯ V /
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•============================================================================•
| V EXTRAS |
•============================================================================•
___________________
S C O R I N G
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During the course of the game, you will also notice that you will be
accumilating a score. Here is a breakdown of what gives you points, and
how many points you will recieve....
•=====================================•
| Object | Points |
•============================·========•
| Brick - Lower | 1 |
| Brick - Lower Middle | 2 |
| Brick - Middle | 3 |
| Brick - Upper Middle | 4 |
| Brick - Top | 5 |
·----------------------------·--------·
| Mystery Power-Up - Peasant | 50 |
| Mystery Power-Up - Student | 75 |
| Mystery Power-Up - Master | 100 |
·----------------------------·--------·
| Enemy - Blackbird | 0 |
| Enemy - Dragon | 100 |
•=====================================•
____________________________
C H A R A C T E R S
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Throughout the course of the game you will come across many different
characters (well three actually). Here is some basic information on the
characters....
•==========================================================•
| Character | Alignment | Description of character |
•===============·===========·==============================•
| Kung Fu Lu | Good | Kung Fu Lu is a special boy |
| | | who has always dreamed of |
| | | slaying the dragon. Now is |
| | | his chance. |
·---------------·-----------·------------------------------·
| Evil Dragon | Evil | The evil dragon is located |
| | | at the top of the screen. He |
| | | has terrorized Lu's town for |
| | | far too long. It is time for |
| | | them to get their payback... |
·---------------·-----------·------------------------------·
| Blackbird | Evil | The blackbird has chosen to |
| | | align himself with the evil |
| | | dragon. However, he is not |
| | | that smart and often hurts |
| | | the dragon. |
•==========================================================•
•============================================================================•
| V I NOTES AND THANKS |
•============================================================================•
A great deal of gratitude is expressed towards all webmasters on the Internet
that spend their priceless time and hard earned money for the sole purpose of
allowing people from all different walks of life, come together and discuss
and help each other with video games. Without that time and that money, the
video game industry would be nowhere near what it is today. Thank You All.
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••••• This FAQ is copyrighted information of Mike Truitt. Any •••••
••••• using of this FAQ without permission granted by the •••••
••••• author, Mike Truitt, is strictly prohibited. To obtain •••••
••••• usage of this FAQ, simply send an e-mail to this address •••••
••••• miketru@earthlink.net . Please include your name, what •••••
••••• website / publication you are representing, and I will •••••
••••• surely grant you permission. •••••
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(c) Copyright 2004_Mike Truitt
