Easter Eggs

4-TRIS

HIDDEN MESSAGE: If you press 6+9 on either controller and press RESET, you’ll get a “hello” message from Joseph. {Joseph Zbiciak}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: If you press RIGHT on the LEFT controller, and 5 on the RIGHT controller and press RESET, you'll get PONG instead. {Joseph Zbiciak}

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Cloudy Mountain

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the RIGHT controller, hold 0 + either upper side button + disc position 7, then press RESET. When the title screen appears, push the disc or any button and you’ll see the map screen (see picture). Both halves of the crown will be assembled on top of your party and you immediately win the game! {Carl Mueller}

BUG: Move so that a slow-moving monster (on early levels, this is all of them, but blobs work best) is above you in a long vertical passage. Walk downwards until the monster is just barely off the top of the screen, and then quickly return. The monster will often be cloned or disappear; with blobs, you can get up to three at once from one original. It takes some practice to get the timing right.

BUG: On the map screen, you move your party around using the number pad on the controller. If you move your party to the upper-left corner of the screen, you can press the up/left diagonal and move off the screen. Keep moving in that direction, and you'll appear in the middle of the map. Once you're in the middle, you need to make one more "move" before you can return to moving normally. {Joseph Zbiciak}

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Treasure of Tarmin

Increasing HP: When you start off, collect as much food as possible. When you fight, use only your bow and arrows. Make sure you rest after each battle. Collect whatever weapons you can, but repeating spiritual weapons like scrolls (and books) are great to have. If you cannot find any, just pick up whatever is available. Okay...you've fought a couple of times, and now you're out of arrows. KEEP THAT BOW RIGHT THERE! Go find another monster, and attack him with the bow. You'll get the ever-popular "RAZZ" sound, but the monster will attack you anyways. Keep repeating this until your HP gets as low as you want to go. The lower they go, the stronger you will become. When you're tired of letting the monster pummel you, get one of the other weapons and finish him off. Then rest. VOILA! Your HP will skyrocket! Normally, this affects your War HP faster than your spiritual HP, because you are using a war weapon. Your spiritual HP can also go up if you are being hit by spiritual weapons. Another way to get more Spiritual HP is to get the Spiritual knowledge book and then continue the method. This will raise your Spiritual HP faster. In order to get the most out of this, you must do the following: (1) Find ALL food, (2) Fight as often as you can, (3) Do NOT get arrows, and (4) Get all of the War and Spiritual skill books (to allow your HP to go above normal limit). Some other tips- keep a spare bow with you at all times in case your active one breaks. Also, fight the weakest monsters the longest. You can sit there and get hit 300 times by a skeleton, then kill him once and get back 50 HP, even though you only lost 4. This trick also works with scrolls, but since you never run out of ammo, just use the light blue scroll against a stronger opponent. Note: only do this if you are really strong! {Jason Sinclair}

Ever wanted to see what was behind a wall or a door without the sight book? I did this on an Intellivision II, so I'm not sure if it works on a I or III... Go to a "hall of doors" - doors that line up on either side of you. Put an object down, and then GLANCE left or right. When you glance, if there is anything behind the door, the object you put down may blink for an instant. If it does, that means that an object is one or two spaces away in the direction you glanced. When you return back to your original direction, it may blink again. Sometimes, when it blinks, it momentarily turns into the object (or part of the sprite) that was hidden. For example, if a spear is behind the door, the item may briefly become a spear, and then return to whatever it was. It becomes easier to see if you glance one way, and then hit the other glance the other before you come back to your original position. To try this in a more surefire way, find an eyeball mural that has a closable door beside it. Go through the door and then turn around to face the door. The eyeball mural will be on the other side. Put something down in front of you, and glance both directions. Notice the object you put down- it will blink, and if you're fast enough, it'll turn into an eyeball! The reason this may only work on an INTV II system is because there is a slight timing maladjustment inherent to all INTV II's, that I's and III's supposedly don’t. If that is indeed true, then this works because the timing misfire actually causes the correct sprite to be in the wrong place due to the screen changes. {Jason Sinclair}

ARMOR BATTLE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the LEFT controller, press and hold 0 + either upper side button + disc position 7, and then press RESET. You’ll then see a title screen with “D.E.I.” under the name, followed by the infamous crowd cheering sound. Note- this only works on the fast (later) tank version. {Carl Mueller}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the LEFT controller hold 3, on the RIGHT hold 9, and then press RESET. The title will change to “D.E.I.”, followed by the infamous crowd cheering sound. Also, the copyright will say 1984. Note- this only works on the slow (original) tank version. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

The initials DEI that show up in all the different APh games stand for "Dabney Eats It". More info on this can be found at: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/dei/ {Joseph Zbiciak}

2 versions exist! The later release has a faster rotational speed on the tanks. {Carl Mueller}

BUG: Drive a tank to the bottom of the screen, and then inactivate it. Then take another tank (yours or enemies) and shoot it once or twice to make it move down. Then re-activate the tank, turn it so it points straight down, and drive forward for a minute or two. The tank will appear from the top of the screen and the tank will gain some "ghost tank" powers.

ASTROSMASH

BUG: There's no check for the score overflowing -- beyond 9,999,999 points, the scoring routine starts displaying negative numbers, letters, and other ASCII characters. (Ironically, the catalog description promises "Unlimited scoring potential.") {BSR}

BUG: Astrosmash started out as a clone of the arcade game Asteroids, called Meteor!. The game wasn't very big, so John Sohl used the extra room in the cartridge to come up with a variation called Avalanche using the same graphics and sound effects. At the last minute, afraid of a lawsuit from Atari, the Mattel lawyers killed the Asteroids-like Meteor!. Rather than risk introducing bugs by deleting code, John simply put a branch around the opening-screen menu straight into the Avalanche! variation, which was released under the name Astrosmash. Very rarely, when there's a glitch hitting RESET, the Asteroids version will show up on screen. (This would be a dandy Easter egg if it was intentional or reliably repeatable, but it's neither.) {BSR}

AUTO RACING

2 versions exist! A change was made to make the steering easier (more realistic instead of intuitive). {BSR}

Press 1+6+9 on either keypad to switch to “real” steering (and vice-versa). {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

The 5 race courses were created as a “globe” - you can go 'off the course' and onto other courses at many places in the game. Anywhere where there's daylight in between trees is explore-able, and often 'hidden' areas (like the "Drag Strip", a long horizontal area) not mentioned in the manual can be found.

Select track 1. On the last long strip (before the sharp right turn), drive the car in the grass underneath the road. The car will never hit an obstacle!

B-17 BOMBER

BUG: Start a game in practice mode and keep bombing targets over England. The score will eventually roll over and start displaying text, graphics, and even some bonus items from Lock ‘N’ Chase!

BUG: If your altitude is high enough, and you’re hit with enough enemy fire, you can rack up so much damage before you hit the ground that the damage counter will roll over, giving you instant repair! {BSR}

BUG: Dropping a bomb to the far left of the screen from just the right altitude will crash the game. {BSR}

BUG: Flying into flak features some great perspective animation; the rear view, however, doesn't look quite right. They ran out of time to debug it. By the way, they also ran out of room for a flak graphics picture. Instead, the program grabs some of the Executive ROM program code and graphically displays it. This random jumble of bits passes as flak. {BSR}

BUG: When the game starts, the bomber faces east. When you return from a mission, the bomber faces west. When you start the second mission, the bomber is still facing west, so you can easily end up halfway to Bermuda, trying to figure out how the English Channel got so wide and where the German fighters are. {BSR}

BEAMRIDER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: By holding down 6 on the LEFT controller and 8 on the RIGHT controller when pressing RESET, you will get the following message as part of the title info scroll “A Cheshire Game! By David Rolfe Thanks to Chris, Kevin, Larry & Tom L and Will & Shal!” {Carl Mueller}

BEAUTY & THE BEAST

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Get to the point where the ape falls off the building, and press 3 twice on either controller. The designer’s initials, “WB” (for Wendell Brown), will appear atop the building. {Gilbert Prince}

BODY SLAM: SUPER PRO WRESTLING

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 (zero) on either hand controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Both controller button combinations must all be done simultaneously, then press RESET - on the RIGHT controller, hold 2+3. On the LEFT controller, hold 2+6. Programmer Steve Ettinger's message to his family will appear. {BSR}

BOMB SQUAD

BUG: Depending on the level (Level 3 is the worst), you cannot take a part, with pliers, to extreme ends of the circuit board when the fast (top action) key is pressed. Once the key is released, you can. It is most noticeable when you release a part and you need to pick one up at the top level. {BSR}

BUG: If the wrong part is cut, Frank will say, "wrong part: resolder!" and there is a sound associated with it. If Boris is talking when this happens, his voice overrides Frank's. Frank won't say "wrong part: resolder," but the associated sound still occurs. {BSR}

BUG: When you have correctly soldered a part, it will not move like the others so that you know what you have replaced. However, if you solder that piece again, it will start moving. {BSR}

BOXING

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the LEFT controller, press the 2 lower action buttons and push RIGHT (actually wheel direction #7). {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

BUMP ‘N’ JUMP

BUG: It is possible to jump off the left side of the screen and land safely on the right on a “secret” road, or vice versa. If you jump and position yourself so that only the left half of the car appears on the right edge of the screen (give it a few tries; the position has to be precise!), you will land safely off the screen and don't have to do anything for the rest of the level -- you don't even have to jump at water hazards! There are only two disclaimers: (1) you will crash if you jump again (it turns out that the car positions itself one pixel to the left when jumping); and (2) you have to jump back onto the roadway at the end of the level, because the car automatically drives toward the center of the screen at the end and will crash if you do not return. {David Foulke}

CHECKERS / DRAUGHTS

2 versions exist! The bug in the original version was fixed. Also, the "fixed" version has different sound effects. The "ting" was replaced with a deeper "gong", the “RAZZ” was shortened, and I think the “computer" sound was shifted down in pitch. The old version sounds "tinnier" overall. {Joseph Zbiciak}

BUG: The original version had a bug where it appeared that one of the counters could overflow, and a check was added to prevent it from doing so (in the later version). {Joseph Zbiciak}

CHIP SHOT: SUPER PRO GOLFER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

2 versions exist! They differ with their spelling of the word caddy (or caddie). {Ian Holbrough}

DEMON ATTACK

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press North + Lower Right Button on the right controller just before you take off to blast the Mother Ship and you'll notice something different. According to the BSR site, the game was written by <G>ary <K>ato. {Arnauld Chevallier}

DEEP POCKETS: SUPER PRO POOL AND BILLIARDS

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: If you press 1 on the RIGHT controller, 2 on the LEFT controller, and press RESET you’ll get a message from Steve Ettinger to his family. {Joseph Zbiciak}

DEFENDER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the RIGHT controller, holding 1+5+9+ENTER and pushing the disc UP+LEFT and pressing RESET causes the following garbled screen to appear. PDF are the initials of programmer Peter Farson. {Joseph Zbiciak}

DIG DUG

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Another Mattel programmer, Dave Warhol, put together his own private version of the game, TRON Deadly Discs, replacing the enemy warriors with the hot dogs from Burgertime. He called the result Deadly Dogs. If you want to play it, it's hidden in the INTV Corporation release of Dig Dug: press 4+7 on both hand controllers and press RESET. The Deadly Dogs title screen will appear. {BSR}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the RIGHT controller, holding 1+5+9+ENTER and pushing the disc UP+LEFT and pressing RESET reveals the message, “Programmed by Mark Kennedy”. {Joseph Zbiciak}

DONKEY KONG

BUG: You can walk inside of Donkey Kong himself! Just go up to DK on the top of the second level, running into him until you can't run anymore, then push towards him and jump. If you are lucky, you will jump inside of him! When you want to come back out, you actually walk backwards. It’s also possible to avoid enemies by hiding inside DK.

DRACULA

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Select 1 player, Easy level. Finish day 1. On day 2, run right to the first set of buildings. Run left and you should see a victim. Get him! Run back to the town and press the "1" button. The letters "AS" (Alan Smith programmer) appears where the eyes were. You can display it multiple times. {Simone Razzauti}

DRAGONFIRE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the bridge screen, press “1” and cross the bridge. The letters “AS” (Alan Smith programmer) appears as a treasure. {Arnauld Chevallier/David Harley/Simone Razzauti}

FROG BOG

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Both controller button combinations must all be done simultaneously, then press RESET - on the RIGHT controller, hold 0+5. On the LEFT, hold 3+5. The title screen will appear as “TAS & ASN & PK present Froys DEI ©1982” (picture #1). TAS is for Tom A. Soulanille and PK is for Peter Kaminski. Anyone know what ASN stands for? Also, the graphics will be different (picture #2 - Aph’s “mascot”?). {Carl Mueller}

HORSE RACING

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 6+9 on both controllers and press RESET. The color bars will turn into horse heads, and you'll get the programmer's initials, CH (for Chris Hawley), at the top of the screen. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

HOVER FORCE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

In the game, the island of New Seeburg derives its name from programmer Steve Ettinger’s initials - SEE. {BSR}

The 2nd difficulty level, “RANGER”, is named after the Blue Sky Rangers. {BSR}

LAS VEGAS POKER & BLACKJACK

2 versions exist! The copyright on the title screen has been changed from 1978 to 1979.

LAS VEGAS ROULETTE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 1+2+3 on the RIGHT controller and 1+3 on the LEFT. The screen below will then appear. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

LEARNING FUN II

BUG: While enhancing the game Crosswords, Dave Warhol (the programmer) accidentally left off a prefix that indicated a number was supposed to be base 10 instead of base 16. As a result, the computer only selects words beginning with letters A through T instead of A through Z. {BSR}

LOCK ‘N’ CHASE

2 versions exist! Turning corners was made easier; and animation of thief collapsing into his hat was added. The early version is 6K while the latter is 8K. {BSR}

BUG: If you stand in one of the tunnels (easiest with the upper) and move continuously back and forth while partway off the screen, eventually your thief will travel off the screen and disappear altogether. After a minute or two, he will reappear on the other side.

BUG: When you enter a tunnel and move the disc up and down really fast you can enter a strip that lets you ring up points quickly, but you'll also be trapped there forever. If you wrap around the screen a few times you'll hit a "wall" and sometimes be suck there forever and have to press the reset switch.

BUG: If you have cleared all the coins in a maze, lock a door directly under the top exit. Run into this locked door from above; you will stick to it. Then press up: the level will instantly end without your actually having gone out the exit.

BUG: You will often receive a bonus (sometimes several thousand points) if you are picking up a coin, vault $, or other bonus when you lose your last life at the same time.

MAGIC CAROUSEL

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Connect the twinkling stars above the carousel on the title screen to get SEE and JAF – the initials of Steve Ettinger and Joe Ferreira. {BSR}

MICROSURGEON

HIDDEN MESSAGE: The programmer’s first name, “rick” (for Rick Levine) can be found in the dark area below the jaw. {Rick Levine}

MIND STRIKE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: David Warhol's favorite number is 47 (it's a thing amongst Pomona College alumni), so board 47 reads "DAVE". {BSR}

MINEHUNTER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the menu, press [1] and [7] simultaneously to see Ryan’s message.

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On the menu, press [2] and [8] simultaneously to hear a music tune. Press [3] and [9] simultaneously to hear “Row, Row, Row your boat”.

MISSION X

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 6 on the RIGHT controller and 9 on the LEFT and hit RESET to bring up programmer John Tomlinson's name on the title screen. {BSR}

MOTOCROSS

BUG: The Mattel release does not work on European PAL systems. You can not get past the map screen. The Intv (white label) fixed the bug.

NOVA BLAST

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 1 on both controllers, and then press RESET. You'll get a screen that says, “W. BROWN ENGINEERING PRESENTS HYPERBEAM”. {Joseph Zbiciak}

PBA BOWLING

TIP: Chose a 16lb ball, 0 slickness, a left-handed bowler, then press the disc at the 7 o’clock position. As the dot becomes whole, release the disc and score a strike every time! {BSR}

PGA GOLF / GOLF

2 versions exist! In the later version, if you press ENTER you’ll get the par and distance of the hole. It’s unknown if this feature is documented in the manual. {Ian Holbrough}

ROYAL DEALER

BUG: The following steps lead to the problems with Royal Dealer. They occur in all four games. You are rearranging your cards and have a card out of the deck. Then one of the players lays down her final card and that round ends. The new round starts and you hit the disk. The card from the last hand appears. Depending on how you rearrange and throw your cards, different errors can occur. (If you hit rearrange first, the game will progress normally, and the errors never occur.) The errors that occur are: {BSR}

(1) You can rearrange the blank cards that are displayed. If you rearrange enough times, the program gets confused and the screen blanks out. You have to hit reset to start over.

(2) Sometimes when you lift up a card to rearrange, you see it where the card was. This usually occurs if this is one card by itself.

(3) If you have to draw 15 cards and they are all in a row, it usually will not let you pass. The result is that you have to hit reset to start over.

(4) In Rummy, if you win the round, the music plays and the card screen comes up. The screen doesn't show "GIN" by your hand and a card shows up in your final hand that wasn't there before.

Results are that you can't continue to the next hand, and you have to hit reset to start over.

(5) If a gap appears between your cards, you cannot get to the cards on the left side of the gap. The gap will go away if you can discard your cards on the right of the gap. If you need a heart, for example, and you draw until you have 15 cards, you may have to pass. If there is a heart on the left side of the gap, you cannot get to it, the program sees the heart, and will not allow you to pass. The result is you have to hit reset to start over.

Because of this bug, the following errata slip was added to the packaging: {BSR}

"Please correct your instruction booklet on Page 2 to read: You can only rearrange your cards each time it is your turn before playing or discarding a card from your hand. Once you have played or discarded, you must wait until your next turn before rearranging your cards."

SLAM DUNK: SUPER PRO BASKETBALL

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed.

SLAP SHOT: SUPER PRO HOCKEY

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Credits roll automatically if you leave the title screen up long enough

BUG: Go behind your opponent’s goal and hit the puck toward the back of the center portion of the goal. You’ll hear the puck quickly bounce back and forth and sometimes you’ll score a point!

SPACE ARMADA

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Both controller button combinations must all be done simultaneously, then press RESET - on the RIGHT controller, hold the lower fire buttons. On the LEFT, hold either 4+6 to get “SPAZ ARMADA”,

or hold CLEAR+ENTER for “SPACE BEASTIES” – both by “JWB” (for John W. Brooks). These alternate game variations only seem to work in ‘practice’ mode. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

SPACE BATTLE

2 versions exist! The game was speeded up for more challenging game play. {BSR}

BUG: Kill all of the aliens except for one. Next, lose all of your ships except for one, and time it so that you kill each other. The total alien count should then roll over to 99+ aliens and you will have to fight them all ("infinite fighting"). {Steve Craft}

SPACE HAWK

BUG: While testing the game, Bill Fisher (programmer) came across a bug: every now and then, the game would, seemingly at random, hyperspace you. He and his boss, Mike Minkoff, went over the code with a fine-tooth comb before realizing what the problem was: the Intellivision hand controllers encode button presses in such a way that an action (side) key pressed at the same time as particular directions on the disc will be interpreted instead as a numeric key being pressed. There was no software way around this; shooting while moving would occasionally be interpreted as pressing 9 -- the hyperspace button. After several days of puzzling over a solution, the bug was ultimately "fixed" by including the following note in the instruction manual: {BSR}

"Every once in a while, your space hunter will move near a 'black hole,' and the computer will automatically put him into HYPERSPACE. This will cost you the same number of points as if you had pressed the HYPERSPACE key yourself. On the other hand, it will save your hunter."

SPACE SPARTANS

BUG: The level counter is not checked properly -- it allows you to reach one higher level than it's supposed to. On that "level," you can reposition the alien bases as if they were your own. {BSR}

SPIKER: SUPER PRO VOLLEYBALL

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: If you press 1 on both controllers and hit RESET, the game menu will be renamed "Kyle & Russell's Menu" {Joseph Zbiciak}

STAR STRIKE

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 1+9 or 3+7 on the LEFT controller. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

2 versions exist! The later version corrected a bug, which sometimes made the ship hard to steer with the left controller. {BSR}

BUG: Hold down the left controller disk in a single position while simultaneously pressing one of the top action keys. The fighter will soon remain in a fixed position on the screen. Release the disk to unfreeze the fighter. {BSR}

STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

2 versions exist! In the US and Canadian versions, the Star War theme sounds when “the power is with you” and when the snowspeeder is invulnerable. In the European version, there is no music in the title screen and a weird, ugly sound when “the power is with you”.

SUB HUNT

Presssing CLEAR+0+ENTER and pointing the disc to “west-north-west” on the RIGHT controller causes the screen to shake and all the letters “fall off” the screen. {Joseph Zbiciak}

STONIX

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Access hidden levels by holding down [7] on the left controller and [5] on the right controller when the “Arnauld Chevallier Presents” appears on the screen. The following screen appears shortly after.

HIDDEN FUNCTION: Enter pass code of 250775. The "ACCESS DENIED" message will flash. Go back to the main menu with [Clear] or enter a valid pass code. During game play, press [Clear] to go to next level, [0] to go directly to level 100, or [9] to set number of lives to 9.

SUPER PRO FOOTBALL

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed.

2 versions exist! The bug described below was fixed in the later version. {Ian Holbrough}

BUG: The cartridges were manufactured before anyone tried the game in an Intellivision II – and discovered that the quarterback didn’t appear on the screen until after the ball was hiked. An errata slip had to be included with the (already-printed) instructions. {BSR}

SWORDS & SERPENTS

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Walk around the interior of the dragon's lair and avoid getting killed by the black knights and evil wizards. The initials of the programmer, Brian P. Dougherty, will eventually appear.

THE ELECTRIC COMPANY WORD FUN

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Press 43210 during word rockets mode. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

BUG: The game won't work when plugged into an Intellivision II, since it uses its own copyright routine. A feature to keep early Coleco-produced Intellivision cartridges from working in the Intellivision II inadvertently keeps it from working also. Marketing didn't feel the game was important enough to hold up release of Intellivision II to fix the problem. {BSR}

THIN ICE

You can play as either of two different characters- Duncan or Voochko (there was a plan to have an ‘Olympic’ version of this game made, with either of these as the game’s mascot, but this idea was shelved). To switch between them, hold ENTER on the LEFT controller, CLEAR on the RIGHT controller, and press RESET.

TROPICAL TROUBLE

Steve De Frisco’s initials can be found in every screen. When chasing down the gorilla, the handkerchief will drop. Pick it it up for “SD” points.

When crossing the bridge, you need to touch the gorilla, as he is falling, press [2] & [3] on both controllers. The initials will show up at the bottom of the screen. {Simone Razzauti}

THUNDER CASTLE

The game will cycle through all 3 levels if no key is pressed.

Look closely at the splash screens prior to level 2 and 3. You will see many “CG” images. Connie Goldman programmed her initials into the screens. On the second splash screen, the staff handle spells out “Connie”.

TOWER OF DOOM

HIDDEN MESSAGE: By typing 1-1-2-6-5-6, a “ticker-tape” style message from programmer Daniel Bass may appear (but since he didn’t do the final programming for the game, this may have been removed). {Daniel Bass}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: To display the credits, press 0 on either controller while the title screen is displayed. {BSR}

TRIPLE ACTION

BUG: In Biplanes, horizontal-flying bullets headed directly at the narrow spot on the upper half of the tower sometimes fly right through it, as if the tower wasn't there.

BUG: Although the game ends when one player reaches 15 points, bullets in the air at that point are allowed to score. It's possible, therefore, to have a game with a 15-15 tie, or to win with 16 points. {BSR}

TRON DEADLY DISCS

BUG: There is a trick that pretty much lets you rack up unlimited points, as first pointed out in a letter Mattel received November 3, 1982 from Steven M. Little, an Intellivision owner in Minneapolis: "Once you are able to open the top left and top right doors, which enables you to go in one door and out the other...just step out the right top or left top door and stay there...90% of the enemy discs go through you and your man is not hit or destroyed. If you stay at that position, you can reach a score of 1,000,000 very easily by just breaking the enemy's discs and throwing your disc just enough to keep only one enemy on the board at all times. Once you reach close to a million points, don't destroy any more warriors. Just hold your disc in the block mode and break discs. If you do get hit just go back and forth for repair. (Never throw disc to destroy warrior for you may get a replacement that carries the stick.) I went from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 with no problem." {BSR}

TRON Maze-A-Tron

Pause trick: Deactivate a Recognizer near a Flip-Flop, and then enter the Flip-Flop. The screen will keep changing direction and no enemies will come your way as long as the deactivated Recognizer stays on the screen.

TRON SOLAR SAILER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: When you enter the access code on track one, append Keith Robinson's birthday -- 991955 -- to the code before pressing enter. He'll wish you luck before the next phase of the game. {BSR}

TRUCKIN’

HIDDEN MESSAGE: If you are driving in Northern California, in the San Jose area, there’s a hidden highway that goes to Imagic. Basically, you have to find the path to the old Imagic HQ in Los Gatos, CA. Having a road map (such as Rand McNally) helps, since the route does not show up on the map in the instruction booklet. If not, the following directions will suffice: {Rick Levine}

(1) From the title screen, press 1-1-8-1. This takes the defaults and gives you a full tank of gas, heading northbound out of San Diego. A no-load, timed contest.

(2) Accelerate, but stay below 24 MPH, in order to make the necessary turns.

(3) Make the 1st left onto I-10, heading eastbound to LA.

(4) Keep going east, straight towards the coast. I-10 will end and you will automatically be turned north to Hollywood (HO) on US#01 (actually 101).

(5) Stay due north through Santa Cruz (SZ).

(6) As soon as you approach San Jose (SJ), look for the 1st left. Turn here.

(7) You are now on Route 9 eastbound. A little ways on this road and you’ve found it! The road will show the Imagic sign off into the horizon. The SJ city code will change into “RL” (for Rick Levine). You can also see this coming from the opposite direction.

{step-by-step info by Al Backiel}

U.S. SKI TEAM SKIING

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On both controllers hold either 4+8 or 5+7, and then press RESET. The finish line banner will then read “PENDRAGON”. {from Chris Hawley’s “Copyright Kludge” file}

BUG: Face your skier horizontally and ski into the edge of the screen while the timer is on the screen. Allow the game to remain at this screen to force the timer to eventually roll over the numeric characters and begin to display text and graphics blocks. {John F. Ayo}

USCF CHESS

Russ Ludwick (programmer) tested the program by playing countless games against the cartridge at all levels. He found that when playing at the highest levels, the cartridge was good, but slow. He got in the habit of making a move, then going home and letting the Intellivision think about a response overnight. Because of this, three features were added:

(1) the normal Intellivision time-out feature was disabled,

(2) a feature letting you switch to an easier level in the middle of a move was added, and

(3) a warning that moves at higher levels could take hours, or days, was put into the instruction book. {BSR}

UTOPIA

BUG: On the right island, there is a two-by-three rectangle at the upper left. Just to the right of this block is a one-square bottleneck with water directly above and below it. Sail a boat (fishing or PT) as if to sail directly into this bottleneck, and 'push' against the resisting sandbar until you're as far as you can go. Dock (press 0), move the cursor towards the land until the minimum needed to control the boat is within the cursor, and select the boat again. You should be able to sail directly over the land and come out on the other side. Note: in this mode you will not be able to park your boat anywhere and you will not get your cursor back. The only way to resume normal boating is to travel the reverse path. The diagram below illustrates the approximate path:

VECTRON

HIDDEN MESSAGE: With the right combination of maneuvers with the energy block, you can get Mark Urbaniec's name to appear on screen, with the message, “MARK H. URBANIEC SEZ TO WATCH YOUR AIM”. Since Mattel forbid hiding names in games, Mark made sure that the combination was so complicated that no one would stumble across it by accident. Well, he did such a good job hiding it, that he can't quite remember anymore how to do it. {BSR} Luckily, Joseph Zbiciak managed to “decipher” the method:

(1) For # of players, press 9. This will start a single-player game.

(2) End the first 7 levels with your "energy block" in the following positions. Positions are counted from left to right, with the left-most being 0, and the right-most being 8: Level 1 – 0, Level 2 – 5, Level 3 – 1, Level 4 – 5, Level 5 – 5, Level 6 – 8, Level 7 – 7.

(3) At the game summary screen (where it shows you how you did), it waits for you to press a key to continue. Press the number on the keypad that cooresponds to the same sequence above. That is, after Level 1, press 0. After Level 2, press 5, etc.

(4) If you complete this long, crazy sequence, you’ll get the following screen:

According to the instruction book, if you beat the top level, #99, you will be rewarded with "a special little visual treat." The treat? Due to space constraints, there was only room for a message reading "Congratulations. You are very good." The difficulty increases so much, though, that it is thought to be impossible to beat level 99. {BSR}

WHITE WATER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: On any game version, at the start, go up the river to the next beach, disembark, and go to the forest screen. “DOUG” (for programmer Douglas A. Fults) will appear in the upper-left corner. It will then be on every forest screen, and also on the river screen when the game ends. {Todd Rogers}