Trevor Mc Fur in the Crescent Galaxy Author: DJ Tigresa and MC Pantera Email: djtigresa@classicgaming.com, mcpantera@classicgaming.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Attention all Circle Reserve units The Crescent Galaxy has fallen. It has been conquered by an enti ty known as Odd-It, whose only passion is to make every living thing odd, like it. All of the planets in the Galaxy are under his rule and are guarded by his blockade. Our main armada has nearly perished while battling Odd-It, and now you’re our only hope...” So begins your day as Trevor McFur, a corporal in the Crescent Galaxy’s chapter of the Interplanetary Defense Squad, known as the Circle Reserves. You and your female feline partner Cutter set your coordinates for home and engage at warp nine. Every planet in the Crescent Galaxy has been attacked by Odd-It’s minions. You and Cutter split up, with Cutter taking the shuttle craft and sneaking through each moon’s blockade to get help below while you battle the deadly armadas in the sky above. Odd-It’s main base is on the planet Cosmolite. It can only be penetrated by first destroying the enemies on the four moons that surround Cosmolite. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most basic strategy in any shooter is to avoid enemy fire. Instead of watching the enemies as they come onto the right side of the screen, look at the bullets headed toward your ship and avoid them. As long as you keep firing while you dodge enemy fire, you’ll destroy most of your enemies without even looking at them. If you hold down Button C, your ship continuously fires its cannon, and if you hold down Button B, your ship continuously drops bombs. The only problem is that the cannon (and bombs) fire slowly—too slowly to really be effective against the hordes of enemies. It’s better if you rapidly press Buttons C and B to unleash a stream of weapons—the faster you press the buttons, the faster your ship fires. If you fire fast enough, you can destroy most enemies while they’re still on the far right side of the screen. Don’t try to blindly switch between Special Weapons; instead, press PAUSE and look at the keypad. In the heat of battle, it’s way too easy to activate the wrong Special Weapon and pay the price by being blown to bits. That’s bad. You can safely fly behind the foreground objects in every level except Grottoneria. Play through the moons in this order: Osseous, Grottoneria, Equilibriumite, and Zephyria. This way, you alternate between moons with Power-Up Stations (see below) and moons without them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power Up Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Save your Power-Ups for the harder stages (Moon Surfaces) instead of using them to make easy stages (Space Zones) even easier. If a Power-Up Enemy appears on the screen, pick up any Power-Ups floating around before you destroy it. Otherwise, no Power-Up will appear when the enemy is destroyed, because only one Power-Up can be on the screen at a time. The Ring Power-Up is most effective when your ship is surrounded by enemies. Make sure there aren’t any enemies behind your ship when you use the Magnet Power-Up; oth erwise, the Magnet will draw them into your ship. There are three levels in the game—Osseous, Equilibriumite, and Cosmolite—with Power-Up Stations. These Stations are giant Circle Reserve ships that shoot out Power-Ups for you to grab. The Power-Ups always come out of the same spot on the Station, so if you posi tion your ship correctly, you’ll catch Power- Ups as fast as the Station can spit them out. Move your ship just to the right of the flag on the Station, and just above the blue windows, and watch your Power-Ups build. Some enemies leave behind a Power-Up when you destroy them, but others don’t. That’s why we’ve placed the enemies on each moon into two categories: Regular Enemies (the ones that don’t leave behind Power-Ups when destroyed) and Power-Up Enemies (the ones that do). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End Boss Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The best Power-Ups against End Bosses are the Beam, Flash, and Missile. Don’t use the Tracer on End Bosses; it’s much more effec tive against smaller enemies. Shoot the Missile Power-Up directly into the middle of the End Boss to cause the most dam age (up to 20% of its energy). The Shield Power-Up is extremely useful against End Bosses if you use the proper attack technique. Activate the Shield, move your ship right onto the End Boss, and fire your weapons rapidly to cause major damage. Move back to the left side of the screen, and away from the End Boss, when the Shield starts blinking, which means it’s about to disappear. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bonus World ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whenever you complete a moon, you jump into the Bonus World to collect Power-Ups by flying through Space Rings. Here are the only two strategies you need for this World. Strategy #1: When the screen starts scrolling quickly, don’t try going through every Ring. Instead, stay in one location on the screen and avoid any Rings that get in your way. Strategy #2: Rapidly press the PAUSE button for a slow-motion effect that can help you get through the Rings without crashing. You may even be able to make it all the way through the Bonus World! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Space Zones ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Asteroids hurl through space, destroying everything in their path. Blobs break up into smaller blobs that some times move toward your ship. Pyramids spin and break up, becoming dead ly fragments. POWER-UP ENEMIES Cubes are box shapes you don’t want to mess with. Spherey is a quick little sucker with orbiting moonlets, which break off toward your ship. STRATEGIES Bombs are the most effective weapon against Sphereys, since they always attack from the bottom of the screen. Simply move to the top of the screen and rain bombs at them from above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Osseous ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Flying Rats are winged beasts that attack viciously with their tails. Geysers are a natural energy force that spurt abrupt blasts of nuclear steam from the moon’s core. Purple Spheres bounce straight up and down the screen. Scorpions are really alloy replicas, and hunt in wild packs. Skeletal Vultures are cyher-predators that fire lethal energy shots. POWER-UP ENEMIES Firebugs are dragon-like bugs that shoot at you. Pop-Up Poppies rise straight up quickly; the larger ones may contain either Flying Rats or Power-Ups! STRATEGIES The safest time to go through a Geyser is just after the last eruption. There’s a long pause before the Geyser erupts again, so you don’t have to worry about being hit. You can fly underneath some of the Geysers without being destroyed. Look for the Geysers that are slightly higher than the others. The End Boss of the Space Zone is a flying robot that shoots groups of three missiles at your ship. Keep moving and the missiles will always miss. The bottom tail of the End Boss can be destroyed for a Power-Up. The End Boss of the Moon Surface is the Skull Creature. It fires little spikes into the air, and every few seconds it fires a large electric spark straight at your ship. You can destroy the Creature’s claw, and the two horns on its head, so that it doesn’t fire as many spikes at you. The Creature’s head is its weak point, so shoot it in the noggin to cause the most damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grottoneria ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Bats are bionically enhanced, very deadly, and precise due to electronic radar. Cyber Spiders may not scare you, but their erratic movement can destroy your spacecraft. When killed, baby spiders often come out! Dinos run the corridors and mazes underground. Especially avoid packs of them. Flying Dinos are equipped with wings, making them easier to kill than their land-lubber cousins. POWER-UP ENEMIES Boulders are big, round, and brown. Slugs have a powerful weapon: slime! Stalagtites abound in the underground, and are often dislodged by the vibrations of a passing space fighter. STRATEGIES Always watch the top of the screen for Stalagtites, because they’re the most dangerous ‘enemy” in this level. They always fall in the same place on the screen—slightly left of center—so you should stay on the far left or in the middle of the screen. You can shoot the Stalagtites while they’re still in the cave ceiling. The End Boss of the Space Zone is a purple- and-gold robot that shoots purple fireballs straight to the left from its belly, and shoots blue fireballs at your ship from its arm can nons. You can stay at the bottom of the screen and shoot the End Boss in the feet without get ting hit by fireballs. The End Boss of the Moon Surface is the Que zecoati monster. It bounces left and right, shooting fireballs to the left and also at your ship. Destroy the bouncy bottom half of the End Boss for a Power-Up. You can also destroy the monster’s claws for two more Power-Ups. The head is the monster’s weak spot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equilibriumite ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Ferns may be nice when they’re tended well, hut on Equilibriumite they’re out for revenge. Gundinos may try to surround you and hover—shoot or take cover. Pillbugs follow the ship and curl into a ball when disturbed. Sadmasks are full of wrath; don’t crash into them! Seymours move fast and fire rapidly, then retreat to safety. They’re also very deadly! Skullbats may zoom in from below and some times attack in groups. Spitting Flowers bloom at the bottom of the screen and shoot their spores straight up. POWER-UP ENEMIES Fireffies are electric, frantic, and attack from all angles STRATEGIES There are several Fireflies at the beginning of the Moon Surface stage—which means several Power-Ups—but there are almost none of them after that. In other words, if your ship is destroyed during the stage, you’re going to have a very hard time getting Cannon or Bomb Power-Ups until you reach the Power-Up Station. The End Boss of the Space Zone is a huge robot that shoots at you with its mouth, two claws, and tail gun. You can destroy the tail gun and the two claws for Power-Ups. The middle of the End Boss is its weak spot. The End Boss of the Moon Surface is a giant mud man that hurls mud balls at your ship. Mud balls also fly at you from the right side of the screen. This is the most difficult boss (except for Odd-It) because of the speed of the mudballs, but here’s a sneaky strategy you can use. Move your ship to the bottom and middle of the screen. Move your ship up to dodge the mud ball from the right side of the screen, then move back down. The mud balls being thrown by the mud man will never hit you because you’re too close to him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zephyria ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Huminingbirds fly in groups or individually. They’re small, deadly, and fast! Spinners swoop down in groups and swarm around your ship. POWER-UP ENEMIES Cyber Cherubs are trying to make a match; you and their deadly fireballs! Dragons breathe deadly bursts of flames. STRATEGIES The End Boss of the Space Zone is a flying hawk robot that shoots from its head and body. The hawk’s entire body is its weak spot, so shoot like crazy. The End Boss of the Moon Surface is a flying dragonfish that slowly shoots blue fireballs in ran dom directions and red fireballs directly at your ship. You can destroy the dragonfish’s wings for two Power-Ups, then shoot its body to destroy it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cosmolite ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR ENEMIES Eyeballs do more than watch! Starbots emerge from foreground towers and periodically dart toward you. Taxifish travel in schools. Towers generate electricity beams which fry your ship when touched. POWER-UP ENEMIES Yellow Robots have long arms and short bod ies, and usually hover on the right side of the screen. STRATEGIES Keep shooting Ofl the Moon Surface to destroy the Starbots as they pop out of the background to attack you. The End Boss of the Space Zone is a giant robot that shoots rings, fireballs, and missiles at your ship. You can destroy the head to disable the fireballs, but the rings and missiles keep coming until you destroy the Boss. The End Boss of the Moon Surface is almighty Odd-It. It doesn’t have much of a pattern. In fact, it just bounces left and right on the screen and rapidly shoots fireballs at you. You’d better have some Shield Power-Ups, because you’ll need them to survive. Unleash all of your Power-Up weapons on Odd-It to destroy it and win the game. Congrats! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top-Secret Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Invincibility and Other Cheats: You need two controllers to activate and use Crescent Galaxy’s cheat mode. At the title screen, enter 1193 (November 1993, the release date of Crescent Galaxy— ain’t that interesting?) on Controller 1. You won’t hear or see anything, so you won’t know if you entered the code correctly until you begin the game. During the game, press the following but tons on Controller 2 to activate the various cheats: Left and Right to slow down or speed up the background graphics and the enemies. C to use the currently selected Special Weapon without reducing the number of Special Weapons you have left (you need at least one of the selected Special Weapon for this trick to work). B and A to slow down or speed up the foreground scrolling. 1 to power up your gun. 2 to cycle through the bomb power-ups. 3 to mark the other moons as complete. 4 to make your ship invincible. 0 to cycle through the sound effects. * to play a sound effect. OPTION to skip to the next stage.