Domino Man(Arcade) FAQ version 1.1.0 copyright 2002-2004 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net Please do not redistribute this FAQ for profit without my consent. I write these documents for the memories and to help others to relive them as well, and in addition Domino Man is a pretty tough game on later levels. However, sending me an e-mail asking me for this game 1. by its name and 2. by my first name *should* get you a more favorable response, although I am very bad about responding to e-mails. **AD SPACE** My home page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE POEMS!!!! 3. SCORING 4. GENERAL LUMPING LEVELS TOGETHER 5. GENERAL STRATEGY 6. THE BAD GUYS 6-1. THE BEE 6-2. THE BULLY 6-3. THE CLOCK 6-4. THE DOG 6-5. 3X+1 BAD GUYS 6-6. 3X+2 BAD GUYS 6-7. 3X+3 BAD GUYS 7. BUGS IN THE GAME 8. SOME CHEATS ACTUALLY MAKE THE GAME BETTER 9. ABOUT THE LEVELS [ctrl-F for #[level]] LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5 LEVEL 6 LEVEL 7 LEVEL 8 LEVEL 9 LEVEL 10 LEVEL 11 LEVEL 12 LEVEL 13 LEVEL 14 LEVEL 15 10. AND BEYOND 11. INTERLUDE SPOILERS 12. VERSIONS 13. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Yay! At last a game that provides a chance for bald guys to shine(and not just on the top of their heads.) I mean real bald guys, not pumped-up Rambos who shave their heads to look extra scary. Fellas whose paunch is bigger than their punch. What a thrill for us potential future bald guys. Domino Man packs a ton of quirkiness into a small bit of RAM. Your object is to place a bunch of dominoes at various dots around the screen to complete a level. You'll have interfering with you a bee, which you can swat but which cannot knock down your dominoes, a bully who runs straight down the screen(but he's also helpful,) and a bunch of other random bad guys who will cause a domino chain reaction if they touch an upright domino. Obviously it can be frustrating to get your work torn down after a while and to make matters worse you lose a life if you touch the bee or have the leftmost domino knocked down--whether by a clock at the left edge of the screen or by one of the random bad guys who bump into it. Given that the bad guys' paths are random, at the later levels they will frequently knock over dominoes and you can't help it(including the left one,) but there is a good deal of strategy up until then. Oh yeah, the skits every three levels and the poems you get at the end of the game are cute too. The game keeps you coming back for more at first('I just got unlucky') until, after your strategy is refined, you really do get horribly unlucky and overpowered. 2. POEMS Ah yes. The poems. You don't just get a 'game over' at the end of a rigorous session of Domino Man. You get a 'roses are red' poem. It's the most memorable game ending I've heard, above even Choplifter's haunting ditty. In fact, you get a different one depending on how well you played. I've listed them all here, with the final domino tallies. Any domino you put down on the board counts as one, even if you pick it up later or if someone else knocks it over. So dominos and scores/levels are not correlated. For roses are red poems they're pretty good, only using one rhyme twice(rain) and that in a different context. Maybe they could have another few--I listed possibilities below. 0-9 dominoes up: Roses are red And need lots of water With only x up You just blew a quarter 10-25 dominoes up: Roses are red And so is your face If xx dominoes Is all you could place 26-35 dominoes up: Roses are red With passion they burn You set up xx Just practice and learn 36-45 dominoes up: Roses are red And grow even redder With xx set up You will get better 46-55 dominoes up: Roses are red Or so goes the verse You set up xx You could have done worse 56-65 dominoes up: Roses are red And need lots of rain After setting up xx dominoes You should try this again 66-75 dominoes up: Roses are red And smell up the place But xx dominoes Is no sign of disgrace 76-85 dominoes up: Roses are red Some white even black With xx set up You are on the right track 86-99 dominoes up: Roses are red The girls love them madly Xx dominoes Is not doing too badly 100-109 dominoes up: Roses are red And sometimes are white With xxx dominoes You are showing some fight 110-119 dominoes up: Roses are red With dew drops they shine Your xxx dominoes Is doing just fine 120-129 dominoes up: Roses are red And violets are blue You got xxx up My hats off to you 130-149 dominoes up: Roses are red And grow in the sun You put up xxx You son of a gun 150-169 dominoes up: Roses are red And like their roots damp With xxx up You play like a champ 170-189 dominoes up: Roses are red Or even vermilion You got xxx Now go for a million 190-209 dominoes up: Roses are red And have fanciful names With xxx put up You are quite good at games 210-229 dominoes up: Roses are red And have bees in for dinner Xxx dominoes Makes you a sure winner 230-259 dominoes up: Roses are red Or so i have been told With xxx set up You knocked this game cold 260-299 dominoes up: Roses are red Petunias are not You put up xxx That is hotter than hot 300-349 dominoes up: Roses are red They are sold by the dozen You set up xxx The whole place is buzzin 350-424 dominoes up: Roses are red Like no other flower With xxx set up You have domino power 425-524 dominoes up: Roses are red Even when plastic Your set up of xxx Is super fantastic 525-624 dominoes up: Roses are red In sunshine or rain You set up xxx You are a domino brain 625-3624 dominoes up: Roses are red Like the bullys complexion Your score of xxxx Is certainly perfection If your # of dominoes is less than 1000, you get the ugly 0877 dominoes put up. And it probably will be. If you have > 3624 dominoes the game goes bonkers. You have Roses are red/AIL/[garbage text]. But this shouldn't happen unless you cheat on MAME and undo the cheats later in the game. Personal suggestion: Roses are red But rare ones are yellow With xxx set up You're one clever fellow! Roses are red Their stems though are green Your fine score of xxx Deserves to be seen And a tribute to the game itself: Roses are red And often quite thorny This game is still great And lovably corny. And my review tagline: Roses are red Violets are blue This game's got great gags And strategy too! 3. SCORING You lose a life if 1) the bee touches you, or 2) the domino on the far left is knocked over, by the clock or by a random bad guy. --100 for each domino put up --500 for the money bag that appears after you swat the bee --1 for each square you move a bad guy --51 for each vertical square you move a swatted bad guy --Extra men at 25000 and every 40000(i.e. 65000, 105000, 145000.) At the end of a level you are given the option of knocking a bunch of dominos down or waiting and gambling. You get 100 bonus per domino for knocking the dominoes down right away, but for each successive level you solve you get an extra 100 per dominoes. However if you lose a guy the bonus is reset to 100 but can be built back up. The downside of this gamble is: 1. the game may be over before you get a chance to knock dominoes down. 2. if your first(anchor) domino gets knocked down, then all dominoes in the previous scene are knocked down, for which you get no points in addition to losing a life. And having potentially a long death scene to watch. In general I let the gamble accumulate for levels 1-4 and, if I'm feeling lucky, 5-6 and maybe 7. I always let it accumulate on level 3x, because the 3x+1 levels are easy. Also level 12 is rather easy and you can risk the accumulation there for a final burst of points. Assuming(conservatively) 30 dominoes per level that means the following bonuses: Knock down at level 5: 75000 bonus(60000 more than 15000 for knocking down right away) + at least 15000(30*100*5) for dominoes Knock down at level 7: 147000 bonus(+126000) + at least 21000 for dominoes. With re-put-ups and money bags you'll have at least 185000 meaning five extra guys. Knock down at level 8: 192000 bonus + 24000 = 216000. You'll probably have 9000 for an extra guy at 225000. So you can really hit the jackpot with your first bonus, and it can shape your final score considerably. Given how much tougher the game gets on level 9 you're strongly unlikely to have a good streak again, so a bad-luck early slip on an early level can be a big pain. By my strategy you also get an extra 3000 per 3x level as the dominoes are multiplied by 200 and not 100. 4. GENERAL LUMPING LEVELS TOGETHER Level 3x+1 has a city background and relatively few enemies. It is the easiest of the three. You can probably always get through it with one guy. Level 3x+2 has a golf course background and one enemy moving diagonally. The bully tends to move down near a knot in a loop. Level 3x+3 has a scaffold/construction/cement mixer background. It's the toughest with two diagonally moving guys who will knock over your hard work continually. 5. GENERAL STRATEGY --if a bad guy moves horizontally, then you'll want to push him vertically so he is not able to knock over dominoes. If you push him out of the screen he will appear somewhere else random. On the later levels this is almost always a bad thing. Pushing him to the edge assured he'll be out of commision for a while. --if you wish to push a bad guy over a range of dominoes, then you will need to hold down the button to do so. Otherwise you will try to put up a domino and push the bad guy, and progress will be very slow. --try to use the bully to block out bad guys. If a bad guy runs into the bully while his pants are down, there's a logjam. A bad guy may also appear on top of the bully. --suicide may not be such a bad idea if the clock is about to tip over the first domino and you can't finish the board anyway, or a chain reaction has started that will have disastrous effects. --swat diagonal movers ASAP but don't push them horizontally unless you want to get them out of the way. --save the right side for last. If you have only ten seconds to clear any part out, try to clear the bottom part out. It's the toughest part to get to immediately. --to vary on the point above, the bottom part is the hardest part to clear out when you re-start a level. --one good strategy is: don't try to go straight from right to left. Leave an occasional hole when building your chain and fill in the last three when you're 90% done. That way an unlucky knock-down will only cost 1/3 or 1/4 of your effort. --never swat around the leftmost domino. It will be picked up and you will kill yourself. --never knock down the dominoes on level 3x. If you can solve it you can solve the next level and get a bonus of 200 per domino. It's a small bonus but nice. --good players should, barring a wretched burst of luck, be able to get to level 5 without losing a guy. Obviously there is a huge payoff if you get through to level 7 or 8 but the risk is serious. I find I always lose on level 9. --if two monsters are close together you can take both out with a swat. That's because you move the domino backwards. --early on(3x+1 in general) you should be able to put up a lot of dominoes and put them back down to pile up points. This is impractical on later levels where survival is paramount but if you are close to an extra guy you may not mind dominoes getting knocked down. Note that you actually get the least possible points if you put up all dominoes without distraction--an odd contradiction. No time bonus or anything. On the other hand people with bad luck are rewarded with the cute domino count at the end of the game. 6. THE BAD GUYS All bad guys who knock out your dominoes, except for the Bully, have a tendency to change direction. They're pretty sneaky and it's annoying when one turns around just when you think you got rid of him. First, the three bad guys that appear right away. In general you'd like to swat bad guys but beware that if you do then any domino in your immediate vicinity that you've put up may disappear. Of course sometimes you may want to break a too-long string of dominoes but it can be annoying. 6-1. THE BEE The bee appears in half the time it takes the first monster to appear. You are about twice as fast on it, and first it aligns vertically with you and horizontally. You hear a 'hover' noise in the background as it approaches. You generally want to attack it from the bottom and the side. Since you cannot swat vertically, position yourself diagonally down(notice how the domino swings, behind you, up and down.) The bee is at worst a minor nuisance and gives you a nice bonus if you bash it and pick up the money. But try to keep below it when it gets quite close(not always easy as it comes from the bottom of the screen to start.) You can run faster than the bee but if you are putting up dominoes then it will be able to catch up with you. So at times you may want to hold down the swat button running from it. The money stays out for four seconds after you smack the bee, and the bee appears five seconds after last hit regardless of what you do with the money. 6-2. THE BULLY The bully, with his walking forward low-karate-blocks, looks intimidating even with that stupid heart t-shirt. However he is actually useful to you if you know how to use him. See, his path is predictable and he'll never double back. He becomes a useful obstacle midway through the level. Folks that would knock down dominoes now run into him. Whack him with a domino and his pants will fall down and he will pause red- faced for five seconds, and you can even push him from behind to move him more quickly into a good position. In addition if you run him into a bad guy, they may become entangled(the graphics get a bit ugly) and effectively take out one source of stress for you until the bully disappears. When there is a huge crest in the middle(i.e. the bully would nail the dominoes early) leave that part alone a bit and push him through before swatting him. Otherwise try to swat him repeatedly to make a nuisance out of him to the bad guys, who don't turn back automatically when running into him. The bully comes out about ten seconds after the level starts, and he takes twenty-five seconds to go all the way down if you do not interfere. If he runs into dominoes he does not stop his path. On levels 3x+1 and 3x+3 he appears in the middle, but on level 3x+2 he appears to the side of a crossroad(if there is any) away from the loop. Otherwise he comes down the middle. 6-3. THE CLOCK The clock doesn't actually hurt you, but it makes a beeline(clockwise, natch) for the domino on the far left after starting in the upper right. In general it seems to walk at a constant pace so in fact if the leftmost domino on the upper left instead of the lower left you will have a bit of extra time on a level. If a clock is close to the leftmost domino and you haven't cashed in on previous levels' dominoes, consider suicide. I mean, not in real life. Dude, remember there is a difference between the art of stacking dominoes and life. While most monsters physically interfere with each other, the clock can overlap any other monster, or you, with no problem. But time is mystical that way and stuff. 6-4. THE DOG The spotted dog appears on level 4 and then every level thereafter. He often moves up and down slightly between horizontal jaunts. He's not the biggest nuisance you have to face, but as an addition to the usual suspects he provides immediate annoyance value. At least he does not make a puddle that causes Domino Man to slip. He never pauses when he changes direction and frequently will knock over dominoes above him that he doesn't quite seem to be reaching. 6-5. 3X+1 BAD GUYS The washer woman travels vertically and can be pushed to face the other way. You can also swat her and move her horizontally. If she's on the left you may just want to push her away from the dominoes, but if she's on the right, you can push her out of commission on the right edge for a while. She also doesn't reverse direction much at all. Fortunately, unlike the bully, if you swat her, her clothes don't drop[she's a bit frumpy, isn't she?] The ice cream man(he's hauling a big ice cream sundae glass or something) moves horizontally and requires you to keep a few more tabs on him. But he can still be pushed to the top or the bottom as you go about clearing the level. He also doesn't change direction much. Neither of these two will be as annoying as the dog who seems a bit faster and less predictable than they are. 6-6. 3X+2 BAD GUYS Monsters reverse direction a bit more here, so you just can't push them away. They also seem a bit faster. However they can still be moved out of the way even if one diagonal mover(another reason to hate golfers) appears. The golf cart is pretty annoying(what is that guy drinking, anyway?) and reverses a lot(pretty snazzy for a golf cart.) It moves horizontally. The gopher frequently pauses with a bright look on his face before continuing the way he was or reversing. I recommend making his decision for him if he is close by. The golfer should be swatted whenever you get near him. If only a giant domino were a better weapon than a golf club in the real world. The golfer tends to move around diagonally and more drunkenly than the guy in the golf cart. Remember not to push the golfer to the side(up/down is OK) after swatting him or he will be un-bashed and unabashed about getting back to knocking dominoes over. His movement is inherently random, but once you start getting lots of dominoes up he is a major nuisance. When you push him he moves off in the direction rather quickly, which isn't always good(he may break out of it, but more seriously, he may go off the screen to reappear randomly.) He tends to appear from the sides and my paranoia tells me(and is probably wrong) that he hunts for dominoes you've put up when appearing. With the ways he zooms around he is bound to hit something unless you bottle him up. 6-7. 3X+3 BAD GUYS The dumb guy with the ladder is a bit faster than the golfer and sways around a bit more, as you'd expect someone who doesn't seem to be looking. He circles about diagonally frequently and when he comes in from the right WILL knock down your domino chain. The construction worker with the jackhammer/pogo stick is a bit slower but more persistent. It's never clear to tell which way each one is going/will go so often you have to shoo either off when he gets close. Compared to the construction worker with the jackhammer, the guy with the ladder doesn't change direction as much after you push him in a certain direction. However he moves around a bit quicker. But what is annoying about each one is that he tends to tip over dominoes he doesn't quite seem to be touching--the pogo stick worker especially. The barrow-boy(from 'delightful barrow-boy,' a description in Martin Amis's _Success_) is fairly easy to deal with. He moves horizontally and can be safely kicked to the top or bottom. He doesn't seem to reverse direction much compared to his other cohorts, although he seems wilier than the 3X+1/2 bad guys in this respect. Push him to the vertical extremes. 7. BUGS IN THE GAME Domino Man is a fun game for quite a while but after some time the chance just unloads on you. You'll get dominoes knocked down, your first domino taken out, and not nearly enough time. --you can get tangled up with the golf cart or the barrow boy. If this happens then you will be forced to push him off the screen. --two bad guys can get tangled up together which is a bug to take advantage of(especially the bully, if you swat him.) The graphics also look a bit ugly here as enemies flicker trying to move around. --often your swats will miss. You have to be perfect level with or below the bee. This may not be a bug but seems like one--it makes sense because you move the domino in the half circle above you, but it's not intuitive where it starts. Perhaps it should start at your feet and be forgiving, especially since... --bad guys, especially diagonal ones, knock down dominoes without even touching them(the wind rushing past from their movements, I guess.) --you can be killed just as you're putting up a domino, meaning that you're stuck smiling while the bee jumps on you. It's a bit odd. --not critical, but if your leftmost domino is knocked down and Domino Man runs through a golf course trying to save his chain, he'll outrun the cascading dominoes off the screen. Head off the wave, dummy! 8. SOME CHEATS ACTUALLY MAKE THE GAME BETTER If you use MAME you will be able to toggle the following options: --freeze bee[nice, but it's not that much of a nuisance] --freeze bully[quite entertaining if you drop him in the right place.] --infinite lives The 'infinite lives' cheat actually opens up a whole new challenge. You see, the levels get impossible for you to finish with just one guy(discounting the 3x+1 levels) after level 19 or so. Bad guys start coming out immediately, and chances are even if you're close to finished one of them will be making a beeline straight for a domino. If you can slowly complete parts of a level and keep getting killed by the bee, then you can chip away. But the end parts are still close to impossible to finish. Level 21 and 24, etc. are serious challenges with infinite men unlike any shoot-em-up. Perhaps it's the feeling of getting so close to the end that's so demoralizing. 9. ABOUT THE LEVELS Below is a list of levels and what's going on there--it is understood that the clock, the bee and the big man appear in every level. I have included some strategy specific to the domino formation as well. The clock starts in the upper right and moves clockwise(heh) until it reaches the far left domino. The bee always appears right away although on level 1 it vanishes for 4 seconds after being swatted during which you can pick up a money bag where it died for 500 points. The bully appears 10 seconds after the level starts and his march takes 25 seconds provided you do not push him forward. Drawings are not necessarily to scale as I wanted to save space by indicating only when there are curves in the domino structure, etc. Up to level 15 new badguys pop out of the woodwork every second. Then levels 16-18 it's every .5 seconds and then they all appear at once on level 19+. I haven't included much strategy here as I (was lazy) have included general strategy(i.e. leftmost domino placement, who to push where) in specific sections above. LEVEL 1 # of dominoes: 25 background: city enemies: cleaning lady, man with cart time before they appear: 3 sec X.. . . . ... . . . . . . . . . ... .. . .. This level is a nice and easy introduction to Domino Man. You'll probably need to swat the bee a couple of times en route, and you may need to swat the bully too. I'd start from the right and go left. If possible make sure that the cleaning lady(up/down) is pushed off to the side. LEVEL 2 # of dominoes: 25 background: golf course enemies: golf cart, gopher, golfer time before they appear: 3 sec ... . . . . . . . ... . . X... . . . . ... This level is a bit tougher as the first domino is lower. There's more vertical vulnerability, and the golfer is pretty annoying. Try to swat him into the bully and get the bully himself if you can. LEVEL 3 # of dominoes: 32 background: construction site enemies: man with ladder, construction worker, barrow boy time before they appear: 3 sec ... . . ... . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . X.. This level really does get tricky with the cuts backward and the nonlinear opponents. A general rule is not to make a continuous string until you're near the end. Then with about four separate dominoes left, start to connect them all. If you have diagonal movers swatted so much the better. LEVEL 4 # of dominoes: 29 background: city enemies: cleaning lady, man with cart, spotted dog time before they appear: 3 sec X. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... LEVEL 5 # of dominoes: 39 background: golf course enemies: golf cart, gopher, golfer, spotted dog time before they appear: 3 sec X.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . .. ... Note--the upper left side of the loop is not really open. The distances are just a bit jagged. LEVEL 6 # of dominoes: 41 background: construction site enemies: man with ladder, construction worker, barrow boy, spotted dog time before they appear: 3 sec .... . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .. . . . . X. . . . . . . . . ... LEVEL 7 # of dominoes: 35 background: city enemies: [see level 4] time before they appear: 2 sec .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . X. . . . . . . . . . . .. .. LEVEL 8 # of dominoes: 43 background: golf course enemies: [see level 5] time before they appear: 2 sec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X.. . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . ... LEVEL 9 # of dominoes: 41 background: construction site enemies: [see level 6] time before they appear: 2 sec .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. LEVEL 10 # of dominoes: 35 background: city enemies: [see level 4] time before they appear: 2 sec .... . . . . . . . . .. . . . X.. . . . . . .... . . .... Levels 10-12 are a bit odd as the le LEVEL 11 # of dominoes: 44 background: golf course enemies: [see level 5] time before they appear: ? sec ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X.. . . ... . . . . ... LEVEL 12 # of dominoes: 32 background: construction site enemies: [see level 6] time before they appear: ? sec ... . . . . ... .. . . . . . . . X. . . . . . . .. . . .. Surprisingly easy. LEVEL 13 # of dominoes: 35 background: city enemies: [see level 4] time before they appear: ? sec .. . . .. . . . . X. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. LEVEL 14 # of dominoes: 39 background: golf course enemies: [see level 5] time before they appear: ? sec .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . X.. . . ... LEVEL 15 # of dominoes: 41 background: construction site enemies: [see level 6] time before they appear: ? sec .... X.. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... I've never gotten past this level on a regular game so don't feel dumb if you don't. 10. AND BEYOND Well, things start to repeat. There are no new enemies or skits, but the bad guys come out faster and faster. Levels loop every six so I just have a brief breakdown. Things get really insane after level 19. Levels 1+3x are always solvable with one guy, but once you get those diagonal moving fellows the game gets rather complicated. You probably won't last very long although on occasion I've been able to clear 3x+2 with one guy. Levels 16-18: every .5 seconds a new enemy appears. Levels 19+: monsters appear immediately at start of level. Level 24 is the latest level that is still actually original(i.e. unique timing/domino positioning.) 11. INTERLUDE SPOILERS There are interludes that occur after every third round completed and they are entertaining if far too few. After level 6 only one skit is shown. On completing level 3: Bully runs down screen. Domino Man runs across and whacks him with domino. Bully's pants fall down. On completing level 6: Bully runs down the screen. Domino Man swats him, runs to the right, swats him again. Bully collapses in a pile. On completing level 9: Bully walks down the screen. Domino Man fires ray gun at him. Bully explodes. [How violent!] On completing level 9+3x: see level 9. End of FAQ proper ================================ 12. VERSIONS 1.1.0: sent to GameFAQs 4/14/2004. Finally decided just to merge the poems guide into this one. Added some fluff and outline numbers. 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/13/2002, should be mostly complete although I'm sure I haven't found all strategical details and kind of brushed off individual level strategies. 13. CREDITS mame.net for the cheats that allow another dimension to this game. Showbiz Pizza for having this game so many years ago. Finding and eventually working through it was a unique quest! My friends back in West Lafayette, IN, for not beating me up despite my raving about how this game was so great...BEFORE I had any real clue how to play it, and after it half insulted me with an ending poem! My coworkers for going along with the joke as I showed them this game. And for not tattling when I...*ahem* Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, daremo, falsehead, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, and others I forgot.