ZIPPY RACE Guide /===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===/ Version 1.5 9/16/04 Created by Matthew McIntyre (entropiclobo@yahoo.ca) /===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===/ Legality: This Guide is Copyright, 2004, Matthew McIntyre This guide may not be used on a website or in any public forum where it is protected by copyright without the consent of the author. Websites with permission to use this Guide: www.GameFAQS.com www.neoseeker.com faqs.IGN.com www.1up.com Zippy Race is copyright Irem =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Version History: -3/27/2006, added 1up as a host. 1.5 (9/16/04) Strategy Section updated, Section 5 reformatted. 1.0 (9/14/04) Basic Guide Complete /===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===//===/ Table of Contents: 1: Introduction 2: Control and Playing 3: Checkpoints 4: Environments 5: End of Round Scoring 6: The Road 7: Strategy 8: Credits -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ***=-=-=///Section 1: Introduction\\\=-=-=*** Wow, Zippy Race. Like two of my previous guides, for Yie Ar Kung Fu and Exerion, if you’ve played this game it was likely on a pirate’s multicart. Zippy Race is much like Road Fighter, except you’re on a bike. Sprites are much larger here than in Road Fighter, and the width of road is proportionately smaller than it is in RF. This makes navigating the levels of this game much more difficult than Road Fighter – especially on loop 2. The environments, however, are much less varied than Road Fighter – they alternate between a highway and desert. Even the behind the bike stage ending sequence has little variety. So what does a guide dealing with Zippy Race entail? Well, the essential information is how to pass opponent cars and gain rank. After that, there’s just a bit of descriptors about the game. It’s a very simple premise with little variety but a whole lot of fun. So zip on forward. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 2: Control and Playing\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ Wow, the controls are pretty simple as well. There’s a bit of depth in the way you control your speed as you will see in strategy. The B Button is your slow speed button (who needs it? You do, to succeed). The A Button is your fast speed button Obviously, these are to be held down. Now, holding down both A and B will equalize your speed between the two, a very useful technique as you will see. And Left/Right, they move your Zippy Racer to the Left and Right. So, basically you race through levels on your bike avoiding cars and other hazards. Every time you pass a car, your rank goes down. Every time a car passes you, it goes up. Obviously, the closer you are to 1 the better. You should try to reach the pole position by the end of the loop – it’s 5 checkpoints, as at the onset of a loop you start in 90th place. This makes skilled driving necessary to land a good score. As you play, the bike uses gas. You will lose a portion of gas at once if your bike crashes. You’ll crash from any number of hazards, the most common being cars. After the overhead portion, you’ll be behind your racer, heading towards the city (checkpoint) in the distance. After you complete the round, you will get some extra gas. The game has a 2-Player mode, it’s 2-players altering between each other. They’re in two different races - - player 2 starts at 90 in its own race. The game’s basically about the points, as many of these old games are, and your score is carried over to the next loop. on the second loop you change colour to blue and subsequently have a much faster bike. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 3: Checkpoints\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ As with many of these driving games, you’re racing between different points in the United States. I guess we Canucks get the cold shoulder more often than not in this style of game, but at least we were in Rampage. Checkpoint 1: Las Vegas Checkpoint 2: Houston Checkpoint 3: St Luis Checkpoint 4: Chicago Checkpoint 5: New York You’ll see a cityscape in the Behind-the-Zippy-Racer mode, this is where you’re headed. The only two that are markedly different is the first, Las Vegas, which is quite flashy and New York for a spoilerish reason and because it’s the last city you arrive at (but don’t play). Starting from Las Angeles, you’ll oscillate between two environments on your path to New York… ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 4: Environments\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ The overhead portions of Zippy Race occur in two environments, Highway and Desert. The latter is more apt to rock your chops, but the highway can get tricky at times too. The predominant enviro, highway is just grey roads with green On the sides taken to be grass. Occasionally, you’ll pass a house and there's the occasional puddle of water on the ground. The area is characterized by its wide streets, curves, and splits in the road. Splits often occur where one path is more narrow than the other, and one path will often have gas on route. This is a great place to lose cars, but they can be persistent. The desert is a more harrowing experience for our intrepid motorcyclist, afterall there’s no road. No road mean that obstacles are free to be stuck right in the way. You’ll often encounter bushes and rocks in the middle of roads, not to mention bridges, rivers, and jumps. Rival cars break down more often here than highway, and there’s a greater abundance of gas. You may very well need it though. The only other aspect of the game that may be considered an environment is the behind-the-racer sequence. Basically, it’s just you on the road racing against oncoming traffic. There is a city in the background, but apart from Las Vegas there’s no real difference. All of these sequences play out the same. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 5: End of Round Scoring\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ There’s two ways you can play Zippy Race – play to loop or play to score. The end-of-round bonuses in the game are the primary reason for gaining rank, you get more points when you reach a checkpoint if you’re closer to first place. There’s ranks 1-99 in this game, so mind you there’s much to be said about that. There’s quite a few groupings, and the top 6 positions are really the sweet spots. Conversely, you’ll get dirt if you’re in a rank above 70. There are only 5 portions to the race, and you’re sent back to rank 90 after you loop the game, so your pole position may be quite short-lived. What follows is a table detailing the point value for each rank. Key: Rank: Point Value 1: 20 000 2: 14 000 3: 12 000 4: 10 000 5: 8 000 6: 6 000 7~10: 3 000 11-15: 2 400 16~20: 2 200 21~30: 2 000 31~40: 1 800 41~50: 1 600 51~60: 1 400 61~70: 1 200 71~80: 1 000 81~90: 800 91~98: 600 99: 000 As you can see, the score for 99 is frail and the score for 1 is quite tasty. I wonder what stands in your way between places 90 and 1, hmmm? ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 6: The Road\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, this is the nitty gritty folks, what’s going to stop you, besides feeble skills, from securing that oh so lovely rank of 1, and will strip you of your gas faster than a boisterously resonant fart. --Crashing: You lose gas and restart close to where you crash. ***Obstacles *Cars. The prime obstacle on your path to success are the enemy cars. They enjoy swerving toward and very frequently move as you move. They’re out to make you run out of gas, pure and simple, but there are ways around these automotive monsters... *Puddles. Puddles don’t actually damage you but the can lead into a crash. When you hit the water you will lose much of the control of your bike. It doesn’t last long, but it could be fatal. *Bushes. Bushes line the side of the desert and pop up in the middle of it as well. If you hit one, you’ll crash. *Rocks are basically the same as bushes, if you hit one, you will crash. They’re indigenous to the desert and can appear anywhere in your path. *Rivers appear in the desert and stretch across the screen. Take a bridge or a jump to pass over it. ***Road *Curves: There are a lot of curves on the highway. Don’t attempt too many car passes on a curve, instead, focus on navigating it. You may want to cut your speed a bit. *Side of the road: If you hit the side of a road or curve, you will crash. *Bridges: Wood bridges over water in the Desert areas, use them to pass safely. ***Other *Points: Run over these values to get points. *Jump: Appear in the desert before rivers, they allow you to jump over the river. *Gas: Appear in various places in overhead views. Pick them up for extra gas. *Painted road signs on the highway will tell you when the road will change, ie split. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 7: Strategy\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok, the game doesn’t require much strategy in navigating the areas, maybe don’t run into anything and you’ll do fine. However, there are some tricks you can do to help pass cars. *The cars follow you pretty closely, making speeding up a risky proposition. If you notice that the road will branch off, keep the car towards the middle of the road. Chance are, you’ll be able to force it onto the other oad, where you can speed up and pass it. Keep in mind, if you’re hurting for gas, it should be your top priority, so you may want to go the gas street regardless of what rank you want. *It’s possible to pass a car at full speed it you stay far to the side of them. While they will move towards you, if you can breach the space to the side of them, it’s not likely that they will hit you. They seem to stop before a collision in that case. *Has a car stopped moving altogether? It’s safe to pass over. Cars very often break down in the desert on the bridges or at a rock/ bush. Don’t run over them in the latter, but feel free in the former. **Why gain ranks if you just want to complete a loop? Well, you get more gas at the end of a round the better you place, so if you want to make it through say, Loop 4, you better do well. *About the Loops: There are five different loops in the game, and after the fifth it is that loop which loops infinitum. Loop 1: 250cc, Max Speed 180km/hr, Red racer. Loop 2: 500cc, Max Speed 240km/hr, Blue racer. Loop 3: 750cc, Max Speed 300km/hr, White racer. Loop 4: 1000cc, Max Speed 360km/hr, Grey racer. Loop 5: 1200cc, Max Speed 420km/hr, Yellow racer. ^This seems to be the template for further loops ***Loop One Special Passing Strategy*** Right, then you know how I said holding both A and B will equalize your speed? Well, on loop one, this makes your speed EXACTLY the same as the opposing cars! So, you can cruise through curves while sandwiched between two quite easily. This also lets you do a pretty special trick: Speed up behind a car and then equalize your speed immediately before hitting it. The car will lose all horizontal movement, you can just move around it and pass! ***On Loop 2... You go too fast on loop 2 to do this, you’ll have to rely more on just being able to get around the cars. You can still equalize your speed to make controlling the bike a little easier, and certainly, you can slow down a bit before passing a car, but it’s too hard to get them to stop to make it worthwhile. On curves, you may need to slow down lest you smack a car. ***On Loop 3... You're starting to go too fast to control on curves now - I suggest slowing down around them, especially if you're between cars. Follow the same general strategy as Loop 2, it's virtually the same except the environments are a much greater threat. ***On Loop 4... Now you're going double the speed of Loop 1, pretty fast in other words. Loop 4 makes you really sweat - you lose gas at an accelerated rate during the courses. You may lose almost half a tank from a race - collisions can be fatal. In order to cope, you'll have to get a good rank so you can get a significant amount of gas back. Luckily for you, you're now going so fast that cars are easier to pass than the last two loops. Unluckily for you, the environment is now a serious killer. Slow down going around curves, it's a given. ***On Loop 5... Virtually the same as Loop 5 but I find that gas isn't as big a problem, mainly because in straight stretches you can pass a ridiculous amount of cars at full speed. *****When in behind the bike mode This part is easy. The cars will be coming straight forward, and you’ll have to dodge them. Go to one side of the road and crank your speed all the way up, as the car draws very near, cut your speed and swerve to the other side. The car shouldn’t be able to reach you before it disappears off the screen. The extra speed’s really just to speed up the sequence, but if you do it you will need to cut your speed or you will most likely run into a car. You see, you’ll be gaining ground forwards at such a high rate, you’ll reach the car before you reach the other side of the road. On Loop 4 or 5, you may want to risk going faster because your gas runs out so fast and you want the end-of-level refill. It's a dangerous risk, however, so use your own judgement. *What happens when I'm in first place? Any strategy there? No new cars will appear from the top of the screen when you're in first place, just negotiate the course. Cars still come towards you at the end, however. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ***=-=-=///Section 8: Credits\\\=-=-=*** ------------------------------------------------------------------ I give my sincere thanks to my older brother, who is responsible for the Special Strategy for passing cars in Loop 1 and figuring out that A+B is the same speed as the cars on loop 1 (in our household at any rate). It’s been a trick of our trade for quite a while and it’s nice to share it. IREM, this game’s a far cry from R-Type, but it’s very fun. This Guide is Copyright, 2004, Matthew McIntyre Zippy Race is copyright Irem ----------------------------------------------------------------------