Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory(Arcade) FAQ version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net copyright 2003 Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my permission. It required a good deal of effort, and I do not look to profit off my work. However, if you ask me nicely, mentioning my name and this specific game, I will hopefully be un-lazy enough to reply to you. ** AD SPACE ** My home page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 ================================ ****OUTLINE**** 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 2-1. THE GAME PROPER 2-1-1. YOU 2-1-2. SCOOP TRAJECTORY 2-2. EMULATION 3. ENEMIES AND HOW THEY THINK 4. OVERVIEW 4-1. POINT TOTALS 4-2. LEVEL MAPS AND STRATEGIES 4-3. GENERAL STRATEGIES 4-4. POINTS OF CONTENTION 5. VERSIONS 6. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory(PPICF) is a sort of sequel to Burgertime, featuring the cute little chef as now, instead of walking over burgers and outfoxing fast foods, Peter kicks ice cream into cones and outfoxes junk foods. He doesn't have his pepper weapon but the ice crea scoops he must kick can squash the monsters. PPICF has 8 level formations(Burgertime had 6) but it also copies or barely modifies many sounds(and even the high score initial bit) from Bump n Jump, and that seems inappropriate. However the trick shots you can make kicking ice cream up and down, and being able to make a double scoop, makes the game intriguing and a bit more of a success than the slightly lawless Super Burger Time, the other arcade sequel from Burger Time. But the controls are hard to understand at first. 2. CONTROLS 2-1. THE GAME PROPER 2-1-1. YOU --Peter controls fairly easily, although you may want to use diagonal movements to cue where he goes next. For instance up/left on a ladder makes Peter go left once the ladder ends. Up/left on the ground makes Peter go left until there's an up ladder, which he will climb. --One button(CTRL on Windows) causes Peter Pepper to jump or kick an ice cream ball which will bounce in the air and land on the platform below. Peter can't jump on a ladder but on a platform he will jump straight up if he's not moving and to the side in an L-shaped trajectory if he's going left or right. He can also bounce off the walls. Peter moves more quickly than the monsters while he's jumping, but there's an increased risk of falling off an edge. --When you jump and when you kick are a bit fuzzy. First, if two ice cream balls are already in motion, Peter cannot kick. He can jump through platforms with no problem and will not be killed by monsters until he lands. But Peter won't kick until the ice cream ball moves slightly, so you need to be attentive. --If you climb down onto an ice cream ball, you can move to one side and back to push it, but otherwise it stays put. --Too many ice cream balls on one narrow strip and they just bounce around a lot and a few eventually fall. But they can wreak havoc in the meantime. --if a ball rolls past a double scoop it stops at the next ladder, but otherwise it goes to the edge. --A ball will stop when it gets near another one, although you can slog and push them to the edge or until one drops into a cone. --If you reach a scoop at the same time an enemy is behind it, they get crushed. They can also be crushed as a scoop falls into a cone. --Sixteen short squirp noises mean you've gone one level down a ladder. Go down a quarter of the way and enemies running by above you won't kill you. --WATCH OUT as after you push a scoop into an empty cone just above, if you continue that way you'll fall through. Corollary: jump over such a scoop if you're being chased --Scoops can block you as you run away from monsters, but you can also jump over them and turn around and knock out whoever's behind. --If you bash a scoop against the edge of the board by continually running into it, any monster coming down/up the edge through the scoop will get offed. --If a scoop goes into a corner you have to kick it to get it out. --If you down-kick a scoop on the bottom, it won't fill a cone even if it passes by the right area. --Moving up/down is much slower than left/right. --You are invulnerable when you jump. --You can jump onto a ladder with gaps to left and right if you time it just exactly, but it's not worth it. --You can always jump between two scoops, but if you land on one you won't push it. --All falls are lethal. Even onto the later thin platforms. 2-1-2. SCOOP TRAJECTORY You can only have two scoops in motion at any one time. If a scoop is pushed into a row of others that goes to an edge, it may bounce through them and back, and often if it bounces into a row of other scoops it may bump around a bit more. Scoops travel a strange looking path when you kick them, but it's not so bad to figure out. They also 'catch' any cones that are near, and the game's pretty generous about hit detection with enemies. The dimensions below assume the game is on a grid of 14x12 icons, with the size of one icon being a cone. Kick up: scoop originally goes in a line to 2 L/R, 4 U and then bounces back down 2 L/R, 2 D. Kick down: scoop originally goes in a line to 2 L/R, 2 U and then bounces back down 2 L/R, 4 D. Subsequent bounces are at 45 degree angles 2U 2L/R 2D 2L/R and if there's no place to land the scoop drops down a level. If you hit an edge, you just change the direction L/R that the scoop needs to go. 2-2. EMULATION Apparently PPICF was originally in cassette form and this provides an extra necessary layer of translation. In order to run the game via MAME you will need the two following files in the ROM directory: cppicf.zip(which only contains .cas files) decocass.zip(which deciphers the .cas files) No, don't ask me where to get them :). Save states(SHIFT-F7 and F7) as of version .71 don't work either, or at least the graphics don't. So you will have to put up with the 'boot screen' each time you restart. If you wish to take a slight break and perform other tasks and don't wish to count back from 113 when you start, push (LEFT ALT)-ENTER to put MAME32 in a window(I heartily recommend MAME32 over standard MAME if you have Windows.) Note--the game defaulted to 'extra pepper after every level = yes' when I first played it, which turned out to be infinite men. Turning it off made for a regular game. Also 'extra every 20000' actually means extra every 30000, and changing this gives no extra lives. Again this is for the cheat file as of .71. It may be fixed later but right now many changes are marked 'unknown' or incorrectly annotated. 3. ENEMIES AND HOW THEY THINK Your enemies are a bit faster than you at the start, but then they increase speed once you complete the first eight levels. The jug and donut also seem to get a bit smarter. If you jump over them and are by a stair they often pass under you, go down the stair, and bounce back up. It's really annoying. A new enemy appears after you kick your first scoop around. It's a milk jug. Here are the differences: --Scales are rather stupid. They don't chase you much. --Strawberries are second-stupid. They often seem to lose interest when chasing you up ladders. --Donuts and milk jugs are smarter, often tracking you down. Note how they reverse, above. Here are the similarities: --Everyone goes at the same speed. --They don't like to go up/down two ladders in a row. --THEY CAN RUN OVER THIN AIR, one square above the cones. It's annoying and illogical. --Once they get off a ladder, they look if you're to the left and right and go that way. --They don't act in concert. --If you go up a ladder a bit, they'll consider you above them and try to go up a ladder --They run at you even if you have a scoop to hurl at them. --If traveling left/right they randomly climb up a ladder or continue when chasing you. --Monsters can sense they're running away from you yet on a level with you, and they will loop back up/down a ladder and around. --Monsters may not see you below, particularly if you are higher up on the ladder and they just got off another one. --If you jump from the left of a ladder and land on the right, monsters on that ladder may still chase you. It depends what side you were on when the monster left the ladder. --You can usually rely on monsters walking vertically to avoid you if you're on a ladder, but all the same don't go too far up. --Jumping in a crowd of scoops is tough. You may want to push or kick some out of the way. --In fact if there are three or more you'll probably want to kick. Pushing scoops against each other is slow and unpredictable. --On the bottom you can push a ball into a corner, kick it(down) over your head, and push it right to get rid of bad guys. --When bad guys are frozen they are easy to pick off, and if you know where they regenerate you can push a scoop continually against there for some more easy points. 4. OVERVIEW 4-1. POINT TOTALS --300 points for pushing an ice cream ball into an enemy --600 points for kicking an ice cream ball into an enemy that's on a ladder (no combo points for all this) --300 points for pushing an ice cream ball onto an empty cone --variable points for pushing an ice cream ball onto a cone with one scoop blue = 2000 lt yellow = 1000 yellow = 900 pink = 600 dk yellow = 500 --1000 for the item that appears inside a platform, which freezes monsters until they start to blink L1: toaster, upper right L2: carrot, bottom center L3: mace, upper center L4: burger, bottom right As levels increase, the items appear for less time and stun monsters less, so they're pretty worthless by the time you run the cycle and get to level 8. In general you can angle for a blue scoop when nothing else is around, but otherwise I find a lot of my points come from either lining up enemies to roll a scoop ove them or milling around on the bottom waiting for a break to kick a scoop back up to the top. I find I got about 10000 points per level until I managed to squash monsters strategically--then it shot up to 12000. Later on in the level sequence I don't always have the time to angle for blue cones, but level 1 offers an easy chance. Here's a rough point/difficulty distribution: L1=high/easy, L2=low/hard, L3=high/easy, L4=medium/medium, L5=low/easy, L6=medium/medium, L7=low/hard, L8=high/hard. 4-2. LEVEL MAPS AND STRATEGIES In general, the odd levels are easier than the even levels. Also if you kick some ice cream, die, and win the level after the fact, you don't actually lose a guy. These repeat every eight levels, and general strategies should be valid even the second and subsequent times through when everything's faster. ** LEDGER ** y = yellow scoop(may be under ladder) b = blue scoop d = dark yellow scoop l = light yellow scoop p = pink scoop \/ = cone (1) green platforms ll HH====HH====HH====HH \/pH HH HH HH\/ ==HH== ==HH====HH== ==HH== HH \/yyHH HHpp\/ HH ==HH======HH====HH======HH== HH ddHH HH yy HH HH== ==HH==HH====HH== ==HH HH \/ HH yH**bbHH \/ HH HH ==HH======HH====HH== HH pH\/ HH HH HH \/bH ============================ milk/scale come from top of lower left ladder, donut/strawberry from top of lower right. STRATEGY: you may want to stay still until you can push the ice cream left and squash an enemy. Then you can turn around, jump over the blue scoop, and push it left. This will get you 2000 points quickly. The next thing to do is to climb up the ladder and tip the ice cream right. On the next platform is a pink scoop you can kick up, and you'll probably see an invincibility pretty soon. Take it. Then you can clear out the top pretty easily. Otherwise you can just jump around the top and make a beeline for the bottom. You can probably get the other blue in a cone pretty easily although you may want to take care of the upper part first. The trick is to bounce the pink to the right. When it's the right corner kick it up--you may have to down-kick the blue first, and you can wait to squash enemies as they come down the ladder. Then bring the blue scoop to the bottom left and kick it in. (2) yellowish platforms d y HH====HH== ==HH== HH====HH HH HH p\/ HH d\/HH HH HH HH======HH==HH====HH HH HH\/HH lHH Hy HH\/HH HH HH== ==HH==HH ==HH HH HH HH d\/ HH HH\/ pHH bHH ==HH==HH====HH======HH==HH== HH bHH HH HH HH ====HH== ==HH==HH ==HH==== HH \/ HH**HH\/ HH ============================ strawberry/scale from lower left, donut/milk from lower right STRATEGY: this is not an easy level, and the start is frustrating. Go left immediately, and between the cone and the stair, jump straight up. Now you can go up the far right stair(the middle stair may work if bad guys don't come down at you but you'll need a backup plan) but not all the way. A bad guy should pass by, and you can then climb up some more and start pushing scoops around. If you can wipe out half of the monsters then make a beeline to the top and clear out the scoops there. The top two can be pushed and the bottom two can be kicked. Clearing out the top is critical because if you take out the middle section you will have to outrun the monsters to the top without any defense. There should be enough ladders in the middle once you're there and some monsters are to the side, but you may have to go back down for the final bit. An alternate strategy is to jump-run left and climb up and push the scoop right to nail some bad guys. However you can't just go climbing up the stairs on level 10. You will get nailed halfway up from the second platform. (3) light green platforms ==HH====HH====HH====HH==HH== ==HH======HH[[]]HH======HH== ==HH ==HH==HH====== ==HH== HH\/ HH HH** \/ HH HH====HH====HH== ==HH====HH HH HH HH \/ HH HH HH ==HH==HH====HH==HH== HH HH\/ HH HH HH HH \/HH ============================ donut/milk from upper left, strawberry/scale from upper right STRATEGY: Here you just have to kick a ton of stuff down, and getting off to the right start is critical. Once you're on top you can bump scoops around and kick them. If you can stun the monsters with the mace that's on its way to the top, so much the better. Kick everything down vigorously but beware of the corners at the top--bad guys can appear there. Because the cones are on the bottom and the bad guys on top, if you manage to get pretty far down, you can probably push scoops back and forth to buy all kinds of time and make the rest easy once there are no scoops on the top two levels. In a related matter be sure to kick EVERYTHING so the top two levels are cleared, or it'll be tough to get that last one cleared. I found I've had plenty of time to get the two blue scoops to make a double--just go left, up, left and jump right and kick the pink off the wall. (4) purple platforms HH== HH== HH== HH== ==HH HH \/HH d\/HH l\/HH \/ HH HH HH====HH====HH====HH HH HH HH yHH yHH HH HH ==HH========HH==HH======HH== pHH HH HH HH HH==HH== ====HH======HH==HH HH HH \/ yHH HH HH HH==HH==== ====HH ==HH==HH HH Hl \/ p**HH\/ dHH HH ============================ donut/milk from upper left, strawberry from lower right, scale from upper right STRATEGY: less obnoxious than level 2 with the scoops relatively close to the cones. First thing to do--jump over the strawberry. Don't push the pink scoop left but rather jump to the right of the dark yellow and kick it up/left. Do the same for the pink and now you can kick the light yellow on the left up and back right. That leaves the yellow to push right, and the bottom is completed. The monsters should be coming down now, and you should be able to fake them out and make a beeline up. The scoops at the second-top platform are easy to take care of although if monsters are following you may wish to push the yellows below and kick them up. Since the monsters come down you will want to stay 2 below as they regenerate and then dodge. Eventually you'll have to kick everything up except for the pink on the side, and that can be kicked off the wall to nail stuff that's following you. (5) light yellow platforms HH==HH== ====HH== ==HH==HH HH pHH \/ HH l\/HH HH HH====HH==HH==HH====HH====HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH== HH==HH====HH==HH ==HH HH \/Hd HH HH Hp\/ HH HH HH======HH==HH====HH HH Hb HH HH**HH Hd HH ====HH== ==HH==HH ==HH==== HH \/ pHH Hl\/ HH ============================ milk/donut from upper left, scale/strawberry from upper right STRATEGY: You can wipe out the two scoops below pretty quickly although you won't get many points this way. Left, down, kick up/left, right, kick up/right, and climb under the dark yellow. Push it left and now you can work your way to the top again. Don't worry about the dark yellow and pink just above--use them for defense purposes(push them) and then kick them up. The top left pink scoop will require a kick to the top after which you can push it in, and you'll want to try to lose the bad guys in a maze of ladders as yu come down and kick the scoops into place. The final one, the blue, you just have to survive to get to. You can kick it left and it'll bounce into the cone above. It helps to try to wipe out a few monsters before your final trip down. Be prepared to knock a scoop more than halfway across the screen. (6) ==HH==HH ==HH bHH Hd\/ HH b HH====HH====HH==HH== HH HH HH HH y\/ HH======== ==HH____HH====HH HH \/__HH y HH HH HH HH____HH====HH HH HH ** HH l pHH HH\/Hp HH ==HH HH==HH==HH ==HH== HH\/ dHH\/HH HH Hd\/ HH ============================ milk/donut from upper left, scale/strawberry from lower right STRATEGY: I like to move quickly right and down and then kick the dark yellow up. Then I climb up and jump right. I am usually able to push the two balls right and onto the monsters that come up. Then after depositing the right of the two, I turn around and fire the second scoop into the cone on the left, completing the second-lowest platform. Next up is the pink scoop on the right. Kick it up/left and now you can probably wait for bad guys to come and then go to the bottom and push the yellow to the left, bouncing it off the ladder and up into the cone. This will cause monsters by the top to regenerate and you may be able to sneak up the ladder, wait for them to come down the left, and nip in behind them to get near the top. Getting the item to freeze the monsters is a boon here as you can then drop the blue and then the dark yellow to the right on the top level(kick the blue on the left up but don't put it in the cone 'til you take out monsters) and then be sure to kick the top yellow up/right and the other up and push it left. If you lose a guy you can slink up the left side waiting for the monsters come by, and you can follow them. Or in the regular course of play, if you see a clear crack then you can climb up the right, by the thin platform. Just be prepared to push stuff around and take care of the top in one blow in either case. (7) ** HH====HH== HH== ==HH====HH HH HH y\/HH p\/ HH HH HH HH==HH========HH==HH HH HH\/HH bHH HH lHH\/HH ====HH====HH ==HH====HH==== l HH HH\/ HH HH y ==HH==== HH======HH====HH== HH p\/HH HH y HH ====HH====HH== ==HH==HH==== l HH HH \/ HH HH b ============================ milk/donut from upper left, scale/strawberry from lower right STRATEGY: Run left to the stair, jump over the jug, climb down, kick the pink up/right, jump left, kick the dark yellow up/right. Now you have a bit of a puzzle and while you can certainly push the blue and light yellow into the center this will require some kicking the bottom scoops around. Nevertheless this is not such a bad option as long as you make a beeline down and kick the bottom stuff up immediately. You'll probably have to bounce off a lot of walls to fake out opponents, and note that you'll need at least eight kicks up. It's also OK to kick the blue and light yellow near the top up. This is a buffer against losing a man but I like, on the way back up, to have scoops you can push for as long as possible. You should be able to get down with little problem, faking out the strawberry and the scale. (8) ** HH== HH== ==HH HH \/HH \/ HH ==HH HH== HH====HH \/ HH\/HH \/HH HH\/ ==HH========HH____HH ====HH HH p HH\/ lHH HH==HH______ ====HH==HH==HH HH HH \/ dHH HH Hp HH HH==HH==HH====HH==HH==== Hp HH HH bHH pHH Hl ============================ milk/donut from upper left, scale/strawberry from upper right(all 1 platform down) STRATEGY: You look really isolated at first, but there's a good way to start quickly which makes this level much less vicious. Run down/left and then jump left. You'll have to go back right a bit down the stairs but then go down/left and right and down. You can probably up/left kick the pink in the corner to wipe out some pursuers, and they won't be back for a bit. This is when you start kicking the ice cream on the bottom up. Then kick it up to the third level. Try to avoid marooning anything on the left, although you need to note that there isn't room for everything on the right--yet. So you may want to dump a couple of scoops in the cone and kick everything else up(disposing of some monsters in the process, which buys a LOT of time here) and come back down and kick to the right. (NOTE: if you lose a guy after here, you can consider going down/left and jump right if there's a scoop very close that you want to kick in.) Don't be too careless bouncing everything as only two scoops can be moving at a time, but there's nothing wrong with bouncing a scoop back and forth on the third level to wipe out monsters and even try to kick a scoop right in the cone. The original strategy is OK even if you lose a guy. Just be sure to use the second-bottom platform and jump to the right to get places quicker. The bad guys 4-3. GENERAL STRATEGIES --jump when in open spaces to gain on monsters. If you're not in an open space the risk is that you will pause to kick a scoop. --Know the strategy of jumping between two cones. Learn rough distances and use them to your advantage. --Standing under a ladder and jumping is risky. Unless you jump right before you're caught, a monster following you can use the ladder and be killed. --Don't go right for a scoop to push in. Wait and try to get some monsters killed. --Sometimes jumping also fools monsters into thinking you've climbed stairs. It depends how high you are when they cross a ladder. --Watch out for jumping over a cone just to the side of a ladder. I can't seem to. --If you're running towards a ladder a monster's coming down, try to pause and jump straight up if you're being trailed. --Know how to do a double kick, i.e. if you have two scoops to the left then jump between them, push the second left and then push the first. This is also handy if you have a blue on the far left and want the points for it, and cones are on each side. --Be shameless running a scoop into the side if you have no other options and you see a bad guy can be killed. --Ascending/descending is the main block to winning, and if you can get all your enemies on ladders it's easier to do so. --Follow your enemies on ladders. That makes one less that will chase you. They can't reverse. --Note where monsters appear after being killed. Avoid corners if you've just been on a spree. --If a scoop is near the edge with a cone next to it, kick the scoop up off the wall to put it in. --Clearing out middle scoops(i.e. doing what you clearly/obviously can) isn't always good. The scoops are vital defense especially if you get killed, and a general plan is to get to the top/bottom, clear that out, and come back to where you started. 4-4. POINTS OF CONTENTION --If you run past the corner just as a monster appears, and they're all frozen, Peter Pepper with '2000' bounces around the top --If you kick a scoop right/up from the top of level 6, it bounces around in the air for a while before coming back to the platform. End of FAQ proper ================================ 5. VERSIONS 1.0.0 sent to GameFAQs.com 7/28/2003, complete but with more nonspecific strategies to fill in. 6. CREDITS Thanks to bloomer, daremo, falsehead, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon, etc. from GameFAQs on AIM. Thanks to mame.net for keeping cool games like this alive.