*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* = BEACH HEAD = * COMMODORE 64 * = FAQ / WALKTHROUGH = *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Author: Sashanan Date: 18 January 2006 Version: 1.0 DISCLAIMER This document is a copyright of Peter "Sashanan" Butter, 2006. All rights reserved. You are granted permission to make copies of this FAQ (electronical or physical) for your own, personal use. Furthermore, non-commercial, freely accessible websites are allowed to upload a copy of this FAQ as long as it is posted in its full, original form (including this disclaimer) and credited to Sashanan. You are not authorized to upload this FAQ to a commercial website and/or charge for its viewing, or make money off it in any other imaginable way, without my explicit written permission. Furthermore, you are not allowed to edit this guide in any way, use it as a basis for your own guide, or post it without giving proper credit. This is considered plagiarism. This FAQ is protected by international copyright laws and failure to comply with the terms in this disclaimer will result in legal prosecution. ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= [1] Introduction [2] Walkthrough [2.1] Secret passage (optional) [2.2] Fighter attack [2.3] Fleet battle [2.4] Run to the fort [2.5] Final battle [3] Odds and ends [3.1] Scoring [3.2] Frequently asked questions [4] Revision history [5] Final words =============================================================================== [1] INTRODUCTION =============================================================================== The world is at war, and your side is about to begin its invasion of enemy- occupied territory to put an end to things. To do this, a beach head must be established so troops can be landed, and you're in charge of this important step. Your objective in Beach Head is to destroy the enemy fort known as Kuhn-Lin and thus clear the way to establish a beach head for your forces. Toward this end, you are given a task force of ten ships with which you must fight your way past the enemy defenses to make landfall. Then, tanks will be unloaded from each surviving ship for you to fight your final battle with. Beach Head consists of five stages, the first of which is optional (but provides bonuses if you do complete it), as follows: - A gauntlet in which you run your ships through a secret passage, avoiding mines and missiles fired at you; - An anti-air battle against fighters launched at you by the enemy fleet; - A straight out ship-to-ship battle against the enemy fleet; - Your tanks' run from the beach to the enemy fort; - The final battle against said fort. The purpose of this FAQ is to walk you through all five of these stages. In chapter 2, each stage is described, your controls are lined out, your objective identified and tips to complete it are provided. Practice will still be necessary to see it through, but this guide should help you a lot in figuring out how to go about each stage and help you become a successful Beach Head player. =============================================================================== [2] WALKTHROUGH =============================================================================== Each game is started from an aerial view of the enemy beach and the seas surrounding it, with your fleet and the enemy clearly depicted. It is your choice at this point to either move toward the enemy and engage immediately, or rather take the secret passage indicated to your left. While the passage is optional and means you have an extra level to complete, it does provide a lot of points, and will allow you to take the enemy fleet by surprise; this has other advantages in the next two levels to come. For the most part, unless you are particularly bad at the passage stage, it is in your best interest to run it. Beach Head is controlled with the joystick in port 2. If a 2 player game is chosen, the players alternate as stages are completed, and share the same stick. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [2.1] SECRET PASSAGE (OPTIONAL) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Your ships start in the bottom right corner and they have to be maneuvered to the top left, one by one. You can speed up your current ship by pushing the stick up, or slow down (and even halt) by pulling it back. Turning is achieved by pushing the stick left or right. It should be noted that your only facings possible are north, north-to-northwest, northwest, west-to-northwest and west; you cannot turn back south or east. The fire button does nothing in this sequence. Mines are in fixed spots on the map and may not be touched; similarly, touching the walls of the passage will sink your ship as well. In additional, missiles are fired from the coast and move in straight lines across the passage, and touching one of those means death as well. You will notice, however, that the missiles always launch from exactly the same spots, so that with a little practice you'll learn where and when to expect them and won't have such a hard time avoiding them. Each ship you take across the passage in one piece nets you points. After all your ships are either through or sunk, the level is complete and you'll be returned to the aerial view - assuming at least one ship got through, of course. On higher difficulty levels, the only thing that changes in this stage is the speed at which the missiles move (and, resultingly, the speed at which they follow each other up). Tips for this level: - Since there is no time limit, move slowly until you're used to the patterns of the missiles. They're fixed (and don't change from game to game either), so take time to learn them. Many of them aren't of any consequence at all, anyway, being so far out of the straight path to the exit that you'll never meet them. - The worst missile of the bunch is the purple one launched from west to east straight at the top, right near the exit. It can catch you off guard just as you're making your dash for the exit. To prevent this, halt your ship a little before the spot where the missile will appear, and wait for it to come. Then quickly pull through while it is underway, as another one will not be launched until the first one is off screen. On the lowest difficulty level, you'll have plenty of time, but on the highest your window of opportunity is narrow. - When turning your ship, be wary of nearby obstacles. You can get yourself sunk by turning into a mine or missile quite easily if you edge past them too closely and turn at the wrong time. Much grief can be prevented by giving yourself enough space to begin with, or if you can't help it, not turning until you're clear. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [2.2] FIGHTER ATTACK -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- When you meet the enemy fleet, they will first send in their dive bombers to try and sink your ships. Just how many they have prepared to launch at you depends entirely on if you took them by surprise. If you just moved toward them to engage straight away, they saw you coming from miles away and they'll have 30 planes ready to engage. If you came in through the secret passage, on the other hand, only 10 planes will be ready for battle, and this stage will be a lot easier. You control the anti-air guns in this stage, and your job is to bring down the fighters as they come into range, preferably before they open fire on your ships. Push the stick forward to aim lower, pull it back to aim higher, and adjust your aim to the left or the right by pushing your stick in the desired direction. You get no crosshairs - that would make things rather too easy, wouldn't it? - so in order to figure out where exactly you're aiming and how you should adjust, frequently fire test shots. Firing is, of course, accomplished with the fire button. The fighters cannot be hit until they're fairly close, but it doesn't hurt to start firing as soon as you have them in your sights, and then gradually adjust your aim as they move across the screen. This way, chances are you'll bring them down before they can fire on you. If a fighter does get too close, it'll fire several shots, causing damage to one of your ships, before breaking sharply away and lining up for another pass (and by then the next one in line will already be in range). Each individual fighter will only do a couple of points of damage; how much damage it takes to sink one of your ships is dependent on the difficulty level. It takes 20 hits on the lowest level, but only 10 on all the others. From time to time, brown planes will cruise the length of the screen as well. These are harmless, but serve as bonus targets - if you can spare the time to bring one down you can net yourself a few extra points, but obviously you should focus on the enemies that can actually harm you. The level ends when you bring down the required number of planes - 10 or 30 depending on if you went through the secret passage - even if you see other planes still approaching in the distance. You'll go through to the fleet battle, assuming any of your ships still survive. Tips for this level: - The best way to get sunk quickly is to keep firing on a fighter that is already veering away. Yeah, he hit you and he's getting away; tough. It is almost impossible to hit one that has already started its break, and if you try, the next one in line will hit you in turn. Then when you turn your attention to him, you're too late because he's already breaking too, et cetera. If one got through, forget him and bring down the next before he hits you as well. - You can of course look at your turret at the bottom of the screen to have a good idea of where your shots will land on a horizontal plane, but the only way to accurately figure out how high or low you're firing is to do so and trace your shots. Do not keep the fire button pressed, however, or you will drain your cannons faster than they can reload, and your firing rate will sharply decline after a while. Rather, tap the fire button for a few quick shots when you need them (either to trace or to kill) and then release it when you have a little time. Reloading is quick enough to keep up with you that way. - A common sense one: do not bother with the bonus targets until you are comfortable enough with the level to have a good idea of when you can spare the time. Points are just points; worry about getting good enough to finish the game before you milk points. Of course, on the lowest difficulty level, you can get away with a lot more than on the higher levels. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [2.3] FLEET BATTLE -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Now it's you versus four enemy battleships, while the carrier that launched all those fighters at you earlier is trying to bug out. Your weapon of choice this time is long range missiles, which take a while to reach their target. You have an angle indicator now and whenever a missile misses, you'll be told exactly how far off your missile was and whether it was short or long; that's all the info you need to pull off the next shot. You can adjust your angle half a degree at a time, and each adjustment changes your range by 100 meters. For instance, if you fire at 30.0 degrees and your shot is 1100 meters short, you need to adjust your next shot 11 positions lower - this works out to changing it to 23.5 degrees. If it was 2000 meters long, on the other hand, you'd need to adjust it 20 positions higher, to 40.0. So the approach here is to fire a test shot, quickly calculate the right angle based on the info you get from the miss, then make sure your second shot kills. If you mess up, recalculate from your second miss and work from there. Meanwhile, the enemy fleet is trying to do the same to you. One battleship at a time will launch missiles at you, and though the first will miss, they will gradually adjust their aim until they do hit. And this time, a hit is a kill and will cost you a ship right away. How many shots it takes them to get a kill is dependent on two factors: the difficulty level (they aim better at higher levels, unsurprisingly), and once again, whether or not you took the secret passage. If you did, the enemy is still shocked and confused after you tore through their minimal air support and their aim will suffer. Frankomatic's Beach Head guide on www.gamefaqs.com has exact stats on how many shots it takes for the enemy to hit you (which I haven't tested), but I think his numbers assume you took the secret passage. You can optionally try to sink the carrier before it gets away for bonus points. The level ends once you've sunk all four of the battleships. At this point, if you have more than four ships left, bonus points are awarded for each ship you still have in excess of four. The next stage starts either way, as long as you have at least one surviving ship. Tips for this level: - As before, survival comes before bonus; master the level first, then worry about the carrier. - Your priority target every time is the battleship that is firing on you. If you sink it, the next one in line will have to start shooting at you, and it will not benefit from the aiming that the one before it did; the sequence starts over. To minimize or even eliminate the loss of ships, you need to always concentrate on whoever's firing at you, and find your right shot quicker than he finds his, - If you take your first test shot at a simple, rounded range (like 30.0 or 40.0, whatever is close to your current setting) your calculation will be easier and you can likely work it out in your head more quickly and with less chance of error. But don't take too long finding an ideal position; you need to get that test shot off quickly so you can start working out the right angle. - Wait a split second between adjusting your aim and firing your next shot. Sometimes the cannons have a tendency to overadjust by 0.5 degrees after you've already released the stick. Be ready for this so you can tap the stick once in the opposite direction to get back to the angle you want. The split second you lose by doing this is much preferable to firing a shot that you already know is going to miss by 100 meters, and then having to wait until you can fire again. - If the importance of doing the secret passage wasn't impressed on you by the fighter attack already, this is where it makes the difference. Especially on higher levels, you'll get mauled here if you attacked the enemy fleet head on. Don't do it. Take however much time you need to master the secret passage, because you simply can't get through this without losses if you don't take it (except perhaps on the lowest level). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [2.4] RACE TO THE FORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- You've reached the beach! Now to clear out the enemy so that a proper beach head can be established. For this task, each surviving ship will unload two tanks, up to a maximum of eight (hence the bonus for any surviving ships beyond four - they serve no more purpose). Your tanks are now your remaining lives, and their goal is to reach the enemy fort to destroy it. You'll be pleased to know that one tank can't do the job; taking the fort will take several tanks depending on how quick you are (at least two, realistically three or four). And that, of course, include only the tanks that reach it in one piece. Your tank will automatically start moving, and you cannot speed it up or slow it down. You can only move up or down to avoid obstacles, and press the fire button to fire a shot straight forward at whatever enemies you may meet. Touching any obstacle, no matter how light the brush, destroys your tank and will force you to start over with the next tank in line. The map includes mines, concrete walls, ditches and other obstacles which are fortunately all clearly visible and always in the same place, so that with a little experience you'll learn what to expect. What isn't always in the same place is the enemy defenses, consisting of cannons and occasionally rival tanks. Which ones appear and where depends on how many tanks you've already taken through this level. Every time you reach the fort and get killed while fighting it (which will happen at least once no matter how good you are), new enemies are added to this level to make the run that much harder for the next tank. In addition, the number of enemies is affected by the difficulty level. Whenever a tank reaches the end of the level - signified by having crossed two bridges - it'll come to the fort and immediately enter the final level. However, if you get killed in the final level, your next tank in line will have to go through the race once again, and this continues until either you destroy the fort or you run out of tanks. Tips for this level: - Don't move down straight away or you'll crash into your own tanks. Seems common sense, but I've thoughtlessly lost tanks before by my desire to stick to the middle of the screen straight away. - Move carefully. if you have to steer between diagonal walls, use quick taps to your stick, don't press it up or down all the way. - Stick to the middle of the screen whenever the obstacles don't force you to do otherwise, so that you have more choices when it comes to avoiding incoming obstacles or enemy fire. - Enemy cannons are best dealt with by firing a quick shot and then moving out of the way. Your shot will meet them while you're out of the way of theirs. Tanks are a different story as they move with you. You'll need to stay in line with them for longer until they can no longer avoid your shot, then get out of there before their shot nails you. Occasionally, you may also be able to fire first and then get them to drive straight into your firing path. - Most cannons should be eliminated as soon as you see them, as they're positioned exactly to be in your way as you get closer. ALL tanks should be eliminated early as they'll always stay on a horizontal line with you, so if you don't kill them you'll crash into them. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [2.5] FINAL BATTLE -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- It's you against one big red fort with a cannon on top. This cannon is slow to move, but it will gradually turn in your direction, take aim, and then blow you away. This cannot be prevented; it's purely timed (and the higher the level, the less time it takes). You can't harm the cannon either. However, you'll notice ten little black spots on the fort, and one of them lights up white. In the same manner as during the Stuke attack, you aim your cannon at the fort, firing test shots to figure out where your crosshairs would be if you had any. Your objective is to hit the white spot, at which point it will go dark again and one of the other black spots lines up. This goes on until you've tagged all spots, at which point a massive explosion rocks the fort and destroys the cannon, and the enemy will surrender. However, you cannot tag all ten spots in the limited time the cannon gives you. With superhuman reflexes, you could tag five or six on the lowest level (and less on higher levels). Realistically, if you tag four, you did pretty well. Once your tank is destroyed by the cannon, the next in line (if you still have any) becomes available...but it, too, will have to run through the fourth level first before it reaches the fort and can pick up where his predecessor left off. SO the final battle really comes down to having gotten enough ships through to have a good supply of tanks, and doing well enough at the fourth level so that enough tanks get through to finish off the fort. Good aim helps if the number of tanks is tight, but if you got this far, presumably your aim isn't a problem. If you get through this level, congratulations! You've established a beach head for your side and done your part in winning the war. More to the point, you've completed the game. So then's the time to either start practicing to finish with a better score, or to tackle a higher difficulty level. Tips for this level: - Use tracing shots as you did in the fighter battle; but this time your ammo won't run out from constant firing, so feel free to hold down the fire button while you adjust. - When moving your cannon left or right to line up with the next target, adjust vertically at the same time. This can save a few seconds and can be exactly the difference between needing three or four tanks to win the game. If you let the game demo run, you will see the computer doing exactly this and managing to tag five targets before it gets destroyed, but that's almost impossible to replicate. =============================================================================== [3] ODDS AND ENDS =============================================================================== Information that seemed worth including in this guide but wasn't directly relevant to the walkthrough has been collected in this section. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [3.1] SCORING -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Your score in Beach Head is largely a formality; games of this age almost always kept high scores, whether your score *did* anything in the game or not (if there was a purpose, it was usually to hand out bonus lives when specific scores were reached). You can, of course, enter your initials in a high scores list after you finish the game - whether or not you actually won - but these are wiped as soon as the Commodore is shut off. Unless you're like me and keep track of your high scores through other means, chances are your score won't mean that much to you. But if it does, you may be interested in how many points there are to earn in this game, and what for. Enter this section. SECRET PASSAGE - Each ship that traverses the passage safely earns you 3000 points. FIGHTER ATTACK - Each fighter you shoot down is worth 400 points. Which works out to a potential 8000 points more if you skip the secret passage (since you have 20 more fighters to take down) - not worth it in terms of points compared to taking the passage. - Each brown bonus plane you shoot down is worth 2000 points. FLEET BATTLE - Each battleship you destroy is worth 2000 points. - The carrier, should you choose to sink it, is worth a whopping 10000 points. If you have plenty of ships left, sinking the carrier is good deal scorewise even if it costs you a ship. - If you have more than four ships remaining after this battle, you get bonus points for each ship you have in excess of four. From what I can tell, this bonus equals 2000 points per ship, with an extra 2000 added if you haven't lost *any* of your ships (for a total of 14000 in that case). RACE TO THE FORT - Just bringing a tank through does not earn you any points, but the targets along the way, depending on what they are, range from 400 to 1000. FINAL BATTLE - Each white square you tag is worth 2000 points. - Destroying the fort will earn you 20000 points and end the game in victory. No further bonus is awarded for remaining tanks, unfortunately. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [3.2] FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To be honest, the section title is a little misleading for a Commodore 64 guide. These guides are not frequently read, not everybody who reads them asks questions and those that do don't necessarily all ask the same one, so there's nothing frequent about it, really. Still, this is the accepted term for a section like this, so read 'questions the author anticipated' for it instead, if you prefer. :) Q: Where am I going to get this game? A: Original Commodore 64s are still not *that* hard to find (just tricky) - specific games, on the other hand...good luck. Even on eBay your chances are low, but perhaps you'll have more luck tracking down a forum specific to Commodores or retro gaming and seeing if they have a trading spot set up. Q: What about emulation? A: A good emulator is easy enough to find; try either CCS 64 or (Win)Vice, both of which you'll be able to Google quite easily. ROMs I can't help you with; Commodore or not, copyright doesn't disappear just because a game isn't sold anymore, making the ROM illegal. You're on your own there. Q: When I've started a game, as soon as I do anything on the aerial map, it jumps back to the title screen! A: Your joystick is in port 1. Put it in port 2. (If you're using an emulator, you'll likely find an option for this in the controls menu somewhere.) Q: Should I or shouldn't I take the secret passage? A: Short answer: yes, you should take it. Slightly longer answer: the passage nets you more points than the additional fighters in the next level would, plus you make the fighter attack but especially the fleet battle level a lot easier. Unless you really suck at the secret passage stage, you're likely to lose a lot more of your fleet in the fleet battle if you've skipped it than you would have in the passage. Besides, the passage is honestly not that hard if you don't rush it. Q: Does it matter how many ships survive the fleet battle? A: Up until four, yes. The number of tanks you get for the fourth and fifth levels is twice the number of surviving ships, but up to a maximum of eight. If at least four ships survived, great (and excess ones will get you bonus points). If less did, you'll have a harder time completing the game. If only one ship got through, I wouldn't give a dime for your chances of finishing the game with just two tanks. You realistically need at least three to take down the fort and that's assuming they all survive the run to it. Q: Is there a generic piece of advice that applies to Beach Head as a whole? A: I'd say "know when to hurry". The secret passage and the run to the fort should be taken calmly and slowly. There is no time limit in the passage and with the tanks, your forward motion is constant anyway and you should be easy on the stick when it comes to moving up and down. On the fighter attack, you need to aim quickly but keep your firing down to short bursts in order not to drain your cannons when you need them most. On the ship battles, you need to aim in a hurry but make sure you don't fire until your angle is exactly right. Only on the final battle against the fort do you really need to test your reflexes as every second counts. Nearly everywhere else, hurry equals higher losses. Q: What's the difference between the difficulty levels? A: On higher levels, missiles move more quickly in the passage, fighters and enemy ships need less shots to sink you, the run to the fort has more enemies along the way and their shots move more quickly, and the fort needs less time to nail you. There are no advantages, gameplay- or scorewise, to playing a higher level, so it's purely to challenge yourself or for bragging rights. Q: What's a good score? A: For the lowest difficulty level, if you run through it flawlessly, expect to get around 100.000 points, give or take a few. On my most recent run, I scored 99.400. That included taking all ships through the secret passage and reaching the beach with everybody alive. I lost two tanks to the fort but none on the run to it, and destroyed everything they came across. However, I missed the one brown plane that popped up during the fighter attack and I also didn't try to sink the carrier, so I missed a few bonus points. Q: Is it possible to get through the game without losing a single ship or tank? A: Without a single ship, yes; at least on the lowest difficulty level and if you make sure to take the passage. Otherwise some losses during the fleet battle may be inevitable (on higher levels, possibly even if you do take the passage). Without a single tank, no. Even if you're inhumanly fast in taking down the fort it still takes two tanks to do the job, so one will always die. And more likely, you'll lose at least two. Q: Is Beach Head set during World War II? A: Not officially (and the fort's name, Kuhn-Lin, certainly doesn't suggest a German or Italian foe, or even a Japanese one), but the overall style seems to roughly emulate that era. The fighters, too, seem fairly similar to Stukas. Q: Does this game have any sequels? A: Definitely. Beach Head II is one of the Commodore's more famous titles (not in the last place because it supports competitive play between two players) and is very much recommended. A few more games bearing the Beach Head title exist, but are mostly homages rather than sequels. And virtually every rail shooter these days owes something to Beach Head's famous fighter attack level, whether or not they care to admit it. =============================================================================== [4] REVISION HISTORY =============================================================================== v1.0: (18 Jan '06) First version of the FAQ. No updates are planned for this guide, but in case of reader request or the kind donation of extra strategies or info, I'll be happy to do one anyway. As it stands, however, this guide contains my full knowledge of the game already and is complete as far as I'm concerned. =============================================================================== [6] FINAL WORDS =============================================================================== ABOUT THIS FAQ All gaming begins and ends with the Commodore 64. For me, anyway. I grew up with this system and despite the vast collection of games for other systems I built up over the years (I like to complain about having more than I can reasonably play), I still return to it quite often. Most of its games are simple now and many aren't quite as glorious to this spoiled adult gamer as they were to the easily amused kid. On the other hand, I can't help but admire how some of its games, simple as though they are, limited as though the system they were on was in its capabilities, are just plain FUN - and surprisingly often moreso than the much bigger and more expensive projects that gaming these days seems to demand. It's my pleasure, then, to help keep alive what little Commodore 64 spirit remains. As I write this FAQ, I like to think that I've not just done something I enjoyed and provided something that may someday help another gamer still willing to give twenty year old games a chance; I've also contributed another little bit to that online Commodore community that, silent as though it is, still exists, and isn't going to go away for a very long time still. For questions, comments, suggestions, praise and criticism, please contact the author, Sashanan, at sashanan.faqs@gmail.com. This e-mail address is for FAQ feedback only. Whatever you wish to share about this document or Beach Head, chances are I'll want to hear it. Any serious mail will be answered. If you wish to do anything with this FAQ except for just reading it, check the Disclaimer section at the top of the FAQ to find out what you can and can't do. When in doubt, you can always mail me. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sashanan, named after a forgettable side character from Sierra's Quest for Glory 2, is a Dutch software engineer, gamer, and writer of guides. If he'd ever won any awards related to writing he'd probably list them here in third person as book authors always tend to do. Perhaps thankfully, however, he's never won anything, unless that balloon contest way back in grammar school counts. His balloon reached all the way to Germany, winning him a space Lego set. He doesn't know where either is now. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks this time go to siara79 for absorbing my rants without complaint, MartinG for recommending good movies, the admins of GameFAQs for putting up with all these guides for a system that hardly anybody cares about, and that truck driver in Nijkerk this morning who gave me right of way. Sure, he was supposed to, but he did. Cheers, bud, whoever you are. This document is a copyright of Peter "Sashanan" Butter, 2006. All rights reserved. Disclaimer at top of document.