+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                            | R E D   B A R O N |
                            +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

              GAME:  RED BARON
          PLATFORM:  ARCADE
             GENRE:  ARCADE SHOOTER
           CREATOR:  ATARI 1980
AUTHOR OF THIS FAQ:  Kevin Butler AKA War Doc
            E-MAIL:  kevinb(at)technologist(dot)com
       FAQ VERSION:  1.0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

    UNIT   I:  INTRODUCTION

1.  Legal Stuff
2.  Version Information
3.  Acknowledgements
4.  Welcome
5.  Overview

    UNIT  II:  GAME INFORMATION

6.  The Game

    6.1  The Controls
    6.2  The Playing Field
    6.3  Scoring

    UNIT III:  STRATEGIES

7.  Playing the Game

    UNIT  IV:  CONCLUSION

8.  Conclusion

_______________________________________________________________________________

To find a particular chapter or subchapter do the following:

1.  Highlight the chapter or subchapter name you wish to find.
2.  Press CTRL-C
3.  Press CTRL-F
4.  Press CTRL-V
5.  Press CTRL-F
5.  You will arrive at the desired chapter or subchapter.

_______________________________________________________________________________

                                **************
********************************* U N I T  I **********************************
                                **************
+=================+
| 1.  LEGAL STUFF |============================================================
+=================+

This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal
private use.  It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advanced permission from the author.  Use of this guide on
any other web sit or as part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and
a violation of copyright.  All content in this guide is Copyright 2003 by
Kevin Butler.  Only the sites listed below have permission to publish this
work or to display it:

www.gamefaqs.com
www.cheats.de
faqs.ign.com

If you wish to put this guide on your site, e-mail me and ask.  Save yourself
the headache of putting up with lawsuits and whatnot because you failed to ask
a simple "Can I post your guide on <insert site>?".  If you wish to use info
in this guide, please acknowledge that you have done so.

If you see this guide on any other site then the one listed above, please
e-mail me.  If you wish to ask questions or give input to this guide, please
e-mail me.  Just have Red Baron as the subject so I know it isn't another
kooky vendor trying to sell me hair gel or another XXX site telling me I have
new friends.

+=========================+
| 2.  VERSION INFORMATION |====================================================
+=========================+

Version 1.0  10/ 1/03:  A guide is born.

+======================+
| 3.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |=======================================================
+======================+

The following are a list of people or organizations that have made this FAQ
possible:

My wonderful family (who has had to put up with the tapping on the keyboard)
Atari for making a great arcade game
GameFAQ's for putting up this FAQ

+=============+
| 4.  WELCOME |================================================================
+=============+

Welcome to my FAQ for Red Baron.  Since the game is just a shooter that goes
until all your men are killed, there is no walkthrough per se.  Instead it will
be broken up into the game itself, strategies for survival, and some in-
teresting quirks in the game.  Input is appreciated along with constructive
criticism.  If you wish to e-mail me thoughts on this FAQ, better ways of doing
things, other strategies, etc., feel free.  Make sure you put Red Baron as the
subject.  If you don't, I'm liable to discard the e-mail as spam.

+==============+
| 5.  OVERVIEW |===============================================================
+==============+

Atari started to lose its dominating position when the 1980's arrived.
Companies such Midway (a licensee of Namco), Taito, Cinematronics, and Stern to
name a few were starting to put out arcade machines.  With this many competitor
in the field, it wasn't any wonder why Atari was losing the market edge.  They
needed a game to put them back in the spotlight again.  In early 1980, Atari
released Red Baron.  In addition to being one of the first true three-
dimensional games, it was also the first flight simulator.  This was also the
first of the Atari combat type games.  Battlezone would come out later in the
year and prove to be one of Atari's most popular games.  Pushing the CPU to the
limit by using vectored graphics, Atari proved again why it was a leader in the
cutting edge.  In addition, the game also adjusted itself to the player's skill
making it somewhat dynamic in keeping the challenge alive for the player.  Good
luck taking on the enemy in your bi-plane.

                               ***************
******************************** U N I T  II **********************************
                               ***************

+==============+ 
| 6.  THE GAME |===============================================================
+==============+ 

Red Baron is a three-dimensional, vector-lined shooter.  You control your plane
to take on both air and ground targets.  Of course, these air and ground
targets are trying to take your plane down.  Your job is to shoot down as many
air units and shoot up as many ground units as you can.  It all comes down to
the law of the fittest survive.  Good luck and good hunting.

 ____________________
/ 6.1  The Controls /__________________________________________________________
--------------------

In order to become a master of this game, you must be familiar with the
controls.  The controls are pretty easy to work.  You just have to play the
game some to get used to them.

-  An eight-way joystick with a firing trigger

 _________________________
/ 6.2  The Playing Field /_____________________________________________________
-------------------------

The playing field consists of a three-dimensional landscape with enemy air and
ground units.  I have included an example of what the playing field looks like
(a little larger then normal):

    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                                                                   |
    |  ___ ___               YOUR SCORE                 HIGH SCORE      |
    |  --- ---<-PLANES LEFT                                             |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                 +-----+--+-+-+------+<-ENEMY PLANE                |
    |                  \   /   |_|   \   /                              |
    |                    +     / \     +                                |
    |                  /   \  |   |  /   \                              |
    |                 +------+-\_/-+------+                             |
    |                         |/ \|                           GROUND    |
    |                         |   |                            UNIT     |
    |                                                           |      /|
    |                                          /\               V     / |
    |   /\                                    /  \    /        +--+  /  |
    |__/__\__/\______________________________/____\__/_\_______|OO|_/___|
    | /    \/  \                            /      \/   \    +-+--++    |
    |      /    \                          /       /     \  /           |
    |                                                     \/            |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

You control your plane through this landscape.

 _______________
/ 6.3  Scoring /_______________________________________________________________
---------------

Scoring in this game is pretty simple:

Enemy Fighter:  300 to 10 points.  When the enemy fighter first appears, it is
                                   worth 300 points.  The closer it gets to
                                   your plane, the less the enemy plane is
                                   worth.
Blimp        :  200 points
Tanks        :  250 points
Pillboxes    :  250 points
Pyramids     :  100 points
Buildings    :  100 points

Depending on the machine set up, you will earn a free plane in the following
way:

6,000, 20,000, and 50,000 points
4,000, 15,000, and 40,000 points
2,000, 10,000, and 30,000 points

You start with 2, 3, 4, or 5 planes.

                               ****************       
******************************** U N I T  III *********************************
                               ****************       

+======================+
| 7.  PLAYING THE GAME |=======================================================
+======================+

When you start the game, you will be put into a surrealistic landscape.  The
view is from the cockpit of your bi-plane.  Immediately, you will be jumped on
by enemy units.  You will know an enemy unit has appeared because of the sounds
the game makes.

-  The joystick is pretty sensitive.  This basically means you don't have to
   push it hard in order to get your plane to move around.  Also, remember that
   the game is set up like an actual plane.

-  Try to keep your altitude as high as possible.  This gives you a better
   chance at "jumping" enemy air units.  In addition, it will allow you to be
   able to keep with them longer ensuring a better chance at a kill.

-  If there are no enemy planes around, you can go on strafing missions to take
   out a few of the enemy ground units.  Be very careful when you are doing
   this since the terrain is pretty mountainous.

-  At the beginning, you will only encounter one enemy plane.  As you progress
   through the game, don't be surprised when you get attacked by three or even
   four enemy planes at one time.

-  Learn how to do deflection shooting.  Deflection shooting is a method of
   shooting where you fire your shots in front of the projected path of the
   object you are trying to hit.  In essence, it forces that object to "run"
   into your fire.

-  Practice doing evasive maneuvering starting with the basic dives and climbs.
   Then add turns to these moves.  This will definitely come in very handy
   later on in the game when you are confronted with a large number of enemy
   units (both ground and air).

-  You will see the enemy fire that is aimed at your plane.  The bullets look
   like diamonds.  They are easy to evade but you may have to do some tight
   turns if there is a heavy volume of enemy fire coming at your plane.

-  If you don't take out an enemy plane while it is heading for your plane, it
   will get behind you.  This presents a very dangerous situation since you
   will only have a couple of seconds before you are shot down.  You can evade
   the enemy plane:

   -  If you are too close to the ground, immediately climb and roll to the
      left or right.  By doing this, you actually cause your plane to slow down
      and the enemy plane flies under you giving you another opportunity to
      shoot him down.

   -  If you are too high, then you can power dive and roll left or right.
      Just watch out for the ground (which will be coming at you fast).  Before
      you get to the ground, do a power climb and follow the advice in the
      first part.

-  Blimps present a unique challenge since they don't move very fast.  This
   means you will need to take them down on your first pass since you travel
   much faster then them.  Sometimes the blimp will present you with a "head-
   on" look.  This makes it harder to hit since it makes itself into a smaller
   target.

-  While "hunting" for enemy air units, it's usually a good idea to do a gentle
   roll from side-to-side.  The reason for this is if you get multiple enemy
   air units, you can fire off a burst and knock more then one out of the sky.
   This helps even the odds up considerably.

-  Don't keep your finger on the gun trigger too long.  Your guns will overheat
   and it takes a couple of seconds for them to cool off again.  That couple
   seconds could be the difference between life and death.  

                               ****************
********************************  U N I T  IV *********************************
                               ****************

+================+
| 8.  CONCLUSION |=============================================================
+================+

Red Baron was one of the more unusual games that I had first encountered.  For
one, none of us had seen a vector graphic game quite like this one.  Once we
started playing, we realized that the game presented quite a challenge.  Be-
tween the air and ground units, one couldn't let their concentration slip for
even a second.  If you did lose your concentration, your plane became part of
the landscape.  One of the hardest things to learn on this game was the
principle of deflection shooting.  It was frustrating to see ones shots go
over, under, or to the side of an enemy plane.  This became even more
pronounced when multiple enemy air units were attacking your plane.  Just as
frustrating was lining up a plane for the kill when a ground unit ended your
spree prematurely.  I think it was this frustration that made the game so
popular with me.  Of course, later on Battlezone took over that spot.  Un-
fortunately, it is very rare to find this machine anywhere.  However, through
the miracle of emulation, a whole new generation is realizing what we "old"
folks enjoyed those many years ago.  I hope this guide helps you in being able
to get the most amount of gameplay for this game.  If you do have other ideas
or thoughts, please e-mail me and share them.  Who knows, maybe I'll start a
Q&A Chapter in this guide if enough people ask the same questions.  Anyway,
thank you again for reading this guide.

To see other FAQ's I have written please go to:

           http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/32691.html

           ~~~  No trees were harmed in the making of this FAQ ~~~