Toejam and Earl FAQ Ver 1.0 (Sorry, no fancy ASCII art here kthx) Written by Ron Glenn (smashjackson@hotmail.com) ************************************************* TABLE OF CONTENTS ************************************************* I Table of Contents II Introduction A Preface B About the Game C Note about Emulators. III Playing the Game A Explanation of the Menus B Differences between Toejam & Earl C Multiplayer D The Levels 1 Randomization 2 Level hazards and features E The Map F Spending Money G Leveling Up H Food IV The Earthlings A Good Earthlings B Bad Earthlings C Sleeping Earthlings V The Presents VI Gameplay Quirks and Bugs VII Secrets and Cheats A Level Zero B Codes VIII Wishlist ************************************************* INTRODUCTION ************************************************* ------------------------- Preface ------------------------- Hello, all my wonderful......fans?? Welcome to the Toejam and Earl FAQ. This was one of my all time favorite Genesis games, so I've decided to write something about it. I've written this FAQ for many reasons. For one, this is my first attempt at a FAQ, so I'm kinda of testing the waters, as they say. Also, as far as I know, there hasn't been a FAQ written for Toejam and Earl, and since I've played the game about a billion times, I hope I can provide some insight for the few people that haven't played this very original and fun game. (Note, as of the writing of this FAQ, 2 Toejam and Earl FAQ's have appeared, so someone beat me to it. D'OHH!) This is most likely going to be the only version of this FAQ, as I'm trying to incorporate everything I know in to it all at once, however, if there's any thing I missed, please feel free to e-mail me at smashjackson@hotmail.com. Just so you know, I have a lot of friends that are FAQ writers, and I've seen a lot of the crap that they get e-mailed after they've written a FAQ. I will be more than happy to answer anything about the game, or just engage in general conversation, but if I get any lame e-mails, before I delete it, I'll display it to everyone on IRC, along with the e-mail address, and I'm pretty sure you'll get some pleasant responses in your e-mail box... especially from the users of EFNet. As for what you can do with this FAQ, I don't really care. You can line the bottom of the bird cage with it, you can make origami out of it, you can even use it for toilet paper, but I hope the FAQ is used for what it was intended; to hopefully provide information that veterans of the game didn't know about, and to encourage people who haven't experienced Toejam and Earl to give this great game a try. ------------------------------------------------------------- About the Game (for people that haven't played it) ------------------------------------------------------------- Toejam and Earl was released for the Sega Genesis game system 3'rd Quarter of 1991. I've received this game for Christmas, and I enjoyed it almost instantly. It has a convoluted plot that is pretty far-fetched, but good plots are only important in RPGs....right? Basically, Toejam and Earl are "cruisin" in space in their spaceship when Earl decided he wants to drive. Predictably, after he gets behind the wheel, he wrecks, and they happen to crash land on earth. On impact, their ship breaks into pieces and are scattered all over the earth. They must retrieve the pieces so they can get off this lame planet (and I don't blame them). Unfortunately, not only are the parts scattered over a wide area, but they have to contend with the planet's inhabitants, Earthlings, of course. While a few earthlings are good and will help the rapping aliens (for a price, of course), most of them are no good and will do everything to hinder them from completing their task. The game is supposed to have a hip-hop theme, but it really isn't exploited much at all, except for some stuff in the intro, a few of the sound effects, and some of the music. ---------------------------- A note about Emulators ---------------------------- If you're playing this game, it's most likely that you're playing it on an emulator, and I've written this FAQ with this in mind. However, there is a problem with playing this game on Emulators, and it's something called "H-Interrupts". I won't get technical on what this is, as it really doesn't affect gameplay, but it causes a somewhat annoying problem. If you haven't messed with the options of the emulator, then H-Interupts should be off by default. You should be able to see the game sprites (your character(s), presents, Earthlings, etc). However, when you go into the menu to view your presents, you wont be able to see anything. You're gonna have to enable H-Interupts in order to see the contents of the menu. If you're using K-Gen(98), you'll have to go push "Escape", then go to the "video menu" and toggle H-Interupts on, then you'll be able to see the menu. If you're using Genecyst, just click on the "settings" menu, then toggle H-Interupts there, but an easier way to do it in Genecyst is to just push alt+h. With that in mind, it is definately easier to play Toejam and Earl in Genecyst, as you'll be opening the presents menu quite frequently, and it'll get very repetitive to have to go to the emulator's menu everytime you want to open and close the presents menu. As of the writing of this FAQ, I'm not aware of any emulator that does this automatically. If there is, please contact me at the above e-mail, and I'll be grateful. As for finding the rom/emulator, no, I won't tell where to find them, so don't bother e-mailing me asking, however, if you have even the most rudimentary internet knowledge, you should be able to find both of them quite easily. :) ************************************************* PLAYING THE GAME ************************************************* ---------------------------- Explanation of Menus ---------------------------- Well, the menus are pretty much self-explanatory, but in order to make the FAQ look bigger than it really is, here's the low-down: The first screen gives you the choice of playing ToeJam, or Earl, or a 2 player game. If a 2 player game is chosen, Player 1 will always be Toejam, and player 2 will always be Earl. The next screen gives you the choice of playing "random world", "Jam Out", "Show Intro Again", "Controller Options", and play "Fixed World". Random is the right way to play this game, and this FAQ is written for Random world. Jam Out is sorta like a side activity you can do. You can listen to the songs in the game. The "Crazy Sounds" option allows you to play with the game's sound effects. The A, B, and C buttons play a sound, and pressing the control pad will randomly change the effects assigned to the buttons each time you press it. Tapping the start button will cycle through the baselines of the 6 songs in the game, and HOLDING start will exit this screen. Show Intro Again...hmm..wonder what this option does... Controller options. Heh, this option is useless. Only thing it allows you to do is swap the "Map" and "Action" functions between A and C. You can't even change the present menu from button B. Fixed World: This is pointless, and I wonder why the programmers even included this in the game. This options allows you to play the game with pre-set static stages. In my opinion, this kills a lot of the appeal of the game and makes it extremely boring and monotonous. --------------------------------------- Differences between Toejam and Earl --------------------------------------- At first, there doesn't seem to be any differences between the two rapping Aliens, but there are some small, but important differences. Toejam walks slightly faster than Earl, and he's a smaller target which eliminates some of the "juggling" that some enemies can do, but he has a smaller life bar, and he takes a little more damage than Earl. Earl is MUCH bigger than Toejam, so there is a lot more of him the enemies can hit, and this could lead to some nasty juggles from certain enemies, but he has a larger life bar, and takes less damage than Toejam. He also comes with another annoying feature; his pants fall down on random intervals which causes him to stop to pull them up. This isn't good when you're trying to outrun an enemy. I personally like to play Earl, simply due to the fact that he has a larger life bar, and takes less damage. This becomes very useful in the later levels when the enemies start dealing out lots of damage, plus there's ways to get around his shortcoming of being slow. ---------------------- Multiplayer ---------------------- Toejam and Earl is really fun when you play with a friend (Most games are, for that matter. :D ) While mostly aspects of the game remain identical to the single player mode, there are a few subtle, yet noticable changes. *****What doesn't change***** The difficulty level stays the same. It doesn't become harder, and the number or the stats of the earthlings doesn't increase. The number of items that are on the levels do not change outside of the range of the number of items decided at random. Both players have to share the items, but there's more than enough presents to go around. Money and food, however, are another matter. *****Changes***** When both players are on the same screen, the screen is whole, but once the 2 players are a sufficient distance from each other, the screen splits horizontally, and the players can go their seperate ways. This is great, as it allows both players to cover more ground more quickly. However, there are a couple of drawbacks to this. (See "Gameplay Quirks" section.) If both players are together on the same screen, when one of them opens a present, they both get the contents, without any loss of effect or duration. This works for *any* presents, including Extra Lives and Promotions...and even Total Bummers. However, if one opens the present "Food" it may have a random effect on each player. (See "Presents" section.) If seperated, both players gain experience and level-up's seperately, but if on the same screen, they gain all experience simultaneously, either by exploring the land (uncovering grids on the map), or opening presents. Both players can even exist on seperate levels, one can backtrack levels to recover a missed ship piece or something, but a new level cannot be reached until both players are at the exit of the highest level completed. If both players walk up to each other, and simultaneously press the action button, they will do a high-five. This isn't just for looks, as this averages their energy bars. The character with the larger amount of life will lose energy, while the player with the lesser amount will gain energy. This works on averaging the percentages of each player's life bar. Example, Toejam has 40% life remaining, and Earl has 80% life, they high-five, and both of their life bars average out to 60%: Earl loses 20%, Toejam adds 20%. This becomes very useful if one character is about to die, and the other player has a lot of life left. The present "UnFall" becomes "Togetherness" which has an entirely different use. As you can see, there's a big emphasis on teamwork, so don't play with someone who isn't a good player, or someone that's too competitive. ---------------------- The Map ---------------------- The map will be an essential tool in exploring. Push C button to access it. When you begin a level, the entire map will be covered in purple tiles (one tile may be already turned over showing your starting position). As you explore, the tiles will turn over slowly revealing the map. You gain experience for each tile you turn over. If you find a Telephone, you can get some tiles turned over for free (See "Presents" section). The map shows an overhead, zoomed out view of the level. You'll also see some other icons: Flashing Red icon: Toejam Flashing Orange icon: Earl Blue Square icon: ship piece Orange Square icon: exit Pushing the action button while viewing the map will bring up the ship screen. This shows you all the pieces you have collected so far, and it will also tell you if there's a ship piece on the current level. ---------------------- The Levels ---------------------- Toejam and Earl consists of 25 levels. How big they are, and how long it takes to complete them is mostly totally up to luck. *****Randomization***** Any programmer knows that there is no such thing in programming as anything being random, as everything depends on some variable being met, or some parameter being carried out. The programmers of Toejam and Earl have done a pretty good job of making everything as random as possible. Yes, the graphics aren't exactly the most detailed in the world, but the game *was* made in 1991, on the Sega Genesis, so the graphics are more than adequate. The land is generated using "tiles" and are randomly placed around in a grid. Each tile has different variations of the landscaping, so the random placements of the tiles create the random landscaping. It is possible to see some instances of the tiles, like some of the outside curves of the land have repetitive patterns, and repeating patterns in the "grass". Each level is created when you exit to a new level; this is the reason that you actually experience some load time when advancing to a new level. All previous levels are stored in RAM, so if you have to descend some levels, it doesn't take as long to load. Also, while they don't appear that often, the randomization has a few bugs that crop up from time to time which are explained in the "Gameplay Quirks" section below. *****Level Hazards and Features***** No superfluous intro here, these are all the things you'll find in the game: Land: This is the "green stuff" you walk on. Toejam and Earl walk normal speed while walking on the land Water: the "blue stuff". When you enter water, you move about half the speed that you move on land. Also, your life bar will decrease; basically your life bar is also your air supply, same as it is on Super Mario Bros 64, except it doesn't recharge when you resurface. :/ With that in mind, avoid the water when you're at low life, or you'll meet a quick end. In some areas, there will be a shark in the water that will chase you and cause damage, so try to dodge this. There are items that you can use to cross water more efficiently which are explained in the "Presents" section below. Tree: Ummm....it's a tree. You can hide behind it and deflect any enemies that are chasing you. Road: In some levels, there's a winding road that snakes though the area... The only use for it is that you walk faster on it than you walk on the grass. this is very useful for Earl as it allows him to outrun enemies that would normally catch him in the grass. Mailbox: There is one of these in every level. They allow you to buy items with the money that you find (see section "Spending Money"). Be cautious, however, because there is also an enemy that disguises itself as a mailbox, and will attack you when you approach it. (See "Earthlings" section.) Quicksand: The "yellow stuff", this can get VERY annoying. While it doesn't cause any damage itself, it can make things frustrating. When you enter it, you start to sink very slowly and gradually lose speed. Once you reach the bottom, you move at about 1/3 of the speed you normally move. This makes you fair game to any enemies that happen to be wandering the area (No, the enemies don't sink.>:( ) If you're attacked by an enemy, you'll pop up onto the surface of the quicksand, and hopefully you can escape before you start to sink again. Unfortunately, there aren't any items that can negate the effects of the quicksand, but fortunately, there are some that can help you out. Ship Piece: You have to collect 10 of these to re-assemble your ship. The ship piece is on a pedastal, sitting in front of a huge blue sign with arrows pointing to it (heh, funny). This appears as a square blue icon on your map. If you're lucky, this will be near the entry point to the stage. Door: You must find this to exit the level. It is a square orange icon on your map. Like the ship piece, this may be placed near the entry point of the level, which means a quick exit. Earthlings: The things running around the stages. They'll either help you or hurt you. Items: You'll find verious things laying around the levels that will come in 3 forms: Presents, Food, and money. Collecting these is essential to your survival. ---------------------- Spending Money ---------------------- During your travels, you'll come across money; it'll just be laying around, or you'll get some in presents. Money only has 2 uses in the game: Paying one of the "good earthlings" to help you (See "Earthlings" section), or "ordering" something from the mailboxes. To order something out of the mailbox, just walk up to it (make sure that it isn't an imposter first. :) ) and a dialogue box should saying "Mail Order"?" with the choices 'Yup' and 'Nope'. If you shoose Yup, a screen will pop up where you can choose between 3 presents. The presents will be identified if you previously identified them, but will be question marks for unidentified presents. The price can be either 3, 4, or 5 bucks and is chosen **randomly**, so don't get any ideas that a higher price on an unidentified present is something valuable and rare, it could be a Total Bummer. ---------------------- Leveling Up ---------------------- As you explore the land and open presents, you gain points. You get 1 point for uncovering a panel on the map, and 2 points for opening presents. Once you reach a certain number of points, fireworks appear over your head and you level up to the next rank. Depending on your rank, sometimes you'll get an extra life. The higher your rank, the longer your energy bar is, and believe me, you'll need it on the later levels. The ranks are: Rank Amount of points needed **** *********************** Weiner 0 (You begin here) Dufus 40 Poindexter 100 (Extra Life) Peanut 180 Dude 280 Bro 400 (Extra Life) Homey 540 Rapmaster 700 FunkLord 880 (Extra Life) Basically you need to get 20 more points each time to reach the next level. It really isn't that hard to reach Funklord...especially when you can automatically level up with the Promotion present. Once you reach Funklord status, Promotion presents will no longer do anything, so you might as well get rid of them. --------------------- Food --------------------- Along with presents and money, you'll find food lying around the stage. Some of it's good, and some is bad. There are 16 types of food: 11 good and 5 bad. The change that your energy bar takes whether good or bad is at 3 levels: small, medium and large. You'll know how much your bar will change by what T or E says when they pick up the food: Either "not bad", "yummm", or "wow" which is the small/medium/large amounts, or "ick", "yuck", or "gross" on the other end of the scale. The types of food are: Not Bad (small) Yumm (medium) Wow (large) --------------- ------------- ----------- Bacon "N" Eggs Cherry Pie Fudge Cake Candy Cane Pancakes Fudge Sundae Cereal Pizza Hamburger Watermelon Fries Ick (Small) Yuck (medium) Gross (large) ----------- ------------- ------------- Moldy Bread Slimy Fungus Old Cabbage Old Cheese FishBones The selection of food isn't weighted, so there is an equal chance of getting any of them. Food is the most available way to replenish your energy, however, as your energy gets longer, and the enemies dish out more damage, even the food that refills "large" amounts wont seem like much. There are only 2 ways to full recharge your energy; The wizard is the most obvious, and the other is a secret (See "secrets and codes" section). ************************************************* Earthlings ************************************************* While on earth searching for the pieces of your ship, you'll come across the natives of earth, Earthlings. A few are helpful, but most of them will want to do you in. ---------------------- Good Earthlings ---------------------- These Earthlings are consideres "good" simply for the fact that they don't want to harm you. Some (with the exception of Santa Claus) will help you if you give them money (Hey, they're only "human", right??) Walk up to them, and give them whatever price they want, and they'll perform whatever action the particular earthling will do. You can decline the offer, if you want to save money, but you may should spend it when you meet one of them, as all of them are extremely helpful. ---Wizard--- This is a rather short guy wearing a white wizard uniform (No KKK jokes plz. :P) carrying a wand. Give him a buck, and he'll perform his leet magic skillz (with a nice "Halleujah" sample) and he'll recharge all your energy. He walks back and forth across the stage very slowly on a horizontal axis. If you need to go back to him, and he's gone, walk either left of right on the same axis he is on, and eventually you'll meet up with him again. This is one of only 2 ways you can fully recharge your health. The other way is in the "Secrets and Cheats" section. You'll first meet him around the 3'rd~5'th level. ---Scientist--- (Also known as "Carrot Guy") He is dressed up as a carrot (Why???). He'll identify presents for you for 2 bucks each. This is *extremely* useful, and this is mainly what I save any money I find for. When you talk to him, he'll make a "Hmmmmm" sound, then he reveals the contents of presents without you having to risk opening them and getting something bad; he may identify a Total Bummer, or a Randomizer before they can do any damage. Like the Wizard, he walks back and forth across the stage on a horizontal axis. You'll first meet him on the 3'rd~5'th level. ---Opera Singer--- As the saying goes "It ain't over until the fat lady sings", and it will be over for any enemy that's in range when this fat lady sings. For 3 bucks, she will emit a very loud "HIYA HAAAAAAAA" and any enemy/ies that is/are on the screen will instantly be defeated. This is great for those tough to kill enemies like the chicken infantry, and the lawn-mower man. I'm not quite sure on the range of her singing, but it does cover the whole screen, so I assume it has an affect a little bit further than the sides of the screen. 3 bucks is kinda expensive, so only use her if all other means fail. Unlike the other 2, she'll follow you around, so you can lead here to any problem spots full of enemies, however, she is slow, and if you go to far in front, she'll stop tracking you and go off in another direction. I can't quite remember when you first see her, but it's well after you meet the above 2 helpers, somewhere around the 9'th~11'th level. Be warned, however, that she will also defeat any *good* humans which happen to be in the area (except Santa Claus), so be careful, and make sure they aren't anywhere near her. ---Santa Claus--- He actually doesn't help you, but he doesn't harm you either, so that makes him good. When you walk towards him, he'll searching through his bag of toys. Get closer, and he'll be surprised, and will don his jet pack and fly off to another part of the stage. There is another way to approach him. Remember that rarely used "sneak" feature, well if you sneak up to him, you'll see him look up and look around. When you see him do this, STOP and stay still until he starts rambling in his bag again. If you move while he's looking around, he'll fly off. Repeat the pattern of sneaking, stopping when he looks around, and sneaking when he looks in the bag again. Like everything else in T&E, there is no pattern to him looking. It's totally random, and he may never look and you'll possibly be able to reach him without having to stop at all. If and when you reach him, you'll surprise him, and he'll drop anywhere from 1 to 4 presents, and fly off to another part of the stage. He can drop any present in the game, all at an equal chance, so you can get some of the rare items from him. Take note that it doesn't matter which direction he flies, as he can re-appear anywhere. He may fly off the upper left part of the screen, and re-appear at the bottom right, and it can be *anywhere* on the stage: all the way across the stage, or 1 screen over. Santa is an unlimited source of presents, and you should exploit this fact. He first appears on level 4. ---------------------- Bad Earthlings ---------------------- You know well enough that you, being aliens and on Earth, will stir a lot of trouble, and you're fair game for the earthlings. They want to do everything from drilling things into you, to running over you, to firing tomatoes and arrows at you, to stealing from you. They come in all shapes and sizes, and widely varying speed, AI, and difficulty. I've wrote the Earthlings in chronological order of how you *generally* meet them in the game. Due to the random nature of stage generation, you may meet them in a different order, and you may not even see a few of them at all. It's pretty certain that you'll never see certain enemies on certain levels (A Ghost Ice Cream Truck on level 2, for example), however, it is possible with the "Earthling" present(See "presents" section). Also in the descriptions are other things, such as number of hits they can take, the approximate level they first appear on, and their AI as I observed it. I'm writing this list from memory, so if there are any earthlings I missed, please e-mail me at the above address. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ---Red Devils--- These are short, fat, goofy-looking devils running around with pitchforks. Sometimes you see them dancing(???) in place before they chase you. Their AI tracks you, but is somewhat erratic; they don't always chase directly after you and are easy to dodge. They're somewhat slow, and do very little damage, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with them all. They do juggle, so be careful of that. They take 2~5 shots to defeat. They first appear on level 2. ---Hawaiian Hula Dancers--- They have to be the most annoying enemies in the game...PERIOD! They do no damage, and they only take 1~2 hits to defeat, but argh, they're...ANNOYING! When you get close to them, they make your character dance uncontrollably. The length of the dancing, and the frequency of it affecting you is, of course, random, but generally, the closer to them you are, the higher chance of it affecting you, and the chance of it affecting you for a longer period of time. It is random, however. She may affect you from clear across the screen, and you may be able to walk up to her and past her and not be affected it all. The length of the dancing can be anywhere from 1 second, to well over 10 seconds. If you get next to her she'll say "Aloha" in an alluring, seductive voice, and your character will say "Hubba Hubba!". They aren't too much of a problem on some of the earlier levels, since the enemies are low level and don't cause that much damage, but on later levels, when you're most likely trying to run from more dangerous enemies, they'll probably get you killed. Fortunately, their AI doesn't track you at all -- they just move in random patterns extremely slow. Take them out as soon as you see them, or they'll come back to haunt you. They start appearing at level 3. ---Shark--- You didn't think that they wouldn't make the water areas without dangers, did you? Like the famous Jaws, they travel in random patterns in the water with the familiar fin sticking out of the water. When you enter the water, they give chase, and due to the very slow speed in which you move, you're pretty much shark bait. They only do very small damage, but the damage they do (which stuns you momentarily) combined with your energy draining from the lack of air can be deadly, so try to avoid going into the water if all possible. The shark will not chase you if you're in the water using rocket skates, and oddly enough, won't attack you if you're using an innertube. They start appearing on level 3 in any water area. ---Cupids--- Another very annoying enemy, but nowhere nearly as bad as the hula dancers because you can actually avoid these. They fly very slowly, tracking you, and firing arrows. Their AI leads them to either side of you at about 3 character lengths away. They can only fire their arrows when they're that exact distance. They won't fire if they're too close, or too far from you. You can tell when one is close by the off key "La-La-LAAH" they emit. The cupid's arrows don't cause any damage, but does cause frustration. When they hit, hearts apprear over your head, and your directional controls are screwed up. The thing to know is that the controls aren't totally random. What happens is that the x-y axis gets rotated. North, East, South, and West are in the same order, but are rotated. The trick is to find out how many degrees it is rotated (in increments of 45 degrees), and in which direction, then compensate for it. Hopefully, the axis will be rotated 180 degrees, which means you'll go in the opposite direction of the direction you press, and will be easy to compensate. Any other degrees will be a little more difficult. The A, B, and C aren't effected. The only way to defeat them is to knock them out of the air...by ramming them with your body. That can be accomplished with the Icarus Wings, or the Spring Shoes. They fly very slowly, so you can outrun them. They first appear on the 3'rd level. ---Bees--- They look like a cloud of dots, but those are actually bees. Not much to say about them except they can fly over the "holes" between the lands, so you can't lose them by leading them to the edge of the land. They *can* be outran, but can be difficult to dodge (especially for Earl) because of their ability to fly diagonally. They have very weird AI in that they can chase you all over the stage, but occasionally it seems like something else catches their attention, and they'll break off the chase and fly off in another direction. They may regain their composure and start chasing you again, or they'll just fly off the screen. Other times if you happen to run into them, they'll start chasing you immediately, or simply ignore you and fly in another direction. I'm not sure what causes this, but I assume it's just a random AI thing. Also, the number of hits they can take varies widely also. They can juggle you, but the damage is pretty light. As for how many hits they take, I've seen as little as 4, and as high as 15. They first appear on level 3. ---Shoppers--- Everyone has seen them in the stores and malls of America: a parent pushing an obnoxious kid around in a buggy while she's shopping, and the kid's being a brat. Fortunately, they shouldn't be much of a threat to you, though. They're slow, and while they track you, it takes them a second to change direction to follow. Sometimes they stop and do one of 2 things: The mom will yell "Shut Up!!" at the kid, or the mom will look behind her, and the kid will make a face at the camera. The shopper juggles, but does only mild damage. They appear first in level 3~4. ---Mailbox Impersonator--- I'm not quite sure how this is an earthling, but oh well. When you first see them, they look like a mailbox. When you get close to one, it sprouts arms and legs, and starts attacking you while making a "BLEDABLEDABLEDA" sound. They are **very** fast; the only way to outrun them is with Super HiTops or Rocketskates (Earl just barely escapes with the HiTops). They will juggle you a LOT and while each hit is small damage, they can hit you enough for it to add up and cause some hurting. After about 5 seconds of running about, they stop and assume "mailbox stance" again. There are a couple of ways to determine if it's a fake or a real mailbox: You can run up to it, but that kinda defeats the purpose. :) You can wait a while and watch it. Occasionally, it'll open its eyes and look around, thus giving itself away. You can pull out Tomatoes, or a Tomato Slingshot and shoot at it. After about 10 or 15 hits it isn't defeated, it's a real mailbox. You could also use a BoomBox, and if it dances, well, it's fake. They start appearing on level 4. ---Hamsters-in-Wheel--- Someone left the hamster cage open, and the hamster escaped, and stayed in its wheel. They shouldn't be much of a problem as they are **very** slow, even Earl can run circles around them. They could be a slight problem in narrow passages as they are fairly big, and can be a little tricky to get around. If one of them happens to get to you, they run over you and flatten you, doing a considerable amount of damage. They take 3 to 8 hits to defeat and they start appearing on level 3. ---Demented Dentist--- These dropouts from the school of dentistry couldn't get a license to practice, so they run around and find patients to practice on...whether they like it or not, and they get much joy out of it. He's quite fast, and can catch Earl, so you gotta use some evasive maneuvers to escape him. Fortunately, he isn't too hard to dodge since he has slow tracking. Once they reach you, they drill you, then emit a loud "HAAA HA HA HA HAAAA!!". Try to avoid them, as their drill does quite a bit of damage. Sometimes while chasing you, he'll stop and laugh. Fortunately, they can't take too many hits, and are usually defeated with 3~5 hits. Starts appearing on level 5. ---Mole--- They're almost as annoying as the hula dancers, and are extremely annoying when there is a lot of them present, which happens on the later levels. These tunnelers burrow underground chasing you. They're quite fast and can catch Earl and Rosebushes don't effect them as they burrow under them. Once they reach you, they shake you down, and you'll lose anywhere from 1 to 4 presents permanently, so you better hope it takes some presents you don't care about...like Total Bummers. :) Once they take your presents, they won't bother you again unless you pick up another present while it is on the screen. The only way to defeat it is to wait until it brings its head above ground, then start nailing it with as many tomatoes as you can. It'll do this randomly while its chasing you, but it'll raises his head a lot more often if it runs into something, so try to lead it to a cliffside or something They take 3~6 hits and starts appearing on level 6. ---Boogey Man--- Out of children's nightmares, they now run around trying to scare anyone that they see, and since Toejam and Earl are the only ones around, they scare them. They can be tough since when they aren't moving, they're invisible. You could walk up to one without even knowing it. When they move, they become transparent and chase you down. When they hit you, they make a "Boogey Boogey Boogey" sound. In the later levels, they start doing significant damage. They track slow, so they can be dodged, but they are quite fast and can catch Earl quite easily. Try to lose them behind a tree or cliffside or something. They start appearing on level 6. ---SandStorm--- These aren't really "Earthlings", but they harm you just the same. Also very high on the annoyance scale, they seem to appear at the most unfortunate times. They appear out of the quicksand areas and will chase after you. Like a few of the enemies, their AI tracks slowly, so it's dodgable, but it could be bad if they grab you. Once grabbed, you get sucked into the wind and lose control over your character. The wind then takes you and moves in random directions on the map, and it has a very nasty knack of heading right off the cliff of the level and staying out there. Be prepared to drop down a level if a sandstorm grabs you and you're near the edge of the level. While you're being spun around in the sandstorm, you're invulnerable to any enemy attacks, but can still be hit by projectiles. The length of time it holds you is random and it can release you immediately, or hold you as long as 15 seconds. Make sure you get out of the area that it appeared, because when the first one disappears, another will appear right in its place. ---Chicken Infantry--- They seem to let anyone into the army nowadays, and these chickens took advantage of it. They are a group of 4 chickens, wearing those war hats with the pointing thing on top (I forgot what those are called) and they're carrying around a mortar that shoots...TOMATOES!!! Unlike you, however, they have an unlimited amount of tomatoes, and unlike you, they can adjust the trajectory of the tomatoes and hit you almost from anywhere on the screen. They have a really tricky AI where they'll chase you, but they'll also try to ambush you by chasing you from the side instead of directly chasing behind you. If they manage to get in front of you, they'll walk in the same direction as you, and since you're faster than they are, you'll end up running into the back of them and taking some damage if you're not careful, and they'll also match any direction changes if you try to get around them. Randomly they'll stop to shoot their tomatoes. When they shoot, they'll shoot 4 tomatoes, each making a cartoon "pop" sound, then they'll cluck among theirselves then give chase again. When they aim, they try to lead their shots to the direction where they think you'll end up, so if you use a zig-zag pattern when they shoot, they'll miss. They can take anywhere from 6 to 14 shots to defeat, and it's best to not go toe-to-toe with them. You most likely will defeat them, but will take some serious damage from the tomatoes. It's best to hit and run when fighting them, taking a few shots at a time. With some clever maneuvering, you can get them to fire their tomatoes and hit other enemies with them, saving you some tomatoes and slingshots. :) Obviously they are one of the more difficult enemies in the game, so be prepared. They first start appearing on level 6~8. ---Nerd Herd--- Apparently, ToeJam and Earl are so suave, that they've made the nerd community angry, and now they're after them also. A group of them get together and go on a stampede chasing T&E. An interesting thing about their AI is that they can't go directly on a vertical axis (up and down). they can only track you vertically, but continue to move forward (moving diagionally up and down), so basically, if you're far above or below them, they'll track towards you, but will never get to you since they can't move straight up or down. They also won't turn around unless they run into a cliffside or tree or something. Moving horizontally, they can be outran, but they are very fast when moving diagonally, and can catch Earl rather quickly. They flatten you when you contact them, and they do considerable damage, even greater damage on some of the higher levels. They take around 10~15 hits to defeat and start appearing on level 8~10. ---Lawnmower Guys--- These guys may look goofy, but don't be fooled, they are DANGEROUS!!!! They are the most dangerous Earthlings in the game and will contribute to the loss of many lives if you're not careful. They have a lot of attributes which come together that makes them deadly. They're very fast, they have fast tracking, they take a lot of hits to defeat, but the biggest dangers is that they juggle, and they do a TON of damage with each hit. They do so much damage in fact, that from a full bar, they can kill you even before your life bar adjusts to the damage taken. On later stages, you'll encounter multiple amounts of these guys, which will be a great time to use those boomboxes, decoys, and the Opera Singer if she's available. Their AI is brutal as they track fast and will be on your tail very quickly. Fortunately, they have a simular quirk that the bees have in that occasionally, they'll break off the chase and go in another direction. However, it happens a lot less often, and they recover faster from it. Rosebushes comes in *very* handy against these guys. They take anywhere from 10~20(!!!) hits to destroy. Starts appearing in level 9. ---Ghost Ice Cream Truck--- I really don't see how these guys fit in with the rest of the Earthlings in the game, but oh well, who's complaining? They can be a tricky and difficult enemy if you don't know their weakness. They are *insanely* fast, and there is no way you can outrun them without rocket skates, and T&E can barely get away using super hitops. You can tell when one's near by the horn honking sound (I think it would've been cooler if they used another sound like evil sounding music box chimes or something. :D ). They do HUGE damage when they run over you, but they don't juggle like the lawnmower guys, so it's managable. Their weakness is that they can't take much damage at all, only substaining 3 to 4 hits before they're defeated. However, you'll have a hard time even landing a hit since they move so fast, and they also TELEPORT! This also rules out trying to lose them at a cliffside as they'll just teleport to you. Fortunately, they track very slowly, so with some fancy footwork, you can dodge them long enough to get to a safe spot. They appear first on level 18. ----------------------- Sleeping Earthlings ----------------------- Remember that rarely used sneak button? Well, it's there for a purpose besides sneaking up on Santa. It can also be used for sneaking past sleeping enemies. Sometimes when an enemy appears on the screen, they'll be sleeping, and you can sneak past them without having to confront them. As usual, it's random if they're sleeping or not, but some enemies do not sleep. Sleeping Earthlings Doesn't Sleep ******************* ************* Devils Hawaiian Dancers Hamsters-in-Wheel Cupids Shoppers with Baby Bees Nerd Herd Boogey Man Demented Dentist Mailbox Impersonator Mole Lawnmower Guy Ghost Ice Cream Truck Chicken Infantry ************************************************* Presents ************************************************* Now the fun begins. A lot of the fun in T&E is opening presents and wondering what you'll get when you open them. There are lots of presents in the game: some are good, some bad, some are useless, some are just for gags, and some will save your butt in dire situations. Everytime you start a new game (and when you activate a Randomizer), the presents switch boxes, so there's no use trying to remember which box has which presents. The randomization of presents are weighted meaning that you'll see certain presents more often than other ones. A present with the frequency "very rare" doesn't necessarily mean you'll hardly ever see that particular present, you may get a couple of it in the game. All the frequency is that it is based against the frequency of other presents. ie: You may get lucky and collect quite a few of the "very rare" presents, and may only see 1 or 2 of the "very common" ones. That is due to the high rate that you acquire presents in the game. However, under normal circumstances, you'll only get a few very rare presents and a lot of the very common ones. When you get one of the "action" presents, the sneak button will activate whatever present you currently have, so if you want to sneak, you'll have to wait until the present wears off. All presents are listed in alphabetical order, along with the duration, and the frequency that it appears. As for duration, I'm too lazy to put exact time in seconds, so if the duration is at or below 30 seconds, it's "short". If it's between 30 and 60 seconds, it's "medium", and anything over 60 seconds is "long". Does anyone want to fill in the times for me? ************************************************************************ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Buck Frequency: Common Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gives you a dollar. Don't spend it all on one place. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boombox Frequency: Rare Duration: Short -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This will save your butt many times. Whip this out, and all earthlings on the screen will dance as long as the beat goes on. The range of the sound is about 1 screen length in all directions. They can't attack while they're dancing, so you can use the time to whip out some tomatoes and attack, or just escape. A very valuable present. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decoy Frequency: Common Duration: N/A -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This lures the earthlings away from you and towards the decoy. It'll last until it gets destroyed by an earthling, otherwise, it'll stay out there permanently. Like the boombox, it has a range of a screen length in all directions. An effective use for this is to put it just out of reach of Earthlings, or a place where it'll be hard to reach, like a island or a narrow passage, so it won't be destroyed as fast, and the enemies stay focused on it giving you some breathing room to escape or attack. Another very useful present. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doorway Frequency: Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opening this present will place a door on the screen. Entering the door will teleport you to a random area of the stage, and it can be ANYWHERE: all the way across the map, or half a screen away with the door still on the screen :) (You can use the door again if it is still on the screen). This isn't very useful, but may help you out of a rare bug that occurs (See "Gameplay Quirks" section). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earthling Frequency: Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well....what can I say, opening this will give you an Earthling. It could be beneficial as the Earthling could be a good one. It seems that the odds of getting a good earthling would be very slim, due to the ratio of good to bad earthlings, but the odds are a little better than that. It's a 20/80 percent ratio of the game picking a good to bad earthling, so there's a 1 in 5 chance of getting a good earthling. After that ratio is determined, then the earthling you get is totally random, and is not weighted (meaning an equal chance) reguardless of stage. You may end up with a Ghost Ice Cream Truck on level 2, or a Red Devil on level 25, or even a Santa Claus on a level where there already is one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extra Life Frequency: Very Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I shouldn't happen to explain what this does. An Extra Life is obviously a Very Good Thing(tm) Use these immediately if you happen to identify it, so it won't get Randomized, or get stolen by a mole. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Food Frequency: Common Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's just called...Food. Doesn't tell you what it is, and you don't know if it's good or not. Using this present will either give some energy, or take some. The ratio of it being good (YUMMM) or bad (YUCK) is 75/25 percent, and this ratio is applied to both players in 2 player games: Both players could gain energy, both could lose energy, or one could gain while one loses. Be careful when using this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fudge Sundae Frequency: Very Common Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who wants to eat a sundae that's been sitting on the ground? You don't know where its been, who had it last, and what flew/crawled in it. Here's one that's packed into a nice neat package. Does the same thing as the fudge sundae you find laying around. Fortunately, you'll most likely find a lot of these, so keep 'em around for those times when you're low on life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Icarus Wings Frequency: Rare Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take to the skies with these wings of Icarus. These will be invluable in many ways. Fly over water, space water, enemies: whatever gets in your way, just fly over it. While the duration is listed as "medium", it's on the very short side of medium, so get to wherever you want to go quickly, or you'll end up falling at probably the most inopportune time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Innertube Frequency: Very Common Duration: Long -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're scared of sinking in the water, don the innertube and you'll float with ease. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all you're able to use them for. It isn't too often that you actually need to go into the water (except for a certain "secret"). They're also quite common, so you'll end up collecting a lot of them, and once you activate one, It lasts a LONG time, thus disabling your sneak action for a while. Innertubes are useful when you need them, but you really won't need one that often. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jackpot Frequency: Very Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instant 5 bucks! Consider yourself lucky if you find one of these. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Promotion Frequency: Very Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A great present! This allows you to reach the next rank without all the muss and fuss of actually working for it. How it works is that it gives you the necessary points to reach the next rank. With that in mind, it's best to use a Promotion when you just achieved a level up. It'll be a waste to use a promotion when you only have a few points left for the next rank. Once you reach "FunkLord" status, these will no longer do anything. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rain Cloud Frequency: Common Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes I feel like this at work. ^_^ A raincloud will follow you around and occasionally strike you with a bolt of lightning. The lightning strikes are random: sometimes it'll strike you frequently, and sometimes it won't strike much at all. Each strike does some damage, and while the damage is small, a lot of strikes can add up over the duration, and could possibly kill you if it strikes you enough. Normally there isn't any way to avoid the strikes; you gotta take them like a man...er...alien, but there is a way you can dodge at least some of them (See "Gameplay Quirks and Bugs" section). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Randomizer Frequency: Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This thing is akin to Pandora's Box. The action of identifying this present or not could DRASTICALLY change the course of the game. Activating the Randomizer will cause "consequences and reprocussions". It shuffles all the presents that're in your inventory, AND it switches the boxes that the presents are in. Basically, all presents that you've identified up to that point are thrown back into the unknown. The "randomization" of the presents aren't weighted, so you have an equal chance of getting any present, no matter of its frequency. The good this is that you may end up with a lot of great presents, like BoomBoxes, Extra Lives, and Promotions, but on the flip side, you may end up with a lot of bad presents like Total Bummers, School Books, and Rain Clouds, also, of course, all the time it took to identify presents is down the drain. Identifying this present is a Good Thing (tm). Once you do, life will be easy! Of course, you'll have to identify it with the carrot man, because opening it kinda defeats the purpose, don't you think? One thing to take not of is that the Randomizer doesn't randomize presents laying on the ground (but it DOES switch the boxes that they're in). You can use this to your advantage (See "Gameplay Quirks and Bugs" section). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocket Skates Frequency: Common Duration: Short -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone who's watched any of the Road Runner (not the cable internet provider. :P) cartoons knows that Wile E. Coyote never has much good luck with anything rocket powered, and that may be the case here. These allow you to go *VERY* fast, easily outrunning even the fastest enemy and allowing you to travel across the stage very quickly, and they can go over the water. Also, you've invulnerable to enemy attacks, but can still get hit by projectiles (See "Gameplay Quirks and Bugs") section. However, they are very hard to control. You can't stop, you can't move diagonally, and when you hit the jagged sides of cliffs and lake banks, you take a small hop which you can't change direction. It's inevitable that you will go careening off of a cliff a couple of times and end up falling down a stage...or two. If you're gonna use these, make sure you're in a wide-open flat area, or you're going to be in a tough time trying to avoid flying off a cliff. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rootbeer Frequency: Very Common Duration: Long -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is pretty much a useless gag present. When you drink this, it gives back a very small amount of life, but the real effect is that you'll burp uncontrollably for a pretty long while. While the burping may be a little humorous, it actually does some harm. It renders your sneaking ability useless, as your burping will alert any sleeping Earthlings, or a pre-occupied Santa Claus to your presence. In summary, you wont get much use out of this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosebushes Frequency: Common Duration: Long -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This seemingly useless present is in fact VERY useful, and will probably save you from death a few times. Pressing the action button will "plant" a rosebush in the ground. It will instantly sprout up, and any enemy that's chasing directly behind you will be deflected by the rosebushes and go off in another direction. This is especially useful for bees, and the very dangerous lawnmower guys. Unfortunately, you can only have one rosebush on the screen (per character) at a time. When a new bush instantly sprouts, the older one will shrink away, but in that split second that the older one is shrinking, it can still deflect enemies (same as the bush that's sprouting). You can't really plant bushes in any sandy areas. It'll sprout up for an instant, but then shrink away. However, it'll still deflect enemies off your tail, so it's still effective. Be careful of running into it yourself, as you'll take a small bit of damage. It doesn't work on cupids (they fly over them), or moles (they dig under). It also has a decreased effectiveness against sandstorms (it'll stall them, but not deflect them). Besides those few instances, this is a very helpful present. Put it to good use. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- School Book Frequency: Rare Duration: N/A -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just about everyone has fallen asleep, or almost fallen asleep in class or at home when they had to read one of those boring text books. Even though T&E aren't human, they even succomb to the effects. Once this present is opened, they sit down on the ground and read it. After a few seconds, they fall asleep, when you have to mash the buttons to wake up. Basically, all this does is make you go to sleep instantly with the added effect of a few seconds of stalling from reading the book. Of course, this isn't good when there's Earthlings on the screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sling Shot Frequency: Rare Duration: Long -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only way you can defend yourself on the game is with tomatoes, and the tomato slingshot is a teriffic weapon. You can shoot the tomatoes quite far, almost the full length of the screen. You'll be able to take shots at enemies from a safe distance: ie. It also fires at a fairly quick rate, so you'll be able to get a lot of shots in in a short amount of time. Be careful when combating the chicken infantry, as they are able to shoot you back. A very nice present. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring Shoes Frequency: Common Duration: Long -------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Spring Shoes allow you to jump very high at will. They also give a very slight increase in walking speed. Depending on how long you hold down the action button, you can control the distance you jump; you can take a short hop, or jump up to a 3'rd of a length of the screen. Very useful for hopping over swarms of enemies, hopping over chasms between blocks of land, "island hopping" on levels with large bodies of water, and jumping is also the only way you can defeat Cupids. When you come from a hop, you'll bounce on the ground on your butt for a second or two and you're invulnerable to enemy attacks during this time (except projectiles, or course). If you walk over a gap in the ground, you'll automatically brace for a hop. Pressing the opposite direction will cancel the hop, so remember this when you're traveling on narrow passages. A useful present that could cut down on potential headaches. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Super HiTops Frequency: Common Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IT'S GOTTA BE THE SHOES! The TV commercials always say that you can jump higher and run faster with the shoes that they're selling. Of course, that's a load of bunk, but it works in the game. Pushing the action button will cause you to zoom (with the Hanna-Barbera braking sound, I might add) and you run about 4x the speed you usually move. Occasionally you'll make the road runner "beep beep" sound. While running, if you hit any gaps in the ground, you'll jump while doing the classic Micheal Jordan dunk pose. This jumping is automatically, so be careful when on curvy paths, or you could end up jumping into the water, or off a cliff. It'll be safer to just walk while on a curvy path. While not as fast as Rocket Skates, these will get you across a stage quite quickly, and they offer a LOT better control. You also get 4 of these at the beginning of the game (2 for each player in a 2 player game). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telephone Frequency:: Rare Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hear the telephone ringing? Answer it. Opening this present will place a telephone in front of you. Walk over to it and it'll turn over some panels on your map, revealing the parts behing them. The panels are chosen randomly, and can be anywhere from 2 to 6 of them. The panels remain transparent to let you know that they haven't been explored yet. You may get lucky and it'll turn over the panels revealing the ship piece, exit door, or both...or you may end up getting some crappy panels all the way at the corner of the screen flipped over revealing nothing. Also, the telephone will appear randomy on the stage without opening it up as a present. Listen to the ringing sound. After a while, the telephone will dissapear, so find it quickly. A good present...if it flips over the right panels. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tomato Rain Frequency: Common Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, not much to say about this. The name says it all. Opening this present will cause it to rain tomatoes. The tomatoes fall in a random pattern. Look for the shadows of the falling tomatoes on the ground and just dodge them. The tomatoes can hit you or the Earthlings..even the good ones. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tomatoes Frequency: Common Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are basically tomatoes without the slingshot. They don't travel as far (only about 1/3 screen length), and they come out at a slower rate. It's somewhat risky attacking enemies with this because you have to get close to them for the shots to even have a chance of hitting the target. Don't even think about attacking the Chicken Infantry with these as they will pick you off before you even get anywhere close to them. Only use these if you don't have any slingshots/or want to save them and you're confident you can dodge the enemy. This is best used with a boombox or a decoy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Bummer Frequency: Very Common Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Needless to say, this is the worst thing you can get, and unfortunately, you most likely will come across a lot of these in the game. Open this present and you'll helplessly sit back and watch your character get electrocuted (?) and his energy bar whittle away until he finally dies. Like the Randomizer, if you're able to identify this before opening it, that would be A Good Thing (tm). There is a way you could possibly save yourself from dying (See "Gameplay Quirks and Bugs" section). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfall/Togetherness Frequency: Common Duration: Instant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This present will probably get used alot. Eventually you'll get knocked off a level. This allows you to ascend to the next highest level without having to search for the exit doorway. When you arrive at the next level, you'll arive at the spot where the door would've brought you. On 2 player games, this becomes Togetherness. The play that opens this present will be teleported to wherever the other player is, reguardless of the location or level. Very useful when both of the players are very far apart or levels apart, and very useful for finding certain secrets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Random Present Frequency: Very Common Duration: N/A -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Occasionally you'll come across a yellow present with a question mark on it. This is a Random Present. Its contents are always random, and also isn't weighted: you have an equal chance of getting anything. When you identify this presents, it will also identify any duplicate presents that you may have. You'll have to identify any new random present that you find because...well, it's random. However, If you open it before identifying it, you'll get its contents, but will not identify any duplicate presents. When you meet the carrot man, it's always best to identify this present before the other ones. ********************************************** Gameplay Quirks and Bugs ********************************************** This section has some of the strange things that sometimes happen in the game. Most of these are relatively harmless and wont effect your game in anyway. Some could be dangerous, some are actually beneficial to you, and some are just observations that were noticed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Even after the thousands of times I've played through the game, I have never seen the mailbox offer a Jackpot, Extra Life, or a Promotion. I'm not saying that that it can't happen (maybe just ultra rare), it's that *I* have never seen it. *** Sometimes the map doesn't accurately portray the layout of the stage. One noticable flaw is for gaps. Sometimes there is a small gap between 2 different parts of land that is small enough to walk over without falling ot tripping. If you look on the map, the gap is shown a LOT bigger than it actually is and it looks like you're standing in mid-air. *** If you have the Super HiTops and run into the Cupid's shadow, it'll stop you. *** It seems that the only time that you can receive damage from the enemies is when your character's feet are physically touching the ground. Any other time, you'll run against them, but will not take damage. Instances when your character's feet aren't touching the ground are: while on Rocket Skates, in the middle of a jump using the Spring Shoes (including when you bounce on the ground coming from a jump or fall), flying with the Icarus Wings, and spinning around inside of a sandstorm. You can still be hit with projectiles, however. *** Getting an extra life can actually be a little troublesome, as while the extra life animation animation is going, you can't move your character until it's over. If there an enemy chasing you, this could be bad. I have noticed that while the animation is happening, all enemies lose tracking of you, so hopefully any enemy that chasing you or ambushing you will change direction and leave you. To prevent the extra life animation from stopping your character, just follow the above post about not taking damage from enemies, and it'll cancel out the extra life animation as well. You'll see a few sparkles around your character and still hear the harp twang, but you'll still be able to move your character. *** Lightning strikes from the Rain Cloud can't hit you while under water. *** Think it's all over when you open a Total Bummer? Well, there's a way out of it. When you're getting "electrocuted", hold down the presents button, and at the end of the animation, the "presents" menu will come up. If you use any present that gives energy (fudge sundae, rootbeer, or take a chance on "food"), you'll gain the energy and will save yourself from dying! Just hope that you DO have one of the energy recharging presents. :) *** When the game generates the stages, it is noticable that it makes little "islands" on the outer boundaries of the main landmass. There's no way to physically get to them, and no link to them, they're just sitting there. Very rarely when you advance to a new stage, the game will start you on one of those little islands. Also, very rarely, the game will put the ship piece, or exit doorway on one of those islands. There are a couple of ways you can solve this. Of course, the best thing is Icarus Wings, or Spring Shoes if the landmass/island is close enough. A Doorway may help you out when you start on an island, but most likely not help when the ship piece/exit doorway is on one. Hope you don't end up falling a level, because when you return, you'll be right back into the same position and will have to use another present. If you don't have any presents to get across, you could go back to a level with Santa Claus and get presents from him until he drops some Icarus Wings, however, this could take a while. Also, check mailboxes for the possibility that one could be sold. If after all that, and you still can't get across, well, you're pretty much screwed. Fortunately, like I mentioned, this is very rare, but it CAN happen as it's happened to me. *** In a 2 player game, the screen is split horizontally to allow both players to split up on the levels. The bad thing about that is that the Earthlings' "line of site" doesn't decrease. That means that they could be tracking you, or ambushing you well before you even see them on the screen, so be careful. *** The Randomizer shuffles and changes the boxes of all the presents in your inventory, BUT not the ones on the ground. The box change, but the contents remain the same. You can use this to your advantage. If you're about to open an unidentified present that you suspect is a Randomizer, or choose to activate one (maybe to get a better selection of presents), put any presents you wish to keep on the ground, remembering which one is which, walk until they're no longer on the screen, then use the Randomizer. Make sure that you walk until they're off the screen, because if they remain on the screen when you activate the Randomizer, they won't "refresh" to their new boxes. After using it, go and pick up your presents. They'll be the same ones that you dropped, but will be unidentified and in new boxes. This method is pretty useful if you have a Total Bummer, or even another Randomizer, so when your presents get shuffled, you'll at least know which presents those are and wont have to worry about them again. ****************************************** Secrets and Cheats ****************************************** -------------------- Level Zero -------------------- A thinking gamer would've wondered if there is anything else on Level 1 besides that small island in the center..well, even most "thinking" gamers would most likely forget about Level 1 later in the game. Anyway, yes, there is something else out there. Once you've acquired some Rocket Skates, Icarus Wings, or an Innertube. (It's best to have multiple presents of one, or more of these.) Go back to Level 1, equip one of the above items, then go into/above the water and go all the way to the upper right hand portion of the map screen. There's another small island there with 6 presents on it. Get them all (one is always an Extra Life), then equip another one of the above items, then go all the way past to the beginning island to the bottom left part of the map screen to another small island(with the Innertube, it's possible to reach both island without having to re-equip anything). On the new island, there's 2 presents, and a HOLE?! Snag the presents then fall into the hole and now you're at "Level Zero". It's basically a small patch of land sitting in the middle of nowhere. There's a few hawaiian hula girls (don't worry, they won't hypnotize you), a hot tub with some girls in it, and a lemonade stand. You can jump into the hot tub to "talk" with the girls, and all your energy will be recharged. You can do this as often as you wish. Then go to the lemonade stand and grab a glass of lemonade. Once you drink it, you'll burp then gain an Extra Life. This only works once, even though more glasses of lemonade re-appear and you can drink then. When finished with everything, fall off the island, and you'll end up back to the highest level you've ascended to. Honestly, IMO, it isn't worth coming here unless you're sorely in need of an extra life and some presents. ---------------------- Codes ---------------------- Well, there is one code, as far as I know. *** All ship pieces Anytime during the game, pause, then press the buttons in this order: Up + A + B + C, Right + A, Down + B, Left + C You should hear a sound, then look at your ship status screen, you'll have all but 1 piece. On the next level, you'll find the last piece. *************************************************** Wish List *************************************************** It has come to my attention while I was typing this FAQ that there will be a Toejam and Earl 3 and it will be modeled after the first one (YAAAAAYYY!!!!!). The first one was a great game, and it was screaming for a true sequal (Not Panic on Funkotron) I'm a huge fan of the Diablo series...especially Diablo 2, and that's a game that shows that games with a randomly generated engine can be done right. Here is a list of things I would think it would be cool on T&E3. I seriously doubt a lot of this stuff would make it, but anyway... *** There should be lots of new presents..maybe even hundreds of presents. A lot of the fun in T&E is opening presents and not knowing what was inside. How cool it would be to have so many different types of presents, that you wouldstill be finding never seen before presents weeks after the purchase the game. A big addiction factor of Diablo 2 and Phantasy Star Online is that people keep coming back to the game in hopes of finding some ultra rare item. There could even be an online feature where new presents could be downloaded. *** Expanding on the more presents idea, there could even be a feature that allows you to combine certain presents to make new ones, bringing even more presents in the mix *** Having a variety of characters to chose from along with Toejam and Earl. All of them having different strengths, weaknesses, attributes, and skills. Also have characters to unlock and/or downloaded *** Having "batteries" that you could put in a present to extend it's life. The batteries could be rare, so no one could just prolong the life of an item forever. *** The ability to learn Raps throughout the game, and they have effect similar to spells, like putting Earthlings to sleep, or speeding T&E up, or maybe recharge some energy. *** Have different environments to travel through..like desert, jungle, icy, etc. Also have random weather effects like rain, snow, sun, thunderstorms. Also have buildings and structures you can go inside of...randomly generated, of course. *** Some bosses with different methods of defeating each one. *** Have multi-player mini-games. That seems to be all the rage lately, so why shouldn't T&E get a piece of the action. *** Online play, but I kinda assume that will be added anyway :) Well, that's all I can think of now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A special thanks to YelseyKing (YelseyKing-AT-AOL.com) for picking out tyops erm...typos and formatting the FAQ so it wouldn't look so fr00ty. Well, that's it. What..you thought I was gonna put some witty line here or something? EOF