Back to the Future For the Nintendo Entertainment System General FAQ/Walkthrough Written by Reverend Eric "Vegita" Johnson (Emails Located in Section IV-F) Version 3.1415 I - Introduction II - Game Story III - The General FAQ (aka Controls, Stages, and Other Good Reasons to Shoot Yourself) A - The Street Stages (AKA SHOOT ME!!) B - The Soda Shop (AKA SHOOT ME!!) C - Warding the Affections of Caroline (AKA...you get the idea) D - Playin' Guitar like Michael J. Fox Doesn't Know How E - Returning to 1985 (And away from this Wretched Game!) IV - Various A - Footnotes B - Helpful Hints C - Revision History D - Thanks E - No Thanks F - Contact Information ============================== Back to the Future ============================= ---------------------I: Introduction--------------------- ============================== Back to the Future ============================= Welcome! I am Reverend Eric Johnson, sometimes answering to "Vegita" and sometimes being referred to as "Hey You" or "Stupid". I see you want help for the Nintendo game "Back to the Future". Well...might I inquire as to WHY you're even bothering with this game? Honestly, there's not much in the way of a GOOD game here. Sure, you've got the cheesy pseudo-shooter, plus myriad stupid mini games. However, that's all this game is! Seriously! I'm warning you up front, this game is NOT a good idea. First off, let's get one thing straight: Even though I am Vegita, I will try to write from an un-biased point of view (although I still think I'm the best at everything). Second of all, if I catch anyone copying all or part of this FAQ, ANY part of this FAQ (not counting little, inconsequential sentences like "First off, let's get one thing straight), I will destroy you. I will rip you limb from limb like the excessively weak individual you are, and then I will sue you for copyright infringement. Well, ok, maybe I'll just sue you, but if I got the chance I'd certainly go for the ripping of limbs from other limbs. Third of all, I do not own the rights to this game, the names of the characters in this game or FAQ, or have any ownership whatsoever of this game (except for the cartridge sitting in my room, that is). Those are the property of their respective owners. If I find a website with this FAQ on it, and it has been changed in any way, does not give me proper credit, or is selling it without my knowledge and consent, then I WILL have my lawyers contact that site. Are we clear (this means YOU, Vertsk8!)? Oh, and yes, I DO have lawyer-friends, and while they don't necessarily obey my every beck-and-call, I'm on good enough terms with them for them to do such a thing for me. Havin' powerful friends is nice. Hey folks, if you're going to write me about this game, I must insist that you put, in the subject header of the e-mail, the name of game that you are writing about. I am tired of having people write me, asking about games that I've written for, but they never tell me WHAT game they need help with. This will help me in identifying what game you are talking about, and will also help me weed your e-mails out from the Spam I constantly receive. If you do not put the name of the game in the Subject header, then I may not read your e-mail at all; I get a lot of spam, and people like trying to send me viruses, so if you don't do something that will actually help me in determining whether or not your e-mail is legitimate, you can only blame yourself. ============================== Back to the Future ============================= ----------------------II: Game Story---------------------- ============================== Back to the Future ============================= Ah, the 1980s. There were a lot of exceedingly strange movies made during the 1980s, covering topics ranging from a girls' 16th birthday (and everyone ignoring her) to a rag-tag group of individuals infiltrating a Nazi Meeting (albeit with tons of bad puns along the way) to...well, all those dance-themed movies (Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Das Boot, etc). Then, in 1985, came along "Back to the Future", a comedy starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The premise of the movie was ludicrous, yet logically sound (kinda) - Doc Brown (Lloyd) makes a Time Machine out of a DeLorean, and asks his friend (probably his ONLY friend) Marty McFly (Fox) to visit his greatest invention during its trial run. However, things go awry when a Libyian Group of terrorists (whom Doc stole some Plutonium from to make his Time Machine run) arrive and cause a panic. Marty, in a huff to get out of there, hops in the DeLorean and inadvertently transports himself back to 1955, 30 years prior. While there, he accidently disrupts the meeting of his mother and father, thus creating the chain of events that cause him to never be born. Marty then sets out to restore time as it should have been, and maybe having a little fun in the process. What a great movie, and what a sorry, sorry excuse for a game that was made with the license. Seriously, I don't know how you could take a great premise like that and screw it up. It could have been a driving game (with a points where you switched to Marty on a Skateboard), or possibly a simple beat-em-up (hey, it could work), but the geniuses behind the game thought it better to try and combine several sucky games into one overall package. You travel back in time, you accidently screw up the meeting between your mother and father, you get them to meet back up, you beat up the bullies, and you get home. That would SEEM like a fine subject to make a game from, but somehow during the process of making the game, Beam Software royally screwed up. How did they screw up? Well, screwing up is hard to do, but there must be some sort of "Screwing Up" Academy they attended. "Screwing Up 101" simply has to be a popular course there, too. Screw-ups screwing up just screws up my day. Screw up screw up screw up screw up. After writing "Screw Up" that much, the word "Screw" looks funny. I suppose that's just what happens when you screw up writing "Screwing Up". ============================== Back to the Future ============================= -------------------III: The General FAQ------------------- ============================== Back to the Future ============================= OK folks, there are a few things you'll need to know before you play this game. First off, don't. Second of all, if you still want to play this game, then I pity you. Now, onto the individual sections of the game! Oh, one final tidbit - in order to vent my frustration with this game through the duration of my writing this guide, I have decided to include several "Footnotes". These are designated by a number enclosed in Parenthesis. Each number corresponds with a Footnote located in the "Footnote" section (IV.A), so as to not detract from the guide itself. I wanted to rant on certain sections of the game, and rather than just yell at my TV (which I did a lot) I decided to include some of my rants in the guide itself. Some might regard it as filler; I regard it as necessary to your (and my) survival of the game. It's something you can relate to during the trials and tribulations that "Back to the Future" is a terrible amalgam of. ___________________________=======================_____________________________ A - The Street Stages ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯=======================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Controls: B BUTTON - By pressing the B BUTTON, Marty will jump up in the air. This is especially effective if you want to waste your time by trying to jump over things. See, despite the fact that Marty can blatantly jump the equivalent of 5 feet in the air on-screen, he can't successfully clear a 3-foot park bench. Sure, he can jump over lesser objects, such as trash cans or manholes (which would be much easier to walk around rather than jump over, but what do I know)... but the point remains. So if you don't feel like taking a trip into the sewers press the B BUTTON for a ride. Wheeee!!! A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON will do absolutely nothing until you've picked up a Bowling Ball. Once you have, by pressing the A BUTTON Marty will chuck a bowling ball straight ahead of him with the hopes of clobbering helpless hula-dancers, misguided athletes, hard-working movers, and even the occasional Bumblebee. Good job, Marty, you're a menace to your surroundings! Let's put you in a radiation suit and ship you off to Chernobyl! Stupid good-for-nothing... DIRECTIONAL PAD - Press the DIRECIONAL PAD to move Marty LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN on the screen. Wow, isn't that exciting? We're making Marty MOVE! Up next we'll learn how to sell this game to an ususpecting friend for some cheap cash! SELECT - Press this button really, REALLY hard until you see bright spots before your eyes and you feel faint. Then you'll know you're having a better time than actually playing this game. Otherwise, the SELECT Button does nothing. START - Pressing the START BUTTON pauses the game, so you can reflect on just why it is you're playing this game. What happens during these areas: "Marty McFly is stuck in a seriously-twisted 1955! Help!" OK, seriously your goal is to maneuver Marty along the exceedingly dangerous streets of Hill Valley as he makes his way towards each of the "Event" levels (III-B through III-E). You have to make it to these Event areas as quickly as possible (1), or else time will erase Marty's existance, removing him from ANY timeline altogether! While you're meandering the streets of Hill Valley, your photo - which is located at the bottom of the screen and shows crude drawings of you, your brother and your sister - will slowly disappear. This is a sign that time is quickly erasing the future you once knew. In order to counteract this strange phenomenon, you have to collect Alarm Clocks that are scattered along the streets. How a bunch of Alarm Clocks can safely counteract the effects of time unravelling at the seams I don't know, but the fact of the matter is you have to nab 'em before you are erased! Now, it's bad enough that Time is out to get you, but you've also got a separate timer as well. If you don't make it to the end of the area before the timer is up, you lose one life (and you only get 4), so make sure you avoid obstacles as best as you can! So Time is out to get you, a separate Timer is out to get you...what else could go wrong? Oh, how about everything else in sight! The screen rapidly scrolls upwards, revealing more and more street/sidewalk/annoyances for Marty to navigate. Aside from the twists and turns of the street (3), you'll have to contend with various "offensive" items. Here they are, in a nutshell: ---The Pink Bullies: These guys are tall, mean, and looking to pummel McFly for no good reason. Maybe because it's the 50s and anyone named "McFly" would be fodder for this sort of thing. Maybe it's because of repressed violent tendencies that these Jocks have pent up. Maybe it's because someone threw a red Cap in with his white Tube Tops, and now he's wearing a Pink Shirt and lookin' to beat the snot out of someone because of it. What's worse is if you manage to dodge this freak, he'll start chucking weird bluish objects at you. Jus what ARE those things, anyways... ---The Giant Bees: Wow, bees were REALLY big back in the day! These guys, easily larger than Marty's head, will fly around him, attempting to touch him. Apparently because these guys are so big, they don't even have to sting him - just by swinging their massive bulk into Marty will cause him to fall over. ---The Hula Girls: Wait a minute...an attractive, scantilly-clad woman is in the middle of the street, playing with a Hula Hoop, and this is supposed to be a BAD thing? I can understand how it would be a distraction, but certainly not something that would make your average High School Teenage Male fall down on the ground and wave his arms about (see the last footnote for more information about this). Maybe I'm just missing something. What's even funnier about the situation is that these women will start blowing "kisses" at you in an attempt to sidetrack you from your quest. Wait a minute...these "kisses" they're blowing at you look just like those strange blue-things the Bullies were throwing at you! Uh...I think that explains quite a lot about those guys...not that there's anything WRONG with that. ---The Blue Bullies: These guys are a lot rarer than the Pink Bullies, but they can be a menace just the same. Instead of looking for affections from McFly, these guys seem to be much more occupied with a more engauging project - walking around in a square pattern, completely ignorant of anything going on around him. I'm sorry, but just how dumb do you have to be to walk around in the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around you (which has already proven to be extremely fatal). ---The Movers: OK, great, you've picked on the confused jocks, the attractive women, and nature...of COURSE, the next logical step is the workforce of America! And what better way to do that than to assault harmless movers, busy transporting an invisible sheet of glass? Well, maybe these guys are just practicing moving glass, with the hopes of being able to go into that job interview and say "Look! We've already got the proceedure down!" Gosh, what fun it would be to plow right throw those guys and laugh, because you KNOW through your efforts you've cost another man his job. You know, McFly, it must feel good to be you. I can't understand why people on the streets aren't rushing out to help you restore your rightful timeline. I mean, you're such a nice guy and all, destroying people's future career plans and all... ---Park Benches: That's right, the game wouldn't be complete if it didn't have a neon-green, inanimate object that could harm you, now would it? In this case, it is a long Park Bench. Unlike other harmful inanimate objects in this game (such as George McFly), this particular obstacle can NOT be jumped over. That's right, Marty McFly, who demonstrates throughout the entire game that he can jump roughly 5 feet upwards, can NOT successfully clear a 3-foot Park Bench. Maybe it's a Kryptonite Bench, who's effects are slowly draining Marty of his will to live. Maybe it's just a disgustingly-painted Park Bench with a magical "No Jumping" aura around it. Whatever the case, don't try to be a daredevil here. ---The Open Manholes: Yay! It's a shortcut to another area, so you can traverse quicker to the "Event" areas...wait, what do you mean it's not? Whaddaya MEAN it's not even a real manhole? Yes, that's right Marty, these things are DANGEROUS. Normally, I wouldn't want to fall down a Manhole (unless I was attempting to visit Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo), but in this game I figured it'd be worth a shot. No such luck...in fact, I don't know WHAT these are, but they certainly can't be Manholes. In real life, if you ran straight across an open manhole the laws of physics would dictate that the moment a plane didn't exist below you, gravity would being to pull you downward at a constant rate. Due to this, you would either fall completely in or partially decend, the rest of you smacking into the concrete on the other side of the hole. In this game's case, however, by walking over a Manhole Marty simply spontaneously falls over, as if some loveable young scamp (preferably from a Disney movie) tied his shoelaces together while he wasn't looking (and proceeded to sing a song, calling this troublesome person from the future "Poo- Poo Man"). I don't understand why a Manhole would act as a trip wire instead of a Manhole, but I guess that's just Hill Valley's crezzy, crezzy physics in action. Everything else in the stages, save the boundaries, can be jumped over or otherwise easily avoided. The Oil Slicks will simply make Marty slide around, but he won't fall down, and you can jump the trash cans. OK, so we've seen the "bad guys" that "attack" Marty during his quest. However, he CAN gain an advantage or two, with the help of some items. Scattered throughout the street are the aforementioned Alarm Clocks. After a certain period of time, you'll come across a Bowling Ball. By picking this up, you can throw Bowling Balls straight ahead of you (4), knocking down any enemies in its path (5). If you successfully take out a noving object (bullies, bees, movers, etc), then you'll get points for it and that enemy will disappear from the screen. However, Bowling Balls can also destroy Alarm Clocks, so be careful when you're chucking them about. After picking up the Bowling Ball, Marty will eventually come across a Skateboard. Hop on the Skateboard to travel twice as fast. While on the Skateboard, you can still Jump (still 5-feet up) and throw Bowling Balls straight ahead. You simply move faster. If you manage to hold onto the the Bowling Ball AND the Skateboard for a long enough period of time, you will occasionally see a set of Bowling Pins. Succeed in striking them with a Bowling Ball for a large amount of points! Yay! There is one final thing to talk about before moving onto the Footnotes and the next section - how you can die. In each Area, you are given 4 lives. You have to make it all the way to the end of the area without your picture fading complete AND without the Timer running out. If either of these happen, you lose a life. Sounds simple, right? Wrong - every harmful object you touch causes Marty to fall on the ground (6), eating up precious seconds. This causes the picture to disappear even further and the timer to count down quicker. Also, whenever you fall down, any items (and enemies, thankfully) disappear. This can be both a blessing (bees) and a curse (skateboards and clocks), as both helpful and harmful will disappear. There is one final way to die - getting stuck behing an object (a blockade, a trash can, a bench, or some other immovable object) when the screen scrolls all the way to the bottom. In effect, you are crushed by the bottom of the screen (I say the Langoliers got you...it's all about Time, right?). So in short - you have to make it to the end of the Street Area. In order to do that, you have to succeed in falling down as little as possible, and to keep your family picture intact. In order to do that, dodge as many hazardous things as you can and keep picking up the clocks. Nab a Bowling Ball and take out enemies before they can overcome you, and grab a skateboard to move even quicker (thus effectively beating the timer). That's the long and short of it, folks! _____________________________===================_______________________________ B - The Soda Shop ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯===================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Controls: A BUTTON - Press the A BUTTON to use the "Super Shake". B BUTTON - Press the B BUTTON to throw a regular ol' Root Beer Float. DIRECTIONAL PAD - UP and DOWN move Marty up and down behind the bar. LEFT and RIGHT, despite your best efforts, do nothing. SELECT - Press the SELECT button. Didn't do anything, did it? Now press it again. Still nothing, eh? Keep pressing it. Nothin's happening, is it? Well then, that should tell you something - it does nothing. Stop wasting your time! START - Pressing the START BUTTON pauses the game, so you can look at Marty happily standing behind the bar, awaiting a beating by superhuman bullies. What happens during these areas: "Marty must defeat the bullies before they can throw him out of the Diner!" Oh boy...apparently, an infinite amount of bullies are planning on beating you up because you ticked off Biff. Marty, seeking refuge, decides to hide behind the bar of Lou's Diner. In order to keep the bullies from throwing you out (or rather into the door, which fails to open for you), you need to stop them from getting to the bar. Now, what's the most logical way to do this? Simple - move Marty UP and/or DOWN until he's in line with an incoming bully. Now, chuck a root beer float right into their face (7). This will effectively knock them to the ground (and then, after shaking their head wildly, they magically disappear). You have to successfully knock out at least 50 bullies without any of them getting to you to move on - fail, and you're returned to the last Street Stage (you have to walk back to the Diner). Now, this stage starts off fairly easy. Only 1 bully will come at a time, and he usually moves slow (looks like they send the newer, not-quite-confident bullies first). After about 10 or so have been knocked down, they'll start moving faster and coming in greater numbers. Once they really start taking a thrashing, they'll start throwing things back at you (it looks like pizza, but one can't be sure in this warped day and age of 1955). If you get hit by it, Marty will be incapacitated for a brief moment, unable to move or retaliate, as he wipes the stuff (pizza?) from his eyes. What happens if the bullies are almost overwhelming you? Well, that's where your "Super Shake" comes in handy. I don't really understand how a food item could possibly knock down all comers at once (maybe it's Pulp Fiction's mysterious "5-Dollar Shake"), but it does. When you use a Super Shake, all the bullies on screen are not only knocked down, but they're sent flying to the back of the room. Now THAT is a powerful drink! However, you only start with 1 Super Shake, so use it wisely. You can gain more when a Waitress skates across the screen and puts one down on the bar for you. If you hit her while she's on her way over, she will simply turn tail and run off. No shake for you! There, you know how to deal with the bullies! Let's move onto another set of Street Stages while we head towards the school! __________________========================================_____________________ C - Warding the Affections of Caroline ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯========================================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Controls: A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON will waste your time. B BUTTON - Pressing the B BUTTON, much like the A BUTTON, will waste your time. DIRECTIONAL PAD - By pressing UP or DOWN, Marty will move up or down. LEFT and RIGHT, despite turning marvelous auditions (and later performing in amazing scenes, themselves), were left on the cutting room floor, and therefore do nothing in this particular scene. SELECT - Apparently the creators of this game decided to completely neglect the wonderous abilities that the SELECT BUTTON can portray (i.e., selecting things, moving things, and even occasionally pausing the game). Because of this, the SELECT BUTTON does nothing but sit on your controller and look pretty. START - Pressing the START BUTTON allows you to get an 8-bit graphical representation of how most of the world viewed "Caroline in the City" - with an object between then and the TV, grimacing in pain. Try as hard as she might, most people just don't like Lea Thompson outside of the role of Lorraine. What happens during your unpleasant stay at the Library: "Oh no, Marty's future mother has a crush on him!" Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!! OK, now that is just wrong! I realize that was a fault with the movie, but come ON, man, did we really need the Oedipus reference? Ew ew ew ew ew... Anyways, what happens in the library is fairly simple. Marty is cornered by Lorraine, whom she is busy expressing affection for. In an attempt to avoid he, he has taken up refuge on the other side of a desk (way to go, brainiac). Now, she begins shooting hearts at Marty in an attempt to win him over (ew ew ew ew EW!). Your job, as Marty, is to move UP and DOWN to block these hearts (Hearts? Why not kisses?) with the book he is holding in front of his head. Now, you'll notice that Lorraine has a constant pattern of affection, moving back and forth along the opposite side of the room. Simply time your movements to when you're going to "catch" the heart, and you should do fine. Problem is, after a while she speeds up, shoot hearts even faster. Sounds like your mom's getting desparate, Marty! So, to summarize - Lorraine will move up and down, throwing hearts at you. You must move Marty UP and DOWN to successfully block these hearts. If you miss one, you are returned to the Street Stage prior to the Library state. In order to pass the event, you need to successfully block 50 hearts. However, Lorraine will begin throwing hearts at a faster rate, so you will be forced to move quicker to compensate. Got it? ___________=========================================================___________ D - Playin' Guitar like Michael J. Fox Doesn't Know How ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯=========================================================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Controls: A BUTTON - Pressing of the A BUTTON will make Marty cry, just like any self-respecting Emo guitarist. Remember - the wussier you make him look, the better a guitarist you must be! (8) B BUTTON - Pressing the B BUTTON will make Marty fall down. A lot. Really.(8) DIRECTIONAL PAD - By pressing UP or DOWN on the DIRECTIONAL PAD, Marty will move his guitar up or down. By pressing LEFT or RIGHT, Marty will turn to face left or fight. SELECT - By pressing the SELECT button, Marty will call out Lammy from the UmJammer Lammy series. She will then proceed to beat the tar out of Marty for giving guitarists a bad name with his horrible antics and poor musical skills. (8) START - Pauses the game, so you can reflect on just why it is you're playing this game. What happens during these areas: "Time to make love come true, and save Marty before he disappears from time!" In this stage, Marty is aat the Dance Hall, playing Guitar in the band. Lorraine and George are in the audience, and it is up to Marty to make them fall in love by playing Guitar well (9). That's the premise of the stage, so how do you do it? While Marty is on the stage, 3 different musical notations will float across the screen - a flat symbol, a sharp symbol, and an Eighth Note. Marty has to move his Guitar up and down on either side of him to "catch" these notes with it. For every symbol you catch, a meter on the right side of the screen builds up. When the meter builds to the heart at the top, Lorraine and George fall in love with each other, securing Marty's future (10). However, for every symbol Marty misses, the meter drops significantly. Play well, McFly, or you're gonna be out of time! Now, the trick is being catching symbols without fail. Each of the symbols has a different height they will hit Marty at, regardless of their speed when travelling towards him. Once you know that, you can complete this stage without fail every time. Now, I realize some of you aren't musicians (shame on you!), so I'll describe each of the symbols. Symbol #1: The Eighth Note. Description: These look like a round dot with a straight, vertical line on them. At the top of the Vertical line is a short curve leading away from the vertical line. This is generally what an eighth note looks like: |~ How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty in the | middle. Simply have his Guitar in O its middle position and you will nab it. Symbol #2: The Flat Symbol. Description: In the music world, putting this next to a note makes it one "half-step" lower, meaning that it is slightly lower in pitch than a note without the symbol. A "flat" looks like a lowercase B (b). How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty low, so press DOWN all the way to crouch and protect yourself from those harmful, debilitating musical aids. Symbol #3: The Sharp Symbol. Description: In the music world, putting this next to a note makes it one "half-step" higher, meaning that it is slightly higher in pitch than a note without the symbol. How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty high, so press UP all the way to raise his Guitar up and stop the harmful "Good Music" icons from getting through and stopping Marty from ruining an otherwise fine and decent Prom. So, to recap - Marty has to catch the 3 different symbols to fill the meter. By moving the Guitar Up and Down, Marty nabs these symbols, building the meter to the right whenever he is successful (and dropping it whenever he isn't). Fill the meter and Marty wins. __________===========================================================__________ E - Returning to 1985 (And away from this Wretched Game!) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯===========================================================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Controls: A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON originally made Marty honk his horn, giving a semblance of reality in the game. However, that was later on scratched (no one could decide on what the DeLorean car horn sounded like) in favor of Marty turning the headlights off and on (for more of a challenge). That brought up the point of what good the lights would do, since this stage IS in the middle of a Lightning Storm, with flashes of light all over the place. There were several other ideas for what the A BUTTON would have done in this stage, some good, but all were eventually taken out of the game (11). Therefore, pressing the A BUTTON does nothing. B BUTTON - Much like the A BUTTON, the B BUTTON had a very large role in this stage up until someone decided that the stage itself was pointless enough. Why bother including something that would make the stage more fun to play, you might ask? Well, that apparently was the rationalization...therefore, the B BUTTON does nothing as well. DIRECTIONAL PAD - The DIRECTIONAL PAD is what you use to move the DeLorean around. By pressing up, Marty will put his foot down on the gas pedal, making him speed up (13). Pressing LEFT and RIGHT made the DeLorean move LEFT or RIGHT on the screen (14). SELECT - Pressing the SELECT button will waste your time. That's all it does. Sorry... START - Pressing the START button will pause the game and make the screen freeze, allowing you to see a real, live DeLorean onscreen being blasted by bolts of lightning. Marty, remind me to NOT have you do any valet parking. What happens during these areas: "Now is the time, Marty! Return to your original time by driving the DeLorean down the street!" The premis for this stage is actually rather simpe - Marty must drive the DeLorean to the Wire strung across the street right as lightning strikes it, thus giving his car enough energy to race back to 1985. In order to achieve this, Marty has to get the DeLorean up to 88 Miles Per Hour (Marty's current MPH is written in the box at the bottom of the screen). Now, the tricky part about this stage is that there are lightning bolts striking the street all over, and whenever Marty drives over a spot hit by the lightning the DeLorean loses some speed (15). You HAVE to be doing 88 MPH when you come to the wire, or else you'll be stuck in 1985 forever. Drive well, dodge the lightning bolts, and head forward to your own time, McFly! So, to recap - Drive down the street. Don't hit stuff. However, do get hit by the Wire at the end of the street. So hit stuff, but don't hit stuff. Hit CERTAIN stuff...yeah, that's it. ============================== Back to the Future ============================= -----------------------IV: Various----------------------- ============================== Back to the Future ============================= If it don't fit anywhere else, you'll find it here! _________________________________===============_______________________________ A - Footnotes ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯===============¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1 = ...which is apparently why Marty is on foot, as opposed to ANY other mode of transportation! It's called hitch hiking, son! Stick yer thumb out and MOVE, or else you're history (or a lack thereof, technically). (2) 2 = Actually in retrospect, most everything you come across - from women and men, to animals, to even trash and inanimate objects - is extremely deadly, so I don't blame Marty for NOT wanting to ask someone on the street for help - they'd probably skin him alive and drop his bones down one of those oh-so-dangerous manholes as a warning to others. 3 = Just who the heck designed these streets, anyways? There's no way in HECK you could drive a car down these streets, even if they were free of all the debris, you would have to take a car at roughly 1 MPH to safely handle the turns. Yeesh... 4 = Well, it's not like Marty can face another direction. He only faces UP, no matter which DIRECTIONAL BUTTON you press. That's fairly impressive, running and jumping backwards like that... 5 = Another interesting point of physics - just where does young McFly keep these bowling balls? He apparently "magically" makes them appear, so it is safe to say that he has an infinite amount...however, if he has an infinite amount of Bowling Balls, why is he wasting his time only throwing one at a time? 6 = ...I find it funny how, whenever Marty falls over, he acts as if he's throwing a tantrum. I like to imagine he's thinking "WHY AM I IN THIS GAME? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME, O GREAT LORD? WHHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!" 7 = Let's look at the physics of this. Marty can throw a Bowling Ball at a VERY high speed: 20 pounds, traveling somewhere around 30 feet a second, equals approximately 5 million pounds of force (or 600 lbs. per foot). Now, let's imagine what happens when he throws an 8-ounce root beer float (in a GLASS, for cryin' out loud) and it hits you in the face. I don't think I'd survive the impact, let alone fall on my behind, cartoonishly shake my head, and then magically disappear. Of course, if we're going by logic, then these bullies must be made of composite iron to be able to take that sort of blow and simply shrug it off. This game is full of Superhumans, I tell ya! Superhumans that wear pink shirts and are VERY angry about it! 8 = Actually, pressing any of these buttons will do nothing. I just thought the game would be as LOT better if they actually did what I said they did. 9 = To be honest, if someone at my high school prom played Guitar this poorly and was generally looking like a complete idiot, I'd probably ignore what was happening onstage and go make out with MY girlfriend too. I don't blame George and Lorraine at all. In fact, I think everyone the audience should have just walked away from Marty and started kissing. Who knows, maybe Marty's atrocious musical "skills" could have gotten more people to fall in love, creating REAL geniuses! Darn it, Marty, you could have possibly created the next Einstein, yet you only played until your own future's safety was concerned! Scum! 10 = Gosh, I need to learn to play guitar that poorly. I mean, if I can make people fall in love by butchering popular songs from the 50's, I could be a veritable Cupid! 11 = ...possibly by the 1 person at the company that felt taking a popular movie and making a bad game out of it (most likely named "Earl") was a smart, profitable move. Oh, that poor, misguided fool. (12) 12 = Actually, I have no idea why nothing was done with the A, B, or SELECT buttons throughout the game. All I know is that the opportunity for something neat, inventive, and fun was there, but it was not taken. Come to think of it, that pretty well describes the game itself! 13 = ...by causing the DeLorean to shoot small flames out of its tailpipes... That probably isn't a GOOD thing, but what do I know about cars. After all, I've only successfully removed and taken engines out of a variety of makes and models, as well as repairs on a number of others...but I probably don't know ANYTHING when it comes to flames shooting out of a part of your car that shouldn't have any flames near it. 14 = Which brings me to an interesting point - why is it the DeLorean, who's wheels are clearly pointed parallel to the car itself, can move the car straight to the left or right without turning at all? In order for this to happen, the wheels would have to be pointed perpendicular to the car, which most any transaxle on a car will NOT allow you to do - suffice to say, if your wheels turn that far, you've broken either the axle, or the ball joints that hold the wheels on are sufficiently broken. 15 = Here's another interesting question - just how is it that these bolts of Lightning are striking concrete? This particular area must be so positively charged that it's become a magnet for electricity! According to the laws of science that I know, lighting can't strike concrete because it can't conduct electricity...but what do I know? (16) 16 = ANOTHER point - if there is so much lightning all around, why doesn't Marty just put a big metal pan on the back of the DeLorean, get up to 88 miles an hour, and drive up and down the street until lightning hits him? If this area is so positively charged that lightning is striking non- conductive materials, imagine what would happen if a conductive material happened upon the area! (17) 17 = OK, one final point - is it just me, or do the areas of the street already hit by lightning resemble the Japanese symbol for "Ri/Li"? I kinda thought they did...well, there goes my overactive imagination again. Maybe I'M the one that was struck by lightning. ________________________________===================____________________________ B - Helpful Hints ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯===================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1 - At the end of every "Street" Stage, Marty can gain extra points by jumping right as the stage scroll ends. The higher in the air Marty is, the more points he gets (100-900 in total). 2 - For every 10,000 points you collect, Marty gets an extra life. This really add up once you start bashing everything in site with a bowling ball. 3 - Both the "Soda Shop" and "Library" even stages automatically end when you have gained 99 points (knocked out 99 bullies or 99 stopped hearts). 4 - This game sucks. Don't bother playing it. (Hey, that's a helpful hint!) ____________________________======================_____________________________ C - Revision History ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯======================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 06-06-01: Began work on this FAQ. Why, I'll never know...maybe I'm a masochist? 06-12-01: Because I had nothing better to do, I finished work on this FAQ. Yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm a masochist. At least I made this (marginally) fun to work on, or else I'd NEVER have finished it! 01-26-02: Yeah, that's new formatting all right. I like the way it looks, so I'm redoing ALL of my guides. That is the only reason I look at this one, really...I've finally found a formatting that is original and (somewhat) creative, while still doing its job well. I like it. 02-22-02: A couple more formatting and grammatical changes, and now I think (hope) this guide is complete! Thanks again for putting up with me and my indecision! Also, I moved the Footnotes to the "Various" section to make an easier "informative" read. If you want the humor, though, you'll have to scroll back and forth between the Footnotes and the section it just came from. You gotta work for that comedy (however inane and trying it might be). 03-13-03: Format revisions! 06-12-03: More format revisions! _________________________________============__________________________________ D - Thanks ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯============¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ~CJayC (CJayC@gamefaqs.com, www.gamefaqs.com) for putting this FAQ up, as well as putting up with me. ~Al Amaloo (www.gamewinners.com) for being such a cool guy, and having a great site. ~Vertsk8pro@hotmail.com for giving me a heart attack with your childish "I stole your FAQ and sold it with my name on it" antics. Because of that, I now do dozens of things to make sure people don't steal my work. If they do, I know exactly what to look for to see if they took MY work or not. ~Uh...I can't exactly thank God for the role he's taken in my life, because that would seem like I'm trying to force my religious opinions on someone else (which I'm not). Therefore, I'd like to thank "Murray" for the role he's taken in my life (Murray, you know who you are). ~Musical credits and thanks go specifically to Yoko Kanno for this one. When I first wrote the guide, I had the song "Flying Teapot" on perma-repeat in my CD Player. For the rewrites (which took place in/around November of 2001 and finished in January and March), I listened to nothing but "Gotta Knock a Little Harder" from the Cowboy Bebop movie. I consider this song to rock everything I know and then-some, so it was definitely a worth replacement for the disturbingly bad music for the game. Flying Teapot is good as well, if a little too Tori Amos-ish...but hey, it's good nonetheless. ________________________________===============________________________________ E - No Thanks ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯===============¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ If you write me asking for help with the game, I'll send you a link to my FAQ. If you ask for specific help, I'll try to aid you. However, if you ask me about something that is already covered in the FAQ, I will simply refer you to the FAQ again. I wrote the FAQ so that your questions would be answered here, not so I could repeat that FAQ bit by bit through e-mail for the next few years. If you need clarification about something in the FAQ, ask about it - but don't ask me to repeat anything. Also, no thanks to the programmers for forever tarnishing the memory of "Back to the Future" with this game. To quote the comic strip 'Red Meat' (www.Redmeat.com), "It's not just awful, it's God-Awful." _______________________================================________________________ F - Contact Information ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯================================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Questions? Comments? Just feel like harassing me? Well then, feel free to e- mail me! Given the frequency of e-mails that I get, I find that I have to sort through a lot of junk; thus, it is imperative that you send e-mail to the right address (a common mistake, as I have several) AND include the name of the game in the subject line. So let me help you out, then: FAQ-related Questions/Comments: VegitaBOD@gmail.com Review-related Questions/Comments: VegitaBOD@hotmail.com Personal Questions: Grammatical_King@hotmail.com Much to my chagrin, I have to admit that I *was* an AOL user for a tremendously long time. As such, there are several guides of mine floating about on the internet that still show "VegitaBOD@aol.com" as the contact address. Don't be fooled, as I have finally wizened up and gotten rid of AOL (which sucks, believe me - I have been a member of AOL since version 2.0, and it's NEVER gotten to a level where it was worth having). Thus, e-mails sent to this address will not be received by me. Make sure you're sendin' 'em to the right place, folks, or else you won't get the answer(s) you want! =============================================================================== End FAQ =============================================================================== The following are sites that can NOT use my work. If you see these sites using ANY of my FAQs, please e-mail me ASAP. Each of these websites are sites that have plagiarised myself or others in the past, or simply taken our work(s) without our prior permission. Since they do not have enough respect for the authors (or an ignorance of the law), I am expressly forbidding them from using my work. I will not promote such sites that partake in these actions. 911 Codes http://911codes.com 9 Lives http://www.9lives.ru/eng/ Bean's PlayStation Dimension http://www.bean.dk/psx/index.htm Cheat Code Central http://www.cheatcc.com Cheat Index http://cheatindex.com Cheat Matrix http://cheatmatrix.com Cheat Search http://cheatsearch.com Cheatstop http://www.panstudio.com/cheatstop/ CNET Gamecenter http://games.netscape.com/Faqs/ Console Domain http://www.consoledomain.co.uk Dirty Little Helper http://dlh.net Dark Station http://www.darkstation.com/ Dreamland http://kirby.pokep.net Games Domain http://www.gamesdomain.com Game Express http://www.gameexpress.com Games Over http://www.gamesover.com/ Mega Games http://www.megagames.com Square Haven http://www.square-haven.net Ultimate System http://www.flatbedexpress.com VideoGaming.net http://www.videogaming.net/ Cheats.de http://www.cheats.de (Taken from Jim "Red Phoenix" Chamberlin's FAQ Theft Guide, as well as added onto.) As I stated above, if you want to use one of my guides, I ask that you e-mail me to gain my permission first. I like to keep track of which sites use my work, so I know where to send the updates, and it's a little difficult to keep you updated if you don't e-mail me. This FAQ Copyright Rev. Eric "Vegita" Johnson, 2004. All Rights Reserved.