============
HAPPY CAMPER
============

Game Guide/Walkthrough

V1.0 - Completed 10/30/09

Written and maintained by Adam Lamontagne
Copyright ©2009  Adam Lamontagne
Email: alamont1 (at) gmail (dot) com


An unreleased 8-bit NES game by Color Dreams, programmed by Jon and Jim Valesh
with graphics by Nancy Valesh and music by John Dwyer. For play on the Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES).

This guide is dedicated to all of you FAQ writers who have attacked those NES
games that needed FAQs, especially those Famicom ones that held me clueless
for so long. The NES has always been my system of choice and it will bring me
great satisfaction to see a guide for every game. The NES FAQ Completion
Project can already be considered a success and I am glad to have been a part
of it.



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I.    Revision History
II.   Introduction
III.  Story
IV.   Controls
V.    Walkthrough
VI.   Cheats
VII.  Disclaimer



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I. REVISION HISTORY
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

10/30/09: v1.0
-Wrote walkthrough in one sitting and submitted to gamefaqs.com



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
II. INTRODUCTION
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Happy Camper was never released for the NES. It was planned and coded by Jon
Valesh, who states in the Digital Press collector's guide, "The staff testers
at Color Dreams liked it very much, or so they told us, but it turned out to
be VERY difficult to play. (Out of the entire staff of Programmers, engineers,
etc. Only I and the testers were able to get out of the first level). Some
revision was done to make it easier, but by that time Color Dreams was swing-
ing seriously to Wisdom Tree and the margin in selling that game was too low
to justify it."

In 2008 a game collector known as "NationalGamesDepot" actually found a copy
of the game in his collection of Color Dreams material and other memorabilia.
He had the game dumped and through the websites Retrozone and Nintendoage the
game became available to the public.



=-=-=-=-=-=
III. STORY
=-=-=-=-=-=

The reproduction of this game came with a manual and I am assuming this story,
taken from the Happy Camper entry on nesguide.com, is the story as told in the
manual:

It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend away from everything. "Getting back
to nature" sounded good when you decided to go camping. and the "Happy Camp-
ground" sounded like the perfect place to relax. Your grandfather's old tent
was a bit harder to put up than you remembered, but it brought back a lot of
pleasant memories. Somehow though, things seem different now. Something's
amiss. Things are too quiet, in a way, and the animals that you encounter seem
agitated and upset. And on top of everything else, as you are minding your own
business reading the camp bulletin board, a giant frog leaps out and kidnaps
your girlfriend Sandy. This is no way to start a vacation!



=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IV. CONTROLS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=



                      CONTROLLER
                -----------------------------
               |                             |
               |     +                       |
               |   +++++   SE ST   (*)  (*)  |
               |     +              B    A   |
               |     D                       |
                -----------------------------


The controls for this game are listed below. The NORMAL controls are your
controls for the entire game, up until near the end of the game. The TINY
MODE controls are for the one stage where your character becomes almost
microscopic. The RV MODE controls are for the last stage of the game, where
you are controlling the RV.


[NORMAL]

Up:     Move while swimming/Enter a door, air duct, crystal, etc
Left:   Move left
Right:  Move right
Down:   move while swimming/Use with A button to jump down from high area
B:      Use weapon
A:      Jump
Start:  No function
Select: Choose weapon at top of screen


[TINY MODE]

Up:     No function
Left:   Move left
Right:  Move right
Down:   No function
B:      Shoot gun
A:      Jump
Start:  No function
Select: No function


[RV MODE]

Up:     Move RV up
Left:   Move RV down
Right:  Move RV right
Down:   Move RV down
B:      Shoot missiles
A:      Shoot cans
Start:  No function
Select: No function



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
V. WALKTHROUGH
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


========================
Stage 1: THE CAMPGROUND
========================

You start out right outside your tent and will immediately be assaulted by
one of the most annoying enemies in gaming history, the green frog from hell.
These guys are located throughout the entire game and pursue you with a grim
determination. Make sure you keep moving when they are near you, otherwise
they will grab you and gulp you down, then instantly excrete your remains.
Seriously. These guys sh*t you out after they kill you. This game doesn't
waste anytime showing you how brutal it is. There are also black cats and
birds flying around, all of which are intent on harming you. Quickly run to
the right until the screen stops scrolling.

Here you will see a box moving around with the words FREE LUNCH on it. The
little green legs under it give it away, as it is another of the green frog
enemies hiding. This guy will also gulp you down, so keep avoiding him. To
move on in this area, grab a can that is nearby and hit the frog with it 3
times to dispose of him. Make sure when you throw a can that you grab it
again so you have a weapon.

Continue to the right, grabbing burgers and climbing trees for any first aid
kits that you see. When you reach the KEEP OUT sign there will be a long jump
you have to make. When you land, keep going right, grabbing a bottle and can
along the way and you will get to another FREE LUNCH frog. Nail him with the
bottle to knock him out with only one hit. For now on just keep collecting
cans and bottles, as I will not mention to pick them up again in this guide.

Keep going right and you will reach another dead end with a regular green
frog. There will be owls emptying their innards on you in the trees. If the
frog gets hit by their excrement it will kill it, so if you get lucky the frog
will get dumped on and be done away with, otherwise kill it yourself to move
on.

You will encounter another frog, but you can run by him and jump over the gap
to escape. You'll reach another dead end with 2 frogs. Kill them to move on.
Now run right for a ways and kill another frog and you will reach another
chasm. Jump over it to get to the right side where there will be a black
entrance to a cave. You will need to grab the KEY at the top of the cave to
enter it, so jump up there, grab the key, then fall back down to the entrance
to enter Stage 2.


======================
Stage 2: THE RED CAVE
======================

This is a fun place. Avoid the drips from the ceiling and the plumes of hot
gas from the fissures in the ground. This is a tricky area since the game's
controls aren't precise and there are a lot of enemies and hazards to avoid,
so proceed with caution.

Keep moving right until you reach a gap. Jump over it and you will reach your
first frog enemy of the level. Do away with him so you can continue, then you
will reach an area where you will have to jump over a gap to a small patch
of land, then another gap to an even smaller patch of land. The frog will stay
on the center patch, so jump all the way to the right, turn around and throw
whatever you got at him.

Continue moving right. You will encounter a frog and a gap. Keep running past
them both until you reach another gap. Jump over this one and you will be in
an area with 2 frogs, a bat and a snake. Try to avoid the smaller enemies and
knock out the 2 frogs to advance.

Now jump over the last gap you reach and you will find a key at the end of the
stage. Grab it and move to the right to get to Stage 3.


========================
Stage 3: THE GREEN CAVE
========================

The bats in this cave are an absolute menace. They follow you incessantly and
constantly mess with your jumps. You will also notice the pink crystals in
this area, but these are just background effects, so pay no heed to them.

Start by moving right and quickly knock out the frog. Keep going right, past
several crystals and bats and you will reach another dead end with a frog.
Blast him as usual so you can advance. Repeat this several more times, moving
right and killing frogs until you reach an area with 3 or 4 frogs. This is
tough. Just keep jumping around to avoid being swallowed and hammering the
frogs with bottles if you got 'em (and perhaps crystals, if you managed to
find these explosive weapons).

If you can outlast this amphibian assault, you can advance to the end of the
stage where you can grab the key and exit out the right side of the screen to
Stage 4.


==================
Stage 4: THE LAKE
==================

Another difficult stage (aren't they all?). You are now outside of the caves,
but now the lake presents another problem. Frogs swim pretty good and there
are parts of the lake where you have to swim, so get ready for some pretty
fast and furious frog battles.

You start by a rock formation with a key above it. Convenient of the game's
programmers to throw you a bone and have this thing out in the open. Jump up
to the top and the key will be yours. The 2 frogs on the screen will have
hopefully disappeared by now, so you can proceed to the right. If not, throw
something at them.

Go right for a bit where you will eventually meet up with 2 frogs. Knock them
out and continue to the right where you will have to battle 3 more frogs. If
you jump back over to the left side of the screen while fighting them you can
lure them over towards you, where they will fall into that small gap in the
ground, disposing of them. You will probably still have to kill one more frog
though to make the screen advance.

Now you can run to the right for a bit, past a couple frogs, and eventually
you will reach a spot where you have to enter the water. Try and knock a
couple of the frogs out before you jump in, because those suckers are fast in
water and the controls are difficult to move your character in the water, so
you will not want to get swarmed by 4 frogs at once while swimming, because
they will literally eat you alive. Once you get past this area jump back up
onto the land area where there is a NO SWIMMING sign and knock out the lone
frog to move on.

Once you do away with that frog you will have to jump into the water again.
Quickly jump in and swim to the right, past the first building then into the
door of the building with the CLUB EARTH sign above it. Swim right into the
door to end up in a small room.

This room is swarming with frogs. As fast as you can, swim up to the top and
jump up to the landing area. Stand in front of the door and push up to get to
Stage 5.


===========================
Stage 5: THE SPACE STATION
===========================

Not really sure how you ended up in a space station after entering a building
by the lake, but you are here regardless. The first thing you will notice is
a green gun at the top of the screen. Quickly climb up the ladder and grab
the gun. It will replace the bottles at the top of the screen. Now you won't
need to collect those anymore as the gun has limitless ammunition.

Once you have the gun, defeat the two frogs on the screen and advance to the
right. You will now encounter three frogs, two of which are carrying bazookas!
Like those things weren't dangerous enough. However, you don't have to fight
these guys. There is a black entrance on the screen with a blue arrow pointing
down. Get in front of the entrance and press Up to move into a new part of the
stage.

Immediately you are greeted by two more frogs, one toting a bazooka. Shoot
them with your gun and move to the right. You will run by a window where you
will see the Earth visible in it. Keep moving right and dispose of two more
frogs and push Up in the entrance you find there.

You will now be in a tricky part of the base. Not only are there frogs and
other enemies getting in your way, but this area is a maze of air ducts. You
will see a few broken grates when you enter this area. You will have to push
Up to enter these grates and they will all bring you to various areas in the
stage. If you want to find your way out on your own, knock yourself out.
Otherwise, follow these instructions to get through quickly. Note that there
are these really annoying flying space spermatozoa (that's what they look
like to me) that will knock you around, so try to shoot them if you can:

Enter the first open grate you see on the ground to your right.

Jump over the ladder, move right and jump over the next gap, then enter the
open grate that is to the right of a closed grate.

Enter the open grate directly to your left (next to the one you just came out
of.

You will be at the top of the screen. Go right, jumping over the gap, and
enter the open grate you find there in the top right corner.

You will now be in a more open area, with 3 platforms in the center of the
screen and 4 grates, 3 open and 1 closed. This area is absolutely insane, as
there are a ton of the spermatozoa that knock you off ledges and a bunch of
frogs that come after you as well. If you have some crystals, use them to
destroy a bunch of these enemies at once. Battle your way to the right, not
entering any grates until you reach an area where you will see 6 purple
crystals at the top of the screen. You don't have to do anything at these
crystals, but prepare yourself for one of the hardest areas of the game.

Keep proceeding to the right, killing or avoiding the enemies and passing
quite a few grates and making a bunch of difficult jumps. Remember, don't
enter any grates here. Keep going right and finally you will see a big
purple crystal crystal on the screen. Climb the ladder and press up and you
will enter the crystal.

You are now in the control room of the space station. You will see 3 crystals
at the top of the screen with your girlfriend Sandy in front of them. You
MUST rescue Sandy in order to finish the game. If you don't have her with you
for the final stage, you will not be able to enter the RV and will have to
backtrack all the way back to this point to get her.

Go to the right and climb the ladder to the top of the screen. Instead of
going to the left where you see the 3 Sandy's, go to the right. The first
Sandy you see will be the real one. Touch her and you will free her from the
crystal and she will join you. Drop back down to the bottom of the screen and
move to the right, where you will have to battle some more frogs. Dispose of
them and move to the right to enter the next area. The game sometimes glitches
up here and won't let you advance to the next stage. If it does this, move
back to the left a bit, then return to the right. You can either exit now or
may have to fight another frog, but eventually you will be able to advance.

This area is just a frog battle. You will have 4 different battles with frogs
in this area before you are allowed to advance. Once you defeat the frogs in
the 4th battle, exit to the right of the screen to enter Stage 6.


====================
Stage 6: THE HANGAR
====================

Suddenly you are miniaturized. You character plays like something right out of
an Atari 2600 game. You will be getting attacked by flying RVs and little
green frogs constantly here. Move along to the right and you will fight the
nastiest enemy in the game. This thing resembles a Scout Walker from Return
of the Jedi. It is red and mean and will stomp you into dust if you get under
it. The best method of attack is to hammer away at it with your gun and not
get too close. It hops in a predictable pattern, so if you let it hop over you
and blast it when it lands, you will eventually do it in. Be careful here,
because if you die and lose the girl, you have to return all the way back to
the area in Stage 5 where you found her to get her back.

If you manage to beat this nasty mechanism, he will blow up into a bunch of
spare parts and you can continue on. Don't get too excited though, as you will
encounter another one pretty quickly. Show him the same measure of compassion
that you showed his brother and keep blasting him while avoiding getting
squashed. Eventually he will blow up into spare parts as well.

Now that the game's final bosses have been defeated (yup, these are the last
two major enemies you have to fight in the game), move to the right and you
will find a tan colored RV waiting for you. Move into it and now you can
control your own RV. Move into the air, blasting the enemy RVs, and head to
the left. You will see a big opening that leads out into space (you ran past
it earlier). Fly the RV into the opening and you will enter the 7th and final
stage of the game.


====================
Stage 7: DEEP SPACE
====================

The game is not only a crappy action platformer, but a shooter as well!

Piloting the RV, quickly escape from the tractor beam and fly to the left.
Move as fast as you can here while dodging the green asteroids and the RVs
that attack you. If you stay to the top of the screen you can avoid most of
the asteroids.

Continue to the left and eventually you will reach Earth. When you get near
Earth your RV will automatically disappear down into it.

Here you will be treated to the one-screen ending, showing Sandy sitting in
the front of the RV while the words THE END flash above it and glitchy skunks
and other enemies from the game float across the screen. Pretty sure that
wasn't the idea to have this happening, but who knows with this game. The best
part is that it shows your score on this screen. I had no idea the game was
keeping score, as it was not displayed anywhere during gameplay. The Start
button had no function and would not pause during gameplay, which was majorly
annoying, but perhaps that was one of the last things the programmer was going
to put in the game and maybe your score would be displayed on the pause
screen. Only the Valesh clan knows. That really is one sweet looking 8-bit RV
though. 


THE END



=-=-=-=-=-=
VI. CHEATS
=-=-=-=-=-=

The following hex cheats will help you out immensely in this game, due to the
difficulty level. They can be used in all emulators that support cheating.
The first number is the 4-digit address where that value is located in RAM.
The second number is the 2-digit value of that address:

Infinite Lives
0046:03

Infinite Energy (enemies can still swallow you)
0172:20

Infinite Bottles
017C:03

Infinite Cans
017D:03

Infinite Crystals
017B:03


I also discovered a neat little cheat that can be used during gameplay. If
you hold B and press Select during gameplay, you will warp to various places
throughout the entire game! The only drawback to this is that you don't
actually appear in some of the stages that you warp to, but when this happens
just warp again until you reach an area where your character appears. This is
pretty cool if you feel like messing around and playing some different stages
instead of starting on the difficult first stage.



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
VII. DISCLAIMER
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This Guide is not endorsed by Color Dreams, the Valesh camp (no pun intended)
or Nintendo of America. The information contained within this document is
provided without guarantee. All copyrights and trademarks are recognized.

This FAQ may be reprinted, posted in newsgroups, or placed on web sites, as
long as the proper credit is given to the author. The most recent version of
this walkthrough can be found at:

www.gamefaqs.com

©2009 Adam Lamontagne 
Email: alamont1 (at) gmail (dot) com