Night Stalker Guide Version 1.0 Game Copyrighted by: Mattel Electronics 1982 FAQ by Zhuge Liang Table of Contents: 1. Overview 2. Locations In the Maze A. Bunker B. Spider Web C. Robot Entrance 3. Enemies of the Maze A. Robots B. Other Creatures 4. Basic Strategies 5. Advanced Strategies A. Dealing with the Black Robot (II) B. Drawing Fire C. Dealing with the Invisible Robot D. Gun Placement Locations 6. Legal Stuff & Contacting Me >>1. Overview: Night Stalker is an action game that puts you in control of a character that's trapped inside a dark maze with highly sophisticated and intelligent robots whose goals are all the same: Destroy you. You character's only defense is a gun, which supplies you with six shots. At the beginning of the game you must pick up the gun before you can use it. Each time you exhaust all of your ammunition you must pick up another gun, which is randomly placed somewhere in the maze. The game itself, like many from the Intellivision era is endless - you're in until you exhaust all of your lives. You will gain one life for every 10,000 points scored. >>2. Locations of the Maze: A. Bunker - This is your safe house. No robot fire, until the Black Robot (II) appears, can damage your bunker, or harm you. It is located in the middle of the maze and is where you will always start after being defeated. Your gun is always placed randomly after you are defeated, but if you're lucky sometimes it's placed right above or below the bunker. B: Spider-Web - Sort of an interesting part of the maze. While inside the spider web, you'll be safe from enemy fire, unless the robot is on top of you. The web deflects shots from the outside. So if you find yourself in the line of fire and near the web, it's the best place to dive into. Of course, this is also where the spider is spawned if you've destroyed one. C: Robot Entrance - The robots always appear in the lower-left hand corner of the maze. >>3. Enemies of the Maze: There are seven enemies that you'll encounter as you wander the maze trying to stay alive, some are deadly while others are not. Robots are the only enemies that can defeat your character. They other enemies can only paralyze you for a short time. A. The Robots I. Grey Robot - Not a very intelligent robot; the gray robot generally wanders around in aimless patterns, firing shots off at you only when he sees you. This is the robot you'll face at the very beginning. He's slow, which allows you to get used to the controls. Defeating him scores you 300 points. II. Blue Robot - This is a craftier robot, and is more intelligent than the gray robot. He will pursue you fairly persistently as you wonder the maze. He moves in patters, so you'll need to learn them in order to outwit him. He appears in the maze after you score 5,000 points. Defeating him scores you 500 points. III. White Robot - This is a more advanced version of the blue robot. This one too will pursue you persistently, and he also has another added advantage, which allows him to be shot three times before he is destroyed. The first two shots will make the force field around him flash, signaling a hit. The third and final shot will destroy him. He appears in the maze after you score 15,000 points. Defeating him scores you 1,000 points. IV. Black Robot (I) - This robot is highly intelligent and has all of the properties of the pervious robot as well as an additional one: His shots can absorb yours. This proves to make it more difficult to score a hit on him. He appears in the maze after you score 30,000 points. Defeating him scores you 2,000 points. V: Black Robot (II) - Same as before, however this time the Black Robot fires more powerful bullets that are capable of destroying your bunker - which is your only safe haven. The shots appear yellow instead of white - this is your clue that he has appeared. He appears in the maze after you score 50,000 points. Defeating him scores you 2,000 points. VI: Invisible Robot - The ultimate robot. You cannot see him, but he can certainly see you. Your only clue as to where he is, are his bullets, and often that can tell the tale too late. He also has all of the properties of the Black Robot (II) in addition to being invisible. He appears in the maze after you score 80,000 points. He is also the final robot you'll face in the game. Defeating him scores you 4,000 points. B. Other Enemies I: Spider - This is the maze pest. While not deadly, he can paralyze you for a short time if you come into contact with him. Steer clear of him, if at all possible. The spider is present throughout the entire game and you can never eliminate him. Defeating him scores you 100 points. II: Bats - Annoying pests just like the spider, though short-lived. After the Blue Robot appears, if you destroy a bat a gray robot will appear instead of another bat. As with the spider, bats cause temporary paralysis, which leaves you wide-open to robot fire. Defeating him scores you 300 points. >>4. Basic Strategies: A: Stick close to the bunker until the Black Robot (II) appears. It's helpful to stay close to your bunker until then because it's the safest place - no bullets can harm you inside, and you can sometimes get off a shot or two before they come around a corner and hit them. B: Keep close track of how many bullets you have left. Try to keep them in stock of threes later on, so you always have enough to finish off one of the protected robots without having to work your way over to the next gun. C: Avoid the spiders and bats as long as you can. Killing the bats after the Blue Robot appears will cause a gray robot to appear in its place. There will be no bat, just a really annoying robot in its place. >>5. Advanced Strategies: A: By the time you've reached the Black Robot (II), you should be very used to the gameplay, and ready to venture farther away from your bunker. It's best to stay far away from the bunker after the robots gain the ability to destroy it because when you're replaced in the maze, you don't want the robot to immediately start firing at the bunker. Even though he can't see you, he'll know you're inside. If this happens, you'll be without a bunker, and perhaps even lose the rest of your lives. It's best to lure the robots to you, and kill them off quickly after the Black Robot (II). B: It's nice that only one bullet can be on the screen for each team at a time. This might come in handy sometimes. If you can trick one of the dumber gray robots into firing at you from a longer distance, you can sometimes sneak by the meaner robots without them firing at you. It's sort of like drawing fire. Allow the lesser dangerous robot take a shot at you from long distance, so it takes a long time for the shot to hit a wall. All that time, no other robots can fire any bullets at you. Of course, the reverse is also true, so make sure you don't take any careless long shots if you're in danger of being tracked down by one of the smarter robots. Once you fire a shot, you have to wait until it either hits another robot, or the wall before you take another. Exercise caution in what you fire at. C: The Invisible Robot behaves exactly like the Blue, White, and Black robots. It's helpful to know this because by now you're surely aware of their patterns. Exploit these patters to your advantage, and lure him to you. Align yourself in places where he's in direct line with you - but behind a wall. This will make him fire shots and give away his location. It's very helpful to keep yourself aware of his presence as often as possible. The only serious downfall is while you do this, you must keep away from the other gray robots so their fire doesn't interfere with the Invisible one's. You'll have the best luck facing him on the right side of the maze. My favorite place to fight him is down in the lower right hand corner. Sometimes the gun can be placed in the very right hand bottom corner and it can sometimes get you out of a pinch. D: There are five places where your gun can appear. One is near the Robot Entry area (Lower left hand corner), one is directly above your bunker, one is directly under your bunker, one is up near the top right hand corner, and the last in the very bottom right hand corner. Keep these locations in mind as you run down to your last few bullets. It's helpful to plan things out. From experience, it's best to be prepared to have to retrieve it from the placement near the robot's entry area to the maze - it's generally the most difficult to retrieve because one of the robots is usually hanging around there - especially after you've killed off both bats and have 2 gray robots in the maze with the main one. >>6. Legal Stuff & Contacting Me This FAQ is Copyright (c) 2003 by Zhuge Liang. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No other sources, other than myself, and the game were used to compile the information contained herein. Furthermore, no reproduction or distribution, in part, or full, of this FAQ is permitted without explicit written permission from myself. If you have a question about this FAQ, or would like to suggest something for me to add to it, you may contact me at darkdragon[at]trouble-breathing.net. I'm open to comments, questions, and suggestions. I do sometimes grant permissions to use this FAQ if you just ask, so please ASK before you post this FAQ on your website or message board. I thank you in advance for your honesty and respect for my work.