Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!uunet!in3.uu.net!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeeder.toronto.ican.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-pen-14.sprintlink.net!news.sover.net!news.monad.net!blues.jpj.net!scalar From: scalar@blues.jpj.net (Scalar) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Weirdly Fun Things to do in Aztec Date: 9 Apr 1997 20:30:50 GMT Organization: MonadNet Lines: 157 Message-ID: <5igu9q$7ov@news.monad.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: blues.jpj.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Weirdly Fun Things to do in Aztec on the Apple II by Dale Mahalko mahalkdp@cvfn.org or scalar@jpj.net 1. Move a bomb around If there's a stick of dynamite burning in a sensitive area, you can move it somewhere else. You can walk off the edge of the screen to move the bomb to a different room, or you can crawl around and plant the bomb in a new location. When you plant a stick of dynamite while a bomb is already burning, you'll just move the already burning bomb to the new location without using up one of your limited number of sticks of dynamite. 2. Explode bombs in midair If you crawl to the edge of a floor with your hand hanging over the edge, you can drop a bomb onto a monster below. However, if you hit the bomb key again before the first bomb can hit the floor, you'll re-drop that same stick of dynamite again. But Aztec doesn't erase the image of the first bomb.. it just seems to be stuck in midair. And so when the new falling bomb collides with its stopped image, the bomb explodes in midair. If you hit the plant bomb key quickly you can blow yourself up due to it exploding just below you. 3. Wipe out whole sections of floor with one bomb If you crawl towards the right edge of the screen in an open hallway, you can position yourself so that your arm is off the edge of the screen. If you plant a bomb here, it'll drop and explode just below you. (You can sometimes get killed when this happens.) If you then walk off the screen and come back, you'll find that nearly all of the floor you had been crawling on is destroyed. 4. Climbing stuff other than stairs. You can climb any object that is about 7 pixels tall. This includes everything from stairs to boxes, bones, piles of garbage, water, monsters that are moving around, and other weird stuff. 5. Stand on a bomb This is related to #2, in that Aztec doesn't erase the image of a dropping or burning bomb if you re-plant the bomb. If you plant several bombs in succession, by crawling ahead one, planting a bomb, crawling ahead one, etc, you will create a row of burning- bomb afterimages. There are two frames to the burning-bomb animation: a short one and a tall one. You can stand on the tall bomb afterimage. If you can build up a row of several tall afterimages, you can climb up onto them and crawl around on them. When you've built up a long row of tall afterimages, you can climb up on top of it and place another row of afterimages on top of the first row. By doing this several times, you can construct a sort of staircase out of a single burning bomb in the middle of an empty hallway. 6. Fall through one floor Aztec doesn't handle crawl-falling very well. If you are one stairstep off the floor and you are crawling, if you fall you will go right through the floor and land on the one immediately below. You can do this by climbing a stairway and standing still after climbing only one step. When hit you the crawl button, the stairway isn't wide enough to support you and you will fall.. through the floor. This is a great way to get out of trouble quickly. If a monster is approaching and you seem to be trapped, you can climb up one step onto a nearby pile of garbage or box and crawl off the edge of the object to fall one floor down to safety. If there is no object around to climb up onto, plant a bomb, climb up onto it, and crouch down to fall through the floor. Maybe if you're lucky, the bomb will take out whatever was chasing you. 7. Blow your hat off Ignite a bomb, and then quickly move down one floor so that you are standing directly under the burning bomb. when the bomb explodes, it will wipe everything out that's around it, including your hat which was just below. If you walk away, you'll discover that an afterimage of your hat is left hanging in midair below where the bomb exploded. 8. Walk on water to escape water traps Trapped in a tank of rising water, and you think you're going to die? The simple solution is to press the Climb key and as the water level rises, you'll be able to walk on/in the rising water. As long as there's isn't a ceiling overhead, you can walk around safely. But if you hit your head, you'll fall to the bottom of the pool and drown. If you remain standing, the water will stop rising. But if you duck down and crawl around, the water will starting rising again. After it has risen up to your nose, it's best to stand up and climb up so you're again standing on top of the water. Do this several times and the water should rise to just below the next floor above the water trap. A way out is to crawl near an existing floor and plant a bomb, creating a sort of stairstep up out of the water and onto that upper floor. This is definitely not an easy trick to do. 9. Go up a screen even if the stairway has been destroyed If there is a box or pile of garbage in the upper right corner of the screen, you can use it as a sort of substitute stairway. Climb up onto it, and when you have climbed up as far as you can you will move up one screen. You will then appear where the monster face is located in the lower right corner of the screen and be able to climb up that face to the bottom level on the screen. 10. Fall into a wall at the edge of the screen with machete If you've got the machete, lunge with it repeatedly to the left through an open region. If you are doing this fast enough, Aztec will get confused about your location and you will fall as the screen is updated so that you are sitting at the extreme right edge of the screen, perhaps embedded in a wall. You can safely walk out of the wall without getting hurt. 11. Walk through a wall or fall down a floor with machete If you've got the machete and you stand so that you are extremely close to a wall on the right side of the screen, you can arm your machete and the tip of it will be sticking through the wall. By either advancing a step or lunging, you can pass right through the wall. You will often fall down one level if you do this slowly. -- Notice to Advertisers: You do not have permission to send me your advertisements. My mere posting on Usenet does not give you the permission to mail me your unwanted crap. 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