From: rains@dms.UUCP (Lyle Rains) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Subject: KLAX lesson 1 Date: 6 Sep 91 18:58:51 GMT Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA This is the first of 3 lessons on playing KLAX from Atari Games. This lesson will cover some KLAX basics, and the following two will contain some advanced stategies and techiniques. ,' / /\ \ `. ,' / / \ \ `. <----- RAMP (usually seen with tiles ,' / / \ \ `. flipping down its 5 lanes) -------------------- [a] [b] === <----- PADDLE (with 2 stacked tiles) | | | [b]| |[a] [b] [c] [a]| <---- BIN (shown with an assortment |[d] [a] [c] [d]| of tiles in its 5 columns) |[a] [c] [c] [a] [d]| +-------------------+ FIG 1. Basic KLAX Playfield KLAX is a color matching game of tic-tack-tiles. The basic playfield contains a bin which can hold 5 columns of 5 tiles. The player uses a joystick to control a platform (paddle) on which he must catch colored tiles which are flipping off of the end of a 5-lane ramp. Up to 5 tiles can be stacked on the paddle. Pushing a button will drop the top tile from the paddle stack onto one of the columns in the bin. The game is played in successive levels with a stated objective for each level. The objective is to survive each level (so what's new?). The basic gameplay requires the player to build the columns within the bin in such a way that he creates 3-in-a-row combinations of tiles with the same color. A matching 3-in-a-row is called a "KLAX." A KLAX may be in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. You may also make KLAXs (KLAXi?) of four or five tiles for more points. A 4-KLAX counts as 2 KLAXs, and a 5-KLAX counts as 3 KLAXs. Simple, no? Oh, yes ... when you get a KLAX, the tiles involved in the KLAX will disappear, and any tiles which were piled on top will drop down in the columns. This is good, because there are only 25 spaces in the bin and you need to get rid of tiles to stay alive (fill up the bin - you're dead). On the other hand, dropping tiles can rearrange patterns you had carefully set up, so you need to plan ahead. Besides filling up the bin, the other (and most common) way to end your game is to fumble too many tiles falling off the end of the ramp. You can just plain miss 'em, or you can have a full (5 tile) paddle and be unable to catch another one. The maximum number of drops varies depending on how many levels you jump at level select screens. The range is three to five drops. In practice, you tend to lose drops in bunches (getting flustered), so it's not clear that 5 drops is bunches better than 3 (although it's certainly no worse). The various levels have different objectives. Some require a certain number of KLAXs to advance. Some require a number of points. Some only count DIAGONAL KLAXs toward completion, and some simply require "surviving" a certain number of tiles. Congratulations! You have just completed KLAX bootcamp. You can test your new found knowledge at a game room near you. Advanced training begins in the next lesson. -- wmm -/@-@\- Lyle Rains <-- motcsd!dms!rains or lrains@netcom.com ( (_) ) Atari Games <-- "Tube hits for two-bits" \_o_/ Milpitas, CA <-- With convenient parking in lots 237 and 880. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: rains@dms.UUCP (Lyle Rains) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Subject: KLAX lesson 2 Date: 6 Sep 91 18:59:36 GMT Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA In order to really excel at KLAX, you must improve your reflexes and anticipation. You also need to understand the scoring rules. It is possible to get more than 2,000,000 points on one quarter (if you know the tricks)! A subsequent lesson will discuss the strategies to do this. This lesson will cover scoring fundementals and a few advanced techniques. There are three areas of scoring to be considered: 1. Basic scores for various kinds of KLAXs 2. The score multiplier 3. End-of-level and warp bonuses I will deal primarily with the first two, since there is relatively little the player can do about the last. The basic KLAX scoring matrix is shown below: vertical horizontal diagonal 3-KLAX 50 1,000 5,000 4-KLAX 10,000 5,000 10,000 5-KLAX 15,000 10,000 20,000 Note that a vertical 3-KLAX is worthless, but a vertical 4-KLAX is quite valuable! The message is that when you are going for points, go for diagonal KLAXs or vertical 4-KLAXs. So how do you get a vertical 4-KLAX? Doesn't it go away when you put the third tile on top? Well, the answer is no, not always. There are two ways to get a vertical 4-KLAX. The easiest is to use the scoring delay. If you have the following setup: [b] What you want to do is drop the [b] tile [a] on the center column in the bin, and while [a] it is scoring, move over and drop both [a] === tiles on top of the [a] column. The two [a] tiles will just sit there until the | | [b] column finishes scoring, then all of | | the [a]'s will score as a vertical 4-KLAX. | | | [b][a] | Simple ! | [b][a] | +---------------+ The second way to get a vertical 4-KLAX is to set up chain-reaction techniqes: [b] When you drop the [b] down, it will score === a diagonal 3-KLAX. When the [b]'s all disappear, voil`a, a vertical 4-KLAX | [a] | of [a]'s! | [a] | | [b] | | [b][a] | | [x][a] | +---------------+ These examples also introduce the score multiplier effect. Whenever you score, the score mutliplier is the number of KLAXs scored. This multiplier doesn't reset but keeps increasing until there's nothing left to score and normal play has resumed. So in the above examples, the [b] KLAXs had a multipler of 1, but the [a] KLAXs had a multipler of 2 and were worth 20,000 points! For a more complex example (capital letters indicate scoring KLAXs): [b] drop [a] both === | [a] [a] | | [a] [a] | | | | [a] [a] | | [a][a][a] | | [A] [A] | | [b] [b] | --> | [B][B][B] | --> | [A][A][A] | | [a][x][a] | | [a][x][a] | | [A][x][A] | | [a][x][a] | | [a][x][a] | | [A][x][A] | +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ The [b]'s score as a horizontal 3-KLAX with mutiplier of 1, but the [a]'s will score as 2 vertical 4-KLAXs, 2 diagonal 3-KLAXs, and a horizontal 3-KLAX with a total multiplier of 6 (1 for the [b]'s and 5 for the [a]'s) !!! So the total score for this would be: (mult * hor [b]) + (mult * (hor [a] + (2 * diag [a]) + (2 * vert [a]))) = ( 1 * 1000 ) + ( 6 * ( 1,000 + (2 * 5,000) + (2 * 10,000))) = 1000 + ( 6 * ( 31,000 )) = 187,000 points !!!! As you can see, the multiplier can have a dramatic effect on your score. The maximum multiplier is 9 (athough it's quite difficult to get so high). As a final topic in this lesson, I want to cover a couple of advanced techniques. You may have noticed during play that if you push forward on the joystick, the top tile on your paddle will be thrown half way back up the ramp. You can use this to rearrange the tiles on the paddle or to get back to a lower tile without dropping the upper tiles. This "push-back" technique is fun. It's addictive. It's also the quickest way to get into deep trouble. Use it, don't abuse it. There is a built-in difficulty advance feature which makes the game play faster depending on how long you have been playing on the current quarter. (This is a not-very-well-kept secret of arcade game design used to balance game play so it is not too difficult for typical players, but a really good player cannot play forever). The outcome is that you should play as quickly as possible so that the game difficulty doesn't ramp up on you. One way you do this by pulling back on the joystick to speed the tiles down the ramp and (hopefully) onto your paddle. Don't wait for them to come to you. Suck 'em down! This feature can also be abused (although not as badly as the push-back technique), but it can be useful. This is the end of lesson 2. I assume you have figured out wild-tiles on your own (oh, so THAT's what those flashing tiles were?!?!?). The third and final lesson will be a complete strategy for maximizing score on a single coin. -- wmm -/@-@\- Lyle Rains <-- motcsd!dms!rains or lrains@netcom.com ( (_) ) Atari Games <-- "Tube hits for two-bits" \_o_/ Milpitas, CA <-- With convenient parking in lots 237 and 880. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rains@dms.UUCP (Lyle Rains) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Subject: KLAX lesson 3 Date: 6 Sep 91 19:00:26 GMT Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA You are not ready for this lesson yet. Save it. Study it. Practice, practice, practice. You have much yet to learn, Grasshopper. This posting should be titled "KLAX for the Lunatic Fringe: a Case History." It is a tutorial on one approach to getting over 2,000,000 points in KLAX on a single coin. By this I do not mean that you will insert a single coin and do this every time. I mean I have done it once. Well, actually, a few times. It is not for the timid. But it will show you some strategies which can be used to good advantage in your daily KLAX play. +------------------------------------------------------------+ | ***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING*** | | | | KIDS, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.** This is KLAX as played | | by a _Professional_Game_Designer_ (otherwise known as a | | crazy man) under controlled conditions (i.e., I play for | | free). Doing this in an actual pay-for-play environment | | could be hazardous to the health of your wallet. | | | +------------------------------------------------------------+ ** Actually, home is _exactly_ where you should try this sort of thing. When Tengen comes out with the home and computer versions, you can try this stuff for hours without going broke. You are probably aware that the High Score Table contains both total high score and high score per quarter columns. One can essentially buy one's way onto the total high score table. Since we are not paying to play the games, we within Atari Games tend to compete for the best per-coin high score in our friendly company rivalry. The following is only one possible way of playing for this high score, but it is among the best methods we have found. The basic strategy is going top be to start at level 1, play through level 5, warp to level 11, and take a "secret warp" to level 56. I have never survived level 56 using this strategy, so I can't tell you what to do from there. LEVEL 1 Here is a cosmic paradox. Level 1 is the easiest level in the game. It is also the hardest level to do well. Don't get discouraged by the complexity of the patterns (KLAXgrams) shown below. This is as bad as it will get, and you can work up to it slowly. If you wish, use the "Tengen Stax" method shown below. It is worth fewer points, but it is *lots* easier. There are only 4 colors of tiles in the first level. The patterns shown will score about 370,000 to 565,000 points on level 1. The highest theoretical score that we know for level 1 is about 720,000 (but it is so difficult that I will not waste my time trying it -- and I play for free). In building these patterns, you may complete at most ONE KLAX to get rid of "junk"; if you complete 2 KLAXs, the game will not let you drop extra tiles on the paddle after the first, because the first tile will complete the level. You must be quick to drop all the tiles on the paddle into the center column. If the top [c] finishes scoring before you get the remaining tiles in place, things will not work correctly. You must be prepared to settle for less and bail out earlier if necessary. These are "best case" patterns. They are very similar: notice that the only difference in the first 2 is an extra [a] at the bottom of the paddle stack, but it is surprisingly MUCH more difficult to achieve! An [x] is a don't care: use the fourth color or just make sure you don't complete a KLAX with them. [c] [c] [c] [b] [b] [b] [a] [a] [a] [a] [b] === === === |[a][a] [a][a]| |[a][a] [a][a]| |[a][a] [a][a]| |[b][b] [b][b]| |[b][b] [b][b]| |[b][b] [b][b]| |[x][a] [c][x]| |[x][a] [c][x]| |[x][a] [c][x]| |[x][b] [a][x]| |[x][b] [a][x]| |[b][b] [a][b]| |[a][c][b][b][a]| |[a][c][b][b][a]| |[a][c][b][b][a]| +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ ~370K ~435K ~565K "Rains' Revenge" LEVEL 2 This pattern is known as "Tengen Stax," because the guys over at Tengen discovered it. I think it should be called "Stax to the Max," but call it whatever you want. It makes use of the high value of vertical 4-KLAXs. It's also easy to remember and is recommended for the entire family. There are many minor variations possible with higher and lower scores. These are left as an exercise to the reader. [e] === |[a][b] [c][d]| |[a][b] [c][d]| |[e][e] [e][e]| |[a][b][e][c][d]| |[a][b][e][c][d]| +---------------+ "Tengen Stax" LEVEL 3 Level 3 is a "diagonal wave". Try to complete as much of a BIG X as possible but bail out as soon as possible to keep the game difficulty down. You need at least 3 diagonals to complete the level. You should have been using the pull-down feature to save time so far. Also, between levels keep tapping the button to speed up the scoring (again, reducing time). Again, many variations are possible. [a] === |[a] [a]| |[x][a] [a][x]| |[x][x] [x][x]| |[x][a][x][a][x]| |[a][x][x][x][a]| +---------------+ "BIG X" LEVEL 4 Level 4 should be played the same as level 2. There are more colors on level 4 than level 2, so it is harder. But it is also more important to do well on level 4 because it is a "points wave." Any points that you score over the 10,000 needed to complete the level will be doubled as a bonus. So a 200,000 set of "Tengen Stax" will get you 390,000 points including the bonus. Did I mention that furiously tapping through the scoring at the end of level sometimes reveals a "feature" in which mysterious white tiles appear in the bin and give you extra points? LEVEL 5 Just survive level 5 any way you can. The difficulty is ramping up pretty well by now, so I just build simple vertical stacks to get rid of tiles as easily as possible. I often have over 1,000,000 at this time, and survival is the most important thing. DO NOT TAP THE BUTTON AT THE END OF THIS LEVEL TO SPEED THE SCORE -- you may inadvertently get to the select screen and select the default level 6. When you get to the select screen, warp to level 11. LEVELS 11 and 56 I play both of these levels the same. I go for a "Super Star" pattern which includes an "X". The "X" on level 11 (and on level 6, too) will cause an immediate warp to level 56 (or 51), plus mucho bonus points. This pattern depends on getting a wild tile ([*]) to complete the star. I still love completing this pattern and watching everything score at once. [*] === |[a] [b]| |[x][a] [b][x]| |[c][c] [d][d]| |[x][b][e][a][x]| |[b][x][e][x][a]| +---------------+ "Super Star" ******************************************************* Well, that's it. If you did everything right (and if the game was kind to you), you will have a score over 2,000,000 points on one coin. Now wasn't that easy? If you actually do this, you will amaze your friends (and yourself) and will probably dominate BOTH high score tables for awhile. Have fun, keep kool, and happy KLAXing. -- wmm -/@-@\- Lyle Rains <-- motcsd!dms!rains or lrains@netcom.com ( (_) ) Atari Games <-- "Tube hits for two-bits" \_o_/ Milpitas, CA <-- With convenient parking in lots 237 and 880.