| S T A R   C A S T L E |

              GAME:  STAR CASTLE
AUTHOR OF THIS FAQ:  Kevin Butler AKA War Doc
       FAQ VERSION:  1.01


                              TABLE OF CONTENTS


1.  Legal Stuff
2.  Version Information
3.  Acknowledgements
4.  Welcome
5.  Overview


6.  The Game

    6.1  The Controls
    6.2  The Playing Field
    6.3  Scoring


7.  Playing the Game


8.  Conclusion


To find a particular chapter or subchapter do the following:

2.  Press CTRL-C
3.  Press CTRL-F
4.  Press CTRL-V
5.  Press CTRL-F
5.  You will arrive at the desired chapter or subchapter.



This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal
work or to display it:


in this guide, please acknowledge that you have done so.

e-mail me.  Just have Star Castle as the subject so I know it isn't another
new friends.


Version 1.0   7/27/03:  A guide is born.

Version 1.01  8/28/03:  Fixed a couple of errors.



Cinematronics for making a great arcade game
GameFAQ's for putting up this FAQ


Welcome to my FAQ for Star Castle.  Since the game is just a shooter that goes
be broken up into the game itself and strategies for survival.  Input is
appreciated along with constructive criticism.  If you wish to e-mail me
thoughts on this FAQ, better ways of doing things, other strategies, etc., feel
free.  Make sure you put Star Castle as the subject.  If you don't, I'm liable
to discard the e-mail as spam.


Star Castle was one of Cinematronics most successful games.  It was even shown
at the beginning of the movie "Maximum Overdrive".  Cinematronics was noted for
their vector-type of games and this one was no exception.  What was different
was the fact of how they made this game into color.  Instead of writing out a
lot of extra code that would bog down the machine and create more problems,
they instead used plastic overlays.  These would be mounted on the TV screen
and you would see the white vector lines through the different colors of the
overlay.  They used overlays in a lot of their other games also.  The effect
was the same as if it had been programmed in color.  In this game, your sole
purpose is to destroy a laser cannon.  Of course, you must cut through the
three rings of shields surrounding it.  To add to your misery, sparks will
leave the rings to harass you.  Good luck on your mission.



Star Castle is a two-dimensional dimensional shooter.  You start the game with
your fighter at the side.  Three, 12-sided rings emerge from the middle of the
screen and a laser cannon appears in the middle.  Your job is to cut through
the rings and destroy the cannon.  Each ring takes two shots to take it out.
The first shot will make it light up and the second shot will destroy it.  If
you happen to destroy the outside ring, then the inner rings will expand to
create a new outer ring.  If you destroy the middle or inner rings, they won't
regenerate unless you destroy the outer ring.  To add to your misery, sparks
will appear on the rings.  They are released two different ways.  The first way
is they migrate to the outer ring and go into space.  The other way is if your
ship destroys a ring with a spark on it, the spark will be immediately
released.  If you make an opening in all three rings, the laser cannon will
take a shot at your ship.  The laser cannon constantly tracks your ship so you
must keep moving.  In addition, the sparks also home in on your ship.  Your job
is to destroy the laser cannon.

/ 6.1  The Controls /__________________________________________________________

bit of time to get used to them.

-  Two buttons that rotate your spaceship right and left

-  A fire button

-  A thruster button

/ 6.2  The Playing Field /_____________________________________________________

The playing field is very simple.  You have the Star Castle in the middle of
the screen and you have your ship along the outside.  It looks like this:

    |                                                                   |
    |                  *<- SPARK                                        |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |
    |                           +-----+                                 |
    |                          /       \ <- RINGS (3 OF THEM)           |
    |                         /    /\   \                               |
    |                        *    /  \   \                              |
    |                       |     \   \   |                             |
    |    YOUR SHIP          |    / /\/    |                             |
    |        |              |    \/ <-+   |                             |
    |        V              |         |   |                             |
    |        \               \   LASER    /                             |
    |        \ \              \ CANNON   /                              |
    |         ---\             \       /                                |
    |         ---/              +-----+                                 |
    |        / /                                                        |
    |        /                                                          |
    |                                                                   |
    |                                                                   |

You control the spaceship to avoid the laser cannon shots and sparks.

/ 6.3  Scoring /_______________________________________________________________

Scoring in this game is pretty simple:

Outer Ring:   10 points
Middle Ring:  20 points
Inner Ring:   30 points


the cannon.

Sparks are worth no points.

You start with 3 fighters.



When you start the game, your fighter will be at the side of the screen and
then the Star Castle will appear.  Now, it's time to go to work.

-  Remember that each ring takes two shots to destroy it.  So the best thing is
   to keep shooting until you bring the rings down to something manageable.
   You can have 4 shots on the screen at one time.

-  Don't sit right next to the rings to destroy them or you will make yourself
   an easy target for the sparks.  One of the best ways to hit the rings is to
   use the "wrap-around" method.  If you fire your shots off the right side of
   the screen, they will reappear on the left side and if your aim is good, hit
   the rings.  This "wrap-around" is also very useful in other ways.

-  Neither the sparks nor the laser cannon shots can wrap-around the screen.
   Use this knowledge to your advantage when you are being harassed by them.
   Just move your ship to the other side of the screen by wrapping around it.
   This way, you don't have to worry as much about the enemies either coming at
   you or shots being fired at you.

-  Try to keep one or two of the outer rings up while you pound on the inner
   rings.  This is due to the fact that if you destroy the outer rings and you
   had most of the inner two rings destroyed, all of the rings will regenerate.

-  The above point is made because Star Castle is a time-based, not score-based
   game.  This means, it doesn't matter what your score is, it's the time that
   determines the speed of the game.  Take too long on a Star Castle and you
   might find things going faster then you want them to.  

-  Speaking of speed-up, as you get farther in the game, the sparks will move
   very quickly toward your fighter.  That means you can't sit in one place too
   long.  Even wrapping around the screen will only save you a couple of
   seconds of harassment.  Also, the laser cannon starts by rotating to face
   your ship.  Over time, though, it will almost instantly face your ship so
   make every shot count.

-  Avoid the sparks if at all possible.  They yield no points and they are more
   of a waste of time to shoot.  Just avoid them unless you really need to
   destroy them.

-  When you eliminate the middle ring, get ready to take out the laser cannon
   in three shots.  The reason for this is simple, if you can send a heavy
   volley into the inner ring and cannon, it won't have a chance to fire back
   and possibly destroy your ship.  Again, you get a free ship for each cannon
   destroyed.  The way to do this is:

   -  Line up your fighter so that your shots will hit the inner ring and

   -  Be sure not to destroy the outer ring or all your work will be for
      nothing since the rings regenerate.

   -  Fire a quick 3-4 shot volley at that area.  If you are good, you will be
      able to destroy the inner ring and the cannon with this volley.  If you
      feel real brave, you can go right up to where the outer ring is and do
      the same thing.  Remember, the sparks eventually move so fast that you
      would just be committing suicide.

-  In theory, if you continue this cycle, you can rack up a constant supply of
   free men and go on for a long time.  The limiting factors are of course the
   game gets to such a speed that even the best player will be sorely tested.



This was one of those games that just kind of snuck up on the scene.  I wasn't
too sure what to do and I spent quite a few quarters before I finally under-
stood the concept of this game.  As you went farther into the game, the action
becomes more fast-paced and frantic as you have everything basically speeding
toward you.  Nothing like the laser cannon firing 1-2 second shots at your ship
when you are in its sights.  This game actually was fun due to that hectic pace
plus its graphics were simple so you could concentrate on the task at hand.
folks enjoyed those many years ago.  In addition, www.shockwave.com is bringing
many of these classic games back.  Check out their site to see what ones are
there.  I hope this guide helps you in being able to get the most amount of
gameplay for this game.  If you do have other ideas or thoughts, please e-mail
me and share them.  Who knows, maybe I'll start a Q&A Chapter in this guide if
enough people ask the same questions.  Anyway, thank you again for reading this

To see other FAQ's I have written please go to:

