Weird Issue with Tower Toppler (7800)

[gzsfrk]

So I picked up a nice Atari cartridge lot off Craigslist the other day: 45 loose cartridges for $25, 22 of them 7800. Among the 7800 carts included was a new one to me: Tower Toppler. I loved this game on my C64 back in the day, so I was excited to have it on another platform for which I've recently started collecting. Get it home, clean the contacts, insert it into my 7800, and the title screen comes up with that familiar little ditty playing. So I excitedly press the button on my Proline controller to start playing and the first level comes up. Submarine appears, drops off my little guy, and then.... cuts to the next level screen? Huh. That was weird. So the next level comes up, little guy hops out of the sub... and another cutaway to the next level screen. WTH? Turn off the 7800, clean the cartridge's contacts especially meticulously this time, clean the contacts in the 7800 cart slot, and try again. And got the same result. Am I missing something obvious here? Or is there some extra hardware in the TT cart that may be fouled up and causing the game to malfunction? If it's helpful, I can record and post a video of the behavior. But I'm hopeful that this is just some simple-yet-obscure issue that one of you longtime AA regulars will know off the top of your head.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

- m@

[gzsfrk]

Oh, and if it's relevant, this is running on one of the early 7800s with the expansion slot.

[thucom]

flip the difficulty switches. I forget exactly how this worked, but you can use the switches as a level select "cheat"

Edited December 15, 2012 by thucom

[kenfused]

Try changing the difficulty switches on the front of the console.

[RJ]

It's a weird built in level skip. I think the right hand diff switch controls it. Move that into the other position & it should be fine. I don't have my 7800 hooked up currently to try it out.

 

EDIT- in the manual (also scanned here on AtariAge) it says "be sure both diff. Switches are in the right hand position before starting". So I think after you topple some towers & don't want to start at lvl 1 each time, slide the RIGHT diff switch to the LEFT. That's the lvl skip. When you get to the tower you want, slide it back to the right.

Edited December 15, 2012 by RJ

[Classic Pac]

There is another weird bug in the game, if you use the level select trick to go back to lv 1 and omplete that. You will get a mission complete message rather than the next level.

[Jinks]

There is another weird bug in the game, if you use the level select trick to go back to lv 1 and omplete that. You will get a mission complete message rather than the next level.

 

cool cause thats the only way I could complete the game...after tower one iam screwed!!

Edited December 15, 2012 by Jinks

[Austin]

Haha, yeah, if I remember correctly, it's a difficulty switch issue. The same thing happened to mine when I played it for the first time.

[Stun Runner 87]

Turn the Right difficulty switch to the right to start game like normal playing each level at a time in order......Or.....Turn the right difficulty swith to the left to skip levels if you want to be a cheater.

It will work fine.

I remember when I first got that game in 1988 and it confused me too...Its really just a simple fix with the switch, lol....

Edited December 16, 2012 by Stun Runner 87

[gzsfrk]

Awesome! Thanks much for setting me straight, guys. I did indeed have the right-side difficulty switch pushed to the left. Time to get my Topple on!

[Bakasama]

The neat thing about the switches is that if you fool around with them a bit, you can get unlimited lives.