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Here's a manual I put together for Arena Football 95. This one took a while to do, because there's almost no information out there on the game that I could find -- I pretty much had to discover everything on my own. If you have discovered anything that I missed, please let me know and I'll add it. Between this game, Brett Hull Hockey, and Space War 2000 -- this game is clearly the least polished. But even in it's present form I still found it to be enjoyable -- that is once I figured out what the heck was going on! Enjoy! Arena_Football.pdf

Thanks for the kind words. I've had a lot of fun writing these manuals -- it kinds of add a new dimension to the games, you know.... While I'm not a big hockey fan, even I found the history of the 94/95 season interesting after doing some research about it. For instance, I never realized there was a long player "lock out" that year.

Looks like it's from a very early batch of trackballs -- maybe the first run? Notice the very low serial number and the fact that it was made in Texas verses Mexico.... Very neat!!!

Good catch! I've posted the new one above. Thanks!

To go along with the Space War 2000 manual I made a few weeks ago, here is a manual for Brett Hull Hockey. This manual is based off of the Brett Hull 95 manual for the SNES system. The two games are somewhat similar, but contain a LOT of differences (particularly with the menus and controls) -- which made writing this manual a big job (much bigger than I had anticipated) Brett_Hull_Hockey.pdf

It definately works with the DC, because I've played it. It's been a long, long time, but if I remember correctly there is is menu screen where you have to choose the regular or driving controller. Did you get that far?

Speaking of Atari Karts -- does anybody know what's up with Miracle Designs? From the looks of their web page, it makes me wonder. No new products since 2003.... Miracle Designs

I think it's at least 99% finished, maybe even 100% finished. Of course, even if it is 100% finished that doesn't mean it's a great game. Sports games never seem to age very well, and I think this is another example of that phenomenon. The summary of "blocky little hockey players on a blocky rink skating around in pseudo 3D fashion" in the review I pointed to sums the game up pretty accurately I think. I haven't seen any lockups. There's lots of stuff you can manage if you choose to -- you have seven line-ups that you can configure on your team. If you're in to that kind of stuff you *might* find the game more appealing. Me, I find that kind of stuff extremely boring and just go with the defaults. After all, I just want to play a hockey game -- not dork around configuring players and stats (especially ones from twelve years ago)! I guess I'd categorize it as a "finished, but average (or slightly above average)" game....

I wonder how similar it is to BHH or BHH '95 for the SNES and Genesis? I've been trying to find a copy of the manual for either of those games online to compare, but haven't had any success....

Sure thing, after I give it some more time. I've only spent about an hour with it so far, and most of that time was just trying to figure out what was going on. From what I can tell, the game appears to be finished, or at least very, very near finished (I know there's a bit of debate whether they were going to clean up the graphics a bit more in the final version). In the mean time, here's a review I found: BHH Review P.S. This is the B&C cart release I'm playing....

I tried this game out for the first time last night. I found the controls a bit confusing, so maybe someone can clarify? This is how I *think* they work: Offense, your player has the puck: A = Pass B = High Shot C = Low Shot Offense, your player doesn't have the puck: A = Turbo? B = Closest C = One Timer Defense A = Check (or maybe Turbo if you're not near somebody?) B = Closest C = ???? I'm also not sure how the One Timer play is accomplished. Can you immediately press Pass and then press One Timer? Or do you have to wait for the exact moment when the receiving guy gets the Pass before hitting One Timer? Also, it seems like for Turbo you have to repeatedly press the button maybe -- rather than hold it?

Dukes is a game that at a lot of potential, but in the end it's kind of a mixed bag. Had they made it so that the various roads actually let you drive around a model of say Hazzard County, well then they would have had a terrific game. Instead, the roads make no sense whatsoever -- no matter which way you turn, the blue car is always in front of you and the Boss Hogg is always behind you. That is, all roads are in fact the same road (the saying "all roads lead to nowhere" is quite fitting). It's very confusing on the brain because your brain knows that something like that can't actually happen in reality -- and yet somehow it does in the game because the game doesn't mimic the real world. Ugh, it makes me dizzy just thinking about it.... Of course, actually turning on to another road is nearly impossible in the first place. But then again, there's no point in turning anyway as I just explained....

Yea, after playing it for a while I began to notice that any enemies I needed to kill to complete a level were _always_ (and I do mean ALWAYS) on my radar when I zoomed out on it. So I began to grow pretty suspicious of the reports that said you could fly in any direction forever.... That's really interesting about all the new enemies you have found! Oh how I wish there were a way to either save your progress or jump to a level -- because you're right, the crashes in the later levels start to wear on you. Crashes in a game like Skyhammer I can tollerate much better because you can save often so you don't lose as much progress....

This is what my level guide shows too of course. That's fine. I wrote mine for my own benefit but wanted to share it with the community as well. If you can't release it, can you share some of the details you know about it at least: 1) Is there an ending to the game? 2) What is the bonus score based on? 3) What is the difference between standard and tournament? 4) What is the difference between competitive and cooperative? I have other questions, but those are the top four I guess....

Interesting. How many more? Since it was six levels between when the TIE Guy appeared and the High Guy appeared, I would have expected at least that many levels again. So new enemies must start appearing at a much faster rate in the later levels....

Very nice work!!!!

"With enough time and money, any controller can made to connect to any console." --Ancient Chinese Proverb :)

Here's an updated version. I tried to incorporate everyone's feedback. I also added some details about the cloaking and decoy weapons. Thanks for all the helpful ideas everyone.... Space_War_2000.pdf

No problem. I posted it here for people to do whatever they want with it. However, you might want to wait until I post a slightly "fixed" version later tonight (see one of my previous posts)....

For the overlay -- I'm definitely no artist, so as you can tell I didn't even pretend to be one. For the ship names, I was trying to be a bit humorous but at the same time I think they're pretty accurate (once you see a ship you should have no trouble telling which one I'm referring to). But I'll also try to weasel out by going back to my comment about not being an artist. :)

Yep, it's a simple on / off switch. You're either going flat out or you're stopped. Really lame -- but as a kid I didn't know any better to realize this. Thus, it is EXACTLY like the Atari Driving Controllers, in every sense of the word (okay, internally the digital encoding is done a bit differently, but that's such a small detail I don't consider it to really be a "difference" since it doesn't affect the gameplay at all).

There's an interview on ColecoNation with someone who worked at Coleco who admits that Destructor was a buggy piece of junk that they shoved out the door.... Here's the link: Interview about Destructor

How long is a tough question to answer. Heck the game may even have an ending, who knows? The problem is that later levels have more enemies, which seems to increase the likelihood of the game crashing on you. Now if somebody could figure out a level-skipping code for the game..... It is stage based. After clearing out the enemies on a level, your score is tallied and you return to the main menu. If you select "Play Bell" you will start the next level. Between levels you were supposed to be able to replenish your special weapons at the "Weapons Shop", but unfortunately the Weapon Shop seems to be non-functional (at least nobody has ever figured out a way to make it do anything).

Digital.

Thanks! Yep, looks like I missed that one. I'll fix this when I get home tonight and post an updated version. Page 15 is blank so that you can print it in booklet form (many printer drivers give you this option when printing). For a booklet, you always need to have a multiple of four pages -- so I needed to make it 16 pages long. Page 16 is the back cover and has a bit of info on it near the bottom....