What arcade tricks,tactics and tips did you learn from observing others?

[R.O.T.S]

This will depend on how old you are i guess but back in the day playing arcade games in various places you learned tricks,patterns and game secrets from observing other players,after all the internet probably did not exist so my question is -

What secrets in games did you discover by watching other gamers on arcade machines?.
My own memories are of the late 80's and early 90's watching my cousin who was much better than me at games and also spent more time playing,I have seen him uncovering hidden items above the screen in Karnov,getting deep into Rygar finding the '?' item and jumping on one of the later levels and using the spinning weapon to uncover hidden stars in the sky (I think it was for a million bonus).I also remember someone playing Rolling Thunder and scrolling all the way back through a level to get ammo from a door which was unknown to me as i thought you could do that just once,these are just a few examples but my favourite one is turning into a frog in Ghosts'n goblins,I was blown away when I saw my cousin do that but of course he must of seen other people do all these tricks as there was no websites then it was all word of mouth and showing off.

Edited October 19, 2013 by R.O.T.S

[The Eidolon]

Tons of the secrets from vs. Super Mario Bros. I think that game was made to be a communal experience.

It always threw me off that the NES version was slightly different.

 

I think I learned most of the moves in Dragon's Lair from watching others. It was too expensive to learn by

trial and error at 50 cents a try.

 

I'm sure there were many others...

[racerx]

I learned Pac-Man patterns and the hide-your-ship-in-the-score cheat in Asteroids. I still sucked at Dragon's Lair even after watching people for hours, lol.

Edited October 20, 2013 by racerx

[+Ransom]

I learned the patterns for the first three levels' tank mazes on Tron by observing a guy playing it at Circus Circus in Reno, which was the first time I'd seen that game. That was also the first time I'd seen Venture, a game I'd read about but had never seen. I think I spent half the time I was there playing Venture and Vanguard (my V phase?).

[Dauber]

I learned how to survive the root beer maze in Jr. Pac-Man, but not necessarily by watching someone. When I was recently playing it at my favorite arcade, I happened to look up and noticed that the guy standing next to me and playing Galaga 3 happened to be the arcade's high scorer on the Jr. Pac-Man (turbo) machine -- they have record-holders' pictures above each machine! -- and later when I saw he wasn't playing, I flagged him down when I was on the root beer maze and said, "How the HELL do you get past this maze?!" And he actually was very happy to help...basically, it involves going into those boxes in the middle row on either side; turns out those are good hiding places while the ghosts tend to gather together.

[SoundGammon]

I remember reading about the trick in Galaga with the original roms that the programmer put in so he could walk into any arcade and get a high score. What you have to do is when the game starts, you don't shoot and wait for all the "bees" to come out and go into formation. After they start to attack, DON'T shoot the far 2 left bees, but shoot all the others. Then avoid the those last 2 bees and don't shoot them. Wait awhile while they keep attacking and shooting and going off the screen, reforming then attacking again. After awhile they will QUIT shooting while they attack. When they go back into formation and then attack again, then you can shoot them. After that, the all the bees will no longer shoot, just attack! Cool trick, works in M.A.M.E.

[Cynicaster]

I learned how to marathon Mat Mania largely by watching an older kid play it at a local bowling alley.

[R.O.T.S]

I have just recalled another two which i would like to share-

Slap Fight- If you do not move or shoot and let your first ship get killed your second ship is fitted with all upgrades and weapons.

This was discovered during a funny moment in a poolroom we used to visit,allegedly the poolroom owner was playing his own game when he was distracted lighting a cigarette and he lost his first ship,after cursing his second ship came on screen completely kitted with every weapon.I have done this trick myself and it is not worth it as your craft is so long you are unable to move left and right without getting hit and there are simply too many bullets on screen.

 

Robocop- On the scrapyard level kneel close to the third car magnet crusher and punch it as it hits the floor in front of you.

We used to do this whenever we played and reached this stage,walk close up to the third magnet on a chain and kneel,when it drops in front of you just punch it and remain in position.You are awarded many points every second until you stand so we would hang around until we have enough time to comfortably fight the guy at the end and then stand and run towards the end of the level.

Not sure if this works on all the crushers,it has been a long time.

[Crazy Climber]

Off the top of my head...

 

How to make DK jr look like he has a penis

 

How to use pencils on Track and field for ultra speed

 

How to slam Pac Man and Asteroids with a queball for free credits

 

How to elbow smash my way through the entire Double Dragon game on one credit

 

How to slam tilt pinball machines so ball would pop back into play after draing without tilting machine

 

Although I never participated, how to pry a back door of game open and take tokens/quarters

 

How to keep using right flipper to knock ball up and down right lane of sk8ball to keep winning free balls/etc..

 

How to distract the employee so we could buy cigs from the vending machine

 

How to place coasters underneath front legs of pinball machines without tilting to gain slower ball speed/longer ball time (win free credits/etc)

 

How to stand all the way to one side with both players in Final fight to basically waste any people before they appear on the screen (only works on some stages)

 

How to play rail shooters with 2 guns at once (not really a trick but you feel like a total bad ass!)

 

How to shake medieval Madness when the trolls pop up for instant mode completion/points/etc

 

I'm sure there are more, but those come to mind for now.

[ledzep]

I learned how to fly really fast diagonally across the screen in Star Castle in order to avoid the mines and quickly destroy the star castle. I never got very good at that, partly because it bored me to "win" that way.

 

I saw where the hidden bonus targets were in Xevious by watching someone fly over the ground areas and bomb nothing and then see the little cylinders emerge and then bomb those, too.

 

On a few levels of Wizard Of Wor I learned where the special areas were to stand so that the various wors could be shot and killed while I could avoid being overrun by them.

[Dauber]

Yesterday I FINALLY learned how to do the jumping-at-Donkey-Kong's-foot trick for extra points. I had watched people do it and tried to reproduce it unsuccessfully for years (I'd jump but not get any points). At my favorite arcade there's a regular that I've befriended, and I saw him do the foot-jumping trick and I asked him how it's done. He said you have to move the joystick back and forth while you're in the air. Sure enough, that worked for me, FINALLY!

[keilbaca]

Yesterday I FINALLY learned how to do the jumping-at-Donkey-Kong's-foot trick for extra points. I had watched people do it and tried to reproduce it unsuccessfully for years (I'd jump but not get any points). At my favorite arcade there's a regular that I've befriended, and I saw him do the foot-jumping trick and I asked him how it's done. He said you have to move the joystick back and forth while you're in the air. Sure enough, that worked for me, FINALLY!

I didn't know that. I managed to get the points getting one pixel away from donkey kong and jumping, but I never knew how they managed to get the points that far away from Donkey Kong. Good to know

[Cynicaster]

Yesterday I FINALLY learned how to do the jumping-at-Donkey-Kong's-foot trick for extra points. I had watched people do it and tried to reproduce it unsuccessfully for years (I'd jump but not get any points). At my favorite arcade there's a regular that I've befriended, and I saw him do the foot-jumping trick and I asked him how it's done. He said you have to move the joystick back and forth while you're in the air. Sure enough, that worked for me, FINALLY!

The way it works is you get awarded points if the game detects any “enemy object” beneath you when you jump, up to and including DK’s foot. There is a nuance in the game code though—the “detection window” used to “see” the object is really narrow and finicky if you simply jump and don’t press the stick. You may notice once in a while you jump over a barrel and get no points for it, and that’s because barrels sometimes get missed by the finicky detection window. For whatever reason, if you’re pressing left or right on the joystick while in mid-jump, the game code looks at a much broader window to detect objects, which you can use to get the toe jumps at a safe distance. Also, whenever you can, make sure you’re pressing on the joystick when you jump barrels so you don’t miss any of those points.

 

You don’t have to shake the joystick left/right for the toe jump to work; either direction will suffice. What I do is get within a comfortable distance, jump, then tap away from DK while in mid-air. I tap away from DK because sometimes I lose my rhythm in doing the jump/tap/jump/tap and I don't want to inadvertently walk right into DK and die.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Cynicaster

[+Gemintronic]

I learned you wait behind the youngest kids at Chuck E Cheese. I would observe them get confused and walk away from the cabinets before all their lives were used up. FREE GAME BABY!

 

..maybe I should stop doing that as an adult.

[NE146]

Easy! It's all Space Invaders when people were at the arcade, and everyone played the game. learned how to get 300 point UFO's consistently in Space Invaders. I also learned the "wall of death" (known today in the internet age under another name). I also learned various other stunts like shooting the last invader as it rebounded off the wall, how to get the Rainbow, and finally how to get a secret extra life by rolling over the shot counter in Space Invaders Part 2. All that I learned from watching people and/or talking about the game in the days before any Videogame media.

 

Other tricks I learned by people at the arcade was the Mr. Do 255 lives trick. How to jump off the bottom right to skip stages in Crazy Kong.

 

Everything else I learned via Joystik mag.. the best one being the no-shooting trick in Galaga