TUNNEL RUNNER

HIDDEN MESSAGE: The little symbol that appears on the title screen is actually the letters “db” (for programmer Dick Balaska – picture #1).  {Stuart Ross}

HIDDEN MESSAGE: Starting on Run 9, each run has a secret door (picture #2) with the initials “db” (for programmer Dick Balaska) and “cb” (for his former wife, Cindy) on it.  If you run up to the door, you’ll get about 1,000 points, but if you turn away after first seeing it, you won’t get any.

An addendum sheet was later included, which corrects some errors in the manual, since the game was changed prior to being released:  You earn an extra life at 5k and at every 10k afterwards (not every 1k); to enter a double-up door, you must first find the single-up door while having the key; if you have to repeat a run (due to time running out), you’ll still earn points on the repeat run; maps will sometimes show the location of the key on runs up to and including #16; there are 4 maze Zots, not 3 (the 4th is blue); the escape bonus is determined by the time left multiplied by the run # you’re going to next (not just the remaining time).

Emergency transport: Hold FIRE and rotate the joystick in either direction during a run. Note: This may only be done once per run.  This feature is not documented in the manual.

BUG: With some runs, the walls go completely black and you can't see the doors anymore. The dark runs are: 40-45, 58-63, 77-82, 94-99, 112-117 and 130.  {Jeff Adkins}

BUG: The Run counter is only programmed to properly display the first 99 runs.  At Run 100, the counter shows “RUN 0”.  Runs 101 to 109 show “RUN 1” to “RUN 9”.  Runs 110 to 119 show “RUNR1” to “RUNR9”. Runs 120 to 129 show “RUNU0” to “RUNU9”.

BUG: Kill Screen - Although the manual claims an “endless series of mazes”, the game will crash when you reach either run 130 or 131 (picture #4). {Jeff Adkins}

BUG: Zots can sometimes go through walls, usually in the higher levels (no doubt one of those “maze mysteries” the manual refers to!). {Jeff Adkins}

BUG: Some runs show a column of what looks like map graphics. Runs 26, 97, and 115 have these columns (picture #3).  {Jeff Adkins}

BUG: The manual implies that for each room/section of a Run you reach for the first time you get a number of points equal to the Run number.  However, that's only true until Run 15.  If you watch the score counter in Run 17 (about five minutes into the longplay), you can see the counter going up in 11-point increments, not 17-point increments.  There seems to be a pattern to this behavior (which may mean it's a "maze mystery" or "feature" and not a true bug).  Basically, every sixteen Runs the points for each new room/section reached drops by six, as such:

Runs 16 to 31 -> (Run # minus six) points
Runs 32 to 47 -> (Run # minus twelve) points
Runs 48 to 59 -> (Run # minus eighteen) points
etc. all the way to the kill screen

The odd behavior is easiest to see when you get a point value that's a multiple of ten (such as Run 26, which is about eight minutes into the longplay and has 20 points per new room/section).  {Gordon Taylor}

BUG: The calculation for the escape bonus is also affected after Run 15.  You can see this pretty easily during the escape from Run 26 (at 8:35 or so in the longplay) - the last digit in the score does not change at all when the bonus is awarded, which is consistent with a 20 used in the escape bonus calculation (way too low to be the "correct" number according to the addendum sheet).  {Gordon Taylor}

BUG: During Run 60 (?) the score counter freezes at "11344" (really 111,344 points because of previous rollover) about 21:35 in the longplay and stays frozen at that value for the next two Runs, even though more points should be awarded by virtue of traveling through new Runs. There is also a side-effect of the timer bar draining silently during the end of the affected Runs (a subroutine not getting called, I guess). Probably the point multiplier is somehow being set at zero at the point where the score freezes, and then returns to "normal" afterward. Probably it is also related to whatever causes the black-walled runs as all the affected Runs are black-walled.  {Gordon Taylor}

BUG: Another bug related to the kill screen - the score counter gets set at "11440" when you reach it, regardless of what your score was before.  {Gordon Taylor}

FRYING: Give you unlimited (?) lives.

RUMOR: A glitch that traps you in whatever run you’re in.

 

 


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