GALAGA
• HIDDEN MESSAGE: Put the game into the test/service mode, press (and hold) FIRE, and move the joystick RIGHT (5x), LEFT (6x), RIGHT (3x), and LEFT (7x). The message "(C) 1981 NAMCO LTD." will appear (picture #1). This also works on most bootleg boards. {Mike Haaland and James Rowan}
• You can still fire (and hit enemies) while you are being pulled up in a tractor beam.
• If you have a ship captured and then shoot the captor while it’s in formation, the captive ship will remain under enemy control. However, it will only make one attack at you before disappearing. If you allow it to escape, it will return in the next stage (unless it's a Challenge Stage) with another captor, giving you another shot at retrieving it.
• The player 1 score counter is 6 digits, but the player 2 counter is 7. Most experienced players start a 2-player game and play exclusively on the player 2 side so that their score will not roll over at 999,990, and because challenge stages are easier if the high score numbers are used to refine your aim.
• Only a maximum of 8 reserve ship icons can be visible; any additional ships will still be credited, even though they’re not visible. Once you score 1 million points, you no longer can earn any extra ships.
• There are 8 different bonus stages, after which they will repeat. The Star Trek Enterprise ship appears in the 8th bonus stage (picture #2).
• 200% accuracy trick - When the game starts, don’t move, firing only one shot (picture #3). If done right, two enemies will be killed. Kill off all your ships to see rating (picture #4).
• After earning 1 million points, new ships are no longer awarded.
• BUG: If you have the maximum number of reserve ship icons (8) when you reach state 149, the stage icon will overlay and erase half of the right-most ship icon.
• BUG: No enemy fire trick - On either the 1st or 2nd screen, leave one of the blue/yellow bugs, from either of the 2 left-most columns in the formation. Avoid its fire until it stops (and passes at least 3 times down the screen without firing). This takes anywhere from 5 (if both are left) to 20 minutes to perform. This bug occurs b/c the jobs of starting a new shot and moving an existing shot are handled by 2 different CPUs (there are 3 total). The problem is, each uses a different method to determine if a shot is active or not - one checks to see if X=0, the other uses a specific status byte. There are a total of 8 shot slots that can be active or not at any time. When you leave one of those bugs, it circles off and on the screen. If it shoots while off the screen, the shot is made active, but X=0; it never moves. When this happens 8 times, their shots become inactive. In a 2-player game, if either player does the trick, both will benefit.
• BUG: 256 rollover glitch - Depending on what difficulty setting the game is on, the game will act differently when you reach stage 256. On the easy level, the counter says "Stage 0" (picture #5) and then the game resets. On medium, you’ll play stage 0 which is the same as stage 39 (a challenge stage, except they fire!), after which you’ll start back at stage 1. On hard, it will ‘freeze’ while “Stage 0” is displayed, although you’ll still be able to move and fire. On the hardest level, you’ll play stage 0, which plays the same as stage 254.
• BUG: Credit glitch – When a game ends, put a credit in and keep hitting the START button. When the “results” screen goes off, the credits will read zero. {Scott Stilphen}
• BUG: A bug exists in Galaga (as well as in various bootleg versions) that allows a player to play during the demo screen and even reset the game. The bug is in both Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga Class of '81, and works the same way, but the result is a little different between the two versions. During the demo, a top-row enemy will come down and start to tractor-beam up the player's ship. As soon as that tractor-beam starts, the player can take control of the ship! The player has two choices here and this will effect how the game handles this bug. If the player allows himself to be captured, the demo will continue as normal and you’ll have the option of controlling the player ship or not. The player can choose whether to save the captured ship, try to complete the level, etc. The demo mode will complete after 30 seconds and the high-score screen will appear. If the player takes control of the ship and destroys the Galaga with the tractor beam, he will be able to continue playing until the "normal" demo would have completed. At this point the game will do one of two things depending on whether the person is playing an original Galaga or Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga - Class of '81:
Galaga - Some of the characters on the screen will freeze while others are still moving and doing what they are supposed to be doing. This will last 15-20 seconds, then the game will go to the high score screen.
Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man - The game will make a loud “buzz’ sound, the screen will blank out, and then it will show a diagnostics screen with the version number of the games, a RAM and ROM test, etc. This screen will stay for approximately ten seconds before returning to the high score screen. If someone needs to know the version of software on their board set, this can be a handy way of finding out without opening the cabinet.
• RUMOR: The no-firing trick will also work with the 2 right-most bottom enemies?
• RUMOR: Game over glitch (?) - let your 1st ship get captured. Kill off the next one. When the Galaga/Ship combo comes down, crash into it, destroying all 3. You’ll get points for “shooting” both, and the game will play on forever even though there are no ships left!
