STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
• Extra lives trick – Repeatedly press RESET + SELECT until the game starts with 4 reserve icons on the screen. You’ll have anywhere from 3 to 5 additional extra lives. If you do the same trick during a game, you can transfer your points to another variation! {David Harvey, TV Gamer, July 1984}
• Walker double-kill trick – If you have a rapid-fire controller you can destroy a walker twice and be awarded double points. Every 8 shots weakens it one color, and 48 shots destroys it. If you can hit it 8 more times (after the 48th hit) before it disintegrates you'll effectively “destroy” it twice (I even came within 1 shot of destroying it 3 times, but it may be due to a programming limitation). If you save your last shot for a bomb hatch (before doing this trick) you’ll get over 250 points for a single walker. To do it, get as close as possible to a yellow (weak) walker and hold the FIRE button down. {Scott Stilphen}
• Pause trick – Hold RESET down when starting a game. Let go when you want to pause it. Press FIRE or move the joystick in any direction to resume (your ship will be back at the power generator). Note- this can only be done once per game. {Tony Roy}
• If you keep the bottom of your speeder on the horizon ‘line’ and stay underneath or slightly ahead of the AT-AT’s head, you can’t be shot!
• Holding down RESET + SELECT at power up causes the theme music to play slightly slower. {Tony Roy}
• The score counter flips at 10,000.
• The PAL version doesn’t feature the theme music when you start the game or when you acquire “The Force”. Instead, you hear a rising tone when you get the Force, and a falling tone when you lose it.
• BUG: You don’t get a point for the 48th (kill) shot on a walker by destroying it normally (97 instead of 98), but if you destroy it by hitting the bomb hatch you’ll be credited for that shot (101). {Scott Stilphen}
• BUG: When the TV Type switch is set to B&W and the game is left on long enough to go into attract mode, the screen will slowly start to turn back to color! If you flip the switch to Color and back to B&W, the cycle will slowly start over.
• BUG: A glitch is possible where the scanner shows a walker, but when you fly to that spot, it’s not there. {David Harvey, TV Gamer, Winter 1983}
• FRYING: May create walkers that walk backwards, super-fast walkers, and even a walker-free planet! Scoring glitches also appear. {Jens von der Heide and Scott Stilphen}
