TOYSHOP TROUBLE
EASTER EGG: According to the manual there is a secret level: Easter egg clues are right here if you look hard. No doubt, 30 is a lucky #. Right in the general area. Go from the beginning to the end based on this clue we will drop: Secret nine-letter word on Dec 24!. To trigger it, plug a set of paddles in the right controller jack when the title screen is on. Press the FIRE button on the player 2 paddle to start the game. The object is to move your little man icon underneath the boxes to bounce or catch them. {Darrell Spice Jr.}
HIDDEN MESSAGE:
Beating "December 24" (Christmas Eve) results in a special
victory screen with a scrolling message from John Payson (one of the
programmers) to support homebrewers and buy copies of the game (video #1).
Additionally, the featured toy is replaced with a graphic of a decorated
Christmas tree, and "December 25" appears for the date at the bottom of the
screen. However, the game is not over at that point. {Gordon Taylor}
At the victory screen, if you press the FIRE button, the
game will continue on "January 2nd" with a random featured toy (presumably, this
is the elves trying to get a jump on next year's toys, video #2)! The number of
toys and time you have is the same as on "December 24" (29 toys and 97 seconds,
respectively). Beating this day gives you "January 3rd", which has the
same featured toy as "January 2nd" and requires 30 toys in 99 seconds.
Beating "January 3rd" gives you "January 4th", which has a different random
featured toy and requires 31 toys in 99 seconds. From this point onward,
the days will continue in numerical succession through January, each day
changing the featured toy at random and increasing the toy requirement by 1.
{Gordon Taylor}
The formula for calculating how much time you have each day is (3*N) + 10, where N is the number of required toys to be painted for the day. Note that time maxes out at 99 seconds regardless of how many toys you are required to paint - the only way to see this is to make it to "January 3rd". {Gordon Taylor}
BUG: The original releases are incompatible with certain consoles (LINK).
BUG:
If you continue playing after the victory screen, every
time you complete a day, the victory screen will briefly appear before you start
the next day. {Scott Stilphen}
BUG:
On "January 23" and "January 24", the intro screen
shows the Christmas tree graphic instead of a toy, but the levels play normally.
However, once you reach "January 25", not only is the featured toy area
on the intro screen completely empty, but no toys will come out onto the belts,
making this level a kill screen (video #2)! As a
result there is nothing else you can do but wait for the timer to hit zero for a
game over. {Gordon Taylor}
