Time Crisis/Walkthrough

Once you have inserted a coin into the cabinet of Namco's 1995 first-person shooter arcade game, Time Crisis, it will immediately proceed to the screen shown above, where you will have ten seconds to select either Story Game or Timed Game by aiming the lightgun at the appropriate box, then firing at it to confirm your choice; if you select Story Game, it will proceed to the opening cutscene, which can be skipped by firing at the screen when the text of "SHOOT SCREEN TO FAST FORWARD" appears in the top-right corner. However, if you're using a version of MAME lower than v0.99u8 (released 9th September 2005) to play the game, it shall automatically abort during this cutscene (so you will have no choice but to skip it, and you also have to insert your coin as soon as it loads as it will do this during the attract mode as well) - but despite this, it will still automatically abort once you have reached the end of the first stage's second area. Therefore, using a version of MAME which is lower than v0.99u8 is not advisable (as the game cannot be finished).

As with all other Namco lightgun games before it (with the exception of Gun Bullet, 1994), you cannot get the crosshair in this one to move by default; to fix this, you must press 9 and F2 together to put the game into service mode, then press Alt (the virtual pedal) to enter gun calibration (and press it again to enter the process's first step), use the arrow keys (the virtual lightgun) to line up with a cross in the centre of the screen, and press Ctrl (the virtual trigger) to fire at it. You then have to repeat the process for four more crosses in the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right corners of the screen, return to the service mode menu and push 9 and F2 together again to save the setting to the game's NV file and return to the attract mode.

Another thing MAME players should be wary of is the unmanned helicopter in the third stage's second area, which due to a bug in the emulation initially appears to be indestructible (and, much like the automatic abortion at the end of the first stage's second area in older versions, again renders the game impossible to finish); however, it is not, for if you aim the virtual lightgun at the logo on its tail rotor and fire at it enough times, it will eventually go down.

The initial amount of starter time is also determined by what the arcade operator has set the "TIME LIMIT" option in the game's options menu to: VERY SHORT: 30"00, SHORT: 35"00, MEDIUM: 40"00, LONG: 45"00, VERY LONG: 50"00; the third one is the default setting, but if you are using MAME to play the game, you may wish to set it to VERY LONG in order to increase your chances of survival (hit effects can also be changed from red to green).