Phelios/Walkthrough

Namco's Japan-only 1988 vertical scrolling shooter arcade game Phelios is divided into seven stages, each one set in a different part of ancient Greece. Each stage is divided into several sections, and the transition from one to another is usually indicated by some Japanese text appearing at the bottom of the screen and a change inn music. If Apollo loses a life, he will restart at the beginning of the section he died on - and as mentioned on the Getting Started page, the amount of hits that he can take before losing a life depends on what the arcade owner has set the "Life" option in the dip switch menu to: 1, 2, 3 or 4. Therefore, if you are using MAME to play this game (which you almost certainly will be unless you are a native inhabitant of the "Land of the Rising Sun"), you may want to set the "Life" option to 4 in order to increase your chances of survival. You will also notice that Apollo flashes when he takes a hit; as with Namco's own Dragon Spirit, this means that he is temporarily invulnerable, so you should use the effect to your advantage and get inn as many extra hits as you can. It may not last for very long, but it can make a big difference in close boss fights.

If the arcade owner has set the "Rank Select" option in the dip switch menu to "On", you will have the option of choosing to play the game on "EASY" or "HARD" mode by pushing the joystick to the left or right once you have inserted your coin but before you have pushed the start button; if you choose to play the game on "EASY" mode, the game will automatically end once you have cleared the fourth stage and cut to a shortenned version of the ending sequence. This means that the only way for you to play the fifth, sixth and seventh stages and see the game's full ending sequence while the "Rank Select" option is set to "On" is to choose to play the game on "HARD" mode.