Controls[edit]
- Joystick: Use the joystick to control the jeep. You can drive the jeep in any one of eight directions.
- Guns: Press the main fire button to shoot your guns. In most versions of the game, the gun will always fire upwards, regardless of which direction the jeep is facing. In the Japanese version of the arcade game, the gun will fire in the same direction as the jeep.
- Explosive: Press the second fire button to launch an explosive weapon. You begin with grenades. If you collect flashing POWs, they will upgrade your weapon to various rockets. These weapons are always fired in the same direction that your jeep is currently facing.
- 1-2 Players: Press either button to begin a one or two player game.
Elements[edit]
Jeep[edit]
Throughout the game, you take control of a jeep. Your mission is to drive across enemy territory, use explosives to blast holes into the sides of prisons, and rescue the POWs contained within. Your jeep can hold a maximum capacity of 8 POWs, and your current occupancy is shown in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Once you collect eight POWs, a "FULL" indicator will show up if you attempt to collect another POW. After rescuing POWs, your goal is to drop them off at a heli-pad where a rescue chopper is waiting to pick them up and fly them to safety, before you continue on in search of more POWs to save.
Your jeep is outfitted with two weapons. One is a gun that always fires up (see controls above), regardless of which way your jeep is facing. Guns can take out soldiers with one hit, and many vehicles with several hits, but they can't hurt buildings. The other weapon is an explosive weapon. At it's weakest level, you toss grenades. Grenades are slow, but they can destroy soldiers and vehicles alike with one hit. They can also blast holes in walls of buildings. If your jeep is destroyed, your explosive weapon will only decrease by one level of power-up.
While your jeep has good offensive capabilities, it's not very strong defensively. All it takes is one bullet, or one collision with a vehicle, and your jeep will be destroyed, costing you one life. You can, however, run over all the enemy soldiers that you like with no problem, provided they don't shoot at you just before you hit them. At the default setting, you begin the game with three lives, and you have the potential to earn extra lives when you reach 30,000 points, and once more at 150,000 points, those these settings can be changed by the operator. Once all of your lives are lost, the game is over.
POWs[edit]
There are several prisoners of war, or POWs, that are locked up in prisons throughout the enemy's territory. In order to rescue them, you must blast a hole in the side of a building where these POWs are being held. Once they sense that escape is possible, they will group together outside waiting for rescue. Drive your jeep up to them and they will board the jeep, one at a time. You must be careful because your jeep is still vulnerable to attack while you collect the POWs. Occasionally, you will destroy a building and a single flashing POW will escape. If you rescue these POWs, they will upgrade your explosive weapon in the following manner:
- 1 flashing POW: Your grenade launcher will be upgraded to a rocket launcher. Rockets fly faster than grenades.
- 2 flashing POWs: Your rocket launchers range will be extended, allowing you to fire from a safer distance and hit targets that are farther away.
- 3 flashing POWs: The rockets that you fire will explode, sending a blast of flame to the left and right of the rocket.
- 4 flashing POWs: The rockets are even more explosive, sending four flames outward in each diagonal direction.
Rescue Chopper[edit]
There are eight heli-pads throughout the enemy territory, providing you with eight opportunities to deliver POWs to the rescue choppers that land and wait for you to arrive. When you see a chopper waiting, drive up to it until the POWs begin to hop off the jeep and run to the chopper. For every consecutive POW that makes to the chopper, you will earn an increasing number of points, starting with 100, and increasing to 200, 400, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000, and finally 20,000 points if you manage to drop off an entire jeep full of eight POWs at one time. Additionally, you will earn an additional power-up if you drop off eight consecutive POWs (just as though you collected another flashing POW). However, your jeep will still be under attack while the POWs try to escape, and you may be forced to pull away from the helicopter in order to escape an attack from a shooting enemy soldier, or an enemy plane that drops bombs at you. If you pull away, the next prisoner that runs to the chopper will start the count back over at 100 points. However, it's better to stay alive than to die trying to get a higher score.