Arm Wrestling(arcade) FAQ version 1.0.0
copyright 2004 by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent.
However, if you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by
name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I
am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry.
**** AD SPACE: **** My home page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762
**** Note: this FAQ only covers the first time through. I'm clueless about
the second. I can't even beat Texas Mac. But I'm sure about the initial
challenges. I'm sort of fishing for advice on later stuff with this guide but
it should still be useful.
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS
2-1. NATIVE MACHINE
2-2. MAME ADJUSTMENTS
2-3. WHAT BUTTONS TO BASH, WHEN
3. POINTS
4. OPPONENTS
4-1. TEXAS MAC
4-2. KABUKI
4-3. MASK-X
4-4. ALICE AND APE
4-5. FRANK JR.
4-6. NEXT GENERATION
5. VERSIONS
6. CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
Arm Wrestling(AW) is an offshoot of Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! and
probably contains the zaniest characters despite having rather simple
gameplay. In AW you fight a sequence of five bad guys, and the object is
simply to pin their hand against the table. It starts off easily enough
against Texas Mac, where you get arrows telling you what to do. But then
Kabuki is tougher, Mask-X possesses an illegal move, Alice and Ape are ...
weird, and Frank Jr has an automatic win if you are not very observant. The
game lasts a minute per round, not counting your counterattacks, after which
your opponent tires of the whole charade and pins you, which doesn't hurt its
per-hour take...at least until people start to feel ripped off.
2. CONTROLS
2-1. NATIVE MACHINE
The native machine had a joystick and a special button. See the killer list
of video games(klov.com) for more details on the layout. You would push the
joystick left and let it bounce back and keep doing so(why they didn't use a
button is a mystery to me) and then when your opponent attacked, you would
push right to catch him off guard. There are also occasions when you need to
push forward to pull Mask-X's mask off. And you may need to duck an enemy by
going left or right to avoid a head butt or something similarly illegal
without which the game would be much duller.
However on a computer, and on MAME, this layout is very tough. You can't
reach over to the left control after poking around with the arrows. So I have
recommended a different setup below.
Arm Wrestling also allows for infinite continues if you have the money,
which would have made it very lucrative before the video game crash...and if
the joystick wasn't bound to break because it got smacked around more than in
Time Pilot.
2-2. MAME ADJUSTMENTS
Fortunately there is a way to adjust Arm Wrestling so it is eminently
playable on MAME. Click TAB to bring up a context menu, then hit down arrow
and return to open up the list of original game buttons and the keys that
correlate to them. Then go to P1 Button 1, hit enter, and hold DOWN when the
white space appears. Eventually it should say 'Down' next to P1 Button 1. On
occasion you will get junk and in that case you may wish to go to
[mame]\nvram
and delete armwrest.nv
Then,
[mane]\cfg
and delete armwrest.cfg
and give it another shot.
Once I had to rename default.cfg in this directory too but this is a last
resort.
Throughout this guide I will be assuming you're playing on MAME instead of
the original machine and that your setup is the same as what I have
described.
2-3. WHAT BUTTONS TO BASH, WHEN
Basically most of the time you'll want to bash the 'left' button. When your
opponent counterattacks, you need to meet him by pushing the 'right' button,
and when shapes appear, push 'down.' When the showman throws a bag of money
down towards you, you'll need to jump up and grab(up and down keys) at the
same time to get it. This requires just a bit of timing after beating Kabuki
but you need to just jump a whole lot after beating Frank Jr to get the cash.
Against Frank Jr you can cheat a bit by tapping left twice and right twice
quickly when you think he's about to try to reverse you. It means a less
quick victory but there'll be less time for him to turn you over. You can
also use save states when he flashes 'WAIT!' in order to get around him.
3. POINTS
--50 points for each second of correctly pushing the joystick left to push
your opponent
--100/300/400/600/700 for each object you light up above your opponent's head
on a counterattack. If you don't push down 5x in a row then the remaining
ones appear as X's. For every five of these you get, one "power" lights up,
and for every "power" you get, your opponent is stunned further. If you react
too late you may only get 1 or 3 objects appearing. They may be exclamation
marks, circles, or bowling pins.
--50 points for each time you push left after getting a power up and freezing
your opponent's action. This may become 100 on higher levels, but it never
goes above 1000/2200 depending on the opponent.
--400 points per second for winning each fight, in increments of 40 points
--50000 points for catching the money bag(after fights 2 and 5)
The default high score list is as follows:
1. TOP 70000
2-21. 40000
22. NEW 30000
23. 29900
24. 29800
25. 29700
26-50. 32200 - (place * 100)
You can also get a quick start by pushing left just as the bullet from the
girl's starter gun disappears. But you don't need it on the earlier levels,
and the window of opportunity is smaller for the later ones, so I don't worry
about that.
4. OPPONENTS
4-1. TEXAS MAC
Texas Mac is not a hard opponent even though he looks pretty formidable.
I'll skip all but the most parenthetical references to his potential
sexuality(cowboy look, "Tex-ASS Mac," "Stud-Horse" captioning) and mention
that he just isn't terribly formidable even without arrows. For the first
round at least.
Basically you just start by pushing left. When he starts to snort, you push
right, as the arrow says. When the items appear above his head, you can push
the down arrow until they're covered. If you do this right three times in a
row he should go down. Once you get the second power up it's pretty much
over, but even if you don't follow the arrows well, he doesn't push your arm
back too far on a counter-attack.
My record time against Texas Mac is 14:76.
4-2. KABUKI
Kabuki reacts more quickly than Texas Mac, and it's hard to push him over
as easily. You also need to respond more quickly to his snorts, or he will
push you back a good way. Also, after you've gotten bonus points with the
bonus counter piling up, you need to watch for an immediate snort afterwards.
Because this is a common tactic for Kabuki, you may have to counterattack
more times but you can actually finish him off quicker in actual round time.
My record timne against Kabuki is 13:28.
Catching the money bag after this level finishes isn't too bad. You seem to
jump up at about the same rate the bag falls down(it doesn't accelerate
either) and you have a lot of leeway, so this should be pretty easy.
4-3. MASK-X
Mask-X is a bit tougher. You start again by pushing left a whole lot, but
when he counterattacks he has two ways to do so. The first, he'll snort or
grunt, and you hit right a couple times as before, try for the power-ups, and
then go left until the bonus part ends. But the tricky part is--he may glance
at you sidelong with electricity brimming from the top of his head. In this
case you need to dodge left an instant after it appears, or he will head butt
you and push your arm back a bit. If he misses, it's just as if you'd
countered his attack. Just push left a bunch for bonuses.
When his arm gets lower to the ground you need to be on the lookout for
instructions on the screen: "Pull!" You need to start hitting the UP button
here. IF you do it rapidly enough, the mask will come off and your opponent's
identity will be revealed. If not, counterattack(left/right a bunch) and go
after him as before. The second time should be a bit easier.
Once you pull his mask off, he's revealed as Bald Bull from Punch-Out!!.
Only then does he fall over.
I usually goof up the first time I pull off the mask and the best time I
have is 49:58 but I'm sure you can do better. Still this underscores that you
don't want to mess around, though.
4-4. ALICE AND APE III
This is actually a step down in difficulty. The only danger is that it will
catch you off guard and you won't know what to do once you've knocked Ape III
out. The sign that you are under attack is a pulse of three bursts from
Alice. Don't start pushing right when you see the first one, though. Wait for
the start of the third, and this will get you where you can reach the bonus
items and push Ape back.
Once Ape's near losing he will spring his arm out to the right and you'll
see a magnet on the right hand side. I found that just pushing right lets me
grab the magnet even though it takes until there's only 2000 bonus left. Then
the magnet causes Ape III to break apart, and you win.
My record time against Alice and Ape III is 18:92.
4-5. FRANK JR.
Frank Jr. is by far the toughest of your opponents, and although the battle
starts out as before, one mistake against him and you're up against it. You
also have very little time to react. This is why I recommend pushing left
twice and then right twice, rapidly, and eventually you will catch him off
guard. When the bonuses from a power-up stop piling up, go back to work by
moving right twice and not left. Frank Jr can flip you over quickly.
However there is another option for Frank Jr. He may stop and put up his
left hand. It will say "WAIT!" Do so. If not, he automatically pins you back,
and you need to counterattack just to stay alive. Now you need to watch which
way his eyes shift. If they shift left, he will breathe fire. This is big
trouble for you if he catches you, so wait until he pulls his hand down and
go left to avoid the stream. Then rack up the bonuses. If his eyes go right,
again wait for his left hand to go down and then start hitting the right
button. Then press down and it acts as a regular power up. It's not too tough
to see the general outline of what you have to do, but the specifics and how
fast they are can really trip you up.
My record time for Frank Jr. is 43:96. And that's with save states. I
recommend them too if you just want to cruise through this game.
Catching the money bag seems to require either perfect timing or jumping up
and down a bunch. I have better luck trying to get the second.
4-6. NEXT GENERATION
Texas Mac tends to get steam in his nostrils without warning, and even when
I try to be pre-emptive, it doesn't work.
End of FAQ proper
================================
5. VERSIONS
1.0.0: submitted to GameFAQs 8/2/2004. First go through complete. Any takers
on the second?
6. CREDITS
The usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, too, because
they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead,
Masters, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, and others I forgot.
klov.com for having screenshots and basic tips which helped me work my way
through.
War Doc for giving me something to make a futile attempt to catch up to--# of
arcade guides
