Aurail (Arcade) FAQ v 1.0
By Brian McLean ([email protected])
Last Change: October 19, 2001

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Table of Contents:
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1. Revision History
2. Introductory Info
3. Game Walkthrough
4. Tunnel Strategies
5. Minor Other Things
6. Contributor List
7. Copyright

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1. Version Changes
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1.0 - Preliminary FAQ written.

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2. Introductory Info
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The story so far: What little story Aurail offers is given in the silent
screens of the attract mode. There’s a woman in a ship, apparently a ruler of
some sort. All of those ships are suddenly destroyed, and then there’s a
tank-like apparatus being launched while specs are rattled off one after the
other. And there you have it! Go kill somebody. Seriously, the only extra
information is offered in the ending, which I won’t spoil so early on.

What you will need to know, however, is how to control your land tank. One
button is your gun, and if you hold it down you get a handy autofire
function. While you’re holding the button down you can rotate but not move,
also a very useful function for letting enemies walk into your line of fire.
The other buttons have to do with an energy meter on the left side of the
screen. You’ll pick up spheres with a ‘P’ in them as you battle, and once you
have 12 units the bar will turn blue. At any time that the bar is blue you
can hit your shield button to put a shield around your vehicle, which is
permanent until you’re hit. You can even stack up to three of these shields,
and there’s enough room on your energy bar to hold on to another three
shields’ worth. In addition to the regular ‘P’ spheres, there are much rarer
spheres that are red with a green letter that carry about 50 units of energy
as opposed to the regular 3! Finding one of these is practically an instant
refill to 3 shields with energy to spare.

The other button serves two functions. In the overhead levels you can pick up
what the game calls a Kite by finding a ‘D’ powerup. This is a spherical
object that flies overhead and circles around you. If you have energy
remaining in your bar, you can use the kite button to send it out against a
target and it will home in and fire at it for as long as you have energy or
until you hit the kite button again. In the 3D tunnel levels, there is no
kite and the button is instead used to turn around to face enemies that are
behind you.

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3. Game Walkthrough
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Aurail is divided into 16 rounds. The first 12 follow a simple pattern of
threes: An overhead round with an entrance to a tunnel, a tunnel round, then
another overhead round with a boss at the end. 13 and 14 follows this pattern
as well, but as you’ll see 15 and 16 are special cases. Before every round
starts (except 16), you’ll got a screen detailing the number of lives you
have left, the number of shields you have remaining, and your score, even
though all three are readily available during normal game play.

NOTE: This walkthrough assumes you will be playing through the game on Normal
difficulty. Via MAME or dip switches if you own the actual board, you can
choose Hard difficulty, which for the most part only speeds up enemy bullets
and makes the tunnel levels slightly harder by introducing tougher enemies
earlier. It does make a big difference in the final tunnels, however, and I
will note what to look for and what to do in its own section.

Round 1
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You start out simply enough in an arid looking area and nothing around you.
If you advance just a bit forward, you’ll run into your first enemies
quickly, some medium-sized tanks. They have a very distinct shape and cannon
to them and follow a very specific track. These guys have no AI other than
trying to shoot in your direction at certain times. They are quickly
dispatched by walking up between them and holding still while firing in
either upper diagonal. Get used to simply holding the fire button down and
using your position to hit several targets in different directions. This
happens more than I can describe to you, and as we get further along I won’t
take the time to explain how to destroy every last enemy in excruciating
detail.

You’ll run into two more pairs of medium tanks, and right about then you
should meet up with the singular most common enemy in the game, the small
fighter. These things show up in groups of 2-5 in general, and move in an arc
that sweeps near your tank and behind it. When they reach your horizontal
plane they’ll shoot (they even flash a pair of lights first) directly at you
and from fairly close range, making them difficult if you’re harried with
other enemies around simply because they each take several shots to kill.
Stand still and make a line of fire for them to fly through, which alone
should knock off most of them. If any remain, use a second line of fire or
just get out of the way if they’re going to shoot. These things appear at
regular intervals as opposed to showing up when you reach a certain point, so
if you need to you can hang around long enough to take out the next group
before moving on to buy yourself some time.

Just beyond that you’ll see another pair of new enemies, fairly rare things
that look like the upper body of a robot on treads. They move straight
forward and shoot bullets in three directions if left alone long enough.
They’re very weak and can be killed with just a shot or two in their
direction. Dispatch them and move on. A brief jag to the left in the path
gives you two more pairs of medium tanks. They’re easily dispatched by
sticking close to the right side of the path. You’ll find some ground troops
that are exclusive to this level, just send a few shots their way and sidle
out of the way if one of them happens to flash and fire before they’re all
gone. A single medium tank joins the group; also quickly taken out from the
same position once you know what angles you need to fire at.

There are three more medium tanks and a couple of ground troops, then you
reach the end of the round. Guarding it is two medium tanks and two large
tanks. These larger tanks could be nasty due to their laser cannon on top,
but the truth is that they’re limited to the same sort of tracks that the
medium tanks are on, and in fact are even less mobile. You can line yourself
up with either edge of the differently colored entrance to the tunnel, sit
back just a bit, and fire at both of the tanks without exposing yourself to
any danger. They can only fire at certain angles and are at your mercy in
this manner. Once they are gone, there are a few people running away. You
can’t hit them with your gun, but they’re 100 points apiece if you run them
over. Get your sadistic kicks and let’s move on to the first tunnel!

Round 2
-------

The tunnel rounds in this game are easy to explain. There are three possible
positions for you to occupy in the width of the tunnel, clearly marked by
lines on the floor. You travel down the length, shooting mines that are left
in your way. The mines themselves do no damage to your shields, but they will
deplete your energy bar by three units for each one you run into. There are
no enemies until you reach a trap, as the game calls them. By hitting a
certain spot within the tunnel or possibly by running into a mine, you can
set off a trap and have to fight the tunnel’s denizens. There are only four
types of enemies in the tunnels (the names are made up, as I have none to
work with):

Orb - Spherical, floats. Looks a lot like your kite, in fact. Shoots missiles
relatively non-aggressively and dodges a lot. Comes in tan and red.

Glider - Somewhat conical in shape. Shoots missiles with medium aggression
and deviates from its course the least. Comes in blue and red.

Mauler - A robot that looks like an upper body with arms and no real head to
speak of. Fires missiles aggressively and will move to face you directly but
rarely dodges away. Comes in gray and red.

Energy Mech - For lack of a better name, this is the most complete-looking
mech and fires energy shots at you as opposed to missiles. Missiles can be
shot down en route, but the energy shots absolutely must be dodged. Sometimes
shies away from a collision and sometimes not. Fires aggressively. Comes in
tan and red.

The colors of the enemies determine how many hits they can take, and go in
order of gray / tan / blue / red, from least to most. In addition, the
missiles fired by each color of enemy are the same color as the mech firing
them, and red missiles take more hits to destroy than blue or gray! The
importance of all this will be explained further in the tunnel tactics
section.

As for the first tunnel stage, there’s little to worry about. All the mines
are gray (yes, even the mines have colors and take varying numbers of hits!),
the attacks are few and are all simple combinations of gray / tan enemies.
Use this stage to familiarize yourself with the controls and how to use your
rear indicator. As you’re fighting, at the bottom of your view of the tunnel
ahead there will be blocks of varying size depending on where things are
behind you. Keep in mind that in the midst of a fight you can only get a
brief idea of what’s around you at best, but learn to recognize the biggest
that a block can be before an enemy collides with you and know that should
you ever see it, immediate action is needed.

After a few skirmishes the end of the tunnel is reached. It opens and off you
go into the next round, simple as that.

Round 3
-------

As soon as this round starts, you’ll see that you are surrounded by a
semicircle of ground troops. This pervades throughout the game in several
forms, so always be ready for quick bursts in several directions at the start
of a stage. You can stand in the center of all of these guys and take them
out with little difficulty.

Immediately past them are two medium tanks that travel horizontally, and then
the path splits in two. It doesn’t matter which you pick, but I find it
easier to set things up from the right side. Wander through and find several
more medium tanks, then a large tank. Use its lack of mobility against it
again; it can only go so far to the right before it runs into a wall. Simply
stand just to the right of that and fire away, it’ll go in no time.

Beyond the big tank are no less than eight medium tanks, but since their
positions never change and they work in pairs, it takes little time to
memorize the best way to slide through them without them firing a shot at
all. Next up are two walkers, things that walk forward and shoot a spread of
three shots. This may sound very similar to those robots you found in round
1, but these can adjust their aim to send the center shot directly at you and
are thus more dangerous. They also take a few more hits, so be a little more
careful with these guys. The best strategy is just to walk up towards one
just off of center until you can hit both from where you stand, then do so.

Two more medium tanks follow, then one large tank after the other. Both of
these have a wall preventing them from moving left. Exploit it! After they’re
destroyed you finally meet up with the first boss, a rather large vehicle of
some sort. It looks fearsome, but it’s no trouble with a little practice. As
soon as the screen starts to scroll up, head to the left and stand at the
bottom, one tank-width away from the left wall. Hold your position and fire
to the upper right. When it starts moving you’ll do damage to the left
protective panel and eventually blow it off. If you do it fast enough, the
first shot from the boss won’t come until that panel is falling away, and you
can use that moment of dodging the spread of shots to reposition just to the
right of your previous stance. From here you can hit the right protective
panel and knock it off as well, just be mindful of the salvo of homing
missiles that will be fired. Continuous fire to the upper-right should take
care of three of the four, and a few shots to the right should take care of
the last one. Once the second panel goes, you can finally damage the boss
itself. If you’re positioned properly, you don’t even have to move an inch.
Just stay where you are and keep shooting, and the boss goes down without
firing another shot! It takes a little practice to find the exact sweet spot,
but once you do there is no reason to take a hit from this guy.

Round 4
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The second set of three rounds takes place in a more coastal location, with
water on either side of the playfield. There are occasionally bridges to
cross, but for the most part it’s all one solid landmass to traverse just as
in the first triplet. You can’t fall off, so don’t worry about walking right
up to the edge. So without further ado, round 4 opens up peacefully. There
are a couple of broad bridges that cross to the next island and just past
them is your first new enemy, the regenerating turret. These appear to be
circles with a greenish glow in them that rather small enemies come out of,
up to four of them. They don’t harm your shields, but will deplete your
energy bar if they run into you. Once they’re all destroyed, the greenish
glow disappears and instead a gun appears in the middle. You can destroy this
turret, but in a few seconds another appears in the same spot! The best way
to handle this thing is to destroy the small enemies, disable the gun once,
and be on your way before it comes back.

The path splits into left and right, and again I’ll take the right side for
simplicity’s sake. You’ll see a small island off to the right as well as a
rectangular vehicle heading your way from above. This is a missile truck that
fires two homing missiles at a time. These are always high priority to get
rid of because it’s almost impossible to shoot down missiles and avoid
anything else that’s coming your way at the same time. They’re weak, however,
so a few shots will take them out. You’ll also find that the right island was
concealing two turrets in the ground, which pop up and attack. Memorization
is the key for this and round 6. In later rounds, they will be much easier to
spot. One hit destroys them.

As you’re walking up the path, you may have to deal with a few stray missiles
from the truck that was rolling down the other aisle. Take your time, as the
common small fighters will be attack regularly once again by this point and
rushing will get you killed quickly. Just ahead are two more missile trucks,
each one width of itself away from the edge of either side of the path. Take
these out and move on.

Another regenerating turret greets you on the left. Take it out first and
then edge forward until you see two more of the spread-firing walkers. Use
the time before the turret regenerates to do some damage to the walkers, and
destroy the turret again if necessary. A bit farther up you’ll start running
into another, larger air fighter. This one looks like it has little limbs out
in front of it, and stays near the top initially. It flies back and forth and
fires a few salvos of bullets in a fairly wide range then runs off again.
These things tend to come in pairs and are more difficult to dodge than
anything else so far. There’s usually a hole in the bullets they fire that
you can squeeze through, and if you can’t destroy them outright they’ll fly
off after shooting a couple of times, so patience is a virtue as always.

Two more missile trucks are after the new fighters (who now attack somewhat
regularly) and as you go through the next narrow strip of land you’ll find
enemies that pop up out of the water. They only move left and right and fire
a homing missile in either upper diagonal. Walk up between them and send a
few shots in either direction then take out the missiles that will be headed
your way. You’ll have to be quick, as the fighters flying overhead will seem
more oppressive around here.

Another missile truck and an underwater fighter greet you, and then you have
one more broad bridge to cross. There are regenerating turrets on either
side, so take out the little enemies first and destroy both turrets before
advancing. As you head forward you’ll find the entrance to the tunnel blocked
by two large structures, each with two laser cannons! The problem is that
there’s not a lot of room to advance, so to keep the laser cannons as far
away as possible you’ll have to let the turrets remain on screen. Each cannon
takes a few shots before being destroyed, and both cannons have to be
destroyed on either structure before you can damage the main part of it
(which now shoots three bullets at a time at you). Working on the laser
cannons is more important that anything else, as they’re the most difficult
to dodge. Just keep an eye on the turrets and send a few quick shots their
way when the gun starts to form again. Keeping to the extreme right or left
may also aid you in taking out one structure at a time. Once they’re finally
dispatched, you can move into the tunnel and finish this unusually difficult
round.

Round 5
-------

With the basics of the tunnels out of the way, these descriptions will get
rather short. It’s another tunnel of the same type as round 2, just be
prepared for some blue mines that will take more hits than the gray ones (and
some gliders as well now). Also, when you hit a trap you can expect to fight
two or even three sets of enemies before you’re allowed to travel down the
path again. Actual patterns for enemy combinations will be covered in the
section Tunnel Strategies.

Round 6
-------

Starting out this round, step up to the point where the path narrows in front
of you and be ready for three hidden turrets to pop up. One is directly in
front, and there’ll be one to each side as well. You’ll find a regenerating
turret ahead, then another a few steps later. Stick to the left side of the
path approaching the second turret as there’ll be two missile trucks to the
right ahead, and you never want to be directly in front of those things if
you can avoid it. After knocking out everything, head to the left further
still so you can see an island with a large circular thing upon it. This
spits out homing missiles in four directions but is thankfully rare and only
takes a few hits. If it fires before you kill it, protect your flanks with a
few shots to either side.

Just ahead are two more missile trucks, then another pair right behind them,
slightly closer together. I said not to be in front of these things, but if
you know where they are in advance and can destroy them before they fire, in
cases like this narrower strip of land it’s the only way to do things. A
large tank is protecting the next section, and it only goes so far to the
right for some reason. Regardless, this makes it an easy target like all the
others and should be taken out accordingly. Another missile truck is coupled
with some underwater fighters, and then a regenerating turret is at the end
of the island. Watch the shadows in the water as you step out onto the long
bridge. Those are four more underwater fighters and they’ll stop just before
they get to the land. Have some shots ready for them as they come up and
you’ll only have two to deal with instead of four. Get rid of the others and
keep moving; it’s dangerous to stay still on that bridge! When you reach the
end of it you’ll have finally found the boss.

This boss comes in two parts. When you first arrive there will be three
gigantic laser cannons on an island at the top of the screen and you’ll be on
the bottom island. Move immediately to the left as the screen scrolls up and
line yourself up so that you can shoot diagonally at the opening of any of
the three cannons, though the left one is preferred. They have a very
predictable attack pattern: They open up, fire a laser straight down, then
close and move to a different spot on the track while firing a few extra
bullets straight down as well. Then the process repeats. These things are
only vulnerable while they’re firing their laser, and if you were fast in
positioning yourself you’ll wipe out the first cannon before it can even
close up again. If it was the left one, you can then move slightly to the
right and open fire on the middle one, as it won’t be able to go anywhere and
will remain where it is to fire once more. With two cannons down the third is
just a matter of opening a volley on it when you can and trying to guess
where it will stop, which shouldn’t take long.

Once all those are gone, the real boss shows up. He is only vulnerable in the
glowing core of that huge laser cannon in front, but that is always exposed.
You can fire at him while he’s coming down, but be aware that he starts
attacking immediately once he’s in place. He will start off with either one
or two shots from the big cannon in front. Several areas of him will flash to
indicate that he’s done with that weapon, and a second later he sends out two
massive sprays of bullets that encompass almost all of the playfield. Then he
moves to the left or right and the attack pattern repeats. Basically, you
have to wait until he’s done firing the big cannon, and in the moment that he
takes to set up the spread shot you need to align yourself with him and be
all the way forward on the island in a small blind spot between the bullet
arcs. While you’re there, you can do a lot of damage to his core before he
moves again, and three passes or so like that should finish him off.
Sometimes the bullets will nick the back of your tank anyway even if your
placement looks good, though the game seems to be more lenient if there are
no shields surrounding you. After you destroy it, it’s on to the next set of
rounds!

Round 7
-------

I’ve always found this set to be the easiest for some reason. It probably has
something to do with the fact that you can bounce shots off of all the walls
surrounding you and cause maximum destruction in minimum time. There’s
absolutely nothing that can’t be hit from afar with a bit of joystick
wiggling and those reflective walls. But let’s get on with it.

You’ll see two walls at the upper corners of the screen, and a design on the
floor right in front of you. You can stand on this design and shoot
diagonally at the walls, which will bounce and hit two spherical and somewhat
speedy enemies, hopefully destroying them. Those enemies, which you’ll see
often now, move strictly left and right and fire a spread of bullets in five
directions each time they stop. They’re usually not a problem as long as
you’re not in a position to face them directly. There will be another pair of
spheres, then you’ll see some ground-mounted turrets. These don’t hide at
all, they simply sit on the ground and fire single shots at you after a
while. There will be two on each side, and there are even walls to help you
bounce shots into them. Notice that these walls in particular, however, move
up and down periodically. For now it’s not terribly important but you’ll see
it again before this set is over.

Beyond the walls you’ll see two regenerating turrets. Only this time they’re
not releasing those small, weak enemies but bigger ones that fire pairs of
shots with each stop instead! This will continue throughout the three rounds
as well, so be prepared. Position yourself just inside of either moving wall
of your choosing. They never fire straight forward, so you’re safe to stand
directly in front of one as long as you’re back far enough. They stop right
at the edges of the walls first, so you’ll be able to take out both sets with
little difficulty. Once they’re gone the usual gun turrets show up and you
can advance once more.

To the left immediately past that is a pair of the larger spherical enemies
trapped behind a moving wall. By training your fire at the wall and waiting
for it to go down, you should destroy them without a hitch. There will also
be two new enemies rolling down. These guys will fire a pair of lasers
directly in front of themselves, so as with the missile trucks you won’t want
to be in front of them unless you know you can take them out immediately. As
with everything else, if you don’t take them out right away they move in a
predictable pattern and are fairly slow.

Up ahead is a staggered pattern of walls and yet another spherical enemy
(they weren’t the most original with ship design!), this one firing homing
missiles if left alone long enough. It fires in pairs but takes so long to
get a shot off and is defenseless up until that point, so you should have no
trouble getting rid of them unless you’re moving too fast. One more laser
mech is down that hallway, then a few ground turrets guarding a regenerating
turret. Stick close to the regenerating turret here as two more laser mechs
will be rolling down the middle of the aisle and will provide you with easy
targets if you’re out of the way.

Further ahead is a concave arc of five ground turrets and four of the 5-way
spread shot spheres behind more moving walls. Take out the turrets first and
then pick off the spread shooters, then advance and demolish another laser
mech. Finally you’ve reached the end!

Well, not quite. In something that looks taken right out of The Legend of
Zelda, there’s a mechanical creature of some sort with a long neck blocking
the path. And of course, the only weak point is the head! It sways back and
forth and shoots one shot at a time at you. Each time you get a few shots on
it, you’ll see an explosion. There will be four explosions, and the fifth one
takes more shots to get than the others but will destroy the creature. I like
to stick to one side and let the head wander into my shots, which is pretty
much as effective as trying to chase it down in this case. Onward!

Round 8
-------

Another tunnel, little to see here. You’ll see more blue mines as opposed to
gray ones and more complex patterns of enemies. If you’re playing on Hard
difficulty, you’ll also see some of the tan energy mechs and some of the
easier patterns involving red enemies. Also remember that occasionally you’ll
find ‘P’ powerups in some of the mines, so destroy as much as you can.
Reaching the end, you’re kicked out into the next round.

Round 9
-------

Starting out, you’ll see four ground turrets on either side of you, hidden by
moving walls. Just shoot all over the place in either direction and I
guarantee that when those walls go down, mayhem will ensue. Clean up any
turrets you missed with that first salvo and let’s go!

You’ll find three pairs of 5-way shooters amidst various walls. Wait a moment
to study where they stop if you need to, but as long as you’re not right in
front of them or on a diagonal you’ll have nothing to worry about. Take them
out and find a regenerating turret up ahead. This one only has the small
energy-draining enemies, which should be a cinch for you now! In the narrowed
area immediately after there are four ground turrets, two laser vehicles and
a homing missile sphere. This sounds daunting, but as you can reflect your
shots all over the place you just need to stick to one side of the path and
let them have it!

Two more pairs of 5-way shooters, then more homing missile spheres and a
laser vehicle dead center confront you. None should be a problem, and they
all give you energy for the meter. Isn’t that nice of them? Two more
regenerating turrets offer up those nastier twin-firing spheres and are
protected with moving walls. You’ll want to stay at the bottom of either
wall, and they won’t be able to hit you. Even if you don’t get them as they
just come out, their second position will be right in your line of fire and
you can dispatch them all. Now the path narrows even further and a single
laser vehicle challenges you. Just keep firing up and dodge if you must, then
shuffle through the tunnel and confront the next boss!

This is actually one of the trickiest bosses in the game because of its
attacks. It’s basically a vehicle on a large rectangular track that is very
obvious. It has a ring around it with two openings, and the vulnerable points
are everything that’s inside that invincible ring. It spins the ring around
as it moves, so when you first spot it just run to the lower left corner of
its track and take a few potshots at it.

The firing pattern of this boss requires some explanation. As it moves
around, it will fire its laser cannons in your direction if you cross them.
After a while, the boss will stop moving and the ring will also come to a
stop, its opening directly facing you. You'll want to get out of the way
because it has a very large ring laser spread that comes out of that opening!
Your best bet by far is to move to a point where you can fire at an angle and
either slip your shots in directly or bank them off a wall to get them in.
Each of the four cannons of the boss will eventually be destroyed, leaving
the core. If at all possible, you want to leave one cannon remaining but
severely damaged so that you can destroy it quickly and get to work on the
main portion when the boss stops next. Once all four cannons are destroyed,
when the boss moves around it instead fires a wide spread of spherical shots
to the left and right several times. The only safe spot is directly above or
below it. It still stops to fire its ring lasers, however, and that’s your
chance to finish it off. If you make it, it’s onward to the next round where
things get trickier!

Round 10
--------

This set looks more military than any of the rest of the game, and the
defenses help keep up appearances! Right from the start you’ll see six hidden
turrets pop up in a semicircle ahead of you. They’re visible before they
actually show themselves, however, due to the outline in the ground. Use this
to your advantage; any time you see a rectangle like that you know a turret’s
about to show up.

Head up to find a missile truck (yes, they’re back!) and a regenerating
turret. Again they hold a different enemy, this time a curious sort of mech
that walks around a bit and fires a spread of three shots, usually doing this
twice before zipping off of the screen again at high speed. The best thing to
do is advance past it, take out a mech like it that’s immediately ahead, then
train your fire just to right of the regenerating turret. Two mechs will pop
out and get destroyed immediately, and then you just have the gun itself to
get rid of. Stick to the left of the path about one tank width away from the
edge and you’ll run into another new enemy, a twin laser mech. These are
rather wide robots that will turn to fire a pair of spread-apart lasers at
you. There’s enough room, in fact, to fit your tank between them and that’s
exactly what you’ll want to do if you’re positioned properly. Fire at it
until it goes down, then scoot forward and take out a set of three hidden
turrets. To the right, you can see another twin laser mech. They can’t fire
behind them, so if you’re feeling sadistic you can just take it out for
points and move on.

At the top of the line of hidden turrets two more missile trucks will roll
down just to either side of the column. Take them out and follow the line of
turrets. You’ll see another regenerating turret and if you fire straight up,
all the mechs it produces will be taken out without getting a chance to cause
any mischief. As you get to this point you should also be noticing a new
fighter type, another large one with four laser cannons mounted in the back.
They have no offense while in front, but if you let them get behind you their
fire can be difficult to avoid. Shoot them down if you have a spare moment at
all, and if you don’t you can exploit the fact that they won’t usually fire
at you if you’re immediately next to them. If only real war were so fair!

Another missile truck down the center is followed by a wide corridor with
mounted laser cannons firing across at each other. Stick to one side or the
other! I prefer the left side, as there’s a wall behind you that offers minor
protection as you start your way upward. With the cannons on the right side
offscreen and not shooting at you, the left side becomes relatively simple.
Dispatch another pair of missile trucks and more large fighters. You may find
an even larger type of fighter that is simply bristling with laser cannons,
ten in all! This is your top priority if it shows up and the safe spot is
directly in front of it, strangely enough. When you get to the end of the
laser corridor you’ve have two more missile trucks, then a set of four hidden
ground turrets and one more missile truck down the center of that path. Once
you take everything out, advance carefully! There are two laser cannons to
the right side, which are easily destroyed, and immediately past that are two
twin laser mechs. The way to get rid of them is to stand on a vertical line
with the destroyed missile truck and advance one step at a time, firing until
you hear yourself hitting something. Stay there for a second or two and
you’ll destroy it without it getting a chance to shoot at you. Then move to
the right until you’re on or just above the last hidden ground turret and
fire to the upper left to get the other one. With both destroyed, the way to
the end of the round is clear!

Round 11
--------

You guessed it, more tunnel action. There should be almost exclusively blue
mines in this one and you’ll see some red enemies even on Normal difficulty,
as well as the energy mechs making their appearance if they haven’t already.
Move quickly through, this shouldn’t take long if you know your enemy
patterns.

Round 12
--------

Surprise, surprise! You start out surrounded by hidden ground turrets! Blow
them away and steel yourself, this is in my opinion the most difficult
overhead level to survive. You start with a long, winding corridor in an S
shape. There are regenerating turrets that block the entire width of the path
and release the small, annoying energy stealing bots (they seem kind of like
some tiny, incessantly yapping poodle now, don’t they?). Take them all out,
destroy the turret, and stick to the top of the path. If you fire as you
move, you’ll wipe out one of the two hidden ground turrets ahead as well,
which will make your life easier while you’re trying to make the turn. You
may have to destroy the turret several times before you can clear out the
ground targets with all the fighters flying around as well, so take your
time.

Another regenerating turret and another two hidden turrets are at the next
turn, then one more regenerating turret before you get out into the open air
again. Four hidden turrets are there to greet you, so say hello with your
guns and breathe a little sigh of relief; I’ve always found that section to
be the hardest on my shields.

Don’t breathe too long, as that almost cartoony sound of a falling bomb is
none other than a falling bomb! You’ll be under constant bombardment as you
advance. You can see the shadows of the missiles as they head towards you,
and once they stop they’ll fall where they are. Just keep out of their
explosion and eventually you’ll get used to the rhythm.

Two more regenerating turrets with those walking mechs show up, but there’s
an interesting bug in the game here. Sometimes the first mech released on the
left side is invincible! You can shoot it all day and your shells will just
bounce harmlessly off of it. Thankfully it speeds off of the screen again
after just two shots, so if it happens to you it’s only a minor
inconvenience. Another pair will get released, and then you can advance after
destroying the turrets again.

A missile truck ambles down the center of the playfield, and then the
familiar cannons of another laser corridor will make themselves obvious to
you. Again, stick to the left side and work your way up slowly. You’ll have
two missile trucks to destroy along the way, then you’ll see three hidden
turrets in a diagonal row. A twin laser mech is at the end of that row, so
move up to be in line with those turrets and fire away at him and you should
get him without incident. If you slide over you’ll also see three hidden
turrets arranged in a similar fashion on the other side of him.

Just ahead as a big insignia with a dragon in it on the ground. When this
insignia is almost fully on screen, you will just barely be able to hit two
more twin laser mechs on either side of it. Take them out before they can
even fire, and keep firing as you walk through the narrowed part to wipe out
another missile truck. Two laser cannons on either side of the corridor
provide minimal resistance, and then you’re at the boss.

This boss looks the most complex aside from the final one, but is one of the
easier ones to deal with. Start by walking up its left side so that you’re
lined up to shoot at the lower half of a panel that will open up and release
quickly moving spheres. As soon as the panel does open, your shots will
obliterate anything that it releases and finally the panel itself. You can
then slip down just a bit and get your shots in on the front panel, still
firing to the right. You’ll still be bombarded with missiles, and this time
one warhead splits into four missiles that land in either a circular pattern
or a line, both of which are clearly seen by the movements of their shadows.
Dodge these carefully, and when you blow off the front panel of the boss be
aware that the extra little vehicle on the track behind the boss itself will
start firing spreads of lasers every time a salvo of missiles explodes. The
spot to be when it fires is next to the lowest wall jutting out near the
lower left corner.

Once the left and front panels are gone, just repeat the process. Be aware
that the left panel will regenerate, but if you’re firing at the front from
the left side so that your right cannon clips the vulnerable part of the
boss, when that panel regenerates you’ll take it out again immediately and
with no fuss. You may have to destroy it three or four times before the boss
finally gives it up and lets you move on to the final set.

Round 13
--------

Almost there! This set is supposed to be somewhat palatial, but really it
looks like more of what you saw in rounds 7 and 9. Careful advancing is
critical, but be aware that the bombardment hasn’t stopped! Now it’s in the
form of floating spheres that fly down the screen and explode in random
spots, sending a spray of five bullets in your direction. In earlier rounds,
these only appeared if you took too long. Now they’re a fact of life, so
shoot them down if you can and get out of the way if they start to flash!

You start this round with four ground turrets around you. Wipe them out and
head right. A regenerating turret will have its little energy suckers ready
to greet you and a spread-firing walker (remember those from the early
rounds?) will be in your way as well. The quarters are a bit tighter, so as
before ricocheting shots will be very useful to you. As you advance into the
next horizontal corridor there will be another regenerating turret and some
ground turrets to the side and a twin laser mech in front of you. Take it all
out and move on to the final horizontal room. This one has two laser cannons
and a few ground turrets. Be careful about advancing too far, because the
last new enemy is blocking the path into the next area. Basically he’s a twin
laser mech, but even wider. He only fires his lasers straight down, but in
addition he can fire spread shots of 3-5 bullets, aiming them at you like the
walkers did. As he takes damage, first the left laser is destroyed, then the
right, and finally the main body. He’s very troublesome if you let him on the
screen with his full firepower, and obviously it’s even worse if there are
two (and there will be). Take him out by creeping closer until you hit him
offscreen, then advance.

Some ground turrets and another big daddy mech await you, followed by
regenerating turrets with the twin firing spheres. Stand just to the side of
one turret and wipe out the spheres, then move up and to the side to deal
with the two walkers that show up. More turrets, walkers, laser cannons, and
5-way shooters show up in logical patterns that you’ve seen in previous
levels and shouldn’t be a great hassle to you at this point. There will be
some unusual writing on the floor and a pair of ground turrets arranged
vertically, which is your cue that two more big daddy mechs are just ahead.
Take them out carefully, then wipe out the laser cannons just past them.
Almost done!

The entrance to the tunnel is closed, and the only way to open it is to take
out two clones of the creature you saw at the end of round 7. There’s one on
either side, and the best way to do it if you’re on the left is to simply
concentrate on that one first. Carefully take it out and try to keep the
other from sliding its head onto the screen to fire at you as well. Once one
is gone, you can hang out near the bottom and scroll just enough that the
head of the other shows up but has little mobility, whereupon you can give it
the fiery death it deserves. The tunnel doors now open, it’s time to move on.

Round 14
--------

The last tunnel? The mines are almost all red here and take considerable
damage before letting you through. You’ll see some of the most difficult
enemy patterns and will always deal with three fights at each trap. Good
luck, it’s not easy!

Round 15
--------

You arrive and are not surrounded at all. Blank free space on all sides.
Refreshing, eh? Don’t let it fool you, there are actually laser cannons that
are just out of view to the left and right. Stick left of right and wipe them
out, as usual. There are only three pairs and then you’re suddenly at two
gigantic circles on the floor with what look like magical patterns on them.
What’s more, there’s more writing on the floor in front of each. I’ll spoil
these for you since they’re so short, but the left one says ‘Easy’ and the
right one says ‘Hard’. Simple enough! If you think you’re a tough guy you can
try the hard one, but I’ll warn you now that they’re not lying!

Oh no, another tunnel! If you picked the easy tunnel, you’re going to be
greeted with some energy powerups, one simple trap, and you should be out
again. It’s a piece of cake, really. If you picked the HARD tunnel, you’re in
for it! Think round 14, but with slightly harder patterns and twice as long!
It’s a sea of red out there and you’ve got to be the best to get through it.
If you die in that tunnel, remember that all future lives start at the
beginning of the tunnel with only one shield, so death isn’t an option! On
the plus side, should you manage to make it to the end your reward is a
metric ton of points (upwards of 300K!) AND you get a refill to three shields
and a full energy bar automatically! Risk has its rewards, for sure.

Round 15, revisited
-------------------

Once you’re out of the tunnel, you’re still in round 15 and in an overhead
view again. It’s the same sort of thing, you have six turrets surrounding you
at the start and a few laser cannons to take out, along with one of those
enemies that spews homing missiles in four directions from rounds 4 and 6.
Another cake walk, which brings you to yet another set of magical circles.
Three of them this time! Easy and Hard are still there, and the lower one
reads ‘Norm’, so it must be a sort of happy medium. You know what they are
now, so pick the one you think you can handle and off you go! You’ll get the
same treatment in the hard tunnel, and the normal tunnel has the same enemies
as the hard one but is shorter. The easy tunnel is even more energy and two
or three fights instead of one. Everyone should have it so rough.

Round 16
--------

The big finale! And in grand style, you start out completely surrounded by no
less than ten turrets and two four-way missile shooters. You absolutely must
take out those two enemies first before you go after the turrets! Wipe
everything out and pick either side, they’re both roughly the same. Be
prepared for a big daddy mech almost immediately as you start up either path,
and now you’ll be able to see a curious new type of laser embedded in the
walls. They fire at regular intervals and can’t be destroyed, so you just
have to walk through when they’re not firing. After that small bit with the
mech and two lasers you’re presented with two paths yet again. More writing
on the floor: ‘Easy’ and ‘Hard.’ I’ll tell you now that neither path is
actually easy, but the hard path is quite hellish! Tight corridors and big
daddy mechs all over the place, not to mention you’re still being bombarded
with the spread-shot spheres! Take the left path and make it easy on
yourself; the points to gain on the hard path are minimal.

The corridor is fairly straight and there are no really awfully tricky spots,
but I’ll leave it to the reader to devise how best to tackle it for himself.
Just remember to always take out any mechs/walkers before crossing laser
lines! If you find turrets on the other side of that line, it gets fairly
awkward to try to backtrack and get into a good firing position. If you make
it to the end intact, it’s boss time!

You come to an isolated arena-type enclosure with eight red spheres. You can
shoot at them and do damage before they move, but once they do they simply
teleport out and blink back in, this time in a circle around you. The key to
this fight is to always destroy at least one sphere before they stop to fire!
If one is destroyed, the rest of them all turn green and will fire their
circular shots in a ring around the center of themselves rather than directly
at you. For this reason, it is equally important that you don’t move after
they come in!

Each time they teleport in they’ll move faster until they’re just barely
possible to track by whirling the joystick around. After that they slow down
again and become easier to hit. When only two spheres remain, they no longer
turn green, so take them out as fast as you can! If you have more than one
shield, just let them hit you once if you can’t take them all out in time and
your life will be made much easier when you’re given another chance to finish
them off. Once they’re all destroyed, a fighter flies onto the screen, the
biggest of all so far! A man climbs out and sends sparkly stars all over the
screen, which fades out.

You’re on the moon! Or A moon, anyway. No time to look at the scenery, the
real final boss is approaching quickly! There’s a crater just to the lower
right of you, stand directly on top of that and fire straight up as the
gigantic mothership flies down. With continual fire you’ll eliminate the
exhaust pipe, cannon, and turret in the column you’re lined up with. You can
then fire to the upper right and take out several more targets, but the
turrets at the top will miss when they try to fire at you. Clean up anything
that’s left and be quick about it, the boss doesn’t waste any time in
repositioning itself.

Just a bit to the right of that crater is where you’ll want to be as the boss
moves to the left, exposing a battery of laser cannons and another set of
three small turrets. Destroy what you can of these, but the real target is
the large circular port to the right of those small turrets, which will
release fast-moving enemies just like the boss in round 12 did. In addition,
the hangar door to the left opens and fighters start to fly out. These are
weaker than they look, and if you stay directly below your main target and
fire upward, you’ll get all the fighters and eventually the port as well.
Clean up the rest of the cannons and turrets if you have time and wipe out
another wave of fighters, then the boss moves again.

Now you’ll want to stand about a tank-length directly above that crater and
fire to the upper right. You’ll smash another exhaust port, turret, and
cannon and possibly a laser cannon as well before you’re forced to retreat
slightly. Train your fire on the other large circular port, sparing a shot or
two for anything else you haven’t cleared up yet. You can take shots at the
nearby laser cannons you probably haven’t gotten to, but once both ports in
front are gone almost all your shots should be headed for the section of ship
where they were (which can now be damaged). Fire away until it falls off, the
mothership will move again in a matter of seconds and you’ll need the
breathing room.

Once the ship moves and you’re basically surrounded by it, you’ll see four
cannons at the upper corners which will start firing immediately. Take them
out as best as you can and stay out of the way of any remaining laser cannons
if you can. The first ones you shot up will also be regenerating right about
now, all the more reason to keep your distance. Eventually the ship advances
one more time, revealing the huge core! It has a massive ring laser attack
that takes up almost all of the available space, but luckily it has a bar
atop it that flashes green just before it fires, giving you enough warning to
get off to one side. Take out any remaining cannons, and the rest is cake!
Reinforcements arrive and fire at the core, so you only have to watch out for
the occasional firing of the main gun and any cannons that might suddenly
regenerate on you. The core will turn orange after it takes some damage, and
finally the ship explodes and the guy behind all this is left alone,
defeated. Mission complete! As an extra bonus for winning the game, you’ll
get one million points for every life that you have in reserve (not counting
the current one). If you didn’t get all of the extra lives the game offers
before finishing the game, you’ll be awarded them and then given a million
points for each, a sweet reward.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
The ending text is the most fantastic part of the game. The people who made
the Zero Wing text famous should have a look at the translation work down
here. While not quite as awful, the incorrectly spelled words and just weird
grammar is worthwhile reading. Oh, right, what it says. It says that even
though they beat that guy, the real war between planets (the war of madness,
as it calls it) is yet to begin. So much for a one man army winning it all.

====================================
4. Tunnel Strategies
====================================

The tunnel rounds in Aurail start out simple and become, in my opinion, the
hardest part of the game by the end. Once you learn round 16 well enough, the
task becomes surviving 15 without incident, after which the remainder of the
game is almost a gimme. I’m going to try to detail the harder sets of enemies
for you and how you should approach them, including the ultra-hard
combinations only found in the last levels of Hard difficulty. They’ll be in
rough order from simple to difficult.

NOTE: All strategies assume you’re starting from the middle column and facing
towards the end of the tunnel.

3 tan energy mechs in front: No problem. Head straight forward at full speed,
firing all the way. When the first shot nearly hits you, dodge left and
you’ll run into the mech on the left. That’s no problem, you only lose a
little energy for ramming things. Turn around and slip back to the left side,
backing up and firing at the remaining two until they’re gone.

5 blue gliders (2 in front, 3 in back): Break to the left immediately and
head towards the glider in front of you, firing all the way. You should
destroy him just as you reach him. Turn around and slip to the left, backing
up and firing away. You’ll get one or two more of them before they’re on you
again. Slide to the right and punch forward, then turn around once more to
finish the group off.

1 red orb in front, 2 tan energy mechs in back: Head straight forward and
fire. Jag to the left as you get closer to the orb just in case it fires a
point blank shot. Turn around, slip back to the left, and back up while
firing away at the energy mechs that you can now see. Destroy that one, then
head back to the right and fire until the other is gone. The orb you’ll be
able to take out in one pass in most cases just by shifting back and forth
between two columns, spreading your fire across them to catch it each time it
dodges.

3 red orbs in front: Head forward and keep firing. Break right at the last
moment or you’ll get hit by a missile. Turn around and fire while backing up,
which should take care of two of the three orbs. Finish off the last one as
per the last strategy.

1 red glider, 2 blue gliders in front, 2 gray maulers in back: This one is
simpler than it looks. Race forward down the center while firing at the red
glider in the middle, which will die before you reach it. Break left after
you pass the first blue glider and turn around, firing away. You may or may
not get one of them, but it doesn’t matter much either way. The gray maulers
are easily disposed of and any remaining gliders can be caught by sliding
back and forth and firing continually.

3 red gliders in front: Start by firing down the middle and break off to the
left just as you reach them, turning around. Slide to the left and fire away,
taking another pass if you need to for the remaining glider.

3 red maulers in front: Why not? We’ve got 3 red everything else. Rush
forward and fire, dodging left as you run into the first one. He’ll die and
leave you with just the two, which should be getting damaged from your fire.
Slip to the left one column to lure them, then slip left again to bring them
into your fire without their missiles to protect them for a moment. One
should die before the other meets up with you. Ram him, turn around, and
finish the job.

3 red energy mechs (1 in front, 2 in back): No big deal, but you have to be
careful of the first one. Head to the left, fire a few shots, then fire a few
in the middle, then fire a few in the right. Be extra careful of the second
shot, it can be in either the middle or right lane and you obviously don’t
want to be wherever it is! By the time you turn around it should be gone,
leaving you with two energy mechs in your column. Fire away while backing up,
adjusting to the right as you need to. Both will die before they can reach
you, just remember that you’ll probably have one last shot to dodge at the
end.

1 red energy mech in front, 1 red energy mech, one red glider, one red mauler
in back: This is where things get tougher (and luckily, from here out you’ll
only see these combinations on Hard difficulty). Shift to the right to dodge
the first shot while moving forward. Do what damage you can to the mech and
let it pass you on the left. DO NOT turn around until it has fully passed or
it will hit you with a passing shot! Weave back and forth quickly and take it
out and take it out if you can. Shift over to the right and full speed ahead
on that lone mauler, guns blazing! You should take it out with no problem,
but occasionally the other energy mech will fire and force you to back off a
bit. Either way, press on and turn around, and the other two robots should be
softened up enough to just be an easy cleanup by now.

Two red maulers, one red energy mech in front, one red glider in back:
Survival relies on getting to the left immediately. You absolutely must get
there, punch forward, and take out the mauler in front of you as you pass or
you’ll have an awful time of it. As you turn around, slide left and do as
much damage to the other mauler as you can before sliding over farther and
dishing out some punishment to the glider. You may actually destroy the other
mauler, but don’t count on it. Instead, veer right and punch through again,
whereupon you should be able to finish up with a bit more dodging and
backpedaling.

The remaining combinations with five red enemies: Good luck, I don’t have
strict patterns for these. There is one that is basically the previous
combination with one extra enemy, and as before if you don’t get to the left
and take out those missiles coming at you, you’re going to take multiple
hits. The other fearsome one has two red maulers and something else all in
the same column with two in back. Dash forward and dodge left just as you run
into the first one and you’ll probably destroy it. Dodge left and rush the
lone energy mech that’s way back there for some reason, and use your radar to
dodge incoming shots if you can since they’ll outrun you even at full speed.
Once it’s down to three enemies it’s more manageable, but it’s hectic like
nothing else and the tactics I use still don’t guarantee not getting hit.

====================================
5. Minor Other Things
====================================

As I mentioned in the walkthrough, there is occasionally writing on the
ground or elsewhere that looks like some other language, but is in fact just
a simple substitution process where most of the symbols even look something
like the letters they’re supposed to represent. For example, in round 13 you
can see ‘Danger’ written on the ground first, then near the two creatures at
the end is ‘Centipede.’ Not the most useful, but it’s fun to see. The Game
Over screen is chock full of it, practically offering a translation guide.

Want a big high score? You’ll have to finish the game. But you can impress
people who don’t know what a ‘good’ score is by playing and continuing until
you’re able to beat round 16 on the first life of a credit. You’ll have all
the extra lives awarded to you (four in total) and get credit for the other
two you had in reserve, so you should end up with a score slightly under 6.1
million. Not bad, since someone who played on Hard difficulty, played all the
way through the game without losing a life and took both hard tunnels in
round 15 will only end up with about 7.4 million. It’s cheap, but that’s how
it is.

Want to brag about a real high score? If you play MAME, head over to the MAME
Action Replay Page (http://marp.retrogames.com) and show your stuff! It’s not just
Aurail, all 3,000+ games that MAME emulates is there with recordings for
everyone to watch and learn from, and a high score table to show who’s who.
Can you beat my 6.77 million game done on Hard difficulty? One credit only,
that’s the rule for all MARP games!

====================================
6. Contributor List
====================================

At present, this is a work of self. If you have anything to contribute,
though, send your ideas, tips, strategies, and secrets to [email protected]
and I’ll verify it, put it up here and give you recognition! Free fame!

As always, I’d like to recognize CJayC for hosting such a wonderful,
comprehensive site and giving folks like me a place to put ideas that can’t
be crammed into an .inp file.

====================================
7. Copyright
====================================

This work is copyright 2001 Brian McLean. All rights reserved. You may keep a
copy for your personal use but you may not distribute it in any form without
express permission from the author.

(Legalese for: Ask me first. I’m not an ogre, I’ll probably say yes unless
folks have to pay to see it)

--Finis--

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