Journey (Arcade) FAQ version 1.0.0
Copyright 2001 by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
Please do not redistribute this FAQ for profit without my permission.
If you ask me specifically for this FAQ and use my first name in an e-
mail, I will probably say yes. It's a piece of nostalgia and maybe some
others will benefit from and enjoy it.
================================
OUTLINE
WHO/WHAT IS JOURNEY/ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
THE STORY
OH, DEAR. WHAT ARE THEY WEARING?
WHAT DO THEY DO WHEN THEY DIE?
POINTS
THE BAND MEMBERS(STRATEGY)
JONATHAN CAIN
STEVE PERRY
NEIL SCHON
STEVE SMITH
ROSS VALORY
MISCELLANEOUS
VERSIONS/CREDITS
================================
WHO/WHAT IS JOURNEY/ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
Journey was a band that was popular from the late seventies to the mid
eighties. They wrote some really cool tunes. "Faithfully" and "Don't
Stop Believin'" are the best IMO, but "Anytime" has those repetitive
lyrics(Oo-oo, any time that you need me...) and "I'll be Alright(sic)
Without You" is clever and cynical, and "Separate Ways" rocks too.
"Open Arms" hit #1, and "Any Way You Want It" was played at the end of
one Simpsons episode--the one with the Beatles parody, I think. Crank
up a Lite Rock station and you'll probably hear Journey. Steve Perry,
the lead singer, also had a nice solo career with "Oh Sherry" as a big
hit, and the band even had a reunion in the late nineties. Beavis and
Butt-Head even panned "Separate Ways."
So yeah, the game contains all five members of the band. If I'd have
guessed on a band that would be in a video game, I'd have said Duran
Duran. Maybe they could go to Rio or something. And their big-headed
caricatures would have been more atrocious. Those pouffy bouffants are
something, but at least Journey didn't wear make-up.
I'm perfectly serious. The Showbiz(now Chuck E. Cheese) across the
highway had a Journey machine where I posted nine of the top ten high
scores. The game is rather good, and the parts that might be bad will
make you laugh.
THE STORY
The party enters the head on the front of the FRONTIERS album in the
ship on the front of the ESCAPE album. Each one must retrieve his
instrument/weapon to complete a wave, but once he's got the
instrument/weapon he needs to bring it back to the ship safely.
For each set of five sub-games there is a universe you start out in.
Your ship can go to any of the five planets it hasn't completed, each of
which holds the respective band member's instrument/weapon. If you
wait, you sent to a place randomly. The mini-game plays, and if you
win, you see a warped ring around the planet instead of an instrument.
The planets are aligned as follows:
DRUMS[STEVE SMITH]
GUITAR BASS
[NEIL SCHON] [ROSS VALORY]
MICROPHONE KEYBOARDS
[STEVE PERRY] [JONATHAN CAIN]
A ring appears around any planet completed(weapon brought back
safely.) If you fail to bring the instrument back safely, you lose a
life and go back to the main screen--in other words, you can try another
level, and if you go back to the same one, you start all over. When you
complete all five sub-games, you get a concert where you play Herbie,
the bouncer, who tries to block "crazed groupoids" from entering the
three exits on the stage. The game starts over, a bit tougher, once the
groupoids get through--as they will.
The position of the band in the Journey space-mobile or whatever it is
is as follows:
SMITH VALORY
CAIN SCHON PERRY
OH, DEAR. WHAT ARE THEY WEARING?
Steve Smith--blue jeans, red sleeveless undershirt.
Neil Schon--blue jeans, lavender sleeveless undershirt.
Ross Valory--yellow shirt, red suspenders, red pants.
Steve Perry--red blazer when he jumps in the spaceship, but he takes
it off when he goes for the mike. Then, he's got a black shirt, blue
jeans, and a yellow-and-red tie.
Jonathan Cain--blue jeans, sky blue tee shirt that seems to have
lavender sequins. Anyone ever read "Konrad?"
WHAT DO THEY DO WHEN THEY DIE?
Steve Smith--falls down and bangs his fists at the bottom.
Neil Schon--falls down, loses his jetpack, and bangs his fists at
the bottom.
Ross Valory--falls down and seems to shrug and pout.
Steve Perry--grimaces. He is the only one that doesn't fall down
the screen.
Jonathan Cain--falls down, breaking his fall on any platforms, and
bangs his fists at the bottom.
POINTS
Well, the game doesn't have a point, since it keeps repeating with
only slight variations--sorta like a lot of popular '80s songs[corny
laugh.]
You get extra points at every 20000 + 40000x where x >= 0.
Overall, each wave seems worth about 35000 points.
POINTS ON EVERY WAVE
--1000 points for safely picking up an instrument
--2000 points for returning it to the ship
JONATHAN CAIN POINTS
--100 for each time you jump over a barrier. No extra points for
multiple barriers, and if you jump off a platform as you jump over a
barrier, you get no points.
--50 points for shooting a pod, which turns into a small circle
--100 points for shooting small circle, which is a bit faster than a
pod.
STEVE PERRY POINTS
--100 points for each gate Steve Perry passes on the first level(and
gets close to. If he's too far away the game doesn't detect it. So you
can get 0-200 points for passing through a pair of gates.)
--100-200 points for each gate he passes close by on subsequent levels.
The magnitude depends on how close he is.
--25 points for each bar he shoots
--no points for passing through gates that move sideways instead of
vertically.
NEIL SCHON POINTS
--0 points possible for before you get the weapon....
--200 for each missile shot
STEVE SMITH POINTS
--50 points for the first time you jump on a drum, turning it blue.
--100 points for the second time you jump on a drum, making it
disappear.
--1000 points for leaving just one drum
ROSS VALORY POINTS
--50 points for each successful jump
--50 points for shooting a missile
--100 points for shooting a gun-thingy
--no points for shooting a platform before the gun appears
BOUNCER POINTS ("HERBIE")
--250 points for each fan the bouncer pushes back. Eventually they will
swarm the stage, but if the very edge of the bouncer protects a door
people are trying to run through, it will bounce the person back. This
tip will probably get you an extra thousand. You can expect seven to
ten thousand with good play, but the fans keep getting faster as the
level progresses.
THE BAND MEMBERS(WITH STRATEGY)
JONATHAN CAIN
The background music for Jonathan Cain has been hashed up beyond my
recognition. Please help! As Jonathan Cain, you must get to the bottom
of the set of platforms jumping over the hurdles, which get faster as
you drop down each platform. When you get the piano, you must shoot
your way to the top. The piano is easy to control. It can fire left or
right, and it faces the horizontal direction you last moved in. It's
tougher to control JC. You can speed him up or slow him down by pushing
in or against the direction he's walking. Push up to jump; how long he
stays up depends on how fast he is going. When you get to an edge, or
close to it, and it looks like a hurdle may come up, jump to be safe.
You won't get the points for the hurdle, but oh well. You also have an
option of falling or jumping off a platform; jumping saves a bit of
time. Don't be afraid to slow down when you get near the edge of a
platform if you think going at a normal speed will cause you to drop on
a hurdle--that WILL be a killer. Timing's a bit intuitive here so I
have no conclusive walkthrough.
As for getting to the bottom, for the first three levels, you don't
need to adjust Jonathan Cain's speed even though the hurdles go
progressively faster. You can jump over barriers as they appear. When
more than one comes along, it's probably a good idea to jump early(if
they are the same speed and the distance between them is troubling) or
wait(if one is much faster than the other.) In the fourth level, you'll
need to execute a tricky double-jump at the bottom, and the fifth is
even worse. The first two levels are not so bad, but the second
requires a couple of quick jumps, done several times.
Returning is much easier than getting to the bottom, especially on the
later levels. To return, simply shoot the bottom four pods on each
side. Jonathan Cain shoots horizontally in the direction he is facing,
i.e. the last horizontal direction he moved in. The pods above you will
cross over, like mitosis or something, leaving you free to blast your
way up. There are always 11 pods on each side, and when shot they can
reincarnate as pods what's inside the pods when you shoot them.
WAVE 1:
Hurdles are slow, singular and easy to jump.
Pods form lines of a trapezoid, with minor base at the top, before
moving uniformly.
WAVE 2:
Hurdles are a bit faster, but no multiple ones yet.
Pods form < and > signs before moving in.
WAVE 3:
Hurdles aren't all the same speed, but they're not so quick they'll be
a problem. Be a bit more on the lookout for the platform below.
Pods form crooked segments like sideways M(the bottoms toward the
center) with lines of length 4, 3, 3 and 4.
WAVE 4:
Be prepared to long-jump here or to time your runs so that you can
jump over two hurdles at once.
Pods form sharper < and > signs than in wave 2.
WAVE 5:
The last platform is positively wicked here. Be prepared to do two
normal jumps at normal speed--a long jump won't do it here.
Pods alternate as below:
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
STEVE PERRY
The background music for Steve Perry is "Don't Stop Believin'." The
introduction is roughly the same as the song's introduction, but a note
lower. There are gates that move up and gates that move up and to the
left. They flip open and closed, and Steve Perry must avoid them to get
to the microphone that moves back and forth at the bottom of the screen.
The timing should not be too difficult, but it's a bit too intuitive for
me to describe concretely.
There are thirty-six flipper pairs at the start of the return for the
first wave--Steve Perry destroys them by firing up(the only way he can
shoot.) This number decreases, but the flippers descend faster. Your
best bet to get past them is to go immediately on the later waves.
Otherwise, they go down too fast. One trick to note is that the
flippers can be killed as follows: if one is close to you and coming at
you, you are better off moving towards it horizontally and firing than
going vertically and firing. Since you fire up, you can often hit
something as it is about to hit you; this can get you past a seemingly
impregnable wall especially if you go up, fire, turn quickly, and fire--
remember, the row-pairs of flippers alternate the horizontal direction
that complements their descent. Giving the timing issues on the return
trip, it's safe to say that Steve Perry starts out as the easiest wave
to get through but becomes the toughest as you get into the game.
WAVE 1:
There are three rows of gates, with 6, 6 and 6 gates in each row.
The horizontal-moving gates are, from the top, at the right, center and
left of the space between each row.
WAVE 2:
There are three rows of gates, with 8, 7 and 8 gates in each row.
The horizontal-moving gates are, from the top, at the right, center and
left of the space between each row.
WAVE 3:
There are three rows of gates, with 8, 7 and 8 gates in each row.
The horizontal-moving gates are, from the top, at the right, center and
left of the space between each row. In addition there are horizontal-
moving gates .6 to the right or left(depending on where they fit) of
these gates.
WAVE 4:
There are three rows of gates below Steve Perry, with 7, 8 and 7
gates in each row. The horizontal-moving gates do not exist in this
level. There is also a row of 8 gates above Steve--you'll need to be
quicker with your first decision here.
WAVE 5:
There are three rows of gates below Steve Perry, with 7, 8 and 7
gates in each row. The horizontal-moving gates are, from the top, at
the left, center left, center right and right(there's a space below the
lowest row of gates) of the space between each row. There is also a row
of 8 gates above Steve--you'll need to be quicker with your first
decision here.
NEIL SCHON
As Neil Schon, you must use the jetpack to get to your guitar. You
can thrust up, left, or right, but not down(haste to get back to the
ship can be fatal, so be forewarned!) Touching a wall is fatal. After
you get the guitar, blue ports will fire glowing missiles. You must get
to the top while avoiding them or shooting them. Neil fires in the
horizontal direction he is facing.
On later levels, the guitar is more tucked away, and Neil tends to
accelerate downward more quickly. Getting the guitar is not hard.
Remember always to give Neil enough up thrust when you wish to move
horizontally; never even TRY to move an appreciable diagonal distance.
That is too risky. Getting back is best done in pieces. Take out a
missile(or pairs of missiles) while waiting for the above missiles to
pass. Then rocket up, take them out, rocket up again, etc. until you
get to the top. Don't try to go too far at once, although before the
final missile you can probably find a niche between it and the one
below--or even out-race it.
One trick that will make Neil's ascent easier is the following; say
you want him to face a certain way when you start, but you must approach
the guitar going the other way. When you're near it, simply thrust like
crazy toward it, and at the last second, turn the other way slightly by
tapping the joystick. After Neil flashes a silly grin, he will have no
momentum, and you'll face in the direction you'll need to take out a
missile. Don't be afraid to pepper the missile port with shots.
The map below is not drawn to scale, but it shows you where the
guitars are:
<,> = port
1 = guitar(level 1)
2 = guitar(level 2)
3 = guitar(level 3-5)
[SHIP]
\ \
\ |
\ <|
/ --/
/-- |
/-\ --\
-/ |
/ <|
-----/ |
|> <|
-\ /----
/--/ /---
|> \---
| \
|> ----
------\ 1 2 <|
/------/ ------
| 3 <|
\------------/
WAVE 1:
Everything's so slow here you don't need to use the "tap" trick.
You can probably move up to the fourth-from-bottom port and shoot at it.
Let the missiles pass above you, and you should be able to make it to
the top in one swoop.
WAVE 2:
A bit tougher. Knock out the missile in the right port if you
aren't able to face left immediately. From there you need to progress
one-by-one, knocking missiles out and moving up when missiles won't hit
you for a while--the ports take a while to reload after their missiles
expire.
WAVE 3:
You need to learn how to tap the joystick up and shoot at the port a
bunch of times. There's a lot of waiting to move up, but again, doing
so slowly will get you where you were before. You just need to be more
alert; everything's a bit quicker.
WAVE 4:
The different gravity is the main challenge here, but the same
principles work as on level 3.
WAVE 5:
See wave 4 above.
WAVE 1:
--wait for Neil to drop, then floor the joystick left. Tap the joystick
up as well. Floor it right once you're above the guitar to change your
momentum, and just before getting it, turn left. Neil flashes the
silliest grin I've seen in an arcade game as he gets the guitar. Shoot
left(the blue things on the walls start shooting small glowing things.)
You might wait for the missiles above(3rd from top) to pass before
thrusting up and to the left. Don't go too fast up--if there's a
missile above you, shoot the missiles 3rd from top(fire, pivot, fire) to
give yourself some more time. Then go up and if you can't quite make
it, just take out the 2nd-top missile and wait for the first to pass by.
WAVE 2:
--the guitar's a bit tougher to get this time.
STEVE SMITH
As Steve Smith, you must bounce on all the drums once. Fortunately
they all go in cyclical paths, making it easy to anticipate them.
Bouncing on a drum once turns it blue, and bouncing twice makes it
vanish. Once you get to the drums, formations of brown things run at
you. You fire double-shots down from the drum that the things can duck
between, which is more of a factor when the formations don't swerve so
much. If you or the drums are hit, sayonara. Gravity works on Steve's
jumps after the first level, although you can always push up or down to
adjust his trajectory further. The drums also go faster in each
subsequent level.
In my opinion, the preliminary part of this is moderately difficult,
and the second part is pretty easy as there's only one trick to know.
You basically need to stay on the right corridor, where you've picked up
the drums, and go down. You may wish to time *when* you go down--for
instance, right after some enemies pass below you, push down and fire to
get to the bottom.
Drawings are not to scale.
WAVE 1:
--The upper four drums have a path sort of like a tape dispenser, or
something. The bottom three go in a triangular path, right, down, and
up-left.
--In this wave, you always jump to the top.
--The brown things are in three formations of five, shaped like a caret,
and the ones on the outside zigzag back and forth.
The four in the upper portion(clockwise:)
-----
/ \
\ \
\ /
-----
The three in the lower right(counterclockwise:)
+----+
| |
| \
| \
| ---\
| /
| /
|/
After you bounce on all the drums, there are two formations of dots as
follows:
X
X X
X X
They weave in and out across the screen and back as they go up.
WAVE 2:
--Push up on the joystick so Steve jumps as high as possible.
--In this wave, the dots zigzag--there are two paths, and one is the
other, vertically flipped across the horizontal mid-line. Four drums go
along each path.
Clockwise: Counter-clockwise:
/\ /\
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
\ \ / /
\ \ / /
\ \ / /
\ \ / /
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
\/ \/
After the drums, there are three groups of small thingies. They are
shaped as follows:
X
X
X X
The middle one goes straight up, and the side two bounce left and
right as they go up, never overlapping the middle.
WAVE 3:
--Gravity affects Steve even more here. Push up immediately to avoid
nasty surprises.
Six on the outside:
------------
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
------------
Four in the middle:
--------
| |
| |
| |
| |
--------
The small thingies are in the shape of an X:
X X
X
X X
There are four of them, although the middle two start in the same
place. The middle ones swerve more than the outside ones. Just
concentrate on the outside and be sure to nail the middle thingie.
WAVE 4:
There's only one real way to do this. Bounce on all the drums in the
lower right, but leave one blue for safety, then bounce over to the
left, bounce on all the drums, then bounce on the upper right.
There are four sets of three drums. The upper left and lower right
move one way, the lower left and upper right move the other:
UL, DR(counterclockwise):
----------
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ |
\ |
\|
UR, DL(clockwise):
----------
\ /
\ /
\ /
| /
| /
|/
They're mirror images, really, but I drew them out to clarify things.
The thingies are in the same formation as wave 2:
X
X
X X
However, there are three in a row, and every other row closely follows
the previous one. The formations appearing on the left and right bounce
horizontally across the screen. Just use caution when you go down--wait
until you've shot everything, then go quickly.
WAVE 5:
There are three tiers, with four drums, then four, then three.
They're moving very fast here.
1st tier(top) is clockwise:
----
/ \
/ \--------/
----\ /
\ /
-------/
2nd tier(middle) is counterclockwise:
-----------------\
\ \
\ ---
\ /
| /
| /
----------
3rd tier(bottom) crosses over itself. The vertical part is down.
|\
| \
| \-\
| \
/---+------\
/ |
/ |
----\ |
\ |
\|
When returning to the ship, the thingies are in an "X" formation:
X X
X
X X
There are four of them, starting equally spaced, and the end ones
swerve less than the ones in the middle(who never overlap the end ones.)
You may have to move a bit to the right to nail the middle thingy, as
its range of motion is so near it that the drum's shots may fire on
either side of it.
The background music for Steve Smith is "Wheel in the Sky."
ROSS VALORY
To get the instrument, Ross must jump on green blocks that push him
upwards on a shrinking pillar which disappears when he jumps off. If he
does not do so in time, he drops off at an angle, which makes it
impossible for him to get back on the old block. He must get to the
moving guitar at the top of the screen, even though you can and, on
later levels, will need to guide Ross Valory's jumps while he is in
midair. Ross Valory also bounces off the top or the side if he hits
them, although you can use this to your advantage in limited cases.
Once he gets the guitar he can only fire down. He can only be killed by
missiles, not the blocks himself, although being over a block that
shoots a missile means trouble.
On the return, the green blocks turn against him. Guns appear on each
one, but Ross can neutralize them and their shots. One shot removes the
gun, and four after that turn the platform to red, blue, yellow, and
temporarily gone--note that this "temporarily" gets less as you get
through waves. Although the block formation is the same for both
journeys in the first wave, they shift around quite a bit--by the end
Ross has only one really good path, but many guns block his return.
This may be the most complex of the waves as everything keeps getting
moved around.
The shrinking pillars/gun platforms have the same color scheme for
thinning. At full width, they are green, then they go to red, blue,
yellow, and green(very skinny) before they disappear. The blocks are
generally staggered, i.e. none is at the same height or width, but I
attempted to approximate them below. For general purposes, you should
shoot everything down before proceeding, and it's often a good idea to
look at which way the guns point; they can only turn in increments of
forty-five degrees, meaning that there are only so many places where
they can shoot.
Ledger
X = block
Y = where you start
WAVE 1:
Before:
X X
X X
X X
X X
X
X X
Y
X
After:
Nothing changes in the first wave after you get the guitar.
Strategy:
Zigzagging works OK on the way up for this wave and all subsequent
waves except for wave five. Usually you can jump right or left when
you're horizontally aligned with the "next" block. Going R-L-L and then
right to get the guitar works.
Once you've gotten the guitar, the left side is a bit easier to go
down than the right, since fewer gunners are closer.
WAVE 2:
Before:
X
X X
X
X X
X X
X
Y
X
After:
X
X X X X
X X X X X
X X
X
Strategy:
Going up isn't much different from the first wave. Going L-R-L and
then right to get the guitar works.
As usual, the wings are the place to go, although you may want to
sweep across the field briefly and fire in order to buy time and avoid
stray shots.
WAVE 3:
Before:
X X
X X X
X X
Y
After:
X
X X
X X X X X
X X
X X
X
Strategy: Zigzagging(L-R-R) works to get up, but to get down you
should probably take out the "point" block and then go to the wing and
move left and right while firing before moving down, so that your way is
clear.
WAVE 4:
Before:
X X
X X X
X X
Y
After:
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X
Strategy: Zigzagging L-R-L will get you where you should be able to
jump right to get the guitar. Again, you may want to sweep over to the
left before going down the right, or vice versa--with the symmetry the
side doesn't matter.
WAVE 5:
Before:
X X
X X
X X
Y
After:
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X
Strategy: It's easy to see how to get to the top, although I prefer
the way to the right, and in either case you will have to guide Ross
when he jumps, or he will over-jump. You may have to jump him back and
forth, jumping between the two top blocks for a bit, but eventually
you'll get the guitar. See wave four for the strategy here.
MISCELLANEOUS
--When your player is hit, you hear "Who's Crying Now" in the
background.
--If he gets hit in his silly bouffant, that doesn't count.
--If Steve Smith bounces on the final red drum on the very top, he goes
off the top of the screen and back up from the bottom to get to the
drum.
--there's a useless shooter in the Neil Schon wave at the top.
--When there seems to be a tie as to if you've gotten to the top, you
win. This is also mostly the case in "close calls" below.
--What if I complete all five players?
Oh goody, you've just cleared all five waves. You get a concert,
where the band is playing "Separate Ways," banging dutifully on their
instruments, while Steve Perry is running all over the front of the
stage. But don't get too caught up in the fun. You're this fat guy who
bounces people with his stomach, and you need to stand in front of the
three stage doors that "fans" are trying to get through to disrupt the
concert. They start out slow but will soon go too fast. One person
will go in one stage door, and the other will go in the one on the other
side, and you won't be able to do anything. The band, still smiling and
in ancient Egyptian 3/4 profile, will jump of the stage, back in the
Journey-mobile, and give it another whack. Woohoo!
--What happens after the fifth wave?
You just go back to a previous wave, the fourth or third, and go
through the motions again. Then another wave between three and five
inclusive, and so on.
END OF FAQ PROPER
================================
VERSIONS/CREDITS
1.0.0 Sent to GameFAQs.com, with only four of seven songs known
Chuck E. Cheese, ne ShowBiz Pizza, for indoctrinating me into such a
wonderful game.
