IIIIIIIII\                        IIIIIIIIII\
III     II                        III      II
III     II                        III      II
III     II                        III      II
III     II                        III      II
III     II                        III     //
IIIIIIIII/   III                  IIIIIIIII
III                               III     \\
III /IIIIII\ III \\    II IIIIIII III      II II      //\\  \\    II II  //
III II    II III I\\   II   III   III      II II     //  \\ I\\   II II //
III II    II III II\\  II   III   III      II II     II  II II\\  II II//
III II    II III II \\ II   III   III      II II     IIIIII II \\ II II\\
III II    II III II  \\II   III   III      II II     II  II II  \\II II \\
III \IIIIII/ III II   \II   III   IIIIIIIIII/ IIIIII II  II II   \II II  \\





        IIII   IIII
        I  I   I  I
        IIII   III
        I      I  I    |/
        I OINT IIII LAN|\.

Arcade Shoot'em Up by Namco.
Point Blank FAQ version 0.75 by Happy Murderer. Best viewed in 800x600
resolution
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CONTENTS
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1)  Rules
2)  Getting Started with Point Blank
3)  Training Mode
4)  Beginner Mode
5)  Advanced Mode
6)  Very Hard Mode
7)  Bonus Round
8)  Stage Score Factors
9)  Tips for some of the harder stages
10) Extra points for some of the stages
11) The Last Stage
12) Credit
13) Contact Info





Always one of my favorite arcade shooters, I was surprised to see that the
re was no
Arcade FAQ for Point Blank so I thought I might as well make one myself.

Point blank is an arcade game where you get a namco light gun and you pro
ceed to take
a number of skill tests to see if you can advance to the final stage. The
amount
of stages you will have to go through will depend on what difficulty sett
ing you
choose from the start of the game.

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RULES
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At the beginning of the game you will have either
three or five lives, depending on what the operator of that particular
machine has decided.
If you lose all your lives it is game over.
You will lose a life if you:
Fail a stage
Shoot a bomb
Shoot a hostage
If you shoot a target of the opposite colour to your gun.
If you let Dr Dan or Dr Don die in any stage.

Also if you shoot more than one hostage target, or more than one of the
opposite coloured targets, you will lose lives corresponding with how
many incorrect targets you have shot.

eg. You shoot three hostages, then you will lose three lives.
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GETTING STARTED WITH POINT BLANK
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After you put your money in, you press either the pink or blue Start
button depending on which coloured gun you want to use.
Then you will be presented with four options. Training, Beginner,
Advanced and Very Hard. To select which mode to play shoot the icon.

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TRAINING MODE
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In training mode you will only receive four incredibly easy and short
(around 30 seconds each) stages to complete.
In my opinion this is a complete waste of money, and if you are coherent
enough to read this, then there will be almost no reason to justify
wasting your money on this mode which is strictly for first timers and
young children.
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BEGINNER MODE
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If you are an amatuer, beginner mode is definitely your best bet. It
contains 16 relatively easy stages that are given to you in lots of four
at a time. There will be four stages on the screen at a time and you can
select which one you want to do by shooting it with the gun. Of the four
stages to select, there will be one "Very Hard" stage. A very hard stage
is distinguishable by the "Very Hard" written across the stage. A
"Very Hard" stage is substantially harder than the average stage so you
would be advised to approach them with caution. Upon completion of
the sixteen stages you will then face the final stage, which is a castle
with 21 stationary targets that you have to hit in 3 seconds. After that,
congratulations you have passed Beginner Mode. Then depending on if you
have a high enough score you will get to enter your name in the days
topscore list and then it is game over.
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ADVANCED MODE
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If you have successfully completed Beginner Mode repeatedly without
losing a life, then you just may be prepared to take on Advanced Mode.
Advanced Mode is much more difficult than beginner mode, with each of it's
sixteen stages almost as difficult as the Very Hard stages in Beginner
Mode. There will again same as Beginner Mode, be four stages on the screen
and you can select which one you want to do by shooting it with the gun.
Of the four stages to select, there will be one "Very Hard" stage. Dont
worry too much, the "Very Hard" stages aren't much harder than they were
in Beginner Mode.  Once again, upon completion of the sixteen stages you
will then face the final stage, which is a castle with 21 stationary
targets that you have to hit in 3 seconds. After that, congratulations
you have now passed Advanced Mode. Then depending on if you have a high
enough score, you will get to enter your name in the days topscore list
and then it is game over.
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VERY HARD
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The icon to shoot if you want to do Very Hard Mode is the small purple
flaming icon under the Beginner Mode icon that says Very Hard. Only if you
have easily breezed through Advanced Mode repeatedly without losing any
lives should you attempt Very Hard Mode. Every one of the sixteen stages
in Very Hard mode is a "Very Hard" stage. That is the only notable
difference between Advanced Mode and Very Hard mode. Once again, upon
completion of the sixteen stages you will then face the final stage, which
is a castle with 21 stationary targets that you have to hit in 3 seconds.
After that, congratulations you have now passed Very Hard Mode. You will
then be shown the ending credits and a series of short animations of
Dr Dan and Dr Don and various other targets you have been shooting at(like
skeletons and piranhas) dancing around getting up to other little antics.
Then depending on if you have a high enough score(which you will almost
certainly have upon completing Very Hard Mode), you will get to enter your
name in the days topscore list and then it is game over.
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BONUS ROUND
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During Beginner, Advanced and Very Hard Mode upon completion of the
eighth stage you will the be presented with a bonus round. The bonus round
consists of four treasure chests floating down the screen at different
speeds, while you have only one bullet in which to choos which chest you
will get. Of the four chests, one will contain gold coins which are worth
ten thousand points towards your score, one will contain a heart which is
an extra life, one chest will contain both the gold coins and a heart
while one chest will contain NOTHING.

BONUS ROUND CHEAT: Generally it is thought that the chest containing both
the heart and the gold coins is the SECOND FASTEST chest. Meaning, the
chest that is descending down the screen the second fastest.
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STAGE SCORE FACTORS
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Factors that affect the stage score you receive are:

Quickshot
-The time in which you first shoot anything on the screen that can be hit.
For example, if you shoot a target(or anything that will give you
hitpoints such as glass etc) within one second of the doors to the stage
opening, you will receive more points than if you shoot a target 5 seconds
after the doors opening. The score you will receive from a quickshot is
in the vicinity of 9000 points for a quickshot less than .5 of a second,
and the quickshot point bonus you will receive from a quickshot of 2
seconds is approximately 3000 points down to about 500 points for a
quickshot of 6 seconds. There is a big difference. If you can see a window
before an actual quota target presents itself, you are well advised to
shoot it.


Hit Points
-Depend on how many objects(not quota targets but objects, including quota
targets) you shoot. You will receive alot of additional points if you
shoot objects that aren't part of the quota(excluding bombs, hostage
targets, targets of your opposite color) such as glass windows, light
bulbs, animals and generally anything that does something(such as
breaking, or changing direction) when shot.


Accuracy
- The points you receive for accuracy correspond to your accuracy times
ten. if you shoot nine targets and miss one time, you will have an
accuracy rating of ninety percent, and you will receive an accuracy
bonus of 900 points. The accuracy bonus is critical when going for high
scores. If you achieve an accuracy bonus of 100%, you will receive an
additional 1000 points to your stage score. Correct utilizition of the
100% accuracy bonus can result in you easily beating previous stage high
scores.
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TIPS FOR SOME OF THE HARDER STAGES
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In one stage you will be confronted with three bouncing balls that you
have to shoot. The catch is that you have shoot all three balls with one
shot. This is a fairly easy one on beginner. But in Advanced and Very Hard
Mode it can prove to be quite difficult. The trick is to shoot in the
exact middle of the screen as soon as the doors open.

In Very Hard Mode on the stage where the targets drop down from the top of
the screen with parachutes, try to shoot them before the parachutes
deploy because then it is an easier shot because the targets are falling
straight down, but on the other hand, when the parachutes have deployed
it is a much harder shot because the targets vigorously move from left
to right.
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EXTRA POINTS ON SOME STAGES
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Extra hit points are crucial. Here are some places to look out for extra
hit points

In the Cuckoo bird stage you can receive extra hit points by shooting the
weathervane on the top right hand corner of the screen.

In any stage where there is glass, you can shoot the glass for extra hit
points.

In the stage where the criminals pop out of the hallway, you can shoot the
lights on the roof for extra hit points.

In the stage with the Octopi jumping out of the pots, you can shoot the
hermit crab walking back and fowards near the bottom of the screen for
extra hit points.

In the stage where the targets drop from the top of the screens with
parachutes, you can shoot the parachutes for extra hit points( and also
when you do this the target will fall straight down, making for an easier
shot). Also you can shoot the parachute of the bombs which will cause
them to plummet offscreen quicker.

On the stage where the criminals pop up in a skyscraper behind glass
windows, note that if you get an accuracy rating of 101% or more(and
obviously of less) you will not receive the 1000 point 100% accuracy
bonus. But if you manage to get an accuracy rating of 200%, you will
get a double accuracy bonus of 2000 points. The way to achieve an accuracy
rating of 200% on this stage is to shoot criminals that still have a
window in front of them only, meaning that if you shoot a criminal through
a window, if a criminal pops up in that particular window again, do NOT
shoot him. This method will easily have you beating the stage's previous
high score.
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THE LAST STAGE (NOT APPLICABLE TO TRAINING MODE)
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In the last level of this game you will have 3 seconds to shoot twentyone
small targets displayed on a castle.

Strategy: Start with the four targets on the bottom lefthand side of the
screen working over to the bottom five targets then moving to the four
targets on the bottom righthand side of the screen. From there go up to
the two targets in the upper righthand of the screen then left and
slightly up to the top four targets and then left and slightly down for
the two top left hand side targets. Remember you have only three seconds
so if you miss a target just keep going and when you've completed a pass,
go back for the targets you have missed. The score you receive for hitting
all twentyone targets is at least 29,000 points and up to 32,000(depending
on other factors such as accuracy,quickshot,etc) so if you are going for
a high score it is crucial to hit all twentyone targets in the final stage.
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CREDIT
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Thankyou to Namco for making such a great and fun game, www.GameFaqs.com
for having such a great internet site that provides such a great service
to the whole gaming community and to anybody who takes the time to read
this FAQ.
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CONTACT INFO FOR SUBMISSIONS, QUESTIONS, COMMENTS
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You can contact me Happy Murderer at [email protected] with any
questions comments or submissions. Any submissions included in the FAQ
will be credited.
Version 0.75

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