AGENT USA FAQ V1.0
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by David J. Stein, Esq.
0. Introduction
0.1 Foreword
0.2 Game Versions
1. Gameplay and Controls
1.1 Gameplay
1.2 Controls
2. Gameplay Elements and Tactics
2.1 Game Plan
2.2 Transportation
2.3 Crystal Growth
2.4 Fuzzed Cities and FuzzBodies
2.5 Fuzzbomb Assault
3. City Reference
4. Miscellaneous
4.1 Skies
4.2 Skylines
5. Revision History
6. Credits
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0. INTRODUCTION
0.1 FOREWORD
"Somewhere in America, this dangerous FuzzBomb is on the loose!"
Agent USA is a home computer videogame from the 1980's was written by
Tom Snyder and Omar Khudari, and released in 1984 by Scholastic Wizware and Tom
Snyder Productions, Inc. The game presents a nationwide battle against a
virus-like contagion called the Fuzz. A science experiment gone wrong
(involving a television set and a crystal of unknown origin) yielded a sentient
FuzzBomb that is transforming ordinary citizens into walking balls of TV
static. These "FuzzBodies" are spreading through the United States via its rail
system and are passing along the Fuzz infestation to other citizens. It's your
mission, as Agent USA, to combat the Fuzz tide and destroy the FuzzBomb.
This game could be classified as educational, as it informs players about U.S.
geography, state capitals, and time zones (in addition to the value of being on
time for transportation!) But this description really doesn't do the game
justice. While most educational titles try to wrap a tedious and lackluster
game around a bunch of humdrum facts, Agent USA does the opposite: it provides
a fun, interesting experience that incidentally rewards players for their
knowledge of U.S. cities. It's probably more accurately described as a
well-executed action/adventure game that happens to have educational elements.
The essence of the game is the deft combination of a fun traveling experience
(where you can travel to 100 cities in the United States by a complicated train
system) with the dramatic punch of a rapidly spreading plague. These elements
are glued together with some fun action-oriented game rules, some tongue-in-
cheek humor (which makes the game appropriate for all ages), and a charming
dose of eight-bit graphics, sound effects, and catchy music. In all, Agent USA
is an end-to-end fun experience, with a coffee-break gaming context (you can
play through a full game in 10 minutes or less) and high replay value. It's an
example of the eight-bit gaming period at its absolute peak.
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0.2 GAME VERSIONS
Agent USA appears to have been released for the Atari 800XL, Apple II,
Commodore 64, and PC. It may have reached its widest distribution on the Atari,
and based on a quick comparison of the versions recorded on YouTube (which have
slightly different graphics, sounds, intro screens, etc.), it may have been
released as a few different versions on at least one of these platforms with
superficial changes. The version reviewed herein is the Atari 800XL version
that is readily available on the net and works with Atari800Win and other
emulators.
One tidbit about the PC version is provided by Brian Heise and Servo (via
MobyGames): "Part of the copy-protection routine for the PC port of Agent USA
relied on a clever attempt to socially-engineer crackers: The program attempted
to see if sector 0 was writable, and if so, proceeded to write junk all over
it, rendering the diskette unbootable. Why is this clever? Because the original
factory diskette was write-protected (in fact, it lacked a notch completely)
and the check would always fail on a factory original."
Agent USA was remade in 1998 as Shareware by a gentleman named Richard C.
Yarnell, a/k/a Lothlorien, who resides in Baden, PA. It seems likely that the
remake was unauthorized, but since the original company is probably long
defunct, the original is probably an orphan work that can be freely copied.
The remake was released under a $2.00 Shareware license, but the unregistered
version doesn't seem to be crippled. While the author clearly appreciated the
original and tried to come close to modeling the experience, a lot of the charm
of the original is missing from the remake. The cities are different, the
graphics and sounds are very different, and there is no music or introduction.
I only spent a minute with it, but the unregistered version is freely available
at Home of the Underdogs (
http://www.the-underdogs.info) for further study.
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1. GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS
1.1 GAMEPLAY
The game begins at the main menu, where you can select one of two difficulty
levels (using the Select button on the Atari version, anyway.) The "Basic" game
begins by placing you in a U.S. city and the FuzzBomb in a different city,
where it starts infecting helpless citizens. The "Advanced" game gives the
FuzzBomb a huge head start - several days, in fact! - so that the Fuzz has
spread across half of the country at the start. You're still placed in a random
city, but the program won't start you in a fuzzed city - that would just be
mean...
Each city in the game is a set of a few walled rooms with a train station (and
skyline) at the top. Each city also contains a few friendly citizens (wearing
black hats) and a ticket kiosk where you can see the train schedule and buy a
ticket. The state capitals and Washington, DC also have an information kiosk,
which will display a map of the United States, your location and the FuzzBomb's
location, and the spread of the Fuzz plague across the U.S. (Cities that have
been overrun, including the current home of the FuzzBomb, are shown as black
dots and labeled as "Fuzzed City"; other cities are white, and will show you
the number of crystals present there.)
You also begin the game with a stock of ten crystals. You can grow more simply
by leaving them on the ground for a while, and you can pick up a maximum of 100
crystals.
You are free to travel to other cities by train (the tickets are free, and you
can also hitchhike.) But the Fuzz is also on the move! FuzzBodies also take the
train system to new cities and can steadily overrun them, and the FuzzBomb
occasionally moves to a nearby city (for some inexplicable reason.)
Eventually you will encounter the Fuzz, either when you arrive at a fuzzed city
or when FuzzBodies step off of a train in your current location. When they do,
you (and your fellow citizens) will fight against them by dropping crystals to
de-fuzz them. If you clean out the city of FuzzBodies, life returns to normal
there (until the Fuzz invade again.) But if you touch a FuzzBody, you get
lose half of your crystals, and if you have none then you become a FuzzBody
yourself! You will lose control of your character, who will happily bounce
around at random - sometimes even stumbling onto a train bound for another
city! If you're lucky, your fuzzed self will bump into a crystal (or a citizen
will drop one in your path), de-fuzzing you and giving you control over your
character - but with no crystals on hand.
With luck and cunning, you may eventually track down the FuzzBomb and come face
to, er, screen with it. If you arrive with a full load of 100 crystals in hand,
or if you manage to hold off the assaulting FuzzBodies long enough to grow up a
full stock, then you simply touch the FuzzBomb to destroy it and win the game.
(Touching it with any less than 100 crystals causes you to lose all of them and
become de-fuzzed.)
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1.2 CONTROLS
The game is controlled by one joystick (or its equivalent mapping on your
system, such as arrow keys.) Moving the joystick steers your guy around.
Pushing the fire button does nothing if you're standing still, but if you are
walking, you can press the fire button to drop a crystal behind you, or hold it
down to lay a trail of crystals behind you.
The text menus (both in the information kiosk and the ticket station) work as
you'd expect - just use the joystick to maneuver between options. The only
place where you'll need to do something different is when you're buying a
ticket and have to type the name of the city. (I have no idea why the
programmers organized it in this manner... maybe they thought about using this
game as a typing tutor as well?)
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2. GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS AND TACTICS
2.1 GAME PLAN
The overall game plan comprises four steps: Locate the FuzzBomb, travel to the
FuzzBomb, grow up a full load of crystals, and destroy the FuzzBomb. (The
second and third steps can be pursued simulaneously.)
Of these four steps, the second one takes the longest - most of the game,
actually. Trains move slowly; connections may be indirect or inconvenient; you
may miss a train, or stop to de-fuzz a city, grow crystals, or relocate the
FuzzBomb after it moves. Accordingly, you should prioritize traveling toward
the FuzzBomb over the other activities. Even de-fuzzing a city is something of
a waste of time, because the Fuzz spreads much more quickly than you can
contain it; while you're de-fuzzing one city, six others will fall...
Your first step is to locate the FuzzBomb and figure out how to reach it. Of
course, when you first start, you have no idea where it is, and you're just
running blindly until you find out. So your first order of business is to get
to a state capital - *any* state capital - and consult an information kiosk.
Along the way, you can drop a few crystals and build up your supply slowly -
not enough for an assault on the FuzzBomb, but enough to last you through some
unpleasant FuzzBody encounters.
Once you've found your target, you can plan a series of trips there. The
quickest way to a city is to travel first to the region of the country by an
express train, and then catch a few local hops to the city. For instance, if
you're in Sacramento, California on the west coast and you're trying to reach
Akron, Ohio in the midwest, you should try to get to a major city - San
Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle - and then catch an express train to
Chicago. That will be a lot faster than catching a series of short hops halfway
across the country.
As you get closer to the FuzzBomb, you'll start encountering fuzzed cities. You
can either stop and spend time de-fuzzing them, or you can just try to leave as
soon as you can (e.g., by freeloading on the next train out of town.) If
everyone in the city is fuzzed, then your options are a little more limited,
because the FuzzBodies will attack you en masse! If you're very low or out of
crystals, then your only option is to freeload out of town ASAP. But if you
have even a small stash of crystals, you can try to de-fuzz the city - or at
least sow enough chaos to keep the FuzzBodies occupied while you consult the
kiosk and head out of town.
When you finally reach the FuzzBomb, you'll need to grow up a full load of 100
crystals. This may require you to cope with FuzzBodies - both those that are
there when you arrive, and the unfortunate citizens who bumble into the
FuzzBomb after you've already de-fuzzed them. Eventually, you'll have a full
load of crystals, and you can take out the FuzzBomb.
Two events may occur that alter your game plan. First, the FuzzBomb
occasionally moves to a new city, so if you're not prompt in reaching your
destination, you may find just af Fuzzed city in its wake. The good news is
that it always travels to a neighboring city. (Presumably it travels by
locomotive... I've never seen it jump cross-country as if by express train...
I presume that the ticketing agent refuses to sell train passes to the
FuzzBomb, so it has to freeload. ;) ) If this happens to you, you could take a
stab at tracking it down by taking a random locomotive to a nearby city, but
that's a low-yield activity. Your better bet is to head to the state capital,
find an information kiosk, and re-route to the new target. The FuzzBomb moves
so infrequently that it's very unlikely that it will evade you more than once
in the same game.
Second, you may have some unpleasant Fuzz entanglements that leave you with few
crystals, no crystals, or even trapped in a FuzzBody. These scenarios call for
three different solutions:
1) If you're merely low on crystals, try getting to a relatively safe city
(even a fuzzed city can be OK if it's small and has few occupants) and growing
up a healthy stash of 50 crystals or so.
2) If you're actually out of crystals, it's not really a problem - citizens
carry crystals and occasionally drop them if their city contains any
FuzzBodies (especially if they're being pursued.) So you can just head to
a few cities to see if you can find even one crystal, and then carefully
cultivate a new crop.
3) If you find yourself fuzzed, don't despair... often a friendly citizen will
drop a crystal that cures your fuzziness! So you can just wait, watch, and see
what happens. (If you're running Agent USA through an emulator, this is a good
time to use the "Run At Full Speed" or "Skip Frames" features - just to save
yourself some waiting-around time.)
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2.2 TRANSPORTATION
Every city in the game is along a nationwide railroad, and every city offers
between four and twelve destinations by rail. Every city will have a train drop
by approximately every 15 to 45 seconds; each train pulls up to the station,
stops for 10 seconds for boarding/deboarding, and then pulls away. You can hear
the progress of these trains throughout the city.
Two types of trains will convey you to these destinations: regular trains
(which look like a locomotive choo-choo with some red passenger cars attached),
and express trains (which look like aerodynamic, streamlined, black bullet
trains.) Locomotives travel more slowly to nearby cities (one or two states
away), while exprss trains travel more quickly among large cities. Only the
largest twelve of the 100 cities are visited by express trains. You can
determine the type of train from the schedule at the ticketing kiosk: express
trains have an asterisk to the left of the destination.
You can travel on board these trains in one of two ways. The easiest way is to
buy a ticket for a destination, and then catch a train headed there. (You don't
have to buy a ticket for any particular train - your ticket is good for any
train to that destination city.) Because the destinations for each city are
fixed, they cycle pretty quickly, so if you miss a train to your destination of
choice, you can just catch the next one.
There's no charge for the train travel or tickets. However, you can only hold
one ticket at a time; if you try to acquire a second one, you'll be informed
that your first ticket has been canceled.
Have you tried to board the wrong locomotive train - one for which you don't
have a ticket? The game will actually let you stop onto the train, but after a
second it will kick you off, and not let you board that train again. (This is
only true for locomotives; express trains can't be boarded at all unless you
have the right ticket.) This can be useful: if you're trying to catch a
particular train but you forget its ETA, you can try boarding each train to
see if you get to stay on board or not.
This tactic also leads to the second method of travel: freeloading! If you time
your boarding of a locomotive train within the last second before it departs,
you won't get kicked off - even if you don't have the right ticket, or any
ticket for that matter. The trick is the timing - if you board too early, you
get kicked off, but if you board too late you miss the train. However, you have
a full second of viable timing here. Here's the secret: If you board the
locomotive any time during its "steam" sound (the last sound that it makes
before it pulls away), you'll be fine. After you try this a few times, you'll
find it so easy that you'll only buy tickets for express trains.
(One general comment about travel: FuzzBodies travel by train as well, so if
you're standing near the top of the train station when a train arrives, you may
get sacked by a deboarding FuzzBody. Always stand off to the side or back a few
paces when a new train arrives, so that you have time to react in case a
FuzzBody emerges.)
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2.3 CRYSTAL GROWTH
Growing crystals is easy: Just drop some on the ground and wait. More crystals
will spawn nearby at a random rate. The more you drop, the more quickly they
will grow, too. In fact, they can grow to fill up the entire space of your
current room - and even through door openings into other rooms! The growth rate
appears to be equal in all cities.
(One helpful tip here: Crystals grow in grid patterns, and will only spawn if
there's space in the eight grid points around them. This means that if you
drop some crystals and wait, they'll form a solid block that will expand
outward. However, once the inner core is solidly filled, the growth will be
strictly at the periphery of the crystal mass - i.e., the inner crystals have
no space to grow. You can change this by carving a tunnel through the middle of
the crystal mass - just walk right through the middle of the crystal mass. The
outer crystals will reproduce at the same rate, but the inner ones will also
begin reproducing again to fill the tunnel. This accelerates the rate of
crystal growth and can help you build up your crystal supply more quickly.)
In general, crystal-growing is so easy that you can do it adequately in your
free time: while you're waiting for a train, you can drop a few and pick up the
new growth ones, and then clear out the field when your train arrives. This
might even be sufficient to get you into the FuzzBomb city with a full stock of
100 crystals. (Hence, you should plan on spending more time coordinating your
travel than growing crystals.)
So, yes - growing crystals is easy. The hard part is keeping them! Citizens are
lured by crystals, and will make a beeline for them and start picking them up.
Worse, their inventory is a lot more limited than yours - they can only carry
ten crystals - but their desire isn't, so they will pursue and destroy any
crystals laying on the ground even if they can't carry them. A single citizen
can devastate a crystal field, taking out half of it while you're trying to
shoo them away.
So your biggest challenge in trying to grow crystals is fending off all of the
citizens who want to pick them up. Fortunately, you can be a bit of a bully
here: you can block citizens with your body to prevent them from reaching the
crystals.
There are two general methods of doing this. You can essentially play "pong"
with them: if you stand in their way, they will generally bounce off of you and
get redirected in the opposite direction. This works OK, but their walking can
be erratic - they may dodge at the last moment and get past you; or they may
rebound off of you, but suddenly reverse directions when you don't expect it.
The other method is to push them away from the crystals. You can just walk
against them to change their direction, and hence shove them someplace else. In
fact, it may be helpful to shove them completely out of the room. They will
come back, of course - sometimes immediately - but on average, it seems to take
them longer to negotiate the entrance to the room. Foregoing that, you can
indefinitely trap a citizen by shoving him up against a wall and holding him
there. (Just keep pushing him against the wall - he can't go anywhere.) If
you're really good, you might even be able to trap two or more citizens in a
stack against a wall. A third helpful tactic is to shove them onto a train! You
can push a citizen onto any train - even an express train - and he won't come
back. (Citizens appparently don't have to purchase tickets, and don't get
kicked off of trains.) It's oddly satisfying to take revenge on a citizen who's
devastated your crystal supply by shoving him on a train to Tulsa. Sayonara!...
In fact, you can actually empty a city by pushing each of its citizens onto
trains, but you'll have to be aggressive - citizens continue to arrive by
train, and you have to push them back onto the train to keep the city clear.
Of course, while you're shoving around one citizen, the rest are still lured to
your crystal supply and pursuing it. In general, if you find two citizens in
the same room as your crystal stash, you'd better start picking up the
crystals, because you can't control both of them and they'll wipe out anything
that's left.
Another tactic is to plant a few crystals in each of several rooms of a city,
which can grow and flourish simultaneously. It's impossible to guard them
against citizens, but you can replenish a field in one room while the others
continue to thrive. However, this is only advantageous in cities with few
citizens; in more populous cities, the citizens will destroy your crystal
fields more quickly than you can restock them.
The final tactic that's helpful for growing crystals is to be selective about
where you grow crystals. It's easier to protect a crystal field in a small city
with only a few citizens than in a large city swarming with citizens. It's also
easier to grow them in a room with one entrance (which you can block and guard
carefully) than one with two or three entrances. It's helpful to grow crystals
in the train station at the top of the map - which has only one entrance, and
where you can toss unruly citizens onto trains out of town... but you also have
an intermittent influx of passengers coming off of the trains, which can be
hard to control. (Even worse, some of them may be FuzzBodies!)
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2.4 FUZZED CITIES AND FUZZBODIES
You step off of the train into an eerily desolate train station. The train
pulls away, leaving you standing in a silent, empty station. You can
practically envision digital tumbleweed rolling across the platform...
Suddenly, a walking ball of TV static wanders onto the screen and makes a
beeline for you. You zap him with a crystal, and he becomes a normal citizen -
but more FuzzBodies amble on-screen, and they're all headed in your
direction...
Welcome to your first fuzzed city! You'll have this encounter replay several
times as you close in on the FuzzBomb (particularly in Advanced mode, where
half of the nation is fuzzed at the start of the game.)
It won't always play out this way, of course. You may arrive in a city with
some FuzzBodies already bumbling around the train station; or you may find
yourself in a perfectly normal city, when some FuzzBodies step off of a train
from a nearby fuzzed city. So goes the spread of the Fuzz.
Fortunately, you're not alone in your mission: the other citizens will fight
with you. Citizens can carry a few crystals (such as the ones that they swiped
from your crystal fields!), and they will drop them when they sense FuzzBodies
nearby. Sometimes this tactic is successful; in fact, the citizens of a city
can sometimes defend it from a fuzz attack without your assistance! But often
they will fail, thereby losing all of their crystals and becoming carriers of
the Fuzz plague to other cities.
In general, it's not in your interest to spend time fighting FuzzBodies. You
can return many of them to their ordinary citizen status by dropping crystals,
and with enough time you can clear out an entire city this way. However, you
are losing crystals in the process, especially if you get zapped by a
particularly agile FuzzBody. And while you're fighting to clear up a city, the
Fuzz continues to spread elsewhere - and your skills are just no match for the
speed of the Fuzz tide.
Nevertheless, you will often find yourself clearing out a fuzzed city. It may
be simply to avoid the frustration of being chased by FuzzBodies, such as when
you're trying to grow crystals. Also, you should probably clear a city before
consulting a ticketing or information kiosk; you can get zapped by a FuzzBody
while you're not paying attention to your surroundings. So you'll need some
tactics in your playbook for quickly clearing out a fuzzed city.
The first rule of thumb is: Don't be stingy with crystals - you can regrow them
later, and it's easier to regrow the 15 that you dropped than the 50 that you
lost by getting zapped by a FuzzBody. You can be liberal without being wasteful
here.
The easiest tactic is to get a single FuzzBody pursuing you, and then to drop a
crystal. You may actually want to drop a few (five or so) and let the citizen
pick up the rest as ammunition against other FuzzBodies. However, that tactic
doesn't work well against a swarm of FuzzBodies, which can re-zap each other
almost immediately.
Another effective tactic, especially against a group of FuzzBodies, is to drop
a lot of crystals (maybe 20) in a loose grouping, and then hide behind it. This
tends to be a good use of crystals: FuzzBodies will get zapped back to normal
citizen status and pick up a few, which can be used against the other
FuzzBodies behind them.
Arming your fellow citizens with a few crystals each is an effective tactic.
Your citizens sometimes prove remarkably smart: they may pick up a few crystals
from a field, run toward a FuzzBody, and drop a crystal to de-zap them. This is
also helpful in the event that you get trapped and Fuzzed; while your fuzzed
persona bounces around at random, a citizen may de-fuzz you, and may even drop
an extra crystal so that you can begin replenishing your supply. In fact,
watching a cluster of citizens fight off a wave of FuzzBodies is one of the
most enjoyable parts of the game - a dynamic, chaotic experience... Of course,
when all of the Fuzz is gone, citizens resume their ordinary ways - and will
quickly scavenge and destroy the crystals that you left laying around.
Again, location is important: where you choose to fight your battles will
partly determine the outcome. The train station is a good place; its
narrowness and single entrance limit your exposed attack surface. Also, you can
push de-fuzzed citizens onto trains to get them out of the battle! Of course,
other citizens (and FuzzBodies) will pour back into the battleground from other
trains, but at least you can control things a bit better. This is especially
effective in the city where the FuzzBomb resides, because unless you destroy it
or it moves, citizens will continue bumping into it and getting fuzzed.
One word of caution - when you're in a fuzzed city, be careful when walking
between rooms: you might enter a room right on top of a FuzzBody, or one may
enter *your* room by the door you were just about to leave through. There's not
much helpful advice here - just be sure that you have some extra crystals
around (either laying on the ground, or in the hands of your fellow citizens)
in case you need to replenish or de-fuzz.
One final suggestion - when you arrive in a city with an empty train station,
you won't know if it's fuzzed or not. Rather than walking blindly into a
hornet's nest, you might consider laying a line of crystals across the train
station entrance (at the bottom of the screen.) You'll soon see either a
citizen (lured by the free crystals) or a FuzzBody (lured by you) that is
immediately zapped back into citizenhood.
---
2.5 FUZZBOMB ASSAULT
This is actually pretty easy. You just have to grow up a stock of 100 crystals
and walk into the FuzzBomb. Yes, you need 100 crystals - even if you 99, your
effort to destroy it will fail (and you'll be fuzzed yourself.)
Of course, the city of the FuzzBomb's lair is never devoid of citizens, who
have invariably been fuzzed. You might be able to get away with planting a few
crystals, de-fuzzing a few FuzzBodies, and letting them fight it out with the
rest, while you slip past the melee and take down the FuzzBomb. More likely,
you'll have to spend more crystals de-fuzzing most or all of the citizens, and
then replenish.
Either way, you're going to have to re-grow at least a few crystals before you
hit the bomb. This can be difficult, because your fellow citizens are not
just going after your crystal field, but also stumbling into the FuzzBomb and
getting re-zapped! You may even find it helpful or important to de-populate
the city a bit by shoving citizens onto the train (but past a certain point,
the law of diminishing returns kicks in - you might not be able to keep up
with the new citizens and FuzzBodies deboarding from incoming trains.) You
can make life a little easier on yourself by arriving in the FuzzBomb city with
a full complement of crystals - i.e., when you know that your next destination
is the FuzzBomb's residence, spend extra time in your current city growing up
your supply.
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3. CITY REFERENCE
CITY TIME ZONE STATE CAPITAL
Akron, OH ET
Regular Connections: Cleveland, OH; Toledo, OH; Columbus, OH; Pittsburgh, PA
Albany, NY ET *
Regular Connections: Syracuse, NY; Concord, NH; Springfield, MA;
New York City, NY; Montpelier, VT
Albuquerque, NM MT
Regular Connections: El Paso, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Santa Fe, NM; Tucson, AZ
Annapolis, MD ET *
Regular Connections: Washington, DC; Richmond, VA; Norfolk, VA; Dover, DE
Atlanta, GA ET *
Express Connections: Dallas, TX; New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL;
Washington, DC; New York City, NY
Regular Connections: Nashville, TN; Charleston, SC; Knoxville, TN;
Birmingham, AL; Tallahassee, FL; Columbia, SC
Augusta, ME ET *
Regular Connections: Boston, MA; Concord, NH; Springfield, MA; Montpelier, VT
Austin, TX CT *
Regular Connections: Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; San Antonio, TX; El Paso, TX
Baltimore, MD ET
Regular Connections: Harrisburg, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Philadelphia, PA;
Washington, DC; Wilmington, DE
Baton Rouge, LA CT *
Regular Connections: New Orleans, LA; Mobile, AL; Jackson, MS; Houston, TX
Birmingham, AL CT
Regular Connections: Atlanta, GA; Jackson, MS; Montgomery, AL; Memphis, TN
Bismarck, ND CT *
Regular Connections: Omaha, NE; Pierre, SD; Helena, MT; St. Paul, MN
Boise, ID MT *
Regular Connections: Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; Helena, MT;
Carson City, NV
Boston, MA ET *
Express Connections: New York City, NY
Regular Connections: Hartford, CT; Augusta, ME; Providence, RI;
Springfield, MA; Concord, NH
Buffalo, NY ET
Regular Connections: Pittsburgh, PA; Scranton, PA; Cleveland, OH;
Rochester, NY
Carson City, NV PT *
Regular Connections: Boise, ID; San Francisco, CA; Fresno, CA; Sacramento, CA
Charleston, SC ET
Regular Connections: Jacksonville, FL; Norfolk, VA; Atlanta, GA;
Charlotte, NC; Columbia, SC
Charleston, WV ET *
Regular Connections: Columbus, OH; Knoxville, TN; Richmond, VA; Raleigh, NC;
Pittsburgh, PA; Charlotte, NC
Charlotte, NC ET
Regular Connections: Columbia, SC; Raleigh, NC; Charleston, WV;
Knoxville, TN; Greensboro, NC; Charleston, SC
Cheyenne, WY MT *
Regular Connections: Denver, CO; Pierre, SD; Salt Lake City, UT; Helena, MT
Chicago, IL CT
Express Connections: Seattle, WA; Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX; Washington, DC;
New York City, NY; Denver, CO
Regular Connections: Milwaukee, WI; Grand Rapids, MI; Madison, WI;
Springfield, IL; Detroit, MI
Cincinnati, OH ET
Regular Connections: Louisville, KY; Columbus, OH; Frankfort, KY;
Indianapolis, IN
Cleveland, OH ET
Regular Connections: Buffalo, NY; Columbus, OH; Akron, OH; Toledo, OH
Columbia, SC ET *
Regular Connections: Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Jacksonville, FL;
Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; Greensboro, NC
Columbus, OH ET *
Regular Connections: Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Charleston, WV;
Toledo, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Akron, OH
Concord, NH ET *
Regular Connections: Montpelier, VT; Boston, MA; Augusta, ME; Springfield, MA
Dallas, TX CT
Express Connections: Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA;
New Orleans, LA
Regular Connections: San Antonio, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Little Rock, AR;
Austin, TX; Houston, TX
Denver, CO MT *
Express Connections: Seattle, WA; Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA;
San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL
Regular Connections: Salt Lake City, UT; Topeka, KS; Santa Fe, NM;
Cheyenne, WY
Des Moines, IA CT *
Regular Connections: Omaha, NE; Springfield, IL; St. Paul, MN;
Jefferson City, MO; Madison, WI
Detroit, MI ET
Regular Connections: Chicago, IL; Toledo, OH; Lansing, MI; Flint, MI
Dover, DE ET *
Regular Connections: Annapolis, MD; Newark, NJ; Wilmington, DE; Trenton, NJ
El Paso, TX MT
Regular Connections: San Antonio, TX; Albuquerque, NM; Tucson, AZ;
Austin, TX; Santa Fe, NM
Flint, MI ET
Regular Connections: Lansing, MI; Toledo, OH; Grand Rapids, MI; Detroit, MI
Frankfort, KY ET *
Regular Connections: Cincinnati, OH; Nashville, TN; Louisville, KY;
Knoxville, TN
Fresno, CA PT
Regular Connections: Sacramento, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Carson City, NV;
Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA
Grand Rapids, MI ET
Regular Connections: Chicago, IL; Toledo, OH; Flint, MI; Lansing, MI
Greensboro, NC ET
Regular Connections: Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Columbia, SC; Richmond, VA
Harrisburg, PA ET *
Regular Connections: Scranton, PA; Trenton, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA;
Rochester, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD
Hartford, CT ET *
Regular Connections: Providence, RI; New York City, NY; Boston, MA;
Springfield, MA
Helena, MT MT *
Regular Connections: Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY; Boise, ID;
Salt Lake City, UT; Olympia, WA
Houston, TX CT
Regular Connections: Baton Rouge, LA; San Antonio, TX; Dallas, TX; Austin, TX
Indianapolis, IN ET *
Regular Connections: Springfield, IL; Louisville, KY; St. Louis, MO;
Cincinnati, OH
Jackson, MS CT *
Regular Connections: New Orleans, LA; Little Rock, AR; Birmingham, AL;
Memphis, TN; Batom Rouge, LA
Jacksonville, FL ET
Regular Connections: Tallahassee, FL; Charleston, SC; Tampa, FL; Miami, FL;
Orlando, FL; Columbia, SC
Jefferson City, MO CT *
Regular Connections: Kansas City, MO; St. Louis, MO; Des Moines, IA;
Tulsa, OK
Kansas City, MO CT
Regular Connections: Lincoln, NE; Jefferson City, MO; Tulsa, OK; Omaha, NE;
Topeka, KS
Knoxville, TN ET
Regular Connections: Frankfort, KY; Nashville, TN; Charlotte, NC;
Charleston, WV; Atlanta, GA
Lansing, MI ET *
Regular Connections: Grand Rapids, MI; Toledo, OH; Flint, MI; Detroit, MI
Las Vegas, NV PT
Regular Connections: Fresno, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Salt Lake City, UT;
Phoenix, AZ; San Diego, CA
Lincoln, NE CT *
Regular Connections: Pierre, SD; Topeka, KS; Omaha, NE; Kansas City, MO
Little Rock, AR CT *
Regular Connections: Dallas, TX; Memphis, TN; Tulsa, OK; Jackson, MS;
Oklahoma City, OK
Los Angeles, CA PT
Express Connections: Denver, CO; Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA
Regular Connections: Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; San Diego, CA
Louisville, KY ET
Regular Connections: St. Louis, MO; Cincinnati, OH; Indianapolis, IN;
Nashville, TN; Frankfort, KY
Madison, WI CT *
Regular Connections: St. Paul, MN; Milwaukee, WI; Des Moines, IA; Chicago, IL
Memphis, TN CT
Regular Connections: St. Louis, MO; Jackson, MS; Nashville, TN;
Little Rock, AR; Birmingham, AL
Miami, FL ET
Express Connections: Washington, DC; Atlanta, GA; New York City, NY
Regular Connections: Jacksonville, FL; Orlando, FL; Tampa, FL
Milwaukee, WI CT
Regular Connections: Madison, WI; Chicago, IL; St. Paul, MN; Springfield, IL
Mobile, AL CT
Regular Connections: Baton Rouge, LA; Tallahassee, FL; New Orleans, LA;
Montgomery, AL
Montgomery, AL CT *
Regular Connections: Mobile, AL; Birmingham, AL; New Orleans, LA;
Tallahassee, FL
Montpelier, VT ET *
Regular Connections: Augusta, ME; Syracuse, NY; Concord, NH; Albany, NY
Nashville, TN CT *
Regular Connections: Frankfort, KY; Atlanta, GA; Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN;
Knoxville, TN
New Orleans, LA CT
Express Connections: Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX
Regular Connections: Baton Rouge, LA; Jackson, MS; Mobile, AL; Montgomery, AL
New York City, NY ET
Express Connections: Miami, FL; Washington, DC; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL;
Atlanta, GA
Regular Connections: Providence, RI; Newark, NJ; Albany, NY; Scranton, PA;
Hartford, CT
Newark, NJ ET
Regular Connections: New York City, NY; Dover, DE; Syracuse, NY; Trenton, NJ;
Scranton, PA
Norfolk, VA ET
Regular Connections: Charleston, SC; Annapolis, MD; Raleigh, NC;
Washington, DC; Richmond, VA
Oklahoma City, OK CT *
Regular Connections: Santa Fe, NM; Tulsa, OK; Dallas, TX; Little Rock, AR
Olympia, WA PT *
Regular Connections: Portland, OR; Helena, MT; Salem, OR; Seattle, WA
Omaha, NE CT
Regular Connections: Lincoln, NE; Bismarck, ND; Kansas City, MO;
Des Moines, IA
Orlando, FL ET
Regular Connections: Miami, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Tampa, FL; Tallahassee, FL
Philadelphia, PA ET
Regular Connections: Trenton, NJ; Harrisburg, PA; Washington, DC;
Baltimore, MD; Wilmington, DE
Phoenix, AZ MT *
Regular Connections: San Diego, CA; Albuquerque, NM; Los Angeles, CA;
Tucson, AZ; Las Vegas, NV
Pierre, SD CT *
Regular Connections: St. Paul, MN; Lincoln, NE; Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY
Pittsburgh, PA ET
Regular Connections: Columbus, OH; Buffalo, NY; Akron, OH; Harrisburg, PA;
Charleston, WV; Baltimore, MD
Portland, OR PT
Regular Connections: Boise, ID; Seattle, WA; Salem, OR; Olympia, WA
Providence, RI ET *
Regular Connections: Hartford, CT; Boston, MA; Springfield, MA;
New York City, NY
Raleigh, NC ET *
Regular Connections: Columbia, SC; Charleston, WV; Greensboro, NC;
Norfolk, VA; Charlotte, NC; Richmond, VA
Richmond, VA ET *
Regular Connections: Washington, DC; Norfolk, VA; Greensboro, NC;
Charleston, WV; Annapolis, MD; Raleigh, NC
Rochester, NY ET
Regular Connections: Syracuse, NY; Harrisburg, PA; Scranton, PA; Buffalo, NY
Sacramento, CA PT *
Regular Connections: San Francisco, CA; Fresno, CA; Carson City, NV;
Salem, OR
Salem, OR PT *
Regular Connections: Olympia, WA; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR
Salt Lake City, UT MT *
Regular Connections: Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Boise, ID; Cheyenne, WY;
Helena, MT
San Antonio, TX CT
Regular Connections: El Paso, TX; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Austin, TX
San Diego, CA PT
Regular Connections: Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Tucson, AZ; Las Vegas, NV
San Francisco, CA PT
Express Connections: Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO
Regular Connections: Sacramento, CA; Carson City, NV; Fresno, CA
Santa Fe, NM MT *
Regular Connections: Albuquerque, NM; Oklahoma City, OK; El Paso, TX;
Denver, CO
Scranton, PA ET
Regular Connections: New York City, NY; Buffalo, NY; Harrisburg, PA;
Rochester, NY; Syracuse, NY; Newark, NJ
Seattle, WA PT
Express Connections: Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO
Regular Connections: Portland, OR; Salem, OR; Olympia, WA
Springfield, IL CT *
Regular Connections: Indianapolis, IN; Des Moines, IA; Chicago, IL;
St. Louis, MO; Milwaukee, WI
Springfield, MA ET
Regular Connections: Boston, MA; Augusta, ME; Hartford, CT; Albany, NY;
Concord, NH; Providence, RI
St. Louis, MO CT
Regular Connections: Indianapolis, IN; Jefferson City, MO; Springfield, IL;
Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN
St. Paul, MN CT *
Regular Connections: Des Moines, IA; Bismarck, ND; Pierre, SD; Milwaukee, WI;
Madison, WI
Syracuse, NY ET
Regular Connections: Albany, NY; Rochester, NY; Newark, NJ; Montpelier, VT;
Scranton, PA
Tallahassee, FL ET *
Regular Connections: Tampa, FL; Orlando, FL; Atlanta, GA; Mobile, AL;
Montgomery, AL; Jacksonville, FL
Tampa, FL ET
Regular Connections: Orlando, FL; Miami, FL; Tallahassee, FL;
Jacksonville, FL
Toledo, OH ET
Regular Connections: Akron, OH; Flint, MI; Cleveland, OH; Grand Rapids, MI;
Detroit, Mi; Columbus, OH; Lansing, MI
Topeka, KS CT *
Regular Connections: Kansas City, MO; Denver, CO; Lincoln, NE; Tulsa, OK
Trenton, NJ ET *
Regular Connections: Harrisburg, PA; Philadelphia, PA; Newark, NJ; Dover, DE;
Wilmington, DE
Tucson, AZ MT
Regular Connections: San Diego, CA; El Paso, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Albuquerque, NM
Tulsa, OK CT
Regular Connections: Oklahoma City, OK; Topeka, KS; Little Rock, AR;
Jefferson City, MO; Kansas City, MO
Washington, DC ET *
Express Connections: Miami, FL; Chicago, IL; Atlanta, GA; New York City, NY
Regular Connections: Annapolis, MD; Norfolk, VA; Baltimore, MD; Richmond, VA;
Philadelphia, PA
Wilmington, DE ET
Regular Connections: Baltimore, MD; Trenton, NJ; Dover, DE; Philadelphia, PA
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4. MISCELLANEOUS
4.1 SKIES
The sky changes color (on each hour) to reflect the passage of time. Each
change occurs on an hour break. It's not perfect - daybreak is at 4am, and dusk
lasts until midnight - but it's still a really nice effect that adds to the
atmosphere.
- 12:00am: The sky is dark gray, the buildings are black, and the lights are
on.
- 2:00am: The lights on the buildings go out, and the city sleeps (but the
trains keep running, and the Fuzz keeps spreading!)
- 4:00am: The sky turns blue to represent dawn breaks (a bit early, isn't it?),
but the buildings keep the lights off.
- 6:00am: The sky turns purple, and the buildings on the skyline turn the
lights on dimly.
- 7:00am: The sky turns a lighter purple, and the lights come on a little
brighter.
- 8:00am: The sky turns light blue, the buildings turn gray, and the windows
turn black.
- 10:00am: The sky turns a lighter blue, and the buildings turn a lighter shade
of gray.
- 12:00pm: The sky turns a very light blue, and the buildings turn a very light
shade of gray.
- 2:00pm: The sky turns a slightly darker shade of blue.
- 4:00pm: The sky turns a little darker, and the buildings turn a darker shade
of gray.
- 6:00pm: The sky turns a medium blue, and the buildings turn a medium gray.
- 8:00pm: The sky turns a darker blue, the buildings turn a darker gray, and
the lights come on at a low level.
- 10:00pm: The sky turns a very dark blue, the buildings turn black, and
the lights come on fully.
- 12:00am: The buildings turn black against the dark gray backdrop of the
sky...
---
4.2 SKYLINES
The skyline changes to match the city. For the most part, the buildings in each
city are a generic assortment - but in New York City, you can see the Empire
State Building and the Twin Towers (yep, it's from the 20th century.) The
backdrop also changes: in cities that border water (including Cleveland), the
buildings are shown against a backdrop of a sea; and in cities situated in the
mountains (Denver), the backdrop has a mountain range. It's a really nice touch
that lends a lot to the feeling of traveling.
---
4.3 TRAINS
As noted above, the trains run on preset schedules for each city - you'll see
the list of cities on a train schedule cycle in order as the schedule
progresses. It's also clear that the trains pull up to the station in a city
from a designated direction - either left or right - and that the directions
are not random, but ordered and cycling. It's become apparent that the
directions in which the trains travel - left or right - accurately reflects the
direction in which the train is headed - west or east. Pretty cool, huh?
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5. REVISION HISTORY
v1.0 - First version. Everything is pretty much complete, so additions and
revisions will probably occur only if readers send me new or corrected
information. (I thought for a while of creating a point-to-point destination
guide - the quickest route from city A to city B... until I realized that with
100 cities, I would need 9,900 entries!)
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6. CREDITS
This FAQ was written by David J. Stein, Esq. in May 2007 as an escape from my
usual work (patent law and programming.)
Special thanks to:
Tom Snyder and Omar Khudari - for writing such a cool game with such neat
details and a lot of fun.
The authors of Atari800Win - for writing an emulator so that I could replay and
document this game.
Starbucks - the unofficial sponsor of this FAQ.
Contact Info: Please feel free to contact me at
[email protected] with
information about this game. Be sure to include "Agent USA" in the subject
line - otherwise, your message will probably get miscategorized by my spam
filters.
-------------------------------- _A_ <> _*_ ---------------------------------
