SKOOL DAZE
FAQ
By Osafune2
Commodore 64/ZX Spectrum
© 2006

[email protected]


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Table of Contents
=============================

1. Introduction
2. Legal Information
3. Version History
4. About the game
5. Walkthrough
6. Final Word



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1. Introduction
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Hello there and welcome to my latest relatively small project for Skool
Daze, released in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. I recently
checked on GameFAQs and it seemed that no one had written anything for this
great game, not even a review! Well naturally, as I loved this game as a
child and recently re-discovered it I decided to write a brief FAQ detailing
the ins and outs of the game. This game is fantastic and original, one of
the only school sims I can think of, it doesn't depict school life as it is
now with guns, drugs and teenage pregnancy :), but rather a more simple era.

This was one of the first games to really have any sort of AI, at least on
the spectrum and it was rather influential, go and play it on emulator now!


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2. Legal Information
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This FAQ and its contents are copyright Joseph "Osafune2" Southgate 2006. You
may not take this as your own, edit it, use it for commercial gain such as
printing it in a magazine and you may not post it on your website without
prior permission from the author, so that would be me then. If you wish to
host this on your site then email me at [email protected] and I will
decide whether I deem it worthy.

These are the sites currently allowed to host this document:

GameFAQs - www.gamefaqs.com


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3. Version History
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Version 1.00 --> Pretty much everything is done for now, I have outlined how
                the game works and what you have to do etc and have finished
                every section I intended to include in the guide.


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4. About the game
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Skool Daze was originally developed by a game programmer called David Reidy,
he wrote it for the ZX Spectrum and it was then released by Microsphere in
1985 and it soon became one of the most loved games on the primitive
system and a port was subsequently made for the Commodore 64.

This is taken from the Instruction Manual, credits to Wikipedia for having
this information:

 You are Eric, a troublesome schoolboy, and your task is to steal a report
 card out of the school safe in the staff room to avoid getting into
 trouble! To do this, you must collect the combination letters of the safe
 and write them on a blackboard - Not such an easy task seeing as one letter
 of the four letter combination is held by each of the teachers in the
 school. In order to get them to tell you their number you must make all of
 the shields scattered around the school flash by hitting them or firing
 your catapult at them. Once all the shields are flashing, knocking the
 teachers over with your catapult will cause them to tell you their letter
 of the combination. All except Old Mr. Creak that is, who is so old he
 cannot be trusted to remember his letter. It has been hypnotically
 implanted in his mind and he will only remember it when he sees the number
 of the year he was born.

 To make things even harder, the school is teaming with kids and teachers
 and you are expected to attend lessons! Einstein is a swot and will tell
 on you if you do anything naughty, Angelface is a bully and will try to
 get you into trouble and Boy Wonder is a tearaway who loves to write on
 blackboards and fire his catapult at the teachers and other boys. Do
 anything wrong, or even just be caught in the wrong place at the wrong
 time - and you will be given lines. Collect over 10,000 lines and you will
 be expelled from school.

 Some shields are easy to reach, but others will require you to invent more
 ingenious methods of making them flash. Once you have your report, the
 chase isn't over as the flashing shields attract the attention of the
 teachers to your crime! This means you must turn them all off again in
 order to complete the year! And then there is next year...



The Characters
---------------

Eric is the hero of the game, you play as him.

Einstein is the swot and will grass on you, so be careful about doing
anything wrong when he is around. Do not hit him, ever, unless you want
200 lines next lesson.

Angel Face is the bully and will try to get you into trouble by hitting you
so the teachers tell you off for laying on the floor.

Boy Wonder is the tearaway kid who constantly fires his catapult when the
teacher isn't looking and this deed can often be blamed on you if you are
not careful, however it is easy to get him into trouble for points as well.

There are other various boys around the school, some of whom even give you
helpful tips at breaktime, you can punch these guys in the face for no
reason and stand on them and they never tell on you but you cannot hit them
with your catapult, nor can you get them into trouble.

Mr Creak is the history master and holds a combination letter. He teaches in
the reading room, he is very forgetful and you must tell him the year of
his birth to extract the letter from him once you light all the shields.

Mr. Rockitt is the bespectacled science master and teaches in the science
lab below Mr. Creaks reading room, he also holds a combination letter.

Mr. Withit is the Geography teacher and teaches in the right side of the
school in the map room, he is also a holder of a combination letter.

Mr. Wacker is the headmaster and resides in his office, he is a holder of the
last combination letter and is a tricky one to get, he also hosts the school
assemblies.


Lines
------

As you may know, the game centres around how many lines you get, get 10,000
and you are expelled. Basically if you are caught firing a catapult, hitting
another pupil, sitting on the floor, lying on the floor, in the wrong place
or lesson then you will be given lines. This seems to be random how much
you get, sometimes you get 200, other times you can get up to 700 lines for
trivial things. Also Einstein tells on you a lot so you can expect upwards
of 600 lines from that so watch out.

Try not to get caught late, if late for a lesson a teacher will search for
you and give you about 200 lines every few seconds until you are back at
lesson, if you have far to walk then you can end up with about 2000 lines
that you do not need. You can skive lessons but you need to be crafty and
keep moving before the teachers find you because when the bell goes they
no longer bother with you.

It is vital to learn your way around the school to avoid this. Basically
the reading room where Mr. Creak studies is on the top left, as is the
Headmasters office and the Science lab, located below the reading room.
The Map room is up the stairs on the top right and the other room beneath
it. The staircase on the far left is used to reach the Reading Room and
Science Lab and the right staircase the other two rooms.

The most frustrating thing is that in lessons there are never enough seats
and most of the time kids will barge you off your seat, and guess what? There
is almost nothing you can do about it except watch the lines build up, this
is so incredibly annoying it is unbelievable. Be sure to watch out for
Angel Face as well as he often punches you in front of teachers, and rather
than him getting the lines, the teachers tell you to get off the floor and
give you about 500 lines!


Points
------

Points are linked with lines, basically if you get another pupil in trouble,
either Boy Wonder, Angel Face or Einstein for something you did then you get
the number of lines they get as points. A good way to get points is to hang
around in the revision library and shoot Mr. Creak and then hang back with
the crowd, often Boy Wonder gets blamed for this so you get lots of points,
I have gotten many thousands from doing this. Basically, shoot teachers from
behind and merge with the crowd and you will be fine and you can score
points.

Also, in lessons try to sit at the back, or at least behind either Angel
Face, Boy Wonder or Einstein. This way, when the teachers back is turned you
can fire your catapult and someone else is almost guaranteed the blame,
netting you lots of points.


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5. Walkthrough
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Now there is no set way of getting all the shields, you can do this as
quickly as you like or take as long as you want, I will write strategies
on how you go about lighting all the shields but you will have to go to
lessons so just go there when the time comes and try to score points or
whatever. Anyway, here is the rough guide.

NOTE: At breaktime at the start, Einstein will be on his way to tell Mr.
Wacker about what you are up to, you must apprehend him from reaching his
office by the end of break otherwise it is 2000 lines for you, which is not
good.



--------------------
GETTING THE SHIELDS
--------------------


Dining Room
-----------

There are 4 shields in here, to get them, wait until there is a break time
and then stand around that area and wait for a teacher to come by, usually
Mr. Wihit will come here. When they do, shoot them from behind so they are
directly beneath the shield, it does take practice. When they are on the
floor, quickly hit them again to deflect it upwards and to cause the shield
to light up, do this on all four here.

NOTE: The shield on the far right can be hit from the stairs with a
catapult and the same goes for the far left one!


Exam Room
----------

The shield on the left can be hit using the catapult from the stairs leading
to the Map Room, for the others you need to knock over someone like Boy
Wonder and press J to jump on them and then jump up to hit the others.

Probably the best and easiest time to get these is when you have a lesson
and Mr. Wacker is walking from his office, just shoot someone and jump on
them to hit the shields.


The Balcony
-----------

This one should also be gotten at the start, simply jump to hit this one.


The Blue room on the top left
------------------------------

I dunno what it's called, sue me. Anyway, this is easy, just press J to hit
both of these.


The Reading Room
-----------------

You can either wait for a lesson in the Revision Library and then shoot Mr.
Creak when his back is turned and then once more to bounce a shot off his
head and hit the shields or do it in his lesson, you will probably get a lot
of lines for the former strategy, but there is also a hell of a lot of points
to be had.

NOTE: These can also be jumped at.

You also have to turn the Shields off using the same methods as before
otherwise you will be caught, annoying I know.


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GETTING THE COMBINATION NUMBERS
--------------------------------

Once you have activated the shields, the letters are got by simply knocking
down Wihit, Rockitt and Wacker with the catapult, be cautious though and
get pen and paper ready to write them down. Mr Creak is harder as you must
tell him the year of his birth, in one of his lessons he may ask when he was
born and Einstein will say "The Battle of [random]" you then have to wait
for another history lesson to learn when that battle was so write which
battle it was down on a piece of paper.

Once you have the number you then need to write it on a blackboard and wait
for him to see it to get his letter. Once you have the letters, head over to
the staff room and steal the report card from the safe and then you can see
the rather rubbish ending of you moving up a year, after that you can do it
all over again for the next year now, woo!


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6. Final Word
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Well, thanks for reading and I hope I was able to help any of you. Be sure
to check out some of my other work and also email me any tips or hints you
may have, though that may be unlikely due to the obscurity of this gem of
a game on GameFAQs. I really enjoyed writing this guide and I hope you
enjoyed reading it as well.

--Osafune2



© Joseph Southgate 2006, Skool Daze © Microsphere 1986 - 2006.

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