Back to the Future

Back to the Future
For the Nintendo Entertainment System

General FAQ/Walkthrough
Written by Reverend Eric "Vegita" Johnson (Emails Located in Section IV-F)
Version 3.1415

I - Introduction
II - Game Story
III - The General FAQ (aka Controls, Stages, and Other Good Reasons
to Shoot Yourself)
A - The Street Stages (AKA SHOOT ME!!)
B - The Soda Shop (AKA SHOOT ME!!)
C - Warding the Affections of Caroline (AKA...you get the idea)
D - Playin' Guitar like Michael J. Fox Doesn't Know How
E - Returning to 1985 (And away from this Wretched Game!)
IV - Various
A - Footnotes
B - Helpful Hints
C - Revision History
D - Thanks
E - No Thanks
F - Contact Information

============================== Back to the Future =============================
---------------------I: Introduction---------------------
============================== Back to the Future =============================

Welcome! I am Reverend Eric Johnson, sometimes answering to "Vegita" and
sometimes being referred to as "Hey You" or "Stupid". I see you want help for
the Nintendo game "Back to the Future". Well...might I inquire as to WHY
you're even bothering with this game? Honestly, there's not much in the way of
a GOOD game here. Sure, you've got the cheesy pseudo-shooter, plus myriad
stupid mini games. However, that's all this game is! Seriously! I'm warning
you up front, this game is NOT a good idea.

First off, let's get one thing straight: Even though I am Vegita, I will try
to write from an un-biased point of view (although I still think I'm the best
at everything). Second of all, if I catch anyone copying all or part of this
FAQ, ANY part of this FAQ (not counting little, inconsequential sentences like
"First off, let's get one thing straight), I will destroy you. I will rip you
limb from limb like the excessively weak individual you are, and then I will
sue you for copyright infringement. Well, ok, maybe I'll just sue you, but if
I got the chance I'd certainly go for the ripping of limbs from other limbs.

Third of all, I do not own the rights to this game, the names of the
characters in this game or FAQ, or have any ownership whatsoever of this game
(except for the cartridge sitting in my room, that is). Those are the
property of their respective owners. If I find a website with this FAQ on it,
and it has been changed in any way, does not give me proper credit, or is
selling it without my knowledge and consent, then I WILL have my lawyers
contact that site. Are we clear (this means YOU, Vertsk8!)?

Oh, and yes, I DO have lawyer-friends, and while they don't necessarily obey
my every beck-and-call, I'm on good enough terms with them for them to
do such a thing for me. Havin' powerful friends is nice.

Hey folks, if you're going to write me about this game, I must insist that you
put, in the subject header of the e-mail, the name of game that you are writing
about. I am tired of having people write me, asking about games that I've
written for, but they never tell me WHAT game they need help with. This will
help me in identifying what game you are talking about, and will also help me
weed your e-mails out from the Spam I constantly receive. If you do not put
the name of the game in the Subject header, then I may not read your e-mail at
all; I get a lot of spam, and people like trying to send me viruses, so if you
don't do something that will actually help me in determining whether or not
your e-mail is legitimate, you can only blame yourself.

============================== Back to the Future =============================
----------------------II: Game Story----------------------
============================== Back to the Future =============================

Ah, the 1980s. There were a lot of exceedingly strange movies made during the
1980s, covering topics ranging from a girls' 16th birthday (and everyone
ignoring her) to a rag-tag group of individuals infiltrating a Nazi Meeting
(albeit with tons of bad puns along the way) to...well, all those dance-themed
movies (Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Das Boot, etc). Then, in 1985,
came along "Back to the Future", a comedy starring Michael J. Fox and
Christopher Lloyd. The premise of the movie was ludicrous, yet logically
sound (kinda) - Doc Brown (Lloyd) makes a Time Machine out of a DeLorean, and
asks his friend (probably his ONLY friend) Marty McFly (Fox) to visit his
greatest invention during its trial run. However, things go awry when a
Libyian Group of terrorists (whom Doc stole some Plutonium from to make his
Time Machine run) arrive and cause a panic. Marty, in a huff to get out of
there, hops in the DeLorean and inadvertently transports himself back to 1955,
30 years prior. While there, he accidently disrupts the meeting of his mother
and father, thus creating the chain of events that cause him to never be born.
Marty then sets out to restore time as it should have been, and maybe having a
little fun in the process.

What a great movie, and what a sorry, sorry excuse for a game that was made
with the license. Seriously, I don't know how you could take a great premise
like that and screw it up. It could have been a driving game (with a points
where you switched to Marty on a Skateboard), or possibly a simple beat-em-up
(hey, it could work), but the geniuses behind the game thought it better to
try and combine several sucky games into one overall package. You travel
back in time, you accidently screw up the meeting between your mother and
father, you get them to meet back up, you beat up the bullies, and you get
home. That would SEEM like a fine subject to make a game from, but somehow
during the process of making the game, Beam Software royally screwed up.

How did they screw up? Well, screwing up is hard to do, but there must be
some sort of "Screwing Up" Academy they attended. "Screwing Up 101" simply
has to be a popular course there, too. Screw-ups screwing up just screws up
my day. Screw up screw up screw up screw up. After writing "Screw Up" that
much, the word "Screw" looks funny. I suppose that's just what happens when
you screw up writing "Screwing Up".

============================== Back to the Future =============================
-------------------III: The General FAQ-------------------
============================== Back to the Future =============================

OK folks, there are a few things you'll need to know before you play this
game. First off, don't. Second of all, if you still want to play this game,
then I pity you. Now, onto the individual sections of the game!

Oh, one final tidbit - in order to vent my frustration with this game through
the duration of my writing this guide, I have decided to include several
"Footnotes". These are designated by a number enclosed in Parenthesis. Each
number corresponds with a Footnote located in the "Footnote" section (IV.A),
so as to not detract from the guide itself. I wanted to rant on certain
sections of the game, and rather than just yell at my TV (which I did a lot)
I decided to include some of my rants in the guide itself. Some might regard
it as filler; I regard it as necessary to your (and my) survival of the game.
It's something you can relate to during the trials and tribulations that
"Back to the Future" is a terrible amalgam of.

___________________________=======================_____________________________
A - The Street Stages
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Controls:

B BUTTON - By pressing the B BUTTON, Marty will jump up in the
air. This is especially effective if you want to
waste your time by trying to jump over things. See,
despite the fact that Marty can blatantly jump the
equivalent of 5 feet in the air on-screen, he can't
successfully clear a 3-foot park bench. Sure,
he can jump over lesser objects, such as trash cans
or manholes (which would be much easier to walk
around rather than jump over, but what do I know)...
but the point remains. So if you don't feel like
taking a trip into the sewers press the B BUTTON for
a ride. Wheeee!!!
A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON will do absolutely nothing
until you've picked up a Bowling Ball. Once you
have, by pressing the A BUTTON Marty will chuck a
bowling ball straight ahead of him with the hopes of
clobbering helpless hula-dancers, misguided athletes,
hard-working movers, and even the occasional
Bumblebee. Good job, Marty, you're a menace to your
surroundings! Let's put you in a radiation suit and
ship you off to Chernobyl! Stupid good-for-nothing...
DIRECTIONAL PAD - Press the DIRECIONAL PAD to move Marty LEFT, RIGHT,
UP, and DOWN on the screen. Wow, isn't that
exciting? We're making Marty MOVE! Up next we'll
learn how to sell this game to an ususpecting friend
for some cheap cash!
SELECT - Press this button really, REALLY hard until you see
bright spots before your eyes and you feel faint.
Then you'll know you're having a better time than
actually playing this game. Otherwise, the SELECT
Button does nothing.
START - Pressing the START BUTTON pauses the game, so you can
reflect on just why it is you're playing this game.

What happens during these areas: "Marty McFly is stuck in a seriously-twisted
1955! Help!" OK, seriously your goal is to maneuver Marty along the
exceedingly dangerous streets of Hill Valley as he makes his way towards each
of the "Event" levels (III-B through III-E). You have to make it to these
Event areas as quickly as possible (1), or else time will erase Marty's
existance, removing him from ANY timeline altogether!

While you're meandering the streets of Hill Valley, your photo - which is
located at the bottom of the screen and shows crude drawings of you, your
brother and your sister - will slowly disappear. This is a sign that time is
quickly erasing the future you once knew. In order to counteract this strange
phenomenon, you have to collect Alarm Clocks that are scattered along the
streets. How a bunch of Alarm Clocks can safely counteract the effects of
time unravelling at the seams I don't know, but the fact of the matter is you
have to nab 'em before you are erased!

Now, it's bad enough that Time is out to get you, but you've also got a
separate timer as well. If you don't make it to the end of the area before
the timer is up, you lose one life (and you only get 4), so make sure you
avoid obstacles as best as you can!

So Time is out to get you, a separate Timer is out to get you...what else
could go wrong? Oh, how about everything else in sight! The screen rapidly
scrolls upwards, revealing more and more street/sidewalk/annoyances for Marty
to navigate. Aside from the twists and turns of the street (3), you'll have
to contend with various "offensive" items. Here they are, in a nutshell:

---The Pink Bullies: These guys are tall, mean, and looking to
pummel McFly for no good reason. Maybe because it's the 50s and
anyone named "McFly" would be fodder for this sort of thing.
Maybe it's because of repressed violent tendencies that these
Jocks have pent up. Maybe it's because someone threw a red Cap in
with his white Tube Tops, and now he's wearing a Pink Shirt and
lookin' to beat the snot out of someone because of it. What's
worse is if you manage to dodge this freak, he'll start chucking
weird bluish objects at you. Jus what ARE those things,
anyways...

---The Giant Bees: Wow, bees were REALLY big back in the day! These
guys, easily larger than Marty's head, will fly around him,
attempting to touch him. Apparently because these guys are so
big, they don't even have to sting him - just by swinging their
massive bulk into Marty will cause him to fall over.

---The Hula Girls: Wait a minute...an attractive, scantilly-clad
woman is in the middle of the street, playing with a Hula Hoop,
and this is supposed to be a BAD thing? I can understand how it
would be a distraction, but certainly not something that would
make your average High School Teenage Male fall down on the ground
and wave his arms about (see the last footnote for more
information about this). Maybe I'm just missing something.
What's even funnier about the situation is that these women will
start blowing "kisses" at you in an attempt to sidetrack you from
your quest. Wait a minute...these "kisses" they're blowing at you
look just like those strange blue-things the Bullies were throwing
at you! Uh...I think that explains quite a lot about those
guys...not that there's anything WRONG with that.

---The Blue Bullies: These guys are a lot rarer than the Pink
Bullies, but they can be a menace just the same. Instead of
looking for affections from McFly, these guys seem to be much more
occupied with a more engauging project - walking around in a
square pattern, completely ignorant of anything going on around
him. I'm sorry, but just how dumb do you have to be to walk
around in the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around
you (which has already proven to be extremely fatal).

---The Movers: OK, great, you've picked on the confused jocks, the
attractive women, and nature...of COURSE, the next logical step is
the workforce of America! And what better way to do that than to
assault harmless movers, busy transporting an invisible sheet of
glass? Well, maybe these guys are just practicing moving glass,
with the hopes of being able to go into that job interview and say
"Look! We've already got the proceedure down!" Gosh, what fun it
would be to plow right throw those guys and laugh, because you
KNOW through your efforts you've cost another man his job. You
know, McFly, it must feel good to be you. I can't understand why
people on the streets aren't rushing out to help you restore your
rightful timeline. I mean, you're such a nice guy and all,
destroying people's future career plans and all...

---Park Benches: That's right, the game wouldn't be complete if it
didn't have a neon-green, inanimate object that could harm you,
now would it? In this case, it is a long Park Bench. Unlike
other harmful inanimate objects in this game (such as George
McFly), this particular obstacle can NOT be jumped over. That's
right, Marty McFly, who demonstrates throughout the entire game
that he can jump roughly 5 feet upwards, can NOT successfully
clear a 3-foot Park Bench. Maybe it's a Kryptonite Bench, who's
effects are slowly draining Marty of his will to live. Maybe it's
just a disgustingly-painted Park Bench with a magical "No
Jumping" aura around it. Whatever the case, don't try to be a
daredevil here.

---The Open Manholes: Yay! It's a shortcut to another area, so you
can traverse quicker to the "Event" areas...wait, what do you mean
it's not? Whaddaya MEAN it's not even a real manhole? Yes,
that's right Marty, these things are DANGEROUS. Normally, I
wouldn't want to fall down a Manhole (unless I was attempting to
visit Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo), but in
this game I figured it'd be worth a shot. No such luck...in fact,
I don't know WHAT these are, but they certainly can't be Manholes.
In real life, if you ran straight across an open manhole the laws
of physics would dictate that the moment a plane didn't exist
below you, gravity would being to pull you downward at a constant
rate. Due to this, you would either fall completely in or
partially decend, the rest of you smacking into the concrete on
the other side of the hole. In this game's case, however, by
walking over a Manhole Marty simply spontaneously falls over, as
if some loveable young scamp (preferably from a Disney movie) tied
his shoelaces together while he wasn't looking (and proceeded to
sing a song, calling this troublesome person from the future "Poo-
Poo Man"). I don't understand why a Manhole would act as a trip
wire instead of a Manhole, but I guess that's just Hill Valley's
crezzy, crezzy physics in action.

Everything else in the stages, save the boundaries, can be jumped over or
otherwise easily avoided. The Oil Slicks will simply make Marty slide around,
but he won't fall down, and you can jump the trash cans.

OK, so we've seen the "bad guys" that "attack" Marty during his quest.
However, he CAN gain an advantage or two, with the help of some items.
Scattered throughout the street are the aforementioned Alarm Clocks. After a
certain period of time, you'll come across a Bowling Ball. By picking this
up, you can throw Bowling Balls straight ahead of you (4), knocking down any
enemies in its path (5). If you successfully take out a noving object
(bullies, bees, movers, etc), then you'll get points for it and that enemy
will disappear from the screen. However, Bowling Balls can also destroy Alarm
Clocks, so be careful when you're chucking them about. After picking up the
Bowling Ball, Marty will eventually come across a Skateboard. Hop on the
Skateboard to travel twice as fast. While on the Skateboard, you can still
Jump (still 5-feet up) and throw Bowling Balls straight ahead. You simply
move faster. If you manage to hold onto the the Bowling Ball AND the
Skateboard for a long enough period of time, you will occasionally see a set
of Bowling Pins. Succeed in striking them with a Bowling Ball for a large
amount of points! Yay!

There is one final thing to talk about before moving onto the Footnotes and
the next section - how you can die. In each Area, you are given 4 lives. You
have to make it all the way to the end of the area without your picture fading
complete AND without the Timer running out. If either of these happen, you
lose a life. Sounds simple, right? Wrong - every harmful object you touch
causes Marty to fall on the ground (6), eating up precious seconds. This
causes the picture to disappear even further and the timer to count down
quicker. Also, whenever you fall down, any items (and enemies, thankfully)
disappear. This can be both a blessing (bees) and a curse (skateboards and
clocks), as both helpful and harmful will disappear.

There is one final way to die - getting stuck behing an object (a blockade, a
trash can, a bench, or some other immovable object) when the screen scrolls
all the way to the bottom. In effect, you are crushed by the bottom of the
screen (I say the Langoliers got you...it's all about Time, right?).

So in short - you have to make it to the end of the Street Area. In order to
do that, you have to succeed in falling down as little as possible, and to
keep your family picture intact. In order to do that, dodge as many hazardous
things as you can and keep picking up the clocks. Nab a Bowling Ball and take
out enemies before they can overcome you, and grab a skateboard to move even
quicker (thus effectively beating the timer). That's the long and short of
it, folks!

_____________________________===================_______________________________
B - The Soda Shop
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Controls:

A BUTTON - Press the A BUTTON to use the "Super Shake".
B BUTTON - Press the B BUTTON to throw a regular ol' Root Beer
Float.
DIRECTIONAL PAD - UP and DOWN move Marty up and down behind the bar.
LEFT and RIGHT, despite your best efforts, do
nothing.
SELECT - Press the SELECT button. Didn't do anything, did it?
Now press it again. Still nothing, eh? Keep
pressing it. Nothin's happening, is it? Well then,
that should tell you something - it does nothing.
Stop wasting your time!
START - Pressing the START BUTTON pauses the game, so you can
look at Marty happily standing behind the bar,
awaiting a beating by superhuman bullies.

What happens during these areas: "Marty must defeat the bullies before they
can throw him out of the Diner!" Oh boy...apparently, an infinite amount of
bullies are planning on beating you up because you ticked off Biff. Marty,
seeking refuge, decides to hide behind the bar of Lou's Diner. In order to
keep the bullies from throwing you out (or rather into the door, which fails
to open for you), you need to stop them from getting to the bar.

Now, what's the most logical way to do this? Simple - move Marty UP and/or
DOWN until he's in line with an incoming bully. Now, chuck a root beer float
right into their face (7). This will effectively knock them to the ground
(and then, after shaking their head wildly, they magically disappear). You
have to successfully knock out at least 50 bullies without any of them getting
to you to move on - fail, and you're returned to the last Street Stage (you
have to walk back to the Diner).

Now, this stage starts off fairly easy. Only 1 bully will come at a time, and
he usually moves slow (looks like they send the newer, not-quite-confident
bullies first). After about 10 or so have been knocked down, they'll start
moving faster and coming in greater numbers. Once they really start taking a
thrashing, they'll start throwing things back at you (it looks like pizza, but
one can't be sure in this warped day and age of 1955). If you get hit by it,
Marty will be incapacitated for a brief moment, unable to move or retaliate,
as he wipes the stuff (pizza?) from his eyes.

What happens if the bullies are almost overwhelming you? Well, that's where
your "Super Shake" comes in handy. I don't really understand how a food item
could possibly knock down all comers at once (maybe it's Pulp Fiction's
mysterious "5-Dollar Shake"), but it does. When you use a Super Shake, all
the bullies on screen are not only knocked down, but they're sent flying to
the back of the room. Now THAT is a powerful drink! However, you only start
with 1 Super Shake, so use it wisely. You can gain more when a Waitress
skates across the screen and puts one down on the bar for you. If you hit her
while she's on her way over, she will simply turn tail and run off. No shake
for you!

There, you know how to deal with the bullies! Let's move onto another set of
Street Stages while we head towards the school!

__________________========================================_____________________
C - Warding the Affections of Caroline
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Controls:

A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON will waste your time.
B BUTTON - Pressing the B BUTTON, much like the A BUTTON, will
waste your time.
DIRECTIONAL PAD - By pressing UP or DOWN, Marty will move up or down.
LEFT and RIGHT, despite turning marvelous
auditions (and later performing in amazing scenes,
themselves), were left on the cutting room floor,
and therefore do nothing in this particular scene.
SELECT - Apparently the creators of this game decided to
completely neglect the wonderous abilities that the
SELECT BUTTON can portray (i.e., selecting things,
moving things, and even occasionally pausing the
game). Because of this, the SELECT BUTTON does
nothing but sit on your controller and look pretty.
START - Pressing the START BUTTON allows you to get an
8-bit graphical representation of how most of the
world viewed "Caroline in the City" - with an object
between then and the TV, grimacing in pain. Try as
hard as she might, most people just don't like Lea
Thompson outside of the role of Lorraine.

What happens during your unpleasant stay at the Library: "Oh no, Marty's
future mother has a crush on him!" Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!! OK, now that is just
wrong! I realize that was a fault with the movie, but come ON, man, did we
really need the Oedipus reference? Ew ew ew ew ew...

Anyways, what happens in the library is fairly simple. Marty is cornered by
Lorraine, whom she is busy expressing affection for. In an attempt to avoid
he, he has taken up refuge on the other side of a desk (way to go, brainiac).
Now, she begins shooting hearts at Marty in an attempt to win him over (ew ew
ew ew EW!). Your job, as Marty, is to move UP and DOWN to block these hearts
(Hearts? Why not kisses?) with the book he is holding in front of his head.

Now, you'll notice that Lorraine has a constant pattern of affection, moving
back and forth along the opposite side of the room. Simply time your
movements to when you're going to "catch" the heart, and you should do fine.
Problem is, after a while she speeds up, shoot hearts even faster. Sounds
like your mom's getting desparate, Marty!

So, to summarize - Lorraine will move up and down, throwing hearts at you.
You must move Marty UP and DOWN to successfully block these hearts. If you
miss one, you are returned to the Street Stage prior to the Library state. In
order to pass the event, you need to successfully block 50 hearts. However,
Lorraine will begin throwing hearts at a faster rate, so you will be forced to
move quicker to compensate. Got it?

___________=========================================================___________
D - Playin' Guitar like Michael J. Fox Doesn't Know How
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Controls:

A BUTTON - Pressing of the A BUTTON will make Marty cry, just
like any self-respecting Emo guitarist. Remember -
the wussier you make him look, the better a guitarist
you must be! (8)
B BUTTON - Pressing the B BUTTON will make Marty fall down. A
lot. Really.(8)
DIRECTIONAL PAD - By pressing UP or DOWN on the DIRECTIONAL PAD, Marty
will move his guitar up or down. By pressing LEFT
or RIGHT, Marty will turn to face left or fight.
SELECT - By pressing the SELECT button, Marty will call out
Lammy from the UmJammer Lammy series. She will then
proceed to beat the tar out of Marty for giving
guitarists a bad name with his horrible antics and
poor musical skills. (8)
START - Pauses the game, so you can reflect on just why it is
you're playing this game.

What happens during these areas: "Time to make love come true, and save Marty
before he disappears from time!" In this stage, Marty is aat the Dance Hall,
playing Guitar in the band. Lorraine and George are in the audience, and it
is up to Marty to make them fall in love by playing Guitar well (9).

That's the premise of the stage, so how do you do it? While Marty is on the
stage, 3 different musical notations will float across the screen - a flat
symbol, a sharp symbol, and an Eighth Note. Marty has to move his Guitar up
and down on either side of him to "catch" these notes with it. For every
symbol you catch, a meter on the right side of the screen builds up. When the
meter builds to the heart at the top, Lorraine and George fall in love with
each other, securing Marty's future (10). However, for every symbol Marty
misses, the meter drops significantly. Play well, McFly, or you're gonna be
out of time!

Now, the trick is being catching symbols without fail. Each of the symbols
has a different height they will hit Marty at, regardless of their speed when
travelling towards him. Once you know that, you can complete this stage
without fail every time. Now, I realize some of you aren't musicians (shame
on you!), so I'll describe each of the symbols.

Symbol #1: The Eighth Note.
Description: These look like a round dot with a straight, vertical
line on them. At the top of the Vertical line is a short
curve leading away from the vertical line. This is
generally what an eighth note looks like: |~
How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty in the |
middle. Simply have his Guitar in O
its middle position and you will nab it.

Symbol #2: The Flat Symbol.
Description: In the music world, putting this next to a note makes it
one "half-step" lower, meaning that it is slightly lower
in pitch than a note without the symbol. A "flat" looks
like a lowercase B (b).
How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty low, so press DOWN all the
way to crouch and protect yourself from those harmful,
debilitating musical aids.

Symbol #3: The Sharp Symbol.
Description: In the music world, putting this next to a note makes it
one "half-step" higher, meaning that it is slightly
higher in pitch than a note without the symbol.
How do you catch it: These will always strike Marty high, so press UP all the
way to raise his Guitar up and stop the harmful "Good
Music" icons from getting through and stopping Marty from
ruining an otherwise fine and decent Prom.

So, to recap - Marty has to catch the 3 different symbols to fill the meter.
By moving the Guitar Up and Down, Marty nabs these symbols, building the meter
to the right whenever he is successful (and dropping it whenever he isn't).
Fill the meter and Marty wins.

__________===========================================================__________
E - Returning to 1985 (And away from this Wretched Game!)
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Controls:

A BUTTON - Pressing the A BUTTON originally made Marty honk his horn,
giving a semblance of reality in the game. However, that was
later on scratched (no one could decide on what the DeLorean
car horn sounded like) in favor of Marty turning the
headlights off and on (for more of a challenge). That
brought up the point of what good the lights would do, since
this stage IS in the middle of a Lightning Storm, with
flashes of light all over the place. There were several
other ideas for what the A BUTTON would have done in this
stage, some good, but all were eventually taken out of the
game (11). Therefore, pressing the A BUTTON does nothing.
B BUTTON - Much like the A BUTTON, the B BUTTON had a very large role in
this stage up until someone decided that the stage itself was
pointless enough. Why bother including something that would
make the stage more fun to play, you might ask? Well, that
apparently was the rationalization...therefore, the B BUTTON
does nothing as well.
DIRECTIONAL PAD - The DIRECTIONAL PAD is what you use to move the DeLorean
around. By pressing up, Marty will put his foot down on the
gas pedal, making him speed up (13). Pressing LEFT and RIGHT
made the DeLorean move LEFT or RIGHT on the screen (14).
SELECT - Pressing the SELECT button will waste your time. That's all
it does. Sorry...
START - Pressing the START button will pause the game and make the
screen freeze, allowing you to see a real, live DeLorean
onscreen being blasted by bolts of lightning. Marty, remind
me to NOT have you do any valet parking.

What happens during these areas: "Now is the time, Marty! Return to your
original time by driving the DeLorean down the street!" The premis for this
stage is actually rather simpe - Marty must drive the DeLorean to the Wire
strung across the street right as lightning strikes it, thus giving his car
enough energy to race back to 1985. In order to achieve this, Marty has to
get the DeLorean up to 88 Miles Per Hour (Marty's current MPH is written in
the box at the bottom of the screen).

Now, the tricky part about this stage is that there are lightning bolts
striking the street all over, and whenever Marty drives over a spot hit by the
lightning the DeLorean loses some speed (15). You HAVE to be doing 88 MPH
when you come to the wire, or else you'll be stuck in 1985 forever. Drive
well, dodge the lightning bolts, and head forward to your own time, McFly!

So, to recap - Drive down the street. Don't hit stuff. However, do get hit
by the Wire at the end of the street. So hit stuff, but don't hit stuff. Hit
CERTAIN stuff...yeah, that's it.

============================== Back to the Future =============================
-----------------------IV: Various-----------------------
============================== Back to the Future =============================

If it don't fit anywhere else, you'll find it here!

_________________________________===============_______________________________
A - Footnotes
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1 = ...which is apparently why Marty is on foot, as opposed to ANY other mode
of transportation! It's called hitch hiking, son! Stick yer thumb out
and MOVE, or else you're history (or a lack thereof, technically). (2)
2 = Actually in retrospect, most everything you come across - from women and
men, to animals, to even trash and inanimate objects - is extremely
deadly, so I don't blame Marty for NOT wanting to ask someone on the
street for help - they'd probably skin him alive and drop his bones down
one of those oh-so-dangerous manholes as a warning to others.
3 = Just who the heck designed these streets, anyways? There's no way in HECK
you could drive a car down these streets, even if they were free of all
the debris, you would have to take a car at roughly 1 MPH to safely handle
the turns. Yeesh...
4 = Well, it's not like Marty can face another direction. He only faces UP,
no matter which DIRECTIONAL BUTTON you press. That's fairly impressive,
running and jumping backwards like that...
5 = Another interesting point of physics - just where does young McFly keep
these bowling balls? He apparently "magically" makes them appear, so it
is safe to say that he has an infinite amount...however, if he has an
infinite amount of Bowling Balls, why is he wasting his time only throwing
one at a time?
6 = ...I find it funny how, whenever Marty falls over, he acts as if he's
throwing a tantrum. I like to imagine he's thinking "WHY AM I IN THIS
GAME? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME, O GREAT LORD? WHHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!"
7 = Let's look at the physics of this. Marty can throw a Bowling Ball at a
VERY high speed: 20 pounds, traveling somewhere around 30 feet a second,
equals approximately 5 million pounds of force (or 600 lbs. per foot).
Now, let's imagine what happens when he throws an 8-ounce root beer float
(in a GLASS, for cryin' out loud) and it hits you in the face. I don't
think I'd survive the impact, let alone fall on my behind, cartoonishly
shake my head, and then magically disappear. Of course, if we're going by
logic, then these bullies must be made of composite iron to be able to take
that sort of blow and simply shrug it off. This game is full of
Superhumans, I tell ya! Superhumans that wear pink shirts and are VERY
angry about it!
8 = Actually, pressing any of these buttons will do nothing. I just thought
the game would be as LOT better if they actually did what I said they
did.
9 = To be honest, if someone at my high school prom played Guitar this poorly
and was generally looking like a complete idiot, I'd probably ignore what
was happening onstage and go make out with MY girlfriend too. I don't
blame George and Lorraine at all. In fact, I think everyone the audience
should have just walked away from Marty and started kissing. Who knows,
maybe Marty's atrocious musical "skills" could have gotten more people to
fall in love, creating REAL geniuses! Darn it, Marty, you could have
possibly created the next Einstein, yet you only played until your own
future's safety was concerned! Scum!
10 = Gosh, I need to learn to play guitar that poorly. I mean, if I can make
people fall in love by butchering popular songs from the 50's, I could be
a veritable Cupid!
11 = ...possibly by the 1 person at the company that felt taking a popular
movie and making a bad game out of it (most likely named "Earl") was a
smart, profitable move. Oh, that poor, misguided fool. (12)
12 = Actually, I have no idea why nothing was done with the A, B, or SELECT
buttons throughout the game. All I know is that the opportunity for
something neat, inventive, and fun was there, but it was not taken. Come
to think of it, that pretty well describes the game itself!
13 = ...by causing the DeLorean to shoot small flames out of its tailpipes...
That probably isn't a GOOD thing, but what do I know about cars. After
all, I've only successfully removed and taken engines out of a variety of
makes and models, as well as repairs on a number of others...but I
probably don't know ANYTHING when it comes to flames shooting out of a
part of your car that shouldn't have any flames near it.
14 = Which brings me to an interesting point - why is it the DeLorean, who's
wheels are clearly pointed parallel to the car itself, can move the car
straight to the left or right without turning at all? In order for this
to happen, the wheels would have to be pointed perpendicular to the car,
which most any transaxle on a car will NOT allow you to do - suffice to
say, if your wheels turn that far, you've broken either the axle, or the
ball joints that hold the wheels on are sufficiently broken.
15 = Here's another interesting question - just how is it that these bolts of
Lightning are striking concrete? This particular area must be so
positively charged that it's become a magnet for electricity! According
to the laws of science that I know, lighting can't strike concrete
because it can't conduct electricity...but what do I know? (16)
16 = ANOTHER point - if there is so much lightning all around, why doesn't
Marty just put a big metal pan on the back of the DeLorean, get up to 88
miles an hour, and drive up and down the street until lightning hits him?
If this area is so positively charged that lightning is striking non-
conductive materials, imagine what would happen if a conductive material
happened upon the area! (17)
17 = OK, one final point - is it just me, or do the areas of the street
already hit by lightning resemble the Japanese symbol for "Ri/Li"? I
kinda thought they did...well, there goes my overactive imagination again.
Maybe I'M the one that was struck by lightning.

________________________________===================____________________________
B - Helpful Hints
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1 - At the end of every "Street" Stage, Marty can gain extra points by jumping
right as the stage scroll ends. The higher in the air Marty is, the more
points he gets (100-900 in total).
2 - For every 10,000 points you collect, Marty gets an extra life. This
really add up once you start bashing everything in site with a bowling
ball.
3 - Both the "Soda Shop" and "Library" even stages automatically end when you
have gained 99 points (knocked out 99 bullies or 99 stopped hearts).
4 - This game sucks. Don't bother playing it. (Hey, that's a helpful hint!)

____________________________======================_____________________________
C - Revision History
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06-06-01: Began work on this FAQ. Why, I'll never know...maybe I'm a
masochist?
06-12-01: Because I had nothing better to do, I finished work on this FAQ.
Yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm a masochist. At least I made
this (marginally) fun to work on, or else I'd NEVER have finished
it!
01-26-02: Yeah, that's new formatting all right. I like the way it looks, so
I'm redoing ALL of my guides. That is the only reason I look at
this one, really...I've finally found a formatting that is original
and (somewhat) creative, while still doing its job well. I like
it.
02-22-02: A couple more formatting and grammatical changes, and now I think
(hope) this guide is complete! Thanks again for putting up with
me and my indecision! Also, I moved the Footnotes to the "Various"
section to make an easier "informative" read. If you want the
humor, though, you'll have to scroll back and forth between the
Footnotes and the section it just came from. You gotta work for
that comedy (however inane and trying it might be).
03-13-03: Format revisions!
06-12-03: More format revisions!

_________________________________============__________________________________
D - Thanks
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~CJayC ([email protected], www.gamefaqs.com) for putting this FAQ up, as well
as putting up with me.

~Al Amaloo (www.gamewinners.com) for being such a cool guy, and having a great
site.

[email protected] for giving me a heart attack with your childish "I
stole your FAQ and sold it with my name on it" antics. Because of that, I now
do dozens of things to make sure people don't steal my work. If they do, I
know exactly what to look for to see if they took MY work or not.

~Uh...I can't exactly thank God for the role he's taken in my life, because
that would seem like I'm trying to force my religious opinions on someone else
(which I'm not). Therefore, I'd like to thank "Murray" for the role he's
taken in my life (Murray, you know who you are).

~Musical credits and thanks go specifically to Yoko Kanno for this one. When
I first wrote the guide, I had the song "Flying Teapot" on perma-repeat in my
CD Player. For the rewrites (which took place in/around November of 2001 and
finished in January and March), I listened to nothing but "Gotta Knock a
Little Harder" from the Cowboy Bebop movie. I consider this song to rock
everything I know and then-some, so it was definitely a worth replacement for
the disturbingly bad music for the game. Flying Teapot is good as well, if
a little too Tori Amos-ish...but hey, it's good nonetheless.

________________________________===============________________________________
E - No Thanks
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If you write me asking for help with the game, I'll send you a link to my FAQ.
If you ask for specific help, I'll try to aid you. However, if you ask me
about something that is already covered in the FAQ, I will simply refer you to
the FAQ again. I wrote the FAQ so that your questions would be answered here,
not so I could repeat that FAQ bit by bit through e-mail for the next few
years. If you need clarification about something in the FAQ, ask about it -
but don't ask me to repeat anything.

Also, no thanks to the programmers for forever tarnishing the memory of
"Back to the Future" with this game. To quote the comic strip 'Red Meat'
(www.Redmeat.com), "It's not just awful, it's God-Awful."

_______________________================================________________________
F - Contact Information
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯================================¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Questions? Comments? Just feel like harassing me? Well then, feel free to e-
mail me! Given the frequency of e-mails that I get, I find that I have to sort
through a lot of junk; thus, it is imperative that you send e-mail to the right
address (a common mistake, as I have several) AND include the name of the game
in the subject line. So let me help you out, then:

FAQ-related Questions/Comments: [email protected]
Review-related Questions/Comments: [email protected]
Personal Questions: [email protected]

Much to my chagrin, I have to admit that I *was* an AOL user for a tremendously
long time. As such, there are several guides of mine floating about on the
internet that still show "[email protected]" as the contact address. Don't be
fooled, as I have finally wizened up and gotten rid of AOL (which sucks,
believe me - I have been a member of AOL since version 2.0, and it's NEVER
gotten to a level where it was worth having). Thus, e-mails sent to this
address will not be received by me. Make sure you're sendin' 'em to the right
place, folks, or else you won't get the answer(s) you want!

===============================================================================
End FAQ
===============================================================================

The following are sites that can NOT use my work. If you see these sites using
ANY of my FAQs, please e-mail me ASAP. Each of these websites are sites that
have plagiarised myself or others in the past, or simply taken our work(s)
without our prior permission. Since they do not have enough respect for the
authors (or an ignorance of the law), I am expressly forbidding them from using
my work. I will not promote such sites that partake in these actions.

911 Codes http://911codes.com
9 Lives http://www.9lives.ru/eng/
Bean's PlayStation Dimension http://www.bean.dk/psx/index.htm
Cheat Code Central http://www.cheatcc.com
Cheat Index http://cheatindex.com
Cheat Matrix http://cheatmatrix.com
Cheat Search http://cheatsearch.com
Cheatstop http://www.panstudio.com/cheatstop/
CNET Gamecenter http://games.netscape.com/Faqs/
Console Domain http://www.consoledomain.co.uk
Dirty Little Helper http://dlh.net
Dark Station http://www.darkstation.com/
Dreamland http://kirby.pokep.net
Games Domain http://www.gamesdomain.com
Game Express http://www.gameexpress.com
Games Over http://www.gamesover.com/
Mega Games http://www.megagames.com
Square Haven http://www.square-haven.net
Ultimate System http://www.flatbedexpress.com
VideoGaming.net http://www.videogaming.net/
Cheats.de http://www.cheats.de

(Taken from Jim "Red Phoenix" Chamberlin's FAQ Theft Guide, as well as added
onto.)

As I stated above, if you want to use one of my guides, I ask that you e-mail
me to gain my permission first. I like to keep track of which sites use my
work, so I know where to send the updates, and it's a little difficult to keep
you updated if you don't e-mail me.

This FAQ Copyright Rev. Eric "Vegita" Johnson, 2004. All Rights Reserved.