SPACE BATTLESHIP

SPACE BATTLESHIP
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A.K.A. STAR BLAZERS

Japanese Playstation Game FAQ
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[email protected] <_)I ____
copyright 1999 Nick Flor _/|_ / / /
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http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/3904/geoyamato.html
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This is my attempt to write an FAQ on the Japanese version of Space
Battleship Yamato. I do not know japanese.
This faq is intended to help those who have imported the game, don't
know japanese and are stuck. This faq best viewed with a fixed width font!
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0.0 - Contents
1.0 - What's new (updates)
2.0 - Story
3.0 - Game menus
3.0 - buttons
3.1 - start menu
3.2 - game menu
4.0 - Character menus (Star Blazers name / Yamato name)
4.1 - Captain Avatar / Juzo Okita
4.2 - Nova / Yuki Mori
4.3 - Venture / Daisuke Shima
4.4 - Wildstar / Susumu Kodai
4.5 - Dr. Sane / Sakezo Sato
4.6 - Conroy / Saburo Kato
4.7 - Eager / Kenjiro Ohta
4.8 - Dash / Yasuo Nanbu
4.9 - Homer / Yoshikazu Aihara
4.10 - Orion / Hikozaemon Tokugawa
4.11 - IQ9 / Analyser
4.12 - Sandor / Shirou Sanada
5.0 - Character away party controls
5.1 - "x"
6.0 - Walkthrough, so far very verbose, sorry.
6.1 - The begining, New Game Start
6.2 - Gamilon Carrier and Fighters - day 1
6.3 - Mars
6.4 - The Floating Continent, Jupiter - day 2
6.5 - Saturn and Titan - day 3
6.6 - On the way to Pluto - days 4 - 6
6.7 - Pluto - day 7 - 8
6.8 - Alpha Centauri and the Asteroid Maze - day 8
6.9 - Asteroid Maze, Deslock Mines - day 9
6.10 - Asteroid Maze, 3 deck fighter carrier - days 11 - 15
6.11 - Alpha Centauri, Star System and Planets - (upgrades!) days 15 - 20
7.0 - Strategies
7.1 - The medic
7.2 - Exploration pays
7.3 - Asteroids
7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28)
7.5 - Wave Motion Gun Range?
8.0 - Frequently Asked Questions
8.1 - Where can I get the game?
8.2 - Will there be a U.S. version of the game?
8.3 - Where can I get a translation?
8.4 - Memory Card
8.5 - How do I get passed THIS part? Playstation Yamato Game Discussion
Board
9.0 - Game basics, event descriptions and interpretations, other misc.
9.1 - Upgrades
9.1 - Sector descriptions
20.0 - FAQ Credits
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1.0 - what's new (updates)
05-29-00 - updated 3.1 options menu selection 4 finally defined
04-23-00 - updated 6.7, added 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 9.0, 9.1
changed credits to 20.0
04-22-00 - updated 7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28)
04-12-00 - added 8.5, Playstation Yamato Game Discussion Board
01-09-00 - added 5.1, 6.6, 6.7, 7.5, added to 7.3
01-07-00 - changed 4.1 Captain Avatar's menu, added 8.4 - Memory Card
12-15-99 - added to party menu, added to Saturn, added to strategies sec 7
12-08-99 - updated the "Where can I get the game?" and "U.S. Version"
sections, added function to option menu.
- added Japanese names to contents (section 4)
- added sections 6.2 thru 6.4, and 8.3
- added info to story and section 5.0 character controls
09-01-99 - added section 8.0 FAQ's
08-30-99 - added walkthrough section (I started the game over)
- added to battle movement of section 4.3
- added radar functions to section 3.2
08-11-99 - addition of Dr. Sane option
- addition of credits, contents, strategies
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2.0 - The story

The Playstation game is based on the first television series of
Yamato, Having watched the series Star Blazers as a kid and watching it
over and over on video tape, I have memorized the series.
If you have seen Star Blazers first series, retitled for video,
"The Quest for Iscandar" you will see that this game follows the events
in the series almost exactly.
I am using the Star Blazers names in this text because they are
what I remember the most. The characters are cross referenced in the
contents(section 4).
Earth is under attack from the mysterious planet Gamilon. Gamilon
planet bombs cover the Earth in radioactivity, and in one years time
Earth will be unlivable. A group of Starblazers call the Star Force
undertakes a dangerous mission. Refitting an old Earth battleship,
the Yamato, the Star Force takes off on a 148,000 lightyear voyage to
the planet Iscandar, where Queen Starsha offers the people of Earth
a machine to remove the radiation. The Star Force must battle the
evil Gamilons to reach Iscandar and return within one Earth year!
Hurry Star Force, there are only 365 days left!
There is alot of new animation in this game as well as 3d
renderings. But the game uses the same music and sound effects from the show.
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3.0 - Menu functions
Buttons - "O" is select
"x" is cancel
"triangle" is toggle on/off (see auto weapon selection)
"square" brings up area maps
Radar shows the sector, enemy ships are dots.
Cosmo Radar shows the surrounding area, sectors
containing enemy ships appear orange.

3.1 - Star Menu - this is in English, you can "start new game", "load game",
or goto "options"
"load game" - this takes you to the load screen, you can only load
from memory card 1 and you have a maxium of 3 save slots.
"options" - you have 5 options here
option 1 - select if you want dialog boxes to print slowly
(letter by letter and makes printing noise) - left
character highlighted, or fill quickly
(show all text immediately, no sound effect) - right
charachter highlighted.
option 2 - individual weapon fire animation: on = "o",
off = "x"
option 3 - station move animation: on = "o", off = "x"
option 4 - This determines if Sandor tells you when he's done
fixing somethint = "o" or if he doesn't tell you = "x"
option 5 - dual shock on = "o", off = "x"

3.2 - Game Menu - bring up by pressing "o", displays the characters,
pressing "triangle" shows you their posts instead of faces.
I only know the characters by their Star Blazers names, so here
they are as they appear on the screen. (note pressing up or down
on the direction pad flips the ring, so it will appear opposite)
Starting with Captain Avatar, you all know who he is right?

Captain Avatar - options, load, save, other
Nova - Radar
Venture - Pilot
Wildstar - Guns
Dr. Sane - medical
Conroy - Black Tiger fighters
Eager - navigation
Dash - Gunnery
Homer - communictions
Orion - engineering,
IQ-9 - medical (for now)
Sandor - repairs.
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4.0 - Character Menus - bringing the character to the bottom of the
screen by pressing the direction pad left or right displays
the characters hit points/health in the middle of the screen
You do have to watch this, when a character's health become low
you should move them to their quarters to bring them back up.
It does not take long for them to regain hitpoints their, but
they will not gain any if you do not move them.

I have found this to be very important for Captain Avatar,
Conroy, and especially Sandor.

Hitpoints go down for various reasons, Conroy loses them in
fighter combat, Sandor loses them during repairs.

Each character has there own menu list.

The first option on everyone's menu is "change post"
each character has a few post specialties, for example,
if Wildstar wants to fly his fighter, he needs to be moved
to the hanger to launch. To take his place at the guns Dash
has to be moved over, and to take Dash's place, IQ-9 has to
be moved. IQ-9 cannot man the guns, but he can man Dash's post.

4.1 - Avatar - at his normal post not during battle
1 - change post / goto quarters
2(or absent) - this option doesn't always appear, I have no Idea
what this does, the captain talks a bit then his hitpoints
goto half ????
3(or 2) - the ship and crew rest a day, I don't know how this helps
4(or 3) - load game (looks like a square, then horizontal line,
then a K like character)
5(or 4) - save game (looks like a backwards J, then horizontal line,
then a J like character)
6(or 5) - options screen (same as game menu)
- during battle another option appears between 1 and 2

4.2 - Nova - radar
1 - change post / 1-medical, 2-quarters
2 - main radar

4.3 - Venture - piolot
1 - change post / 1-navigation, 2-quarters
2 - move/rotate ship within zone
You can choose to move the ship.
move to a specific area, also use "R1" and "R2"
buttons to ascend or descend.
You can choose to rotate the ship.
You can choose to shift the ship.
this uses a burst of speed to move the ship
in any one direction a short distance very quickly.
3 - move ship one or more zones
4a - while moving this option is full stop.
4b - when stopped and not in battle this becomes warp
(jump several zones) - orion must boost energy to 120%
and Wildstar must have all guns off, Sandor may need
to have the ship fully repaired.

4.4 - Wildstar - Guns
1 - change post / 1-gunnery, 2-hanger, 3-quarters
2 - fire gun, use this to select a single weapon to target and fire
3 - auto fire, select weapons to fire automatically in battle
by highlighting and pressing the "triangle" button
you can select upto 4 weapons. selected weapons appear blue.
you then have to press "O" to activate, pressing "x" will
not save your changes.

-Hanger
1 - change post
2 - launch fighter

4.5 - Dr. Sane - medical
1 - change post
2 - Whenever a character is killed (0 points), that character becomes
shaded and is no longer playable. At this point, Dr. Sane can
use his option It takes a while for the operation but the
character is completely healed.

4.6 - Conroy - Black Tigers
1 - change post / quarters
2 - launch fighters - select fighters by pressing "triangle", "o" to launch
- in battle - you can select ships by pressing the left shoulder buttons.
you can highlight them by pressing "triangle" then when you
give a command you give it to all the ships - make sure you
watch them, as soon as they are done with the target they return
to formation and will not attack again until you tell them.
1 - get in formation, options for flying formation
2 - attack
2a - attack closest target?
2b - attack target you choose
3 - return to ship
4 - (appears when some ships still in hanger) call more ships

4.7 - Eager - navigation
1 - change post / 1-pilot, 2-quarters
I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him

4.8 - Dash - gunnery
1 - change post / 1-main guns, 2-quarters
I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him

4.9 - Homer - communications
1- change post / 1-radar, 2-quarters
I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him

4.10 - Orion - engineering
1 - change post / 1 - engineering, 2 - quarters
2 - increase power 120%
- move Orion to engineering when you want Wildstar to fire the
Wave Motion Gun.

4.11 - IQ-9 - medical
1 - change post / 1 - radar, 2 - communication, 3 - gunnery, 4 -
navigation, 5 - quarters
I am on day 48 and have found no other options for him

4.12 - Sandor - repairs
1 - change post / 1 - weapon shop, 2 - quarters
2 - repair, choose the area to repair (damage in yellow)
and select how many points, out of 64 to delegate to it
- when in the weapons room, pick the weapon you want to
replace (missles, torpedos, lost fighters), how many
you want to make, and how many points to delegate.
- he has to be at the post inorder for the repairs to take place
Sandor will apear on the screen when the repairs are done.
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5.0 - Character away party controls

Party members are shown on the screen by their Japanese family name,
which you can reference against the Star Blazers English name in
the contents describing section 4.

You are given an green cursor saying "GO" on the screen.
You position the cursor over a character and press "triangle" to
select them, you can select more than one character. You can also
use the L1 and L2 buttons to move a highlight box over
the character faces and use the "triangle" button to select
(green highlight box) or unselect (red highlight box) the characters.
A yellow highligh box signifies that that is the current character
that the selection cursor is over and that he is a selected character,
confused? Also, the L1 and L2 buttons don't work if your cursor
is over a character at that time.

With characters selected you can move the cursor to a "target";
an enemey, a machine, or a player character and press "O" to preform
a task. The tasks are standardized.

Targeting an enemy causes the characters to attack.
Targeting a machine/object causes activity on that machine/object.
(sometimes only IQ-9 only will work on an machine/object,
he tends to blow things up.)
Targeting a player will cause healing of that character IF the
character targeting is a medic. Medics can even heal IQ-9.

The map, there is a green map in the upper part of the screen.
White dots on the map represent party members, red dots represent
enemy units. Each area of the map must be explored by a party
member before you can view the area. But after an area has been
entered you can more the cursor into any of the rooms and see what
is going on without having a party member in that room. This can
be useful for planning attacks by knowing the enemies movements.

You can go back to the ship if you decide you want to change options,
or you forgot something. Press "select", you will be asked a question,
anser "yes" to go back to the ship. To get back to your party members
and the mission, just bring up the menu, and select a character who
is on the mission. Im not sure if the game allows you to return to
the ship on every mission.

5.1 - "x" over a area of ground selects and deselects all

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6.0 - Walkthrough - there are no translations only descriptions of the
happenings based on the series Star Blazers.

6.1 - New Game begining
The game starts showing Captain Avatar's fleet, the only remaining Earth
fleet, facing Gamilons at Pluto. Captain Avatar issues orders.
*load* The Gamilon fleet opens fire on the Earth fleet. The Captain gives
more orders.
*load* A ship flys passed the Earth fleet at a very high speed.
*load* Mars. Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture on the Mars base feel a
crash. They are ordered to investigate.
*load* Princess Starsha's sister Astra lies dead next to her crashed ship.
Venture and Wildstar find the message capsule she is still holding.
*load* Back to the battle. Captain Avatar orders a withdraw. Alex
Wildstar decides his ship will remain behind to protect the retreat
against the Captain's orders.
*load* CGI movie of Alex's ship attacking and then being destroyed.
*load* Captain Avatar's flagship returns to Earth.
There are pictures of planet bombs heading toward a green and blue
Earth, and the destruction they caused as the explanation scrolls up the
screen. Radioactivity has forced humanity into underground cities.
In only one year, the radioactivity will reach the cities and all human
life will become extinct. The surface of the Earth is a red desolate
desert.
*load* The General and Captain Avatar review the message capsule. It is
from Starsha on the planet Iscandar. She offers a machine to remove the
radioativity from Earth. But she cannot send it. Earth must send a
ship to retreive it. For the 148,000 light year voyage to Iscandar,
Starsha sends plans for a Warp drive. With Earth's fleet decimated,
a project was started to rebuild the sunken battleship Yamato. They
decide to fit it fit with this Wave Motion Engine. Alarms sound.
*load* Wildstar is distraught that his brother is dead. The alarm sounds.
There's a Gamilon ship scouting the Yamato! Venture and Wildstar take a
fighter and head out to get some revenge.
*load* From their fighter they see the Gamilon plane. It flys away
with a burst of speed. Wildstar's and Venture's plane has engine
trouble and plumets to Earth.
*load* Animation of Wildstar and Venture seeing the Yamato.
*load* Wildstar and Venture, in a hallway are called to the Yamato bridge.
*load* On the bridge Wildstar and Venture meet Captain Avatar. The ship
shakes.
*load* CGI animation of the ship powering up. Wildstar and Venture
take the controls.

***You are promted "Yes" or "No", "yes" is default. This is for a
tutorial of Wildstar's menu and functions, gunnery. One screen shows
you can have a maximum of 4 weapons on auto fire. One screen describes
firing ranges.

****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks
you if you want to go through the instuctions again.

*load* The halfburied Yamato is shown.
****You are prompted to press "O", the character menu selection appears.
You can only select Wildstar, and from his menu #3, auto fire. Then
only one weapon, the main guns. Press "triangle" to activate (turns
blue), then "O" to confirm changes. Then press "X" to get out of the
menus.
*load* CGI of the guns firing on a Gamilon carrier.
*load* Back on the bridge.
*load* Captain Avatar addresses the Star Force crew.
*load* Venture's brother, Jordy says goodbye as the Star Force marches by.
Nova's parents say goodbye. Orion's grandaughter says goodbye.
Back on the bridge. In Captain Avatar's quarters, Wildstar confronts
Avatar. Wildstar believes the Captain is responsible for Alex's death.
Wildstar see's a picture of the Captain and his son and daughter.
Does Wildstar know that the Captain's son was on Alex's ship?
*load* Pluto Gamilon Base, Conl. Ganz and Bane fire an Ultra Menace
Missle at the Yamato on orders from Leader Desslok. CGI animation of
missle launch.
*load* Back on the bridge, they have the missle on screen. The Yamato
prepares for launch. CGI of Yamato lift-off, and destruction of the
missle. The Yamato flys on!
*load* Back on the bridge.

*****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "Yes" is default. This is a tutorial
of Venture's menu, Navigation. Shows how to move in battle.

****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks
you if you want to go through the instuctions again.

*load* You are now on the "Yamato View" screen.
*load* Dash describes the enemy ship which appears on screen with stats.
*load* the Gamilon ship

*load* battle screen.
Ok, your first battle. Press "square" if you want to bring up the radar
which overlays and shows the ships in the area.
First lets start moving. You don't want to be a sitting duck do you?
press "O", select Venture, select option 2 (the only one available
right now), select move. Now move the arrow until you are over the
enemy ship (a spinning triangle with arrows will appear) and press
"R2" to lower your ship below it, now press "o" to confirm. Ok, you're
moving. Now press "o" again, pick Wildstar, and pick option 3:auto fire,
move up and down to choose your weapons. I like the main gun turrets.
Press "triangle" on upto 4 weapons (they will turn blue when active), then
press "o" to confirm, and "x" to return to the main menu, "x" again to
return to the battle. Use your "d" pad to move your view.
Different ships require different tactics, this ship keeps decending so
main guns will be less effective, you can go back to the autofire
screen and choose front torpedos.

*** You destroyed the ship! Now a screen appears that shows the
experience points your characters have earned.
*load* Back on the bridge
*load* The opperations room. Your mission is explained

****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "Yes" is default. This is asking
you if you want an explanation of Warping, Orions option. You must
have the ship at 100% energy (ship must be fully repaired, and all
autofire weapons must be off) and the ship must be stopped and
not in battle. Orion must be on the bridge (default station).
Then pick Orion's 2nd option (it says "UP") this brings the ships power to
120%. Then pick Venture's 4th option, Warp. You are shown a map and
may move the ship to the desired destination. A line between positions
means the warp can be done, it can only be straight, and any celestial
objects between the points will cause the ship to stop.

****You are prompted "Yes" or "No", "No" is default. I believe this asks
you if you want to go through the instuctions again.

*load* Gamilon base on Pluto. Ganz and Bane send out a ship
Dr. Sane and IQ-9 have some kind of discussion, then the enemy
ship arrives, Dash describes it with stats. Conroy says send out
my fighters!

***** Don't forget to save your game frequently via Captain Avatar's
5th option.

6.2 - Gamilon Carrier and Fighters - day 1

The key to this battle is destroying the flagship. Should you use Venture
to pursue the ship, you will never catch it. You must use Conroy to
launch the Black Tiger Squadron. I would highlight the entire squadron
and target the flagship. Once it is destroyed you can target the
remaining fighters. It might be a good idea to use Wildstar to turn on
the main guns for autofiring, though they will not damage the fighters
too much. It is important to have Sandor repair the damage to the ship.

When you have destroyed the enemy have Wildstar turn off all auto fire.
Then have Orion boost power to 120%, at this time you can have Venture
preform a warp to Mars (the first planet to the upper right from your
current position). It would be a good idea to rest Sandor at some point
by moving him to quarters since every repair he makes drains his hit
points. Keep an eye on him throughout the game, you will need to rest
him allot. Also check Conroy's hit points after each Black Tiger
assalt.

6.3 - Mars

Upon reaching Mars you get an animation of the Pluto base comanders and
leader deslock no doubt impressed with your abilities.
Then the ship goes to read alert and falls to the surface of Mars.
-Have Sandor repair the ship, and don't forget to save.
*you are prompted *yes* or *no* - Yes will give you a tutorial on
what to do in the away party. You will go directly to the save
screen if you pick no, and you will goto it after the tutorial if
you choose yes.
You then must send out a party to blow up some boxes. You have no
choice in who you take even though they take you to the selection
screen, just hit "O" and then yes. Let Nova hang back, she is the only
medic and if she dies you cant heal the others. IQ9 is needed to blow
up the boxes. Wildstar and Venture will take care of the enemy soldiers.
Place the "go" cursor over the party member(s) you want to control and
press "triangle" to select them. When selected they will attack/heal
a target your select or move to a spot you select with the "go"
cursor by pressing "O". If you take the southern route you will come
accross 3 boxes, upon blowing up the 3rd box you will be back on the
ships main bridge.
Then it starts to snow. Owwww....Ahhhh......! And you the ship launches
again. Now have Venture head toward Jupiter! Watch out for those
pesty Gamilon cruisers.

6.4 - The Floating Continent, Jupiter - day 2

Another techical problem? Yes, Jupiter sucks you into it's atmosphere!
After some missles hit you, the crew talks to themselves. Have
Venture rotate the ship towards the Floating Continent, Send Orion
to the engine room, and have Wildstar FIRE THE WAVE MOTION GUN!!!
Now the Wave Motion Gun will be available for most of the game from this
point on, but be careful it is limited (bullets infront of the HP bar),
you can only use 3 per stretch of space completed.
Now head for Saturn!

6.5 - Saturn - day 3

Upon reaching Saturn you are asked to save.
Once again you are taken to the party select screen and can't make
any changes! So Wildstar, Nova, and IQ-9 land on Saturn's moon,
Titan to collect some Titanite. (well, at least that's what they do
in the Star Blazers episode, I don't know what the Captain tells them.)

Head to the left, and there is an opening sort of hidden in the top of
the screen, the next screen the opening is on the top right,
there will be a Gamilon soldier waiting for you, have IQ-9
and Nova stay back while Wildstar finishes him off. Have Nova heal
Wildstar when his hit points are low. Go left off the screen, there will
be 3 more Gamilons as you head down and arround.
When you come to the screen with
the tank, be careful, one hit will kill Wildstar and Nova. You have
to have IQ-9 plant a bomb on the tank to destroy it.

6.6 - On the way to Pluto - days 4 - 6

Now head towards the upper right hand corner of the screen. You must
find the path to Pluto through the asteroid fields. There will be many
battles. When you get 5 sectors left to Pluto, you are in for a suprise.
A fleet of orange sectors appear, 8 all togeter, barring your passage.
When you start a battle, ships from adjacent sectors will enter your
sector as you finish or before you are done.

I used the wave motion gun to clear some away and make a break for it,
but the Captain and Nova came on the screen to say some things, and
when I looked at the map all 8 sectors were gone. I guess because
they were all packed together the blast destroyed them all, even
though they were packed 4 sectors across, and 2 deep and I fired
at a 2 deep section.

When entering the sector just before Pluto, video is shown of 3 Ultra
Menace Missles heading your way! You then must defeat the 3 closing
missles to move on!

6.7 - Pluto - day 7 - 8

Upon entering Pluto's sector video shows the Yamato being attacked by
the Reflex Gun! After the second hit you crash to the sea floor on
Pluto. You are asked if you want to save again.

Now you must send out a party to destroy the Reflex Gun! And guess what,
this time you can actually choose some members of your party!

Take the Western path until you come to a room that has a computer/switch
in the lower right hand corner. Have IQ-9 activate the switch, now you
can head back and take the Southern route to the reflex gun. IQ-9 has
to blow up a few weapons along the path, then he can blow up the
Reflex Gun.

You are then returned to the ship, don't forget to repair, you are
SEVERLY damaged.

Head toward the "G" marked sector passed Pluto. But on the way you will
be ambushed by Ganz and Bane, the Pluto commanders. They escaped and
the explosion on Pluto and are coming after you! This will be a tough
battle, because more and more ships enter the sector. Make sure
you have Sandor repairing the ship, and watch out for when Ganz and
Bane's ship joins the battle, it's missles pack a mean punch!
An important point is that when Ganz and Banes flagship arrives, labeled
"B.Ship" in battle, it will try and ram the Yamato. If they suceed they
will destroy you instantly. As soon as they arrive in the battle fly
away from them, target your rear guns and the black tigers on it.
Once the Gamilons are taken care of you are home free.

6.8 - Alpha Centauri and the Asteroid Maze - day 8

Avatar takes the crew to the operations room and displays the new
area on the screen in the floor. There is an asteroid mazer which
leads to a "3 star system". Two possible routes are displayed.
1-through the maze, 2-arround the maze through a star system. I believe
they tell you the days each will take, and what the advantage is.
As I headed the Yamato towards the entrance of the maze a message capsule
from Queen Starsha arrives and she tells you something, what I have no
idea. There areas on the radar that are show to contain little dots,
smaller than the asteroid cells, and appear purple on Nova's map.
These areas prevent any radar from working. When you fly in you cannot
see enemys in your sector during battle, meaning your cannot home in
on a ship and follow it. Also you cannot see your way out, so make
sure you remember the path. You can fly straight through these cells
and you will remain on course without problem. Enemy ships can hide in
these areas waiting to ambush you also.

6.9 - Asteroid Maze, Deslock Mines - day 9

As you hit an opening near the begining of the maze, you are suddenly
surrounded by "Deslock Mines" and a battle begins. The Yamato is helpless
it cannot fire or move. Sandor is greyed out and cannot be accessed.
You must send the Black Tigers out to destroy the enemy ships, once that
is done you are free to move on passed the mines.

6.10 - Asteroid Maze, 3 deck fighter carrier - days 11 - 15

When you get further along the maze, about half way through. Dash
displays a new enemy ship, a 3 deck fighter carrier and shows its stats.
It launches bomber fighters that come in on the Yamato from above.
You will never catch up to the carrier in the Yamato. The key here is to
head towards it until your Black Tigers are in range that you can target
them on it, I suggest targeting them all on it. Let your main guns
take out the bombers.

6.11 - Alpha Centauri, Star System and Planets - (upgrades!) days 15 - 20

The star system in the lower right hand corner of the screen consists
of a single star surrounded by 2 planets, then asteroids, then 3 more
rings of planets. When you head to a planet sector, usually the crew
has something to say, maybe they are analizing the planet and finding
nothing, also most have hidden enemy ships that will attack you.
In this system only the closest planet to the sun has anything important.
When you arrive there you will fight hidden enemies, when you defeat them
the Yamato will land and your supply ships will hit the surface to
collect stuff. The crew talks and Orion and Sandor are excited about
something being "70%". What it is I don't know, but I believe it is
some kind upgrade. A text box appears that is surrounded by 2 stars,
I think this is an upgrade announcement. However it is not obvious what
the upgrade is.

There is a second upgrade on this map. On the right side of the map
half way down there is an empty sector completely surrounded by
asteroids, when you go in you find a capsule that contains another
mysterious upgrade, the same text box surrounded by stars appears.

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7.0 - Strategies

At various times trough out the game certain strategies are
needed to advance. These can occur during battleship flight or battle
or they may require the crew to venture out on there own.

7.1 - The medic

Don't forget to take a medic! The medic heals injured players
and can even heal dead players on the scene.

7.2 - Exploration pays

Try exploring the various planets, asteroids, and anything that seems
weird on the screen. You seem to find several "special" things in
these places. Power-ups of some type I think, but I cannot see any
real changes.

7.3 - Asteroids

Always keep in mind you can cross asteroid fields of 1 hex thickness.
This means you can hop between strips of open space by squeesing
through them. You have to enter them, your ship stops, then you
have to remember which direction takes you out to the other side
because your radar stops working in some instances. Also these are
great places to hide from enemy ships, they can't enter.

7.4 - Boarded! After Alpha Centauri (around day 28)

After Alpha Centauri at the exit end of the "Unknown Area", a Gamilon
ship rams your ships side and the Gamilons board the Yamato. The
Gamilon captain comes on screen to tell you what is going on. The only
thing I can figure out are that there are rules you must follow if you
intend to remove the Gamilons from the ship or he will blow it up.
1- you have 15 minutes only, 2- you can only have 5 members in the party
I have had people email me that they are having problems with this
part of the game, I have recently played through it again and have come
up with 2 possible reasons:
1 - there is still an undefeated ship attacking the Yamato besides the
boarding ship. To check and see, use "select" to return to the Yamato
screen and check if anyone is still attacking the Yamato. If your
fighters are out, they will still be attacking the boarding ship
(to no avail) if they were targeting it before hand.
2 - You are letting a Gamilon get passed your characters. This is just a
theory, but when I went into the first 2 rooms, the one character I sent
in died. But the Gamilon then left its position to run towards the next
room. Maybe one of the rules is you cannot let a Gamilon get passed your
party to the rest of the ship.

Here's what I have done. I picked Wildstar, Nova (a medic), IQ-9,
M. Gunner, and Sniper. Go down from the first room into a room
with an exit to the east. (Destroy any enemies you encounter
along the way) Go East to the next room with exits North and East.
Send your sniper East. He will stop in the doorway of the new room, say
something and then start shooting the one Gamilon on the same level.
There are also sniper Gamilons on a ledge in this room, but the will
not or cannot reach you when you are in the door. Now the Gamilon on
the same level as you is a machine gunner, you will get hits in
while he is running towards you to get within range. My sniper died.
The Gamilon then ran into the room with everyone else, finish him off.
I then sent Nova in to heal the dead sniper and had them both head
back out of the room to take the North route. I sent the sniper
North alone, he was killed, but the Gamilon ran down to his level.
I then sent everyone in to finish him off, and again had Nova heal
the sniper. I then sent everyone up the stairs and out of the room
East, then South from that room, this brings you to the ledge. Take
out the Gamilons all along the way, then head back down to the room
with the North and East exits, and then East into the room where
the ledge that is now empty is. Now you can go East into a room with
South and East exits. There is nothing but an empty ledge South, you
may be able send a sniper there to take out Gamilons in the room below.
I just went East. A Gamilon is exiting the room to the South, but in
A couple of seconds another Gamilon will come out of the room to the
North. I took out that Gamilon and headed North, the room is empty
but just make sure there are not Gamilons left in there. Then
go South and South again, go down the stairs and into the next room
to the West. Now keep heading West, taking out Gamilons and healing
along the way. When you get to the final room there is one more
brown Gamilon standing on the left with a purple Gamilon.
Presumably this is the Gamilon captain. He comes on screen and
talks, then you can go and take them both out.
You are done! The Gamilon captain and Wildstar talk, Avatar and
Orion speak, the enemy ship detaches and free falls into space.

7.5 - Wave Motion Gun range?

In an attack at Pluto I use the wave motion gun to clear 2 sectors in
a mass of 8 sectors filled with ships, all of the sectors were touching
one another in a chain 4 wide and 2 deep. The gun showed the
destruction of the 2 I was aiming at, then the Captain and Nova
spoke and the remaining 6 were gone from my map also.
Either this particular part of the game allowed the gun to clear them
all, the ships ran in fear, or you can blow multiple sectors away
if they are adjacent. Ill return to this subject when I have learned
more.

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8.0 - Frequently Asked Questions

8.1 - Where can I get a copy of the game?

I have just seen the game at www.animenation.com. I have had excellent
experiences ordering from them. I would suggest them first!
(but it isn't listed on there website anymore as of 12-7-99, email
them, maybe they will order it for you.)

I got my imported, japanese version of the game at www.buyrite1.com.
They took over a month to get me the game, and they have poor reviews
on various newsgroups. I also saw the game for sale at www.gameclub1.com.
I don't know anything about there service. Basicly find a place that
imports playstation games and see if they can get it for you.

www.gamedge.com lists the game, but I don't know about them as a company.

8.2 - Will the game be available in the U.S. format?
I don't know yet.
Why don't you send Email to [email protected] and ask them!
Maybe they will bring it over if we show them some interest.

8.3 - Where can I get a translation?
This is my question!!! If anyone knows where I can find a tranlation of
any parts or all of the game please email me!
Or if you know a good website/program for translating the japanese
characters. It may help with translating some of the menu functions!

8.4 - Memory Card
Just a comment, the game requires 6 empty slots to save, even if you
save just one game.

8.5 - How do I get passed THIS part? Playstation Yamato Game Discussion
Board
If you are stuck on a part that I haven't covered because I am so slow
at updating, and I cannot answer your question via e-mail, visit:
http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/harbor/3904/geoyamato.html and click on
the Playstation Game Discussion board, maybe you can get help or help
others there!

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9.0 - Game basics, event descriptions and interpretations, other misc.

9.1 - Upgrades

There is a certain event that I can interpret as nothing other than
an upgrade notification. Section 6.11 describes 2 places where this
event occurs. The event is a text box, which so far has displayed a
single line of text, with no character pictures in the box. This text
is enclosed by 2 five pointed stars on either end. The upgrades are not
obvious, and so far I have not been able to determine what they have
actually done. They may increase your weapons firepower or your ships
defenses. But this is only speculation at this point.

9.2 - Sector definitions

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20.0 - Credits

Thanks to Captain 3man [email protected] for help with
Dr. Sane's options!

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The most current version of the faq can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/harbor/3904/playam.html

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW.
I'll try to get more info to you asap!
thanks
Nick Flor, [email protected]
For great Star Blazers and Yamato info visit
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/3904/geoyamato.html
Please mail me anything you have discovered, or with anything I have
done wrong!