Tac/Scan(Arcade) FAQ
version 1.0.0
copyright 2003 by Andrew Schultz [email protected]

Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my permission. It
required a good deal of effort, and I do not look to profit off my work.
However, if you ask me nicely, mentioning my name and this specific
game, I will hopefully be un-lazy enough to reply to you.

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           OUTLINE

 1. INTRODUCTION

 2. CONTROLS

 3. ENEMIES AND SCENERY

 4. THE LEVEL CYCLE

 5. STRATEGIES

 6. VERSIONS

 7. CREDITS

================================

 1. INTRODUCTION

 With relatively few lines to draw Tac-Scan provides an enormous amount
of fun. Well, there are some dots thrown in there--the crude parallax a
la Galaga makes all this look like distant stars cycle by near stars.
Another similarity to Galaga is that you can have more than one fighter
on the screen at a same time. Two could be linked in Galaga for a
sacrifice. Up to seven are linked in Tac-Scan, only they are apart in a
sort of mini-armada. If they are all killed, you die, but fortunately
there are ways to regenerate: every 20000 points you get a new ship, or
ships will fall from the top and you can dock them in an empty berth.
There's a button to put in one of your extra ships(you start with eight)
in the current highlighted empty berth, and it's possible to die with
extras still in tow. So management strategy is involved--especially with
one ship on the board and when you can't decide if you should put an
extra in the empty berth or wait it out.

 If you have MAME and the ROM(don't ask me how, please) you can go to
http://www.mame.net/downsamples.html and put the Tac/Scan sample ZIP
file into the samples subdirectory. It's a 3MB download, but while the
game's great without it, the sound really is worth it as it provides
clues as to what's going on(i.e. a ship gets killed, enemies start
firing.) And it's fun, too.

 2. CONTROLS

 On the original cabinet, you had a button to fire, a button to place
an extra ship(where highlighted,) and a knob that tilted your ships
around. While they could never go below a certain angle?? the key things
to note are:

 1. firing twice in rapid succession invalidates the first shot.
 2. If you shoot and twist the knob, the bullets stay in the same
place, but the enemies move.
 3. The enemies move in the opposite direction you turn the knob.

 This is more pronounced in the beginning level.

 On MAME you simply use the arrows, left being counterclockwise and
right being clockwise. Given that your ships are at the bottom of the
screen and you can't face down, this is always logical, unlike Tempest
where the conversion from knob to left/right is a bit confusing.

 High score controls are pretty cool, with letters coming from a
vanishing point to fall into a berth. Twist the knob/arrows to get what
you want.

 Dip switches give extra ship at 10000, 20000, 30000, and none. You can
start with 2, 4, 6 or 8 extra ships, and you have the option of
easy/medium/hard/very hard.

 Here's the default scoreboard:

MCL 020300
DBM 019600
HAL 018900
WLS 018200
BCH 017500

 3. ENEMIES AND SCENERY

 There are two sorts of enemies: purple and blue. The blue ones are
worth 1000 * (level you're on) and the purple ones are worth 100 *
(level you're on) with the exception that if a shot rakes through more
than one purple enemy you get 200*(level) for the next, 300*(level) for
the one after that, etc. You get no points for smashing into an enemy,
you klutz :P.

 Enemies can leave the screen and come back in the first wave, and the
screen scrolls horizontally in the second wave, so beware. Also the
enemies tend to shoot more frequently later, and they drop in more
quickly.

 In the second wave don't veer too far to one side until you are
fighting the blue machine. Bad guys tend to pick you out before then.

 4. THE LEVEL CYCLE

 The level you're on determines the points you get. I haven't found a
maximum yet, but (3) describes it OK.

 Each level is broken into three sub-levels. The first is a straight
top-down level. Here you can guide missiles and make the enemies look
rather stupid. There are three blue ships, after which up to two ships
of your own drop by depending on the berths you have left, and untold
purple ones along with two pairs of extra ships that drop down for you.
Try to keep your formation compact as that allows you to protect any one
ship with a drastic twist if need be--a ship far away won't get nailed
in the process. The ship formation changes constantly and I have tried
to illustrate as many as I can below. Things get less compact later on,
which is tougher for you to avoid shots outright--often you'll have to
slip them between ships, and you can pretty much forget about having a
full complement after level 3.

LEVEL 1

       (halfway through)
    X      > X X X
X       X  >  X X
X X     X X > X   X

LEVEL 2

    X
   X X
X       X
X         X

LEVEL 3

X
X
X
X
X
X
X

LEVEL 4

     X
 X       X
X         X
X           X

LEVEL 5

  X
 X X
X   X
X     X

LEVEL 6

  X

 X X

X   X

X     X

 The second part is in perspective, from a vanishing point. The
formation of yours is always the same, namely:

  X
 X X
X   X
X     X

 It's possible to get through without shooting anybody and just ducking
missiles, but eventualy adventure will tempt you to pick off the enemies
on the sides. Don't veer too hard to one side--you'll notice the stars
swirling in the background telling you which way you're tending, and
you'll also notice that the screen wraps horizontally. If an enemy gets
close enough to you to knock off one of your ships potentially, you can
just swerve away from the bullet and then back in to shoot him. The
general strategy of waiting for something to come into the center,
tilting him to the center, firing, and quickly tilting away from any
missiles works well. Just don't force the action.

 At the end of the wave there will be a blue bad guy who comes and
shoots you, and it may be best to push him off the edge of the screen.
He'll appear on the other side, and perhaps he'll even run into your
line of sight. You have to pay attention in any case to how far the bad
guys are down from the vanishing points of your shots. That depicts how
close they are, and how they will swerve when you rotate towards/away
from them. There's little you can do if they're close to the vanishing
point as it means they're VERY far away, but they do tend to hone in and
try to chase you. Two ships appear to replenish your supply after this.

 I think you get an extra ship if you land it in an occupied berth,
unlike the first wave where the extra passes by, but I'm not sure.

 The third part is probably the easiest. You're in the caret formation
and just have to remain within the tunnel of polygons. There's even a
nice red wall on the side to help and warn you if you curve in too much.
Just be prepared to try to keep in the center, and move a ship length
away if you get close to the wall. You'll have plenty of warning time,
and it's over soon enough, after which your ships take a new formation.
In the meantime, though, it may be a good idea to add ships where you
might want them. Each empty berth should flash through a couple of
times. You also will find this level easier if you have fewer ships as
you'll have more space to bump between the walls, which should be a
relief.

 5. STRATEGIES

 The first stage is the best stage for my favorite cheap shot maneuver.
It's based on how your shots don't change, but enemies' positions and
bullets do, if you tilt the controller knob. Shot below an enemy, then
move away from it. The enemy will spin into the bullets. Repeat as
necessary.

 If you have played a few times you may want to start getting the feel
of shooting several ships, and often you can do this by rotating shots
into them. The beginning level is a great place to do this when they
don't fire back, and later on you can make these trick shots when
enemies are farther up the field. Although you can't play explicitly for
them when you're just trying to survive, there's no problem with
building yourself up to get a feel for them.

 With one ship left you are in a tricky situation. In the first wave, I
generally just keep firing and turning, avoiding missiles whenever
necessary. If you are observant a crash will be far more likely than
getting hit by a bullet. If you have extra ships you may want to wait
once if the berth is far away from your current one. Keeping a compact
formation is the best way to conserve ships.

 If you have just one ship left in the second wave I recommend just
trying to avoid bullets. You can't steer as quickly, and bad guys don't
come at you so fast. The tough part is either waiting it out until you
get new ships, or finding a way to pile up some points in the meantime
without too many risks.

 Don't be afraid to veer constantly, but do be vigilant about missiles
you think you've banished once they go off the side of the screen. They
haven't gone for good, actually. Also don't feel chicken if you just
avoid shots for a while. Be sure to fire your own, though. Even though
you don't explicitly need points for an extra ship, if you can't fire
and hold your own now, surviving to the next level won't be much of a
treat.

 If you lose several ships in a row you may want to stop the bleeding
and put one up--with the carnage things may not be clear and you may not
see your last ship getting broken up. I know I've been ambushed at a
level start before.

 For killing, blue ships take clear priority over everything else. Cut
your shots short to nail them.

 Use the double-shot method to nail the blue ships. They are not easy,
but they do tend to stay in one place, and if your first salvo
overshoots them, you can just tilt slightly and get them with the second
once your missiles have gone by. The rotate trick does not of course
work on them.

 You can also always just fire a shot for fun and steer it towards any
enemies that appear. This is also nice because it kills them before they
get too close. However if an enemy has already fired a shot then it
can't fire another, so you can let it get close and shoot it at point
blank range. The other missiles will go through and you can decide
whether to shoot again or just rotate enemies into the remaining salvo.

================================

 6. VERSIONS

1.0.0: submitted to GameFAQs 09/08/2003, should be complete, not much to
say really.

 7. CREDITS

The usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, too,
because they get some SERIOUS good writing done. Good people too--
bloomer, daremo, falsehead, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon, and others I
forgot.
CJayC for having GameFAQs. Hang in there during the move to
CNet/California. I know how backlogged I get with coding that I want to
do, man. Guide writing sometimes gets in the way, you know... :)
The retro sites where I found info on this game.

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