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Apathetic Aardvark 9/8/2004
Version 1.0
[email protected]
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Table of Contents
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i. Basics
ii. Controls
iii. The Enemies & Gameplay
iv. Hints & Tips
v. Disclaimer
vi. Credits
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i) Basics
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River Raid is a very basic, yet very fun game. The general idea is to blow up
damn near everything you can to gain as many points as possible. You will do
this as a fighter jet attacking things along the river. You will lose a life
every time you crash into the ground or get hit by an enemy. River Raid is one
player or two player, but only one after the other, not together.
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ii) Controls
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River Raid uses the Atari 2600 Joystick. The Orange button should be facing
the upper left as with most games [hence it says "top"]. Game Select toggles
between one player and two player, game reset starts the game. The difficulty
switches on the Atari do the following:
A) Your shots go directly forward. [For Advanced Players or a higher challenge]
B) Your shots go directly forward, but can be steered left or right after they
have been fired by quickly moving that way. [For Newer Players or taking it
easy]
The orange button enables your plane to shoot. If held down, it will shoot
endlessly, though this can be a bit reckless. Left and right on the joy stick
will force your plane to go in that direction. Jamming upward will make you go
very fast, which can be dangerous. As you may suspect, holding down will slow
you down, which can also be dangerous.
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iii) The Enemies & Gameplay
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River Raid is very simple in design, as there are only five types of enemies in
the game... and one of them is a fuel refill depot. You get various points for
defeating enemies. After 10,000 points, you will get an extra life. You can
have only 9 spare lives at any one point in time though. It is also useful to
note that none of these enemies can actually shoot at you, hence the only way
to die is by crashing into them, the ground, or running out of fuel. It may
sound easy enough, but it is not!
The Enemies:
Tanker - A very large boat which sits in the water. As they are large targets
they are relatively slow moving and net only 30 points when defeated. Tankers
will bounce between shore line to shore line. While they are large targets,
that also means it is difficult to shoot around them, which becomes something
you will need to do later in the game
Helicopter - Much smaller than tankers, helicopters are also a bit faster and
harder to avoid, they yield sixty points when defeated. They will travel from
one side of the screen to the other, when they exit one side, they will enter
on the other.
Jet - These enemies move very quickly from the left and right sides of the
screen exiting on the other. They are difficult to hit by shooting but always
seem to run into you at the most in-opportune time. They give 100 points when
defeated.
Bridge - Bridges are used to separate sections of the "level". I use the term
level as there really are not any aside from the first, which is also
apparently endless. Bridges do not move, though after a while they will appear
after nasty tight turns making them nearly impossible to shoot without first
colliding into them and losing a life. A bridge gives 500 points, but more
importantly, once beyond the point where a destroyed bridge is, in the event
your plane is destroyed, you will start from there, rather than the beginning
of the game, which is good as it is just one giant level.
Fuel Refill Depot - As your plane obviously needs some sort of gas to keep it
going, you will need to collect these frequently. While you can shoot them for
80 points, it is usually a good idea to touch them and start refilling first.
If you are going slow enough, you can actually refill and then blow up the
depot you are refilling at. If you are low on fuel, do not pass one of these
up, there is no telling when you may see another. Remember to hold the joy
stick down when passing over one to slow down and gain the maximum amount of
fuel, provided you need it.
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iv) Hints & Tips
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River Raid may sound as though it is simple, but with no defined end to the
game it really can be a pain. Hopefully, some tips below will help you
achieve a high score over 15,000 points, so you can mail Activision for your
official emblem... well, I doubt they still mail those out.
- Fuel is drained at a constant rate, regardless of if you are cruising down
the river or taking it slow. Because of this, it is quite easy to run out
without ever seeing a refill depot.
- When going over a fuel refill depot, you will get more fuel back provided you
go over it slowly. This will also give you a better chance of blowing it up
for a few extra points as you go by. Remember, you can hold down to make you
move quite slow over one of them, giving a lot of fuel.
- Determine if you want to have guided shots or straight shots, as they cause
entirely different styles of playing. Guided works better for some instances,
but in others if you are constantly strafing to get out of the way of another
object, you may miss your intended target entirely.
- An alarm will sound when you have less than 1/4 a tank of fuel, start looking
for some.
- The River gets harder and harder to navigate the longer you play. Eventually
it will be one tight turn after another, filled with enemies. Though they can
not shoot, they move very quickly and enter the screen after having flown off
of the other side moments before.
- Rather than muddling your way through the game, take a few games to practice
hitting things in guided mode [or straight mode] at very slow speeds. You will
die quite a bit from running out of fuel, but being a good shooter will come in
handy. Once you have the hang of that, go through the game moving as fast as
you can, getting the hang of complex turns and evasive maneuvers. Do not shoot
at anything while doing this [aside from bridges]. Eventually, when you are
good at both, put them together and be amazed at how far they will take you.
- While it might seem practical to just hold down the fire button and rapid
shoot everything, it is not. You run the risk of hitting a fuel refill depot
before you have even seen what it was, which is very bad when you run out.
- As the level never ends, the layout of the river is rather random, though the
game does seem to have "hard" layouts and "easy" layouts programmed into it,
which would explain why one does not get a very difficult section of the river
for the first short while.
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v) Disclaimer
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Copyright 2004, Apathetic Aardvark
All rights reserved.
The following sites have my permission to post this without asking;
www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com
Any site, magazine, or other form of media, that is not included on this list
caught hosting this guide without my written consent is in violation of
copyright laws and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the laws.
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vi) Credits
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CJayC - Founder of GameFAQs
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Copyright 2003, Apathetic Aardvark|
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