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Miami Vice: The Game - Hacking FAQ
By UnknownMercenary
Version 1.1 - 10/23/07
Update: Added an alternate strategy for AR hack phase 3.
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1 - Introduction
2 - How Hacking Works
3 - Tips & Tricks
4 - Hacks
5 - Conclusion

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1 - Introduction
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I decided to write this FAQ after finding the hacking minigame incredibly hard
to pass. It is quite difficult until you spend a lot of time using trial and
error to figure out the patterns required to pass each FlashRAM hack.

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2 - How Hacking Works
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The basics of hacking are as follows: you control the little triangle. The
squares are the firewalls that contain data pieces you need to collect. Destroy
the squares to get them. The circles they drop are data pieces. The red crosses
the squares shoot are spikes that will destroy data. You control the triangle
with the analog nub, and the only attack you have is a charging attack, which
you can charge and detonate with X. You should stick with using mostly fully
charged attacks, since anything less won't do much. If you hit a square or a
spike you will lose the charge you had on your attack, and hitting a spike also
makes you lose a data piece. You have a 60 second time limit for every phase,
and each FlashRAM has 3 phases to pass. You must pass all 3 phases in one go;
if you fail on any phase you must restart the hack from phase 1.

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3 - Tips & Tricks
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- You can trigger a chain reaction explosion by either detonating the spikes
 that squares shoot or by making multiple squares explode nearby, since each
 explosion creates a damaging radius.
- 90% of the time the game will only respawn a square once the circle it left
 behind is picked up. Use this to your advantage.
- Circles never disappear or get destroyed; use in conjunction with tip #2.

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4 - Hacks
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Shotgun Upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - 4 moving firewalls spawn. Charge up and then detonate them when they
         get close.
Phase 2 - 4 moving firewalls, and two of them shoot spikes and rotate slowly.
         Take out the ones that shoot spikes and then focus on the non-lethal
         ones. not to difficult.
Phase 3 - Two pieces spawn at opposite corners and one will move up while the
         other moves down. Stay in the centre charging up, and then both
         streams are about the hit you detonate so it takes out both of the
         squares. Grab the circles, then return to the centre and repeat these
         steps.

SMG upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - Two pieces spawn at opposite corners and one will move left while the
         other moves right. Stay in the centre charging up, and then both
         streams are about the hit you detonate so it takes out both of the
         squares. Grab the circles, then return to the centre and repeat these
         steps.
Phase 2 - Same as phase 1 except the twist is that 2 non-lethal moving
         firewalls will show up. You can take out all 4 with one huge
         explosion, and then grab the circles and repeat.
Phase 3 - Same thing we've seen before - two pieces spawn at opposite corners
         and one will move up while the other moves down. Stay in the centre
         charging up, and then both streams are about the hit you detonate so
         it takes out both of the squares. Grab the circles, then return to the
         centre and repeat these steps.

Weed Baron Location
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - 4 moving squares will spawn - 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. They
         will move horizontally shooting spikes. Their streams of fire will
         cross so wait til they do and then detonate a full charge to take out
         all four. Grab the data circles and repeat.
Phase 2 - Same as phase 1 except they squares aren't fixed in horizontal
         movement.
Phase 3 - A whole bunch of squares will spawn at the bottom. they will rotate
         and shoot spikes. destroy the trails of spikes to detonate a whole
         bunch of firewalls and then grab the circles they while watching out
         for spikes headed in your direction.

Carbine Upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - Starts out pretty easy. 6 stationary firewalls. Detonate enough in
         the time limit.
Phase 2 - 6 moving squares, 3 of which shoot left and 3 of which shoot right.
         Kind of tricky, as you have to weave and dodge incoming fire, but
         just charge up and create a huge explosion, grab the circles dropped
         and repeat.
Phase 3 - Two pieces spawn at opposite corners and one will move up while the
         other moves down. Stay in the centre charging up, and then both
         streams are about the hit you detonate so it takes out both of the
         squares. Grab the circles, then return to the centre and repeat these
         steps.

Meth Baron Location
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - Move down a bit and to the left, wait for the left square to come
         close to you then detonate at full charge. When the right one bounces
         back it will bunch up its spikes as the respawned left one comes at
         you. Detonate the spikes to take both out. Repeat this sequence.
Phase 2 - Two squares will spawn in the top left corner and move to the right
         shooting spikes. One square will spawn in the bottom right corner and
         move left while shooting spikes. Move to the right and try to take
         out the top two, if not all three in one go. Grab the circles dropped
         by the pair of squares and note where they spawn - ideally the game
         should respawn them in the original position, if not then at least
         spawning them together as a pair. Go to the far side of their spawn
         (they will move towards you) then detonate as one comes close - the
         full charge should take out both. Repeat. This takes quite a bit of
         trial and error as the game doesn't always follow the spawning rule,
         but it's the only surefire way I've found.
Phase 3 - This one is a toughie. Looks simple at first. 3 squares will spawn
         at a time but 1 will randomly disappear. Try to target 2 squares
         that are close together so you can take out both. once you've taken
         out 2 the 3rd will disappear and more spawn.

Assault Rifle Upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - Move down to the lower left hand corner and stay next to the spinning
         one shooting spikes. One of the bouncing squares will move to you.
         Charge and detonate so that you take out the moving one and the
         shooting one at the same time. Repeat this process. If the game
         respawns a 3rd moving square instead of a shooting one, detonate them
         and move on and eventually it will respawn a shooting one.
Phase 2 - Move slightly down and to the left. Two shooting squares will rotate
         and time the detonation so that it will hit both streams of fire when
         they cross. Next detonate the two roaming squares repeatedly.
         Sometimes the game likes to spawn a roaming square and a shooting
         square instead of 2 roaming squares, and the chances of that
         happening are about 30%.
Phase 3 - Oooh, tough. This is what makes the assault rifle hack the hardest.
         Detonate a charge on each side that you take out the shooting ones
         in all four corners. Then, you'll have to be nimble - blow up the 2
         fast moving ones repeatedly. If the game spawns a shooting one, make
         that your priority. Once you have about 2 to 4 more data pieces you
         need, quickly grab from the corners. You have very little room for
         error with this strategy, so if anybody knows a better one, let me
         know. UPDATE: An alternative strategy is to let one corner square
         remain, charge up and time your detonation to take out the corner
         square and the two roaming ones. I use the top-left corner square
         with this strategy. It's riskier, but you're not as pressed for
         time.

Coke Baron Location
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - This one is much easier than the last 2. A whole crowd of moving
         squares will spawn and they will shoot upward. Stay on the bottom
         half of the screen and detonate as a whole crowd moves by, then
         quickly grab the circles while avoiding any spikes.
Phase 2 - Literally the same as phase one although they don't crowd as much.
Phase 3 - Same as phases 1 and 2 but they shoot down instead of up.

Sniper Rifle Upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - Another easy hack. A whole bunch of slow moving squares will spawn
         filling up almost the whole screen. Go to some empty space and charge
         up, and then take out a whole bunch. Repeat.
Phase 2 - Same as phase 1 except more crowded, but you still have room to
         maneuver.
Phase 3 - This one is pretty hard until you know the trick. A crowded bunch of
         squares will spawn at the top of the screen spraying spikes. Make a
         small detonation (hold for about a second then release X) and you
         should take out a sizeable crowd. The ensuing explosions of these
         squares will take out more squares as they spawn. Now just move to
         the top of the screen and grab all of the circles. Easy peasy.

Unlock Cheat Suit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phase 1 - A bit tricky but not too hard. About 4 squares will spawn and they'll
         all be rotating while shooting spikes. Trigger a chain reaction to
         take about a handful of them and then quickly grab the data while
         avoiding the spikes. There's no surefire strategy here but keep
         trying; it gets easier from here.
Phase 2 - A whole ****ing ****load of firewalls will show up shooting spikes
         all over. Charge up about 1/3 of the bar and then detonate. It should
         take out most of the squares on the screen, and leave more than
         enough data to complete this phase. Grab it all to finish.
Phase 3 - Same thing we've seen before - two pieces spawn at opposite corners
         and one will move up while the other moves down. Stay in the centre
         charging up, and then both streams are about the hit you detonate so
         it takes out both of the squares. Grab the circles, then return to the
         centre and repeat these steps.

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5 - Conclusion
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I hope you found this FAQ useful, and if you have any tips, email me at:
unknownmercenary [AT] gmail [DOT] com

FAQ (C) 2007 UnknownMercenary
Miami Vice: The Game (C) 2006 Vivendi Universal & Rebellion

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