"MERMAID MADNESS" WALKTHROUGH / GUIDE / FAQ V1.08
Written by Bamse 2008 mN while relaxing at Rancho Zoidberg.
Based on the original Commodore 64 game by Electric Dreams released in 1986.
Played on the "CCS64 V3.5" and "WinVice2.0" Emulators for the Commodore 64.
Table of content:
1. Introduction
2. About "Mermaid Madness"
3. Controls & Keys
4. The Game Display
5. General Hints
6. Walkthrough
7. Cheats
8. Frequently Asked Questions
9. About This Document
10. History
### 1. Introduction ###
Unable to find a working walkthrough in the net, I wrote this one. It´s not much
but Mermaid Madness hasn´t much to write about either. If you have something to
add or complain about feel free to mail.
Since this Walkthrough is based on the C64 version I can not guarantee 100%
compatibility with other versions, but I guess there won´t be any difference
between them.
### 2. About "Mermaid Madness" ###
### 2.1.1. The Official Background Story ###
SEA DREAMS
"I want a man," cries Myrtle, "a husband, a fellah; someone
to eat oysters with while the sun sinks down over the heaving
sea." Myrtle watches from the Candy Stall on the pier and
consumes another two sticks of rock (simultaneously), she
burps and the echoes shake the counter as a wet flip flapping
sound flops up to her stall.
The flip flapping is Gormless Gordon, a diver of little repute
and even littler brain (you could count his active brain cells
to be exact).
"Good God," shouts Gordon in shocked surprise, for
Myrtle's comely features (as comely as any 112 year old who
spent half her life soaking in salt water and the other half
pulling ugly faces in a side show for a living) have struck him
to the core and now he is going to be sick. "Oooaaahh, help
urgle urgle," gargles Gordon as he tumbles over the end of
the pier and into the briney deep.
Myrtle's heart swells on seeing Gordon and beats with a
ferocity unequalled since the home coming of the troops in
1918 when she wooed the gallant lads with a belly dance she
had learned from a squid.
"My love, my dear, my darling," she coos with a voice like a
fog horn, "you must be mine to have, to hold, to hold and to
have until the end of our days. Wait, wait don't be coy I'm
coming," and with a whoop she leaps over the Candy counter
throwing off her clothes with gay abandon as she charges
after Gordon like a romantic hippo after a mate; her golden
locks streaming out behind her as she plummets towards the
sea, which seems to cringe away from the imminent impact.
On entering the water Myrtle's legs metamorphose into a
handy fish tail which she uses to propel herself into the
rippling depths in search of her heart's desire (the rest of her
body is pretty keen on Gordon too). Meanwhile Gordon has
remembered that he has to breath bottled air when he is
under water and is now secreting himself in a tangle of metal
within a wreck.
"Mmmmmnnnnmmmnnn," he sings to himself to calm his
nerves (the mouth piece inhibiting his pronunciation a
little). Calmer now he looks around and finds he cannot move
for he has corkscrewed himself clockwise into an
anti-clockwise tangle and is well and truly trapped.
Fortunately Gormless Gordon forgets that he cannot breath
under water and settles down for a snooze, waiting for Myrtle
to go away, oblivious of the danger he is in. His air supply
starts to slip down, bubble by bubble by bubble, Gordon's in
serious trouble.
Myrtle heads for the rescue powered by bottles of stout
fortuitously scattered about the sea bed during an ocean liner
wreck (women, children and stout first over the side). With
the stout coursing round her blood stream she swims to the
bottom and as she nears her man that undefinable magic that
is love causes her heart to beat faster.
"I'm coming my dear, do not fear, do not be afraid, I'm not
in the tragical history trade. We'll have a happy ending quite
soon, if I can get you before I swoon." She swigs at another
bottle of the brown nectar while dodging a rock lobster ...
### 2.1.2. The "REMEMBER" Info Screen ###
Myrtle the Mermaid had never been able to get on with the boys too well, and
at
the age of 110 she was beginning to think that she would be left on the shelf
until one fateful day she met the man of her dreams. Unfortunately Careless
Colin
didn't think that she was the girl of his dreams and promptly dived into
a wetsuit and jumped off the end of Wumptyland Pier. Colin certainly lived up
to
his nickname because he had forgotten to take a spare Oxygen cylinder in his
haste to escape from her clutches and soon found himself trapped in the wreck
of
a sunken liner.
But Myrtle wasn't going to give in that easily and set about saving her
reluctant Toy-Boy. Help her get her man by keeping her strength up by drinking
bottles of stout at every opportunity. Help her to collect the items she needs
to save her dreamboy.
### 3. Controls & Keys ###
Joystick 2 UP = Swim Up
Joystick 2 DOWN = Dive Down
Joystick 2 LEFT = Swim Left
Joystick 2 RIGHT = Swim Right
Joystick 2 Fire-Button = Pick up / Drop Item
SPACE = Toggle Music & FX on / off (ingame only)
### 3.1. Offical Manual ###
CONTROLS
This program supports the Kempston joystick
interface, or use the following keys:
A = Left
S = Right
. = Down
Space = Collect or Drop Objects, Drink Bottles of Stout.
GAMEPLAY
Swim Myrtle down to rescue Gormless Gordon. You will
need to avoid sea creatures that attack you if you touch them.
You will need to drink stout to keep up your energy. There
are also some useful objects which will need to be collected
and used.
At the top of the screen going from left to right there are:
1) Score and High Score. Beneath these the object you are
currently carrying is listed.
2) Gordon's air bottles. The meter is slowly ticking down.
You have to rescue Gordon before the needle reaches the red zone.
3) Myrtle's heart which pulses faster the closer she is to Gordon.
4) A bottle of stout which shows how much energy Myrtle has.
### 4. The Game Display ###
The top left frame of the screen reads your current score (your progress in
percent) and the highscore. If you are carrying an object its name is displayed
right below the highscore. The second frame displays Gordon´s air supply. Rescue
Gordon before the pointer reaches the six o´clock position. The third frame
shows
your heart beat: breaking if you die and beating faster the closer you get to
Gordon it´s pretty useless. The last frame shows your energy in the shape of a
bottle. An empty bottle equals a dead mermaid.
### 5. General Hints ###
- Avoid touching the sea-creatures, they draw from your energy
- Don´t bum around, there´s not much time to waste
- Dynamite can´t be picked up again once dropped
- Don´t stay in the screen where you dropped dynamite, the explosion is deadly
- Picking up bottles of stout is drinking them at once
- Don´t pick up bottles if you have full energy
- The bottles´ locations differ from game to game
- Drink some bottles of stout before you pick up dynamite, you can´t refresh
your energy while carrying dynamite
- Be sure to have enough energy left when carrying dynamite (to pass the
unavoidable shark in the lit cavern)
- Pass the shark (in the lit cavern) when it´s coming towards you to minimize
the energy loss
- Don´t touch the Poltergeist in the sunken ship, it kills you at once
- You can´t drop an object in a screen with already two objects lying around
- Keep in mind that DYNAMITE1 isn´t DYNAMITE2, ANKH1 isn´t ANKH2...
- ANKH1 (found on the dry land accessable from the open water side) is of no
use (or is it?)
- Every screen you enter for the first time adds 1% to your score, so be sure to
visit all screens!
- Highest possible score is 99%
### 6. Walkthrough ###
01- In order to save precious time we don´t bother diving down to trapped Gordon
but swim directly a couple of screens to the top right, get out of the water
and pick up ANKH2.
02- Back in the water we dive all the way down to the bottom of the sea, then
right, and up to the cave´s ceiling, then right again into the screen with
the bubbling oyster. Ignoring the oyster we drop the ANKH2 for later use...
03- We swim back to the screen we just passed through and take the LANTERN.
04- With the LANTERN we swim back right to the oyster and then down. This room
used to be dark, but the LANTERN lights it up. Drop the LANTERN and leave
the screen upwards again.
05- Now we have to swim all the way back, ´round the sunken ship, into the upper
left cave under the starting point, left again until we reach the leftmost
screen of the game. We dive into the screen below to take up DYNAMITE2. Now
you might want to swim one more screen to the right to take a glimse at your
sweethearts awkward situation.
06- Back to the room where we dropped the LANTERN. Here we drop the DYNAMITE2
and quickly leave the screen upwards again.
07- Wait in the screen with the oyster until you hear a rumbling. Take ANKH2 and
dive down again to see that the explosion destroyed the barrier to the open
waters. Leave the screen to the right.
08- Hold your depth while swiming two screens right. Then down pass the two
Ra (?) statues to the bottom of sea. We are now in a screen with another
oyster, but this one isn´t dangerous - it´s closed. Drop the ANKH2 on the
fallen column left of the oyster for the time being.
09- Now swim right up to the surface and take the CHEST, then all the way back
until you reach the sunken ship. Enter it.
10- There´s a Poltergeist blocking the way. Don´t touch it but drop the chest
near it - voila, the Poltergeist vanishes.
11- Leave the ship to the right and dive up a screen. There´s a TIRE we pick up
and swim back down and right through the cave into the open waters and all
the way right until we reach the rightmost screen of the game. We dive down
with a column to our left and a human statue with grey cloth to our right.
12- Reaching the ground we encounter a seahorse blocking our way. It´s almost
impossible to pass it without losing all your energy, but since we have the
TIRE, why not drop it right on the seahorse? It disapears, and we pick up
the DYNAMITE3 unharmed.
13- With the DYNAMITE3 in our pocket (?) we have to swim - once again - all the
way back to the leftmost screens of the game. In the screen with the tiny
turtle (just above where we found DYNAMITE2) there´s a barrier blocking the
way up. We drop the DYNAMITE3 and leave the screen.
14- After the explosion we enter the screen again and take the way up to find
the SALT. We grab it and head back to the closed oyster in the open waters.
15- Drop the SALT on the closed oyster. After a second the oyster snaps open and
a PEARL appears. Pick it up (if you´re trapped now you haven´t deployed the
ANKH2 right).
16- Our next destination is the other oyster we encountered earlier (above the
dark screen with the shark). The PEARL has to be dropped carefully near it.
After some seconds it´s safe to pick up DYNAMITE1.
17- We pass the lit screen with the shark into the open waters and dive down to
the ground, then left. Upps - another dark room. Don´t worry, the LANTERN is
not needed as there are no enemies in this little cave. But there´s a TORCH.
Unfortunitely it´s blocked by some rocks (thrust me:it´s dark, you can´t
see them!). Drop the DYNAMITE1 and leave the screen.
18- Another explosion later the way is free to pick up the TORCH. With it we
finally haste to Gordon (the fastest way is through the ship, but you can
also swim all the way ´round the ship).
19- Drop the TORCH in the screen with the trapped diver and your sweetheart is
rescued!!
### 7. Cheats ###
Type in this chain of pokes before starting the game to prevent energy-loss:
Poke 17274,169
Poke 17275,0
Poke 17276,234
You can also reset the game, type in the pokes and restart with:
Sys 16384
### 8. Frequently Asked Questions ###
Q: "Where can I download the latest version of this document?"
A: "At
http://www.gamefaqs.com/"
Q: "Are there any other complete FAQs for this game existing?"
A: "I don´t think so..."
Q: "I constantly get lost. Is there a map for ´Mermaid Madness´?"
A: "Yes, there´s one from Corbon440. It´s available at www.gamefaqs.com, too"
Q: "What about ANKH1?"
A: "I don´t know. It´s useless. Some kind of red hering..."
Q: "Can I get a higher score than 99% ?"
A: "Maybe if you find a way to use ANKH1? ;o)"
Q: "Who is ´Careless Colin´?"
A: "According to the "REMEMBER" release it´s the name of the trapped diver."
Q: "What´s the divers name, then?"
A: "In advertising & the offical manual it´s ´Gormless Gordon´!"
Q: "How old is Myrtle?"
A: "Again, the REMEMBER release is wrong: she´s not 110, she´s 112 already!"
Q: "Did you write other FAQs as well?"
A: "Yes, I also wrote FAQs for ´They stole a million´ and ´Steel Thunder´!"
### 9. About This Document ###
Initiated on October the 14th 2008 mN, written & copyright by Bamse.
Document only available at
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
E-Mail:
[email protected]
### 10. History ###
14.10.2008mN Game completed, Walkthrough written down on paper
16.10.2008mN Guide (this document) created
17.10.2008mN Pokes confirmed
26.10.2008mN Some blank sections filled, Walkthrough completed
31.10.2008mN Textformat changed for those who miss the automatic word wrap
-eof-
