Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen(NES) (Gorby's Pipeline in English)
FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0 copyright 2007
by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent.
However, if you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by
name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I
am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry.
**** AD SPACE: ****
My home page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762
If anyone figured out the scoring, let me know. I just gave up and said
"that's a lot, boy!"
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
1-1. THE GAME
1-2. TRANSLATION PATCH INFORMATION
2. BASICS
2-1. CONTROLS
2-2. PIECES
2-3. LEVELS/STAGES
2-4. SCORING
3. STRATEGIES
4. VERSIONS
5. CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
1-1. THE GAME
It's a game. With a Russian Dude. And blocks are falling! What a concept!
Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen features a Russian guy(specifically an amusing
anime semi-caricature likeness of Mikhail "Gorby" Gorbachev, the final
Premier of the Soviet Union) who is apparently trying to build a pipeline of,
err, WATER from Japan to Moscow. This contradicts the English subtitle "Great
Military Operation," but it's still funny.
In order to build the pipeline, the player must build a series of
pipes(bending and straight) that connect water from one side of the board to
the other. Once you do, everything completely below it collapses. Water flows
from the bottom of the right, then you place pieces so it goes to the left.
If the water runs into a dead end(i.e. another block) then the next pipe up
on the right puts water out. You have power ups to remove areas but the
correct strategy is not intuitive, and the game ends when a piece of pipe
reaches above the ledge you drop stuff from.
What makes Gorby such an interesting game is that 1) each 2-block of straight
and right-angle pipes is disproportiontaly likely to have 2 curves, forcing
you to think ahead and not wish and hope for the right piece and 2) there is
potential for gambling. The more you build your structure, the more points
you get for stuff under it. While the game gets repetitive once you learn the
moves, it's an interesting cross between two puzzle classics, Tetris and Pipe
Dream, and as you get better there's real opportunity for risk.
You need to complete 9 waves to get from Tokyo to Moscow. Later scenes go
faster and don't have pipes at all heights on the left, so you have to plan
how your curvy pipes go about. Later levels require you to create an
additional pipeline.
1-2. TRANSLATION PATCH INFORMATION
www.romhacking.net has an executable called Ninja. You will want to download
it. Also, download the compressed Gorby's Pipeline IGS file from
romhacking.net. If you have the NES ROM, which I won't tell you how to
get(other than to mention that you are more likely to find it under the
Japanese name,) you will want to unzip it and the IGS file. Apply the IGS
file, then browse for the .nes to apply it to. Now your game should be in
English! Not that you can't figure it out in Japanese, since there's not much
to read. But still, without the translation, this guide wouldn't be here,
because I'd never even have tried the game.
2. BASICS
2-1. CONTROLS
The controls for Gorby are like pretty much any other simple block game out
there.
You can hold left/right to move to the side but at later levels that might
not be fast enough.
A/B rotate clockwise/counterclockwise. But against the edge of the board it
can be tricky. You may not be able to. If you throw a block against the right
you can't go clockwise. Left, counterclockwise. Unless you went the other way
first. The initial bottom piece appears to be what the 2-block rotates
around.
Pushing down means move faster.
Pushing up doesn't move slower, sorry.
Any block can be rotated. For instance, you can rotate the wind pieces to
take out 2 columns.
Most importantly, if a block is on its side and half of it lands on the edge,
the other half splits off and you can rotate it at will. Obviously this is
very nice when you need to make a more surgical move. You can fill pieces of
pipeline with both of them.
At the title screen you can start at levels 1-7.
2-2. PIECES
BLUE BLOCKS appear when you 1) make a pipeline and 2) there are blocks above
the lower of the two ends of the pipelines. You get big points for them if
you take out another pipe above them.
The dripwater is good if you need to escape a level but not so good if you
are trying to pile up points.
The water bottle is useful to pile up points if you are almost done with a
level. Drop it by an open pipe and 4 blue block rows will appear under.
The above two pieces can only be used if they land next to an open water
pipe. So you can just let them fall harmlessly, maybe contemplating your next
move with them.
The drills/wind gusts can be harmful if you are building up, but in the worst
case, you can drop them on the very left or somewhere you made an easy mess
up. You can use them to give yourself another chance to complete a pipe you
were close to before a dumb mistake. But make sure there is a way across.
Once you have the column, you can chip off half of the 2-block and drop it
down the well to get the water flowing easily.
Because you have 6 possible pieces(UD or LR orientation for the straight and
the L-shaped have 4) there seem to be 36 possible pieces but in fact many are
mirror images and you can mess around a lot.
\t 0 UD 1 LR 2 UL 3 UR 4 DL 5 DR
b\
\
\
| | |
0 UD | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | |
1 LR | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
--- --- --- --- --- ---
| | |
2 UL | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
| | | | | |
-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+
| | |
3 UR | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
| | | | | |
+- +- +- +- +- +-
| | |
4 DL | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+
| | | | | |
| | |
5 DR | --- -+ +- +- -+
| | |
+- +- +- +- +- +-
| | | | | |
Top-bottom 00 and 11 are unique pieces.
22~55 which mirrors 44~33
43 mirrors 52
34 mirrors 25
24~35
42~53
30~04 mirrors 05~20
50~02 mirrors 03~40
21/31
41/51
I am guessing that you get a 1/8 chance of any one half-block appearing,
since they can appear so rarely. But just because two pieces aren't equal
doesn't mean they can't be. You will be breaking off half of a piece a lot
and rotating the other half, and so you can use a lot of pieces for that.
Even though pieces are 2x1 you often will wind up using only 1/2 of the piece
for what you need, except at the very beginning when you are laying the
pipeline out. It's ok to chuck the other half and in fact if you always use
only half, you'll get through the level pretty quickly. However, if you can
use one half, break off the other half and twiddle it properly, you're well
on your way to mastery of Gorby.
2-3. LEVELS/STAGES
for level X you must complete X+1 pipelines from one side to the other. The
scenes get slightly faster and the tunes change during each one.
Here is what I think the cities are for each level. I used google images to
find a map and looked for the rivers depicted in the game.
Start: Tokyo
Level 1: Vladivostok
Level 2: Khabarovsk
Level 3: Irkutsk
Level 4: Krasnoyarsk
Level 5: Novosibirsk/(Tomsk?)
Level 6: Omsk
Level 7: Perm
Level 8: Kirov??
Level 9: Moscow
On completing 9 levels, you see fireworks go off and then you start back
again.
If anyone knows the songs for the levels, let me know. I'm curious, though I
recognize one or two from the arcade Tetris.
2-4. SCORING
100 points for each extra link of pipe beyond 12 in your path.
The rest seems to vary with the number of bends you have and the number of
squares and blue squares under what you have. It varies with the square of
the last two factors. You also seem to get a multiplier by (level + stage *
9.)
You only score points for when you complete a pipeline. Therefore, don't push
down to go quicker unless you are sure of your move and you've looked at the
"next" box enough to know what you want to do.
When you complete a pipeline, all squares under the whole pipeline disappear,
and you get no points for them unless they are blue. All squares that are to
the left or right of the pipeline, but under some squares, turn blue--or
disappear and add to your bonus if they are already blue. All squares with
liquid in them also disappear for no points. So the later pipes are likely to
get you more points, and you can't really do a lot with the first one without
building up the playfield.
You get a rocket up the center of the well for 100000 points, a balloon for
1000000. Nothing for 10000000. I checked. I cheated to check.
The default high score list, for kicks. It's possible to get one entry on
each side for a game.
SCORE NAME STAGE NAME
1 250000 AKB 6 MOO
2 200000 NOP 5 TND
3 150000 MU 4 MU
4 100000 TND 3 NOP
5 50000 MOO 2 AKB
It's worth noting that one connection at the higher levels can be more than
the default high scores.
The score is at byte c4(low byte) then c3, c2 etc. It is represented as a
bunch of decimal digits sent to hex, and the ones digit is assumed zero, i.e.
00 45 20 means you have 45200 points.
Incidentally you can also cheat by altering the playing field. It starts at
x400(offset x454 in a FCEU save state) and is 16 wide. If you open a save
state in a hex editor, you will notice that the well is 16x18. Don't touch
either of the two side columns.
01=UL
02=DR
03=DL
04=UR
05=|
06=-
0c=blue box
+10 to any byte=water in the pipe
This is useful to set up a puzzle. I assume the "next" bytes can't be too
hard to find, but a cursory check turned up nothing.
3. STRATEGIES
The one most important thing to get straight when you start:
+- -+
| |
| |
-+ +-
Is much more likely to come by than --- ---, so you need to get used to that.
Another important thing is that you should plan to work from both sides.
Beginners may just wish to move from the right directly(well, with the
zigzags above) to the left, but sometimes a piece will be better suited to
tackle the left.
Another important thing to do is to develop a sense of when you are saying "I
just need the right piece." This often happens when I am trying not to be
wasteful, or I have just slipped up with a pipeline I should've had. I try to
put the Right Piece in the next available pipeline, but I can waste 6 or so
2x1's before I wake up and realize I should have just blocked up a few
pipelines on the right and started where I could get a zigzag going. In that
vein, when you chuck pieces, throw them against the right even if it means
the next pipe will start higher. It is a case of losing squares now or later,
and often with interest.
Finally, for starters, remember that on the first level you can make a big
mess creating the second pipe, since completing it clears the board and kicks
you to the next scene anyway. Even when you need to make three pipes, you can
create a big mess with pipe #2 and, as long as it doesn't bend too far down,
you'll wind up taking out enough below your pipeline to give you space to
plan the next bit.
You will hear a hissing noise once a water pipeline is extended. This is
useful to make sure you did things right.
Don't worry about big points for your first pipe. Go for it all with your
last one and cross your fingers(wait, no, that gets in the way of controls)
for a water bottle when you are confident you can complete the levels with a
few curves. Otherwise you may leave a mess behind. Also with the last one you
can afford to chuck stuff in the UR.
While it's good to take time to look at the "next" box if you are not sure
what to do, don't get glued to it looking for a straight piece. However, if
you don't have quite the right diagonal piece, you can see if the next piece
is better, and you can chuck what you've got.
And while going with diagonal connectors is best, beginners(or people facing
a new level for the first time) will probably revert back to relying on
linear pieces. Or they just might need one to connect the pieces of pipe that
they worked from both sides. Let's say you have something like the following:
+- ... -+
| |
| |
-+ +-
All you need is a straight piece to complete it, right? Well, yeah, but if
you get a piece like
|
+- ---
Then you won't be able to fit the straight piece where you need it. The
solution here is to junk half of a two-block below and then wait for the
straight piece. In general, you don't want to have to be in a position of
waiting for two straight pieces EVER(just use diagonal pieces as above to
compensate) but if you build a pipeline quickly and just need one straight
piece, that is ok. Or if you have space for 8 pieces to dump, you have no
problem. What you need will come soon enough.
One other thing that can catch you is when you are waiting a bit too long for
a straight connector in the following case where you need to continue a pipe
-+
|
|
|
|
| |
-+ +-
If only you had a straight connector, you could drop it in the gap and then
follow up with a diagonal connector.
But you may wind up chucking a lot. It's a lot more expedient to break up a
piece and put an UL 1L1D of where the pipe stopped. The next piece will fill
it and put it on its way. And this brings up another point, about the PARITY
of the pipe connectors. It's sort of like the old checkerboard puzzle where
you pull off opposite edges and 1x2 tiles can't cover it, because there are
32 red squares and 30 black, but 1x2 tiles get one square of each color. But
it's a bit more in depth. Basically, you need to recognize that if one bent
square in your pipeline points left, then to continue it the later squares
will need to be:
LRLRLRL
RLRLRLR
LRLRLRL
etc. The other direction may be up or down depending on the path of the
pipeline.
Also implicit in the diagram above is that it is a bad idea to try to go
straight down with a pipe or straight up. If you absolutely must on later
levels, you may need to go straight up at the end to avoid turning the
pipeline into the left wall at the final moment, but even there it is a last
resort to complete a level where you just chuck pieces until you get
something horizontal, then rotate, then cut and rotate a bent piece to win.
Also, if you make a small mistake, it's worthwhile to gamble that there may
be a drill coming by to wipe it out. Plan on the left accordingly, but leave
yourself a way out above, too.
One of the keys to the game is learning how to think diagonally. You should
assume that curvy pieces will always come your way and plan accordingly. So
you need to picture something as below:
+- -+ +- -+ +- -+
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
-+ +- -+ +- -+ +-
The wave up and down is the best way to progress. Of course, if you get
something linear, take advantage of that, too. If you get one linear piece,
you will need another linear piece to complete the puzzle, but that is okay.
You can just keep dropping stuff on either the left or right side until you
get it. Note that you can almost always move forward with creating a pipeline
if you have one curved piece. You can chuck one piece off to the side, or lay
it in a good position on the top, and then flip the other quickly. An example
is below:
|
+- -+-
Let's say you have a piece with two curves and want to land it on this.
There's a possibility that no rotations will allow you to fit a D-L piece
over the left square and drop the other half to the left. So just chuck that
piece off to the right, set vertically. Wait for the next piece to come down
and you can use the vertical tower you made to siphon off half a piece if
need be.
Note on an unbalanced board you can afford to chuck a bunch of pieces on the
bottom to balance things out. Even if you want to use the zigzag described
below, you still have a triangle where you can chuck pieces, i.e.
planned
v
/ ----
/ <fill in
/
Of course, if you mess up, you are in trouble, but you have lots of places to
chuck pieces over after you complete the pipe on the left.
So in fact if you are short of space and hurricanes come by, you can drop the
hurricanes in two columns and just chuck pieces waiting for the right ones.
Of course, if you are close to what you want to do, you may need to wipe only
one column.
For general strategies, if your intent is survival, start along the bottom.
If points, start along the bottom. Sorry to sound like "'ees a good 'un" but
on the slower levels if you try to pile up points, you can do the same half-
accidentally on the higher levels, so you should just go for survival on them
until the higher levels, when you may have to. Learning and expanding your
limitations with regard to an unbalanced pipeline are the key to scoring big,
but I find that I generally get good scores when I just do things
accidentally. Perhaps if you are really good you can loop in and out of the
right side and go down a diagonal, but I find that it's easier to get almost
to the edge and then, if you have enough space, work your way to the top.
There always will be one.
Once you're ready to focus on points, you may also wish to build up the
bottom of the playing field artificially on level 1 to try to play as if you
had the water bottle. However, the best way to get points is to work as
follows.
1. get a quick finish for the first pipe. Dump any spares off to the right
side.
2. use a diagonal bit if necessary on the left edge to finish. If you are
feeling really risky, pump up the right side a bit.
Alternatively, you can start off intending an imbalance, get some blues
underneath, and then with the second time through you can make more imbalance
to get more points and take out the blues. The more pipes you have to make,
the more blue squares you can leave under any one pipe.
End of FAQ Proper
================================
4. VERSIONS
1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 3/11/2007, complete.
5. CREDITS
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should,
too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer,
falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War
Doc, AdamL and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-
banned message board incarnation.
Thanks to the NES Completion Project folks for all their work, too. Helps
keep me inspired.
Special thanks to odino for suggesting this game.
Thanks to the folks at romhacking.net for having a patch of this game, which
I would have ignored otherwise. And thanks to the folks at DvD Translations
for translating this in the first place.
