______________________ / PONG: THE NEXT LEVEL \______________ _____/ FAQ Version .1 \_______________________________ / \ ________ ________ ________ ___ ___ _________ __ /_______/ / __ / / __ / / \ / / / ______/ /_/ ________ / /_/ / / / / / / _ \ / / / / ____ /_______/ / _____/ / / / / / / \ \_/ / / / /_ / / / / /_/ / / / \ / / /____/ / __ /__/ /_______/ /__/ \___/ /_________/ /_/ ==THE NEXT LEVEL== FAQ Pong: The Next Level for PC / Windows ------------------------------------- FAQ Written By: whiz kid Copyright 2001 Sean Handwerk (whiz kid) whizkid@nintendofact.com ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________ _____/ TABLE OF CONTENTS \_______________________________________________ / \ I. Introduction A. The Next Level! II. Game Info A. Rules B. The Powerups C. General Strategies III. The Levels A. Zone 1 B. Zone 2* C. Zone 3* D. Zone 4* E. Zone 5* F. Zone 6* G. Zone 7* IV. Miscellaneous A. Update Info B. Copyright Notice C. Credits *Coming Soon ______________________________________________________________________________ _________________ ________________________________________/ I. Introduction \___________________ ______________________ _____/ A. The Next Level! \_______________________________________________ / \ Pong was one of the first video games ever made. It was produced by Atari. This game involved bouncing a little white ball between two paddles, trying to get the ball into your opponents goal. Pong: The Next Level is a remake of this game, and with a lot of added twists and features. Multiple balls, powerups, funky worlds filled with obstacles and colorful characters give this game a modern-day twist. ______________________________________________________________________________ _________________ ________________________________________/ II. Game Info \___________________ ______________________ _____/ A. The Rules \_______________________________________________ / \ The object of the game is to get the ball into your opponents goal. (Usually the end of the playing field) Getting the ball in earns you 1 point. The amount of points needed vary depending on the level, but in most levels you must score 10 points to claim victory. When you or your opponent score nine points, the word MATCHPOINT will appear at the bottom ofthe screen, warning you the end is near. If both players score 9, the word TIE appears. The first player to score in a TIE gets the ADVANTAGE. If that player scores again, he wins. But if a player has the ADVANTAGE, and the other player scores, the score goes back to a TIE. So this allows for some heated and extended matches, so stay on your guard at all times. ______________________ _____/ B. The Powerups \_______________________________________________ / \ Several powerups make an appearance in this game, and each has its own helpful (or harmful) purpose. The powerups take the form of spinning tops. When you hit one of these tops with a ball, it starts to spin toward you. You must then "catch" the top with your pong to earn the power. You can then use the powerup by pressing ENTER. If you have more than 1, you can cycle through them by pressing SHIFT. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the powerups include: Whack: Just as the name implies, a red top will let you WHACK the ball up to 3 times. If timed right, the WHACKed ball will go flying toward your opponent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grab: This power up lets your pong (Surprise!) GRAB the ball. You must press and hold ENTER to hold on to the ball. You can then maneuver the pong and use the left and right arrow keys to tilt your pong. Release ENTER to send the ball on its way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slingshot: One of the more interesting powerups. As with GRAB, you must press and hold ENTER to get the ball. By simply releasing ENTER, nothing spectacular will happen, but if you release the ball while moving you pong and/or tilting it, the ball will do something a bit more wild. Upon release, a purple trail of smoke will come from the ball and it will curve as it heads toward your opponent, changing its angle of approach on the way there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skull: On most occasions, you will want to avoid this. It will start the playing field's "obstacles" running, and then some interesting things will happen, such as the blowing of wind, which will throw off the ball's angle making it more difficult to hit. If you are comfortable with your skill/level, you might opt to take these to tilt (sometimes literally) the game toward you. However, be warned. The computer is very good in dealing with these and will often use them against you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question Mark: Somewhat like the Skull, as in it will change the conditions on the playing field... Really. However, the color of the Q Marks can differ. For example, in LOG JAM: CUTS BOTH WAYS, getting the teal Q Mark will make the teal logs roll, while getting the purple one will make the purple logs go. _______________________ _____/ C. General Strategies \______________________________________________ / \ -Keep your eye on the ball. It might sound like something out of baseball, but be sure to do this, especially when any "obstacles" or powerups are in play. -Position your pong according to where the ball WILL be, not where it IS. Failing to do this will make your life harder. Also be on the lookout for obstacles affecting the ball's movement. -Use powerups to your advantage. For example, if the comp is off balance during a heated match, WHACKing the ball might be enough to make the comp miss the ball. -The ball is your FIRST priority. Don't risk missing the ball just to get (or avoid) a certain powerup. Powerups are nice, but keeping the ball in play is far more important. -Everytime the ball is hit, if not interfered with, will speed up. Don't be caught off guard. Also, when the ball reaches a certain speed, it will change color each time it is hit to reflect the pong that JUST hit it. This can help you know which way the ball is headed. -When multiple balls are in play, there are two factors to consider in deciding which ball to go for: The LOCATION of the balls and their SPEED. Generally, you want to go for the ball that is closer to you. However, if a ball farther behind is approaching at twice the speed, you'll want to go for that first. Generally, this is a matter of eye judgment, and sometimes you'll have to let a ball go off the edge or risk losing them ALL. ______________________________________________________________________________ _________________ ________________________________________/ III. The Levels \___________________ -In this game, each zone has 4 levels, and each level has 3 variations. By completing the first variation of a level, you earn 3 gold bars. Gold bars are used to enter the subsequent levels. Completing the second variation earns you two gold bars, and completing the third (and hardest) variation of the level gets you 1 gold bar. (In the rest of this FAQ, Gold Bar will be abbreviated GB) ______________________ _____/ A. Zone 1 \_______________________________________________ / \ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 1: PENGUIN PONG GB needed: 0 Powerups: Seal (SEAL SAVER) Bear (POLAR POWER) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the first level. It's set on an iceberg with two penguins marching around on it. When you hit a penguin, it will "lay" another ball that goes into play. SEAL SAVER: In this variation, obtaining a powerup will earn you 1 "seal saver". When you press ENTER to activate this power, a seal will pop up behind your Pong and will block balls for a limited amount of time. This power is best used when multiple balls are in play. POLAR POWER: The powerups change in this level. Activating one makes a polar bear tip up your side of the field, causing any balls landing on your opponents side to stay there, effectively cutting the field in half. Also best used when multiple balls are in play. SNOWSTORM: This can be hard. Pretty often, wind will start blowing and change the speed and angle of the balls. A good thing to do would be to watch the direction the snowflakes are blowing. Then you know which way the balls are likely to roll. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 2: SOCCER STARS GB needed: 3 Powerups: None ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this level, you control two pongs. Set on a soccer field, one pong is your "goalie" and the other is your "forward". PLAIN PITCH: This is pretty straightforward. Knock the ball into your opponent's goal. If a ball rolls into your goal, your pong will "grab" the ball and let you aim it. Use the left/right arrow keys to tilt your pong, and combine this with movement. The comp is pretty tough to get by. MOLE HILLS: This time around, moles will appear and dig holes in the field. These holes will distort the ball's angle and direction, so watch carefully. MOLE HOLES: Moles will once again appear on the field, except this time the ball can fall in one of these holes. When it falls in, it will come out of another one of the holes on the field. This can actually be used to your advantage, especially if you have trouble getting past the comp after it just scored. Line up your pong so the ball will roll into one of the holes (if any) in front of the comps pong. It will probably come out somewhere near the middle of the field, and if your lucky, near your opponent's goal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 3: LOG JAM GB needed: 6 Powerups: WHACK Question Mark (ONE WAY) Teal Question Mark (CUTS BOTH WAYS, SAW POINT) Purple Question Mark (CUTS BOTH WAYS, SAW POINT) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this level, there are logs in the middle of the playing field that will roll different directions when the appropriate power-up is collected. Collect two of the same Q Mark quickly, and the logs will roll at double speed. The trick here is to keep the comp playing defensively, or you'll be in trouble. ONE WAY: Obtaining the question mark here will cause the logs to roll in the comps direction, making the ball go faster. *BEWARE* The comp get still get the ball back to your side using the WHACK powerup. However, the comp will usually miss a few balls during this period. CUTS BOTH WAYS: In this one, the logs in the center are split into two groups: teal and purple. Collecting the teal Q Mark will make the teal logs spin, and collecting the purple Q Mark will make the purple logs spin. If logs are spinning your way, try to keep the ball on the half of the field that the logs aren't spinning on. SAW POINT: Same as CUTS BOTH WAYS, but a saw blade spins across the center of the field. Hitting this will either bounce the ball... or cut (!) it in half, making two balls. Use that WHACK powerup or risk losing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 4: CLOWN AROUND GB needed: 9 Powerups: None ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This level is gonna drive you batty... You start on a tilting board, with different colored crates off to the sides, and your pong is at the front. You must bounce the colored balls into the appropriate colored crates to win. It's harder than it sounds... Trust me. TWO TONE: Two colored crates. Four yellow, four red. Watch for the balls to roll down. To get aball in one of the bottom crates, wait until it reaches the third (from the top) arrow and do a full tilt in the direction you want it to go. To get a ball in one of the third crates, wait until the ball reaches the second arrow and full tilt. To get a ball in a second crate, as soon as the ball lands, fully tilt the field. To get a ball into one of the top crates, keep the field straight and bounce the ball off your pong. As it heads back up, tilt the field to get it in one of the crates. COLOR MATCH: This time, you get four different colors... yeehaw. You also get multiple balls. The first ball down should be a red. Land it in the bottom left crate. A blue ball comes intoaction. Wait until it gets to the second arrow and tilt the field. As soon as you do this, the green ball comes, but if you've done it right, BOTH balls should roll into their crates. The only other problem spot you might run in to is a green ball followed by a red. In this case tilt the field to get the green one in, then IMMEDIATELY tilt in in the opposite direction to get the red ball rolling away from the edge. Then IMMEDIATELY tilt it back to land it in the red crate at the bottom of the field...phew MULTICOLOR: Prepare for nightmares. You get two yellow colored balls at the same time almost immediately, so land one in the top crate and tilt HARD to keep the other yellow one in play. You're going to have to do some crazy tilting in this level (good thing this isn't a pinball machine), and it may take several tries. ______________________________________________________________________________ ___________________ ________________________________________/ IV. Miscellaneous \_________________ ______________________ _____/ A. Update Info \_______________________________________________ / \ v0.1 (09/21/01) - First writing of this FAQ. Expect and update of further zones very soon. ______________________ _____/ B. Copyright Notice \_______________________________________________ / \ This document Copyright 2001 Sean Handwerk. All rights reserved. This document may not be copied, in whole or in part, and printed in a magazine, forum, book, or anywhere else without written consent of the author. If you would like to use this FAQ on your website, please contact me at whizkid@nintenodfact.com. It may not be altered, edited, placed inside a frame, or anything else that would alter its content / appearance. If you use this FAQ as a basis for your own work, you do not need permission, as long as the author is given credit. ______________________ _____/ C. Credits \_______________________________________________ / \ CJayC - For posting this FAQ You - For reading it ______________________________________________________________________________ Thus endeth this FAQ. You can stop reading now. © 2001 Sean Handwerk