SELECT button: Inside view or outside view.
START button: Pause, continue, restart, or quit.
Joystick/keypad: Movement. Up is forward, down is backward, left is
turn left, right is turn right, &c. (Note the Fuchicoma can climb onto most
walls. Remember: "You meet a better class of people in the vertical
(axis).")
L1 or L2: Slide left.
R1 or R2: Slide right.
(The player can combine the joystick/keypad and slide left/right
buttons to manoeuvre the Fuchicoma such that the direction it's facing and
the heading of its movement are different. Essential for keeping its
line-of-fire at a target while it's dodging the target's weapons. Overall,
reminds me of the IBM games MechWarrior 2 and System Shock (eg, stop before
a corner, turn towards the wall, slide into the new corridor while firing
the Vulcan, then slide back into the old corridor), except the Fuchicoma
can climb onto most walls.)
Jump: Also a quick way to reset the Fuchicoma's orientation after it climbs
onto a building or wall, causing the player to lose his/her situation
awareness.
Vulcan: Each button-tap is a burst of six autocannon shots. Short
range. Unlimited ammo.
Lock-On Missile: Hold the Vulcan button. After the Vulcan burst,
the Lock-On Marker on the target will turn red. A Lock-On Gauge appears at
the centre of the bottom edge of the screen. Each orange block in the
Lock-On Gauge is one missile, up to 6 missiles per barrage. Medium range.
Unlimited ammo.
Grenade: Area-effect weapon (bomb). Short/medium range. Limited
ammo, up to 3 Grenades.
2. SCREEN
The screen defaults to the outside view, and shifts between the
inside and outside views as the Fuchicoma manoeuvres. To manually choose
one of the views, press SELECT.
The features in the GITS head-up display screen:
Upper left corner: Timer (eg, in Training).
Upper right corner: Number of keycodes remaining (eg, in Mission
1).
Lower right corner: Radar. The Fuchicoma is at the centre of the
360-degree Radar. Red dots are hostiles. Green dots are Items.
The short arc that stretches from the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock
positions of the rim is the threat warning indicator. It turns from green
to yellow when a hostile is nearby.
The long arc that stretches from the 1 o'clock to 8 o'clock
positions of the rim is the Life Gauge.
The yellow icons between the Radar and the lower right corner of
the screen are the number of Grenades remaining.
Centre of bottom edge: Lock-On Gauge. See above.
Lower left corner: Score.
Above the Score is the Message Screen. All messages are already in
English.
3. TRAINING
[Number] stages.
Objective: Destroy as many targets and as fast as possible. The
target's colour doesn't matter (all targets are hostiles), though reddish
targets (in the screen, not in the Radar) shoot back at the Fuchicoma.
After satisfying the victory condition of a Training stage, go to
the check point (the green dot in the Radar) to get a time extension (like
a racing game) and enter the next Training stage.
The Fuchicoma can get some Items (eg, Grenades) in some stages.
Don't get target-fixated with an Item. If you can't get it in one or two
pass, don't waste any more time. Satisfy the victory conditions first.
Training 1: Destroy [number] targets, on buildings and on the
ground.
Training 2: Destroy [number] targets, in the corridor.
Training 3: Destroy [number] targets, on the sides (note plural) of
the building.
Training 4: Destroy [number] targets, amongst the obstacles.
"Level up! Level up!" - Fuchicoma
4. MISSIONS
[Number] stages.
Mission 1: Destroy all blue robots (those equipped with beam
lasers, not missiles), then enter the warehouse (the green dot in the
Radar) to destroy the boss robot. Reserve as many Grenades and missiles for
the boss robot as practical.
The background objects outside the warehouse are indestructible.
Eg, the buildings and fencings are laser-proof. 9_9;
To destroy a helo, climb onto the wall of a building under a helo
and look up. Shoot the helo when it's above the building. ("Neutral will
ultimately triumph over Evil and Good because Neutral is cheap.") Or, climb
onto the roof of a building and shoot at the helo. (Not recommended.) In
both cases, make sure there's no hostile behind or under the Fuchicoma that
will poke the Fuchicoma's back.
Mission 2: Move towards the green dot in the Radar, where the boss
robot is. En route, destroy as many hostiles and mines as possible.
Search all corridors for Items.
Thanks to Doi Hitoshi (the usual suspect -_-; WRT seiyuu stuph) for
the transliteration.
Anyone has the characters' full names?
6. MISCELLANEOUS
In the ROOT sub-directory, there's a SYSTEM.TXT file written in
JIS. Seems like a config file, but the STARTUP.PEX file it mentions isn't
executable under MS-DOS.
7. THANKS
Calvin C. "SAInt" Choi
DarkLord
Doi "Toshi Nibunnoichi" Hitoshi
Don "Gamera" Chan
Ralph Jenkins
Tamar Pandi
8. REFERENCES
Ghost in the Shell Official Homepage
(http://www.iijnet.or.jp/mmedia/gits/top_frame.html).
PlayStation Magazine, No.15, 1997.08.08 (Tokuma Shoten Co
Ltd/Intermedia Company).
Production IG Official Homepage
(http://www.production-ig.co.jp/topmenu2.html).
Seiyuu (voice actor) database (personal homepage,
http://www.tcp.com/doi/seiyuu/seiyuu.html).
Shooting Star!! (personal homepage,
http://www.ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp/~s960654/seigetsu/).
