The mameinfo.dat says that if you hit Vader's ship 30 times on the dogfight stage, you can earn a lot of bonus shields. What I would like to know is if whether you have to hit his ship 30 times on the SAME stage, or whether the hits are cumulative from wave to wave. And just how the heck do you hit him that many times anyways--is it luck or do you have to time it right when he's heading back to the Death Star at the end of the dogfight wave?

Thanx, Q.T.Quazar

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), May 14, 2000

Answers

Apparently , or rather "allegedly", you have to hit Darths' ship more than 30 times on the SAME level. Sometimes ( allegedly, that is ) you can get something like 20+ extra shields, or even 255 !

This was a commonplace rumour over here ( Ireland), and I first read about it in a magazine. So, we got this guy who could play Star Wars indefinitely to have a go. After about an hour or so play, the most he could hit Darths' ship was maybe 22 times or so.

Interestingly enough, Robert T. Mruczek ( current Star Wars record holder ), has this to say on the subject :

" By the way, the "Darth Vader" trick is a wide spread rumor. Here in NYC we used to say you had to hit him 20 times in thge short span of time between when the wave-end music comes and as he "flies" to the death star. Knowing no one could do this, we used to tease the freshman endlessly with this one, and say you scored a billion points as you would destroy his ship and it would never come back in all waves that followed. A nasty rumor, to be sure, but you know how kids are back then !!"

Thats what he said. But I`m of the feeling that any 'myth' has some form of truth in its` foundation? Who knows. And I don`t know of anyone who has done this.

May the Force be with you........ ALEX

-- Alex Weir (alexweir@indigo.ie), May 14, 2000.