Virtua Cop FAQ v0.5
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Table of Contents
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Problems
Questions
Questions and Answers
Thanks
History
Problems
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Here's a list of questions that I haven't answered:
- What are the base point values of the gangsters? Do
different kinds of gangsters have different base point
values?
- How does a gangster react when a shot hits his [head, body,
arm, or leg]?
- At the ends of the stages, what do the gangster bosses say
before we can shoot them?
- Are there differences between the domestic (Japanese) VC1
and the foreign VC1?
Questions
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Here's a list of the questions that are answered in the next
"Questions and Answers" section:
1. What's Virtua Cop?
2. How many stages are there?
3. What's the yellow circle around a gangster?
4. After firing six shots, how do we reload the revolver?
5. Besides the gangsters, can we hit other objects?
6. Are there objects that we should *not* hit?
7. Besides the revolver, can we use other weapons?
8. How do we get the other weapons?
9. Where are the other weapons?
10. What's the yellow bar at the upper left corner?
11. What's the "X1" under the yellow bar?
12. What's the "NICE BULLSEYE" that sometimes appears under the
"X1"?
13. Can we recover life points?
14. Is Sarah Bryant in Virtua Cop?
Questions and Answers
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1. What's Virtua Cop?
Your local game centres don't have Virtua Cop, do they?
Virtua Cop is a first-person perspective shooting game,
similar to Empire City 1931 and Lethal Enforcers, for one or two
players. Unlike Empire City 1931, VC1 doesn't show a Continuously
Computed Impact Point (CCIP) on the screen, so the player doesn't
know where his gun is pointing unless he presses the trigger.
Further, unlike Lethal Enforcers, the objects in the visual area
of VC1 aren't bitmapped or digitised images. VC1 creates its
virtual environment with the same 3-D solid-modelling technology
used in the fighting game series Tekken and Virtua Fighter. In
fact, Sega develops both the Virtua Cop and the Virtua Fighter series.
2. How many stages are there?
Three. Stage One is the "Arms Black Market." Stage Two is
the "Underground Weapon Storage." Stage Three is the "Gang Headquarters."
When the player starts a new game, he can choose which of
the three stages to play.
If he chooses Stage Three, at the end of Stage Three, the
game ends with an animated ending.
If he chooses Stage Two, at the end of Stage Two, he
proceeds to Stage Three. He can't retreat to Stage One.
If he chooses Stage One, at the end of Stage One, he can
choose to play Stage Two or Stage Three next. If he chooses Stage
Three, at the end of Stage Three, the game ends. If he chooses
Stage Two, at the end of Stage Two, he proceeds to Stage Three.
[On second thought, this procedure seems to be a machine
setting. On a recently reset machine, I finished Stage 1 and
chose Stage 3. After I finished Stage 3, the second Stage 3 boss
(qv) didn't appear, and I could choose Stage 2. I didn't finish
Stage 2 to see what would happen afterwards.]
At the end of each stage is one or more gangster bosses. The
gangster boss of Stage One is Kong, who uses a rocket launcher.
The gangster boss of Stage Two is King, who uses a flame thrower.
Stage Three has two gangster bosses: Boss, then Fang. Boss
drives an armed golf cart. Fang drives an attack helicopter.
3. What's the yellow circle around a gangster?
You didn't watch the demo animation, did you?
The circle is the Lock-On Sight (LOS). It marks the gangster
who's most dangerous to the player, because he's aiming his gun
at the player. When the LOS turns red and the pointers on the LOS
converge, the gangster will shoot and hit the player. When the
player hits the gangster in the LOS, the LOS turns green, then
moves elsewhere to mark the next most dangerous gangster. [My
apology to any VC1 player whose eyesight is colour-deficient.]
The VC1 gangsters cheat because they often aim their guns at
the player when they are beyond the player's visual area. Thus,
when the LOS goes off-screen, a veteran VC1 player notes the
direction the LOS goes and points his gun that way. As soon as he
sees part of the LOS, he anticipates where the whole LOS will be,
and shoots at the centre of the LOS.
The LOS doesn't mark gangsters who swing axes or throw
grenades! Also, the player can hit *armed* gangsters who aren't
marked by a LOS, such as the gangsters who are dashing across the
screen but aren't pointing their guns at the player.
The first technique a green VC1 player should practice is to
look for the LOS, and shoot twice at the centre of the LOS. The
exceptions are when a barrel or a crate partially conceals the
gangster, or when a flamboyant player is aiming at the gangster's
weapon or weapon arm.
4. After firing six shots, how do we reload the revolver?
Point your gun anywhere off-screen and press the trigger. The
screen flashes and you hear a click when you reload your gun.
Reload your gun as often as possible, even when its magazine
isn't empty. You never know how many shots you'll need to hit the
next gangster. [My accuracy is usually 40- to 50-something
percent, because I shoot at each gangster twice to increase the
probability of kill (PK).]
In a two-player game, don't reload your gun unnecessarily.
The screen-flicker annoys your partner.
"If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard
enough." - military proverb
In fact, you can reload your gun without pointing it
off-screen. Hold the gun with both hands the way you would hold a
gun that has a thumb button on its side for firing a grenade,
like in Operation Wolf and Revolution X. Hold the front end of
the gun with your free hand, and place the index finger of your
free hand next to the muzzle of the gun. When you want to reload,
keep pointing your gun at the screen. Briefly cover the muzzle of
your gun with the index finger of your free hand and press the trigger.
[Technical explanation of why this trick works skipped.]
Thus, the sensor in the gun can't read the signal on the
screen. In turn, the game thinks your aim is off-screen and
reloads your gun. [Thanks to Sai Ji.]
When you use this trick with an automatic, it will shoot
like a _reloadable_ machine gun. As Mike Tsui said, the main
advantage of this trick is you don't need to re-calibrate your
aim as in the case of pointing your gun off-screen to reload. For
instance, your aim can follow a moving boss as you reload.
This trick is useful in shooting games where the player
points his gun off-screen and presses the trigger to reload, such
as Lethal Enforcers and Virtua Cop.
This trick is *not* useful in shooting games that
automatically reload the player's gun, such as Operation Wolf,
Revolution X, and Terminator 2.
5. Besides the gangsters, can we hit other objects?
Yes. A red barrel explodes if the player hits it a few
times. The exploding red barrel radiates a shock wave that wipes
out the gangsters, but not civilians, who are near the exploding
barrel. Green barrels don't explode.
Some crates will explode if the player hits them a few
times. If you hit a crate once and it flashes white, it's a
breakable crate. An exploding crate doesn't radiate a shock wave.
Transparent glass windows on buildings and cars usually
crack and shatter if the player hits them twice. In Stage Two, a
veteran VC1 player shatters in advance the windshields on the
construction vehicles that the gangsters will use against the player.
When a gangster throws his axe or grenade at you, protect
yourself and hit the axe or grenade. When a gangster boss fires
his rocket launcher or flame thrower, hit the rockets or flames.
During a status report, the screen is in black and white.
You can keep hitting the objects in the background. For example,
in Stage 3, in the underground garage, as the officers move
through the exit and up the stairs, the green "EXIT" sign above
the doorway is breakable.
6. Are there objects that we should *not* hit?
Yes. Civilians and unarmed gangsters who are holding their
empty hands above their heads, except the Stage One gangster boss.
7. Besides the revolver, can we use other weapons?
Yes. Here's a list of the weapons that the player can use,
the number of shots, whether the player can reload them, and the
type of firing:
Weapon: Shots: Reload: Type:
Automatic 15 Yes Single-shot
Machine Gun 30 No Continuous burst
Revolver 6 Yes Single-shot
Rifle 24 No Three-shot burst
Shotgun 6 Yes Single-shot
The player can't use axes, flame throwers, grenades, or
rocket launchers. Technically, the automatic should be called
semi-automatic. IMO the shotgun is the best weapon because the
player doesn't need to aim too precisely with it.
When the player isn't using the revolver, he loses the
power-up weapon and recedes to the revolver if a gangster hits
him, or if the player hits a civilian or a surrendering gangster.
The player sometimes doesn't lose the power-up weapon if he hits
a gangster an instant before the gangster hits him, or if one of
the three shots from his rifle hits a civilian or a surrendering gangster.
The player can't keep a power-up weapon from one stage to
the next. The player starts each stage with the revolver.
8. How do we get the other weapons?
The other weapons are dropped by wounded gangsters, or
hidden in breakable crates and red barrels. _Hit_ the weapon icon to
get it.
The player can have just one power-up weapon at a time. If
you're using a shotgun and get an automatic, you lose the
shotgun. When a gangster hits you, you lose your automatic and
recede to the revolver.
9. Where are the other weapons?
Stage 1:
Outdoor area:
- Machine Gun: After the door of the gatehouse is open, hit
the door 8-10 times to fully close it and reveal a Machine Gun.
[Thanks to Robert Reay.]
- Rifle: After the officers enter the front gate, to their
right are two red barrels. On the ground, to the right of the red
barrels, are two crates. Break the right-side crate.
- Automatic: In the area to the right of the entrance of the
warehouse, a crate onto which a marked gangster falls.
Indoor area:
- Shotgun: In the warehouse, on the balcony on the far wall,
an unmarked gangster dashing from left to right.
- Automatic: In the same warehouse, on the same balcony on
same the far wall, another unmarked gangster dashing from left to right.
Stage 2:
Outdoor area:
- Machine Gun: One of two red barrels at the base of a
tower, located close to the officers and in the left side of the
screen. A marked gangster will appear behind the red barrels.
[Need better description.]
- Automatic: The right-side crate of two crates to the right
of the truck that a marked gangster will drive into the officers.
- Automatic: A marked gangster on top of the water tank on
top of a tower to the right of the vehicle that has a claw with
which a marked gangster will slash the officers.
Stage 3:
Outdoor area:
- Shotgun: A marked black-and-green gangster on top of the gatehouse.
Garage area:
- Rifle: The red barrel closest to the parked purple pick-up.
Lobby area:
- Machine Gun: A marked gangster on the balcony.
Office area:
- Automatic: After the officers enter from the balcony and
turn left, the first marked gangster who dashes into view from
the right.
- Magnum: After the officers enter from the balcony and turn
left, the last marked gangster who dashes into view from the right.
- Automatic: After the officers enter from the balcony, turn
left, move forward, and turn right, one of the marked gangsters
amongst the desks. [Need better description.]
- Rifle: A marked gangster in the doorway of the office in
which a cabinet hides a secret corridor and elevator, ie, the
office with some windows and drapes to the left of its door.
10. What's the yellow bar at the upper left corner?
You get points for hitting the gangsters. Besides being
added to your total score, these points fill up the yellow bar.
11. What's the "X1" under the yellow bar?
It's the score multiplier. It multiplies the points you get
for hitting a gangster. Each time the yellow bar reaches 100%,
the score multiplier rises by one. [The highest I ever reached
was X8.]
Each time a gangster hits the player, the yellow bar drops
to 0%, and the score multiplier drops by two, to a minimum of X1.
Thus, if the score multiplier was X4, it drops to X2.
The score multiplier has a maximum of X9, and the total
score has a maximum of 9,999,999. [Thanks to Christophe Delaitre
and Eric Ching.]
12. What's the "NICE BULLSEYE" that sometimes appears under the
"X1"?
It means your last shot hits a gangster's weapon or weapon
arm. You'll see the gangster's weapon fly from his hand.
Disarming a gangster awards you up to 5,000 points *before* the
score multiplier. [I read that on domestic (Japanese) VC1
machines, the remark is "JUSTICE SHOT" instead of "NICE BULLSEYE."]
It's not difficult to aim at a gangster's weapon or weapon
arm. [No, I'm not related to Carlos Hathcock, and my real name
isn't Cobra, Golgo 13, or Saeba Ryou.] When a gangster's aiming his
gun or swinging his axe at you, aim your gun with an offset to one
of the gangster's sides, depending on his handedness, and press the
trigger. If you miss, walk your next shots onto the gangster.
13. Can we recover life points?
Yes, but you can't recover life points through high accuracy
or high score. Sometimes, after you hit a gangster, he drops a
Life Mark icon as he fades away. Hit the Life Mark icon to gain a
life point.
In Stage Two, there's one such gangster in the area
near the entrance of the boss's bunker. After the officers move
under a building, then look up and process the gangsters atop a
tower, hit the gangster, unmarked by the Lock-On Sight, dashing
from right to left from the base of the tower.
In Stage Three, there's another such gangster in the lobby
of the building. He's the gangster, unmarked by the Lock-On
Sight, dashing from left to right across the screen in the first
corridor to the right.
The player's life points can exceed five. [Rumour: Each
officer can have up to nine life points.]
14. Is Sarah Bryant in Virtua Cop?
Yes and no. (Sarah Bryant is the blonde in Virtua Fighter.)
In Stage Three, outside the gangster bosses' room is a rotating
all-white Sarah Bryant *statue.* The statue is unbreakable, but
the vase it's holding isn't.
