Weirdly Fun Things to do in Aztec on the Apple II
Weirdly Fun Things to do in Aztec on the Apple II
by Dale Mahalko
mahalkdp@cvfn.org or scalar@jpj.net
1. Move a bomb around
If there's a stick of dynamite burning in a sensitive area, you can
move it somewhere else. You can walk off the edge of the screen to
move the bomb to a different room, or you can crawl around and plant
the bomb in a new location. When you plant a stick of dynamite while
a bomb is already burning, you'll just move the already burning bomb
to the new location without using up one of your limited number of
sticks of dynamite.
2. Explode bombs in midair
If you crawl to the edge of a floor with your hand hanging over the
edge, you can drop a bomb onto a monster below. However, if you hit
the bomb key again before the first bomb can hit the floor, you'll
re-drop that same stick of dynamite again. But Aztec doesn't erase
the image of the first bomb.. it just seems to be stuck in midair.
And so when the new falling bomb collides with its stopped image,
the bomb explodes in midair. If you hit the plant bomb key quickly
you can blow yourself up due to it exploding just below you.
3. Wipe out whole sections of floor with one bomb
If you crawl towards the right edge of the screen in an open hallway,
you can position yourself so that your arm is off the edge of the
screen. If you plant a bomb here, it'll drop and explode just below
you. (You can sometimes get killed when this happens.) If you then
walk off the screen and come back, you'll find that nearly all of
the floor you had been crawling on is destroyed.
4. Climbing stuff other than stairs.
You can climb any object that is about 7 pixels tall. This includes
everything from stairs to boxes, bones, piles of garbage, water,
monsters that are moving around, and other weird stuff.
5. Stand on a bomb
This is related to #2, in that Aztec doesn't erase the image of a
dropping or burning bomb if you re-plant the bomb. If you plant
several bombs in succession, by crawling ahead one, planting a
bomb, crawling ahead one, etc, you will create a row of burning-
bomb afterimages.
There are two frames to the burning-bomb animation: a short one
and a tall one. You can stand on the tall bomb afterimage. If you
can build up a row of several tall afterimages, you can climb up
onto them and crawl around on them.
When you've built up a long row of tall afterimages, you can
climb up on top of it and place another row of afterimages on
top of the first row. By doing this several times, you can
construct a sort of staircase out of a single burning bomb in
the middle of an empty hallway.
6. Fall through one floor
Aztec doesn't handle crawl-falling very well. If you are one
stairstep off the floor and you are crawling, if you fall you
will go right through the floor and land on the one immediately
below.
You can do this by climbing a stairway and standing still after
climbing only one step. When hit you the crawl button, the
stairway isn't wide enough to support you and you will fall..
through the floor.
This is a great way to get out of trouble quickly. If a monster
is approaching and you seem to be trapped, you can climb up one
step onto a nearby pile of garbage or box and crawl off the edge
of the object to fall one floor down to safety.
If there is no object around to climb up onto, plant a bomb,
climb up onto it, and crouch down to fall through the floor.
Maybe if you're lucky, the bomb will take out whatever was
chasing you.
7. Blow your hat off
Ignite a bomb, and then quickly move down one floor so that you
are standing directly under the burning bomb. when the bomb
explodes, it will wipe everything out that's around it, including
your hat which was just below. If you walk away, you'll discover
that an afterimage of your hat is left hanging in midair below
where the bomb exploded.
8. Walk on water to escape water traps
Trapped in a tank of rising water, and you think you're going to
die? The simple solution is to press the Climb key and as the water
level rises, you'll be able to walk on/in the rising water. As long
as there's isn't a ceiling overhead, you can walk around safely.
But if you hit your head, you'll fall to the bottom of the pool and
drown.
If you remain standing, the water will stop rising. But if you duck
down and crawl around, the water will starting rising again. After
it has risen up to your nose, it's best to stand up and climb up
so you're again standing on top of the water. Do this several times
and the water should rise to just below the next floor above the
water trap.
A way out is to crawl near an existing floor and plant a bomb,
creating a sort of stairstep up out of the water and onto that
upper floor.
This is definitely not an easy trick to do.
9. Go up a screen even if the stairway has been destroyed
If there is a box or pile of garbage in the upper right corner of
the screen, you can use it as a sort of substitute stairway. Climb
up onto it, and when you have climbed up as far as you can you will
move up one screen. You will then appear where the monster face
is located in the lower right corner of the screen and be able to
climb up that face to the bottom level on the screen.
10. Fall into a wall at the edge of the screen with machete
If you've got the machete, lunge with it repeatedly to the left
through an open region. If you are doing this fast enough, Aztec
will get confused about your location and you will fall as the
screen is updated so that you are sitting at the extreme right
edge of the screen, perhaps embedded in a wall. You can safely
walk out of the wall without getting hurt.
11. Walk through a wall or fall down a floor with machete
If you've got the machete and you stand so that you are
extremely close to a wall on the right side of the screen, you
can arm your machete and the tip of it will be sticking through
the wall. By either advancing a step or lunging, you can pass
right through the wall. You will often fall down one level if
you do this slowly.