Subject: Interstate 76 Tips
From: hunter@beer.cfr.iastate.edu (The Hunter)
Date: 9 Jun 1998 01:26:55 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
master_wu's Hints for Interstate 76 by Activision
Last modified June 8, 1998
COPYRIGHT 1998 by Scott A. Miller
This document may be freely distributed only if it is not
modified. All other rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
This is not a walk-through. IMHO, walk-throughs generally
spoil the game too much.
I've broken my advice down into hints -- this way, you can get as
little or as much help as you need. I'd suggest that when you get
stuck, read only one hint and then try to beat the mission. If
you are still stuck, read the next hint. The early missions are
too easy to require hints; some of the later missions are so
difficult that I have lots of hints.
Just so that you know, I've played through the entire game twice.
I wrote this document the first time I played through the game,
and "debugged" it the second time. The first time through, some
missions took hours to beat. Armed with the things I learned the
first time, I found that the second time through was a cake walk.
Hopefully most of that info has found its way into a hint in this
document.
If you have any praise, constructive criticism, or hints you'd like
to see in a later version, send it to hunter@beer.cfr.iastate.edu
Any hint book publishers that would like to contract my work are also
invited to send me email.
Mission #4 -- Race Patriot
HINT #1
Winning this race is (in my opinion) super difficult; reducing the
car's weight seemed to make my car fast enough to make winning
feasible. Reduce the car's chasis to 35.0 pounds (or less) in all
directions, and reduce the car's sheilds to 50.0 pounds on the
right and left side. If you've using a Bloxdropper, get rid of it;
the Bloxdropper weighs 139 pounds!
Mission #5 -- Find Taurus
HINT #1
After you find Taurus, you'll only 2 minutes to get to skeeter
and about five bad guys show up at once. You don't have time
to fight them! (Maybe just quickly kill one or two of them so
you get some salvage.) Use your nitrous once to get some
distance between you and them and then don't look back. Oh,
and remember to hit the jump squarely. :-)
Mission #6 -- Get gas
HINT #1
Make sure your screen is bright enough to see the road ahead of you.
If your monitor is on the maximum contrast and brightness, and you
still can't see well enough, go to the "graphic detail" and increase
the "monitor brightness" level.
HINT #2
You'll need to jump a couple of "broken" bridges; Nitrous Oxide is
NOT necessary to make these jumps. After the bridges, the gravel
road branches. To make the right choices, look for and follow the
orange and white construction signs.
Mission #7 -- Take out rogue cops
HINT #1
I configured my car as follows: I set both of the front
firing weapons to two 50 cal machine guns or one 50 cal and
one 20mm (during battle, link them so that they fire together),
and I set the rear firing weapon to the fire-right rockets.
I set all of the chasis reinforcements to 35.0 pounds, the
front shields to 123.0, the rear shields to 107.0, and the
left and right shields to 55.0. I put nothing in the dropper.
HINT #2
During the early parts of the battle, I made a point of aiming
and firing my rear rockets whenever I drove past a car. I
concentrated on using the rockets until they were gone, then I
used the reverse gear quite a bit while firing both 50 caliburs.
I completely ignored the helicopter. Watch out for the car catcher.
Mission #8 -- Find and protect Fletcher and Sons Warehouse
Before you start this mission, do yourself a favor and salvage
the 7.62mm machine gun and tell skeeter to repair it.
HINT #1
During battle, if you stay close to the warehouse, the goons will
concentrate their fire on you instead of it; otherwise the
warehouse will blow up all too quickly.
HINT #2
Watch out for the 'Vette... it's a nasty car.
Mission #9 -- Capture Calisto
Again, make sure you salvage the 7.62mm machine gun and have
it repaired before starting this mission.
HINT #1
I configured my car for the two front firing 50 calibur
machine guns, but a 50 calibur turret may be a better choice.
If you have a flamethrower, be advised that it works VERY well
for this mission.
HINT #2
Since this was a fairly easy mission, I didn't use my best brakes
and suspension -- make sure skeeter is repairing all your better
stuff.
HINT #3
During battle, Calisto will start firing rockets at you
from his turret. Stay back and keep weaving and keep until he
runs out of rockets. Once Calisto stops firing rockets, close
in and shoot him until he surrenders.
Mission #10 -- Escort van to Roswell
Before you start this mission, you absolutely MUST salvage the
Firerite rocket turret and tell skeeter to repair it right
away.
HINT #1
I configured my car with two 7.62mm machine guns as the
forward firing weapons (salvaged from mission 8 and 9.)
HINT #2
As you approach the roadblock, turn north (right) onto the gravel
road and don't look back for anything. Eventually, most of the
cops will chase off after you, and the van can get through the block.
HINT #3
Don't stop to take on the cops behind you, but instead keep the
pedal floored; Taurus and Skeeter will need your help. Continue
to drive on the gravel road until it curves back around to the
highway, then destroy all of the cop cars that are chasing the van.
Mission #11 -- Cross the Pecos River
HINT #1
Equip your car with a fully repaired Fire-Rite turret. Trust me.
HINT #2
When you get "marooned" between the two blown up bridges, don't
try and jump accross. There's a gravel road to the North that
will take you down into the dried up river bed.
HINT #3
As you drive along, you're going to get pounded... It's not the
choppers that are doing the damage. They are acting as forward
observers for jeeps that are equiped with mortars. However,
if you take out the choppers, the jeeps won't be able to fire
unless they have visual contact with you.
HINT #4
The only way I was able to consistently take out the choppers was
to drive backwards as fast as I could and to start pounding away
with the Fire-Rite rocket turret.
HINT #5
There's too many stationary turrets to blow up. I think shooting
at the turrets is just a waste of good ammo, but you may want
to blow up any jeeps that get in your way. I think the best way
to finish this level is to concentrate on driving as fast as you
can and haul your own ass out of there. I sure hope you have a
V8 engine and 4 wheel disc brakes in good repair for your car
because you'll really want them for this mission.
HINT #6
Follow the gravel road as it curves to the left until you cross
under one of the blown out bridges, and then keep to the right for
quite a long time. Eventually, you will find another bridge
that crosses the Pecos River. Drive up the ramp to the bridge,
cross it, and then burn rubber.
HINT #7
After you've crossed the river, drive for a ways until you connect
back up with Highway 380. If you go East, you will be going back
to where you came from... back to where you couldn't cross the river
in the first place... back to where you'll fall and crack up your
car and then have to start over again. So remember to go WEST
WEST WEST WEST on Highway 380. (Yes, I screwed this one up the
first time.)
Mission #12 -- Go to V&N Pneumatics
HINT #1
Configure your car so that you have at least 115 pounds of shields
in both the front and rear, and place a AIM-NEIN missle as your
secondary front-firing weapon.
HINT #2
I looked up "Subtlety" in the dictionary and it said "Don't
follow Oktoberfest too closely. Honest, it did.
HINT #3
After you get inside the compound and destroy the helicopter,
all hell breaks loose. The turrets are all at one end of the
compound, so going to the other end to take out the cars first
is a good idea. Then take out the turrets one-by-one.
HINT #4
When searching for a way out, don't indiscriminately destroy every
building in the compound. Machine-gun the garage doors open -- inside
one of them you'll find the way out.
Mission #13 -- Protect Spanner's Truck Stop
HINT #1
You won't be allowed to make any changes to your configuration
after finishing mission #12. If you find yourself in a desperate
need to change your car's configuration, load your save file for
mission #12, reconfigure your car, and replay mission #12.]
HINT #2
I tried three different configurations (replaying Mission #12
twice to do it) before succeeding at this mission. I had
reasonable success with a forward-firing 50 cal., a Fire-Rite
Turret, and a rear-firing AIM-NEIN missle, but after about 35
failed attempts with this combination, I decided it was time for
a switch. I had my best luck with a 7.62 mm Turret, a front-firing
AIM-NEIN missle, and a rear-firing Fire-Rite rocket; I was able
to complete the mission in three tries with this setup and found
that even mission #12 was easier with this combo.
HINT #3
Of the first four cars you face, the green car is the nastiest.
The green car has really thick armor and a forward firing missle
launcher (I think it's the DR.RADAR) that is able to home in on
your car.
HINT #4
When you reach the truck stop, a group of three cars will attack.
The yellow car in this group is firing a nasty explosive weapon --
I think it's the EZK Mortar -- so take it out first. The
strategy that seemed to work best for me was to never stop moving.
I ran straight at the yellow car firing my front-firing weapons,
then I fired my rear-firing weapons after I passed it and drove
away, then I turned around to make another front-firing weapon pass.
Once the yellow car is destroyed, the other two cars shouldn't be
too difficult and if you're lucky stray weapon fire will have
already damaged or destroyed one or both of them.
HINT #5
The little white and red ABX Striders are kamikazi pilots.
Make sure you've got a couple of missles for each car to quickly
destroy them. They will always come on the paved road to
the xxx of the truck stop, so you may want to start driving down
that road as soon as you finish off the group of three cars.
Blocking the road in front of them seemed to be an effective
strategy. Taking out the grey Suburban that appears shortly
after is pretty easy.
Mission #14 -- Escort Van accross county line
HINT #1
Once the Skeeter's van is rolling, and you've destroyed the three
vehicles that attack the truck stop, pull around the van and drive
about 500-1000 feet in front of it (middle to edge of radar range).
Destroy anything that shoots at you -- anything that gets past you
will destroy the van.
Mission #15 -- Find your way to Fort Davis
HINT #1
You can get a good idea of how the roads are layed out by turning
damage off (While driving, hit the "ESC" key and select "Play
Options"). Since this is a "cheat", the game won't let you continue
to the next level, but then at least you'll know what to do.
HINT #2
When you need to make a road choice, always turning right will get
you out.
HINT #3
Make the jump (yes, jump) at about 55-80 MPH. Faster than this and
you'll go too far.
HINT #4
Use the map below to find your way out. (You will need to use
a fixed-width font for it to look right.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
START
|______________ Interstate 76 map for mission #15
| \
### \ __________________ North
| / \ / \ ^
| | \ / \ /|\
| | \/ \ |
| | \ \ |
| g \ | \
| |\ | |
** | | \ | |
********** | \_ | |
rockslide** | \ | |\
********** | \| g | \
***** g \ | / \
|\h | / |
| h_ | ______/ |
| h \ w \ _____/ |
| \__/\______/ /
| \ G /
| \ g /
| \______________________/
| s01 /
| /
\ /|
\ / |
\ ______/ | g
\________________/ | T
Key: |
| \ / or _ road s02 |
w small white bldg |
G large grey bldg w /|
g small grey bldg _____________/ |
T tower / |
r ravine / w |
b bump hhh |
s01 roadsign | b
### baracade s03 | |
(see lookup table for | /|
sign captions.) ##### / |
rrrrr _/ |
rrrrr / \
rrrrr | \_
Sign Key: | | \_
s01 -- Black turtle on | | \
yellow background \ ___BRIDGE________ \ _____END
s02 -- Three signs. \___/ | |
#1 green "This Way Out", | |
#2 orange "Malachio's HQ 1mi ->", \ |
#3 green "Fort Davis ^" \ /
s03 -- Orange "Road Cons 500 feet" \________/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mission #16 -- Enter Fort Davis
HINT #1
To discover the way in, you must first destroy the water tower.
HINT #2
Those tanks are pretty hard to destroy. I've discovered that the tanks
have certain "blind" spots up close to them. However, you do not have
to destroy the tanks finish this mision. If you keep your speed up,
they are too sluggish to do much damage.
Final Showdown -- Kill Chiote and his buddies
HINT #1
Once you enter Fort Davis, you're given a choice of vehicles.
Try all of them: the blue car, the mail truck, the tank .... and
don't forget the chopper. The blue car just seems weak all around.
The tank is super slow and it's armour doesn't last much longer than
a typical car's armour. The helicopter is difficult to fly and
has limited armament. I think the most effective vehicle is the
mail truck with it's twin 7.62mm guns and it's 3-shot nasty missle.
HINT #2
I tried this mission about every way. I only found one way that
worked, but it works extremely well. Choose the mail truck.
DO NOT drive towards Chiote; instead, fire ONE missle at him as soon
as you have visual contact. The missle will do a huge amount of
damage and his buddies will come to his aid right away (you should
be undamaged before engaging his buddies).
HINT #3
When Chiote's buddies arrive, fire one missle at the
blue semi-truck and one at either the red or black/gold car.
Use the twin machine guns to finish off anything that remains.
-- End of master_wu's Hints for Interstate 76 --
