Banned Techniques

Welcome to the MARP Banned Techniques Page.

This page was last updated May 1, 2001.

If you have not yet read the rules for MARP, please do so. It is critical that you understand the underlying reasons for these bans, before you submit that gargantuan Sinistar score. The pictures above the descriptions are links to sample .inp files of the illegal techniques in action. Banned techniques are applicable to ALL CLONES AS WELL AS ORIGINAL ROMSETS!

Commando: Indefinitely sitting safely behind bunker and shooting unlimited number of enemies.

Food Fight: It is possible for the game to award the player with 255 bonus lives by exploiting a bug in the game.

Galaga: It is possible to make the enemies stop shooting completely. On the first stage, kill everything but the two bees in the bottom left corner. Then just wait, dodging the bees' shots, until the bee no longer drops any shots towards you. After the bees stop firing, let it pass for 5 more trips or so and then kill them. For the rest of the game, the enemies will not drop shots. It will take approximately 15 minutes for the bees to quit shooting at you.

Ghosts & Goblins: It is possible to sit in certain areas and repeatedly kill enough enemies to earn an extra life before losing a life (or just about, anyway). This allows the player to earn lots of extra points with very little skill.

Joust: Pterydactyl hunting. The player can get the final HUNTER enemy to be held by the lava-troll, and then wait on the center ledge for Pterydactyls to appear, the Ptery's make a suicide run for the player, and will strike at a perfect level into the players lance (1000 pts. each).

Magical Drop 3: Regardless of playing mode, it's possible to use all clear conversions to a player's advantage. Normally you have to wait 10 levels before an all clear opportunity appears. However, a large number of points can be obtained by repeating this process: converting something, comboing it, immediately taking it back, and then quickly recoverting it back. The sequence is typically performed within a matter of seconds.

Mr. Do: It's possible to win 255 lives on the first screen, but only if an apple appears in the top two rows of the playfield. Begin by digging a tunnel directly from the bottom of the screen to just below the apple, but leave enough dirt under it that it doesn't fall. Next, kill all of the enemies but one, then lose all of your extra lives. As soon as you're on your last life, go right under the apple and wait. Eventually, the remaining enemy will come after you. Allow the apple to drop, but, in the interval before you're squashed, kill the enemy with the powerball. If all has gone well, you'll be carried to the bottom of the screen, the music will go haywire for a moment, and you'll be awarded 255 extra lives.

Sinistar: There is a bug in the game that allows an enemy shot still on screen to kill you while you are spinning in Sinistar's mouth, thus killing you twice. However, this bug can be used to your advantage because if you have no extra lives left before you get double killed your lives count goes to -1 (read 255)

Speed Rumbler: During the first stage, it is possible to points leech by firing at two lines of bombs rolling on a track. This technique produces 30000+ points getting the player half way to the next life. This in turn means that you could repeat the first stage indefinitely and furthermore this type of gameplay (repeating levels) is banned at MARP.

Time Pilot: Fly around forever on a level (preferably level 2), don't shoot the enemies, instead just pick up parachutes. It's not very risky once you get the hang of it, and you can keep building up lives this way.

If you have questions, feel free to contact Pat Laffaye, Skito, BBH, Barry Rodewald, Frankie, Phil Lamat, or QRS.