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= Hoosier City: Assault Of The Orcs (PC) =
* FAQ / WALKTHROUGH *
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Author: Sashanan
Date: 12 June 2006
Version: 1.0
DISCLAIMER
This document is a copyright of Peter "Sashanan" Butter, 2006. All
rights reserved.
You are granted permission to make copies of this FAQ (electronical or
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You are not authorized to upload this FAQ on a commercial website and/or
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without my explicit written permission. Furthermore, you are not allowed to
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This FAQ is protected by international copyright laws and failure to
comply with the terms in this disclaimer will result in legal prosecution.
===============================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
===============================================================================
[1] About this FAQ
[2] Basics and controls
[3] Walkthrough
[3.1] Starting out
[3.2] Across the lake
[3.3] The eastern lands
[3.4] The northern lands
[3.5] The land of the dead
[4] Reference lists
[4.1] Items
[4.2] Weapons
[4.3] Enemies
[5] Questions & answers
[6] Revision history
[7] Final words
===============================================================================
[1] ABOUT THIS FAQ
===============================================================================
This document provides a full walkthrough and side information on an old MCD
Software classic called Hoosier City. First of a trilogy, it's a shareware game
meant to draw players into buying the second and third title as well, a popular
approach at the time that especially Apogee was well known for. Nowadays, the
games are almost impossible to find, but thanks to the marvels of shareware the
original Hoosier City game has survived. And for the lucky ones to find it,
there's quite a nice classic action adventure to play through.
This guide will see you through Hoosier City start to end, providing the route
to take, noting the items to pick up, the enemies to face and what weapons best
to use against them. After a basic rundown of the game and how it is controlled
follows the walkthrough, then a full reference list of items, weapons and
enemies. I have also provided some info I couldn't really fit anywhere else in
a separate questions & answers section.
It's my hope that this guide will help you get through Hoosier City in one
piece, and that you'll have as much fun with it as I had writing it.
===============================================================================
[2] BASICS AND CONTROLS
===============================================================================
Hoosier City is played in 2d, non-scrolling screens where new areas are reached
by walking off the edge of the screen. Nearly every area has enemies wandering
in it by default, and more entering from the various exits the longer you
dawdle. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the evil computer controlling the city,
but to do that you'll not only need to follow a complicated route to open up
new areas - you'll also need to find health vials to make yourself sturdier and
a host of weapons and items to arm you against the many enemies you'll face. In
short, it's one of those lovely classic PC action adventures that remind all us
gamers at heart why we chose this hobby.
Use the cursor keys to move your character around and the space bar to use your
weapon. You'll start with only a sword, but more weapons will be found soon.
Switch weapons by pressing Enter once you have others to choose from. Each
weapon will be upgraded at one point in the game, making it more powerful and
usually giving it a bit more range as well.
At various points in the game, you will also find usable equipment. Only one of
these can be equipped at a time. To switch equipment once you have any, press
Tab.
You start the game with three lives and a health meter consisting of five
hearts. Lost health can be replenished by picking up hearts dropped by enemies
or found in certain locations. Health vials will recover health and extend your
health meter, too.
Enemies roam most rooms in the game, and will either move around randomly or
walk up to you to attack depending on the type of enemy. For the most part,
enemies are affected by all weapons and it's merely a matter of choosing the
most powerful one you have (or a slightly less powerful one to avoid overkill
and waste of ammo). A few enemies are vulnerable to specific weapons, however.
Note that nearly all enemies will respawn if you leave an area and come back,
and many areas will have endless reinforcements coming in from adjoining
locations.
Fortunately, not everybody you meet will be hostile. Scattered throughout the
town are wise old men with advice and sometimes items for you to take. Items
can also be randomly or sometimes not-so-randomly found on the bodies of your
enemies.
Finally, in two areas of the game, you'll find stores selling ammo and health
upgrades. Money, too, is found mostly by killing enemies.
You'll lose health if you take hits from enemy weapons, run into your enemies
or foolishly touch a pool of lava. You'll die if your health runs out
completely. If this happens, you'll explode (harming or possibly killing nearby
enemies) and you will reappear where you entered the room. If you lose all
lives, you'll be asked if you want to continue. If you do, you'll be given
three new lives and restart at the beginning of the area. The game's definition
of an area can be a little flexible - it is usually the last place where you
entered or exited a cavern consisting of more than one room. You can continue
indefinitely, thus there is no real game over until either you decide not to
continue or you finish the game.
The game keeps score based on collecting items (this includes store purchases)
and a bonus at the end depending on how many lives it took you to finish the
game.
You can save your game at any time by pressing F4, and reload by pressing F3.
If you reload a save, you will be returned to the start of the area, rather
than appear in the exact spot where you saved. All items and ammo totals are
preserved, and you're given full health and 3 lives. Your score, however, is
reset to 0. You can use/abuse well-timed saving to avoid deaths or to avoid
having to backtrack through an area after you've picked up whatever item you
had to complete it for; but at the cost of resetting your score every time
you do.
This walkthrough will get you through the game beginning to end, picking up all
health vials that I know of and all weapons and upgrades.
Hoosier City is pretty linear in terms of where to go, so I haven't bothered
drawing up a crude character-based map. The text should easily get you where
you need to go. At a few points, slight variations are possible - in these
cases I've chosen the route that seemed most logical and easiest to follow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.1] STARTING OUT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You'll start out in the middle of an Orc Village, surrounded by blue, sword-
armed orcs, and a couple of harmless guys in brown suits. You are rather
pathetically armed right now and have very little health to spend before you
die, so first priority is to toughen up.
Grab the flashlight on the trunk next to you, then explore the three huts in
this area (dodging the orcs for now). Start with the top right hut, where you
will be given a better sword. Then explore the other two huts and kill one orc
in each - both of them drop a health vial which will heal you up fully and add
an extra heart to your maximum health. When you've collected everything in this
area, head south - we'll get to the cave entrance later.
In the southern part of the village is a market where you will be able to buy
ammo (useless now, since you don't have the right weapons yet), and three more
huts. Explore the huts - in the top right one you will be given an axe, and the
other two have more orcs to fight and two more health vials for you. The axe
has a slightly better range than even your upgraded sword, but it's slower to
throw. Still, it lets you attack orcs from a safe distance, so I know what I'd
choose.
Now that you have gotten four vials in the two village areas, you're quite a
bit tougher than when you started out. Head back north and this time, go into
the cave marked with the green arrow. You emerge in the Orc Underground (you'll
need the flashlight to see down here). First, head south. Kill the orc down
here and he'll drop the pistol, your first proper weapon. The good thing is it
has more range and power than your sword and axe. The bad thing is that it
consumes ammo, and you start with only 20. More bullets can be bought in the
shop in the village for $500 per 20 bullets, so from this point on, you may
find it worth it to regularly return there to stock up. Money can be gotten
most easily from the various enemies wandering the two parts of the village.
For the moment, 20 bullets is enough to do what we came to do down here,
though. Head back north and go into the passage to the northeast, marked by the
arrow. Grab a health vial here and listen to the old man's advice. Head back
and now walk up to the northwestern part of the room - the wall will disappear
to reveal a secret room. Head inside and kill the ogre here with five pistol
shots. Try hiding around a corner to avoid the ogre's own attacks - this is an
important skill to learn for many enemies to come. Grab the green key that the
ogre drops, and head back to the village. You can buy some more bullets now if
you like, but you won't need them yet where you're going next, so it's up to
you. When you're ready, head west from the northern part of the village.
You'll notice a lake, a church and an area behind a green door here. First,
head into the church to grab a free health vial, then go back out and open the
green door. The skeleton behind isn't easily killed with any weapon, including
the pistol. The axe is the weapon of choice against skeletons but the
unupgraded one you have now will still take four hits to do the trick. I'd
suggest dodging the skeleton rather than killing it, and heading west when you
can.
The graveyard you'll enter now has three skeletons, so get around them as best
as you can. The old men at the north exit will warn you not to go there without
the green orb, and they're not kidding - your life will drain away quickly if
you go there now. Instead, go into the cave entrance. Just one skeleton down
here, fortunately; avoid him and head east. The next area has a rather powerful
and hard to kill ghost, and I'd suggest just running to the other side of the
room. He teleports randomly and might not get in your way at all, though if he
does you can expect to be scorched by his fire. Not a whole lot you can do
about it at this point - the axe works, but it needs four hits. Get through
as best as you can and head into the passage at the east end to grab the boat.
Then head back out of the crypt and the graveyard and to the church at the
lake.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.2] ACROSS THE LAKE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This time, you'll want to buy yourself some bullets. Head into the village,
kill everything in sight, repeat a few times, then head into the shop to buy
some bullets. You can hold a maximum of 99 - you don't need that many, but you
might as well. Money is easy enough to come by in the village. When ready, head
back to the church and walk up to the edge of the lake. Select the boat (tab
key to select equipment rather than weapons) and you will board automatically.
Sail to the south, then get off again by sailing to the edge of the water,
hitting tab again and selecting the empty space left of the boat. (If that
explanation seems to be a little too detailed, it's because it took me far too
long to figure it out.)
Another green door here, which we'll need to get a key for. The only other exit
is south, so take it. Use your pistol liberally against the axemen as well as
the occasional blue-clad gunman that'll wander into this area (they'll take two
hits, incidentally). Don't tangle with the two ogres in the next area just yet,
but head into the cave to the southwest first. Listen to the clue, grab the
health vial and head back out, this time going east. You'll probably need to
kill one or both ogres to get there safely.
The next area, labelled "The Keepers of the Handgun", has three ogres. Between
the area name and the clue you just got, it should be obvious you are to kill
these guys - or at least the middle ogre, who holds the upgraded pistol. With
that, you will only need three hits to down an ogre, and have a longer range
too.
Heavily injured yet? The worst is still to come. East of here is a lone
minotaur, a very powerful enemy at this stage of the game, who does a lot of
damage with his axe and at quite a range, too. You'll need to beat him for his
green key, and it'll take a lot of hiding behind statues and shooting around
corners to pull this off. Expect to need a few tries for this. If you're
running low on ammo (told you to stock up to 99!), you may need to run back to
the village for more. It'll take about 20 rounds to kill the mino and get the
key. Once you do, go back to the village to stock up on more ammo before
heading through the green door on the south side of the lake. (Unregistered
versions of the game receive their first registration nag here, press Escape to
close it.)
Welcome to the Giant Mountain! For starters, head south, a little west and then
back north to get to the cave entrance and go inside. Another health vial and
another clue for you. Go back outside and head straight south into the other
cave.
For a clue (but no health vial this time, unfortunately), walk up to the man at
the lava pit, then into the lava. You'll find the Brotherhood that was
mentioned by one of the old men a while ago, and be told about the giant's body
armor. You've got your work cut out for you. Go back out, and walk up to the
minotaur statue. It'll disappear and reveal a passage to the north. Unless
you're at full health or near to it, you'll also want to grab the heart to
restore all your health - either way, head north into the next room.
The "maze of false walls" as the game calls it is just that, most of the walls
here will disappear if you touch them. Trial and error will get you through
just fine, but if you're in a hurry, the route to take from the start is east,
north, north, west, north, east, east, south, south, east, east, south to grab
the bullets, then back north and north once more to get to the east exit.
Next up: the room of mighty explosions, referring thankfully not to some big
new enemy, but to a new weapon, the bombs. Kill the axemen surrounding them and
grab your new toy. These can be dropped on the ground, and will explode in a
few seconds, sending shrapnel all around. It won't hurt you, thankfully, but
there are only a few situations where this comes in handy. You can safely
forget about them for now as long as you don't forget to collect them. Head
south afterwards. Here, head into the southwest cave first for a health vial
(requiring you to beat one measly gunman), then back out and east to meet the
giant king.
The giant is a completely stationary enemy and as such not very scary. He can
hurl rocks at you for quite a bit of damage, but only if you willingly walk
into his line of fire. Head below him and then just far enough to the right to
shoot his left foot, and he won't be able to hit you (don't go any farther to
the right, though). Alternatively, if you kill the axeman right in front of him
and he's kind enough to leave an item (like a money bag), that item tends to be
exactly in the right spot to block the giant's boulders. Either way, you've got
an easy way to hit the guy without retaliation, and then it only comes down to
pumping enough bullets into him to kill him. Grab his body armor when he dies,
then select it (using tab - it's equipment). You'll now only take half damage
from enemies, quite an improvement, and you'll be able to open up a new path in
the village. Head back there (don't forget to put the armor back on after
getting out of your boat).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.3] THE EASTERN LANDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the market in the southern part of the village, restock your bullets. Then
go back outside and walk up to the rock in the southeast part of the screen.
With your new body armor, you'll smash the rock and open up a new passage. In
the next area, head into the cave first for a health vial and a clue, then
fight your way east through the gunmen. The next area has four of them guarding
the rifle, a weapon that's about equivalent to your upgraded pistol and at this
point mostly just provides a little more range. Just wait until you get to
upgrade this baby, though. Once you have the rifle, head south and meet the
tank. Run south without stopping to take some cover.
The tank will regularly fire a hail of bullets and one rocket which will
explode and send shrapnel flying. Most of your weapons will do absolutely
nothing to harm it - the only thing that can kill the tank is the bombs you
picked up in the giant's lair. Take out the gunmen, then head around the tank
until you're directly west of it (and still in cover). Switch to the bombs,
wait for a salvo to pass, then head south and east immediately until you're
right in front of the tank. You'll probably take a hit or two getting into
position, but that can't be helped. Once you're right next to the tank,
however, all its shots will pass harmlessly over your head, and then you
can start dropping bombs. A handful will be enough to destroy the tank, and
your reward is a flamethrower. Pocket your new weapon (it's not very useful
for combat at this point) and head back to the village.
You can get new ammo for your pistol, your rifle, your bombs and even your
flamethrower at the store, though anything beyond pistol and rifle rounds is
pretty expensive. I would stock up pistol and perhaps rifle ammo, but buy no
more than one set of bombs, if even that. You won't use them much. Definitely
don't waste $4000 on flamethrower ammo. However much ammo you buy, save at
least $1250, or kill some enemies until you have that kind of money. When
ready, head into the north part of the village, burn the red flower to the east
with your flamethrower, and head east into a new passage behind it. (The second
registration nag pops up here.)
WARNING: if you do want to use the flamethrower, keep at least one charge
inside it until you're back in the village. If you run the flamethrower dry,
you cannot destroy the red flower on your way back and you'll be stuck forever.
In the village, at least, you can buy new gas for it (if at a ridiculous
price).
Now east of the village, the first thing you'll see is a health food market
that'll sell no less than four health vials at once for exactly $1250. A deal
if ever I saw one, so grab them. Once you've got them, head further east. New
enemy here - a gunnery pod which takes quite a bit of damage, and dishes out
even more. There is a heart behind it, but since you just gulped four health
vials, I'd leave that right where it is. Don't bother fighting it out with the
pod, just get into the cave on the other end.
Well, figures there'd be more inside. Three here, and you don't really have the
firepower to take them out comfortably. You'll need to get rid of the one just
to the left of you, and I'd suggest bombs. Just drop 'em until he's dead, or if
you're daring, wait between his salvos, and wander around the corner to drop
them almost right on top of him. With good timing you can do this without
getting hit, and it'll take fewer bombs to kill him if they're right on target.
Your choice. With the pod gone, head west without going into the line of fire
of the lowermost pod, wait between salvos, then dash through the south exit.
NOTE: the lower pod in this room has a health vial. However, I wouldn't kill it
just yet - nail it on your way out, when you'll be far better armed.
I sure hope you like your pods, because the next room has four of them in tight
formation and it's not possible to slip around this time. Use the flamethrower
to burn some of the mushroom ring around them, then use bombs to deal with them
as best as you can. You can use the pistol or rifle to mop up, but it'll take a
while as you only have time for one shot between salvos before you need to get
back into cover. Thankfully, there is a reward for this battle - grab the
machine gun that was resting between the pods, and now you have something to
match their firepower. The machine gun will fire a salvo of six with every shot
you launch (and still consume only one ammo!), making it far easier to kill the
bigger enemies from here on out. One salvo is not *quite* enough to kill a pod,
but very close. You only get 20 ammo in it to start with, though, so don't go
triggerhappy with it just yet.
Once you go south, you'll be under fire immediately, so keep moving. The next
room has three more pods - you want to kill the middle one at the least, as it
carries the upgraded rifle. It fires a salvo of four for each shot now, about
as powerful as the six of the unupgraded machine gun together, and a bit more
accurate at long range. The rifle is now your best weapon, and its ammo is
cheaper to replenish than the machine gun's, too. With the pods gone (the
upgraded rifle will make it easier), you can head into the cave to the
northwest to grab a probably badly needed health vial.
Almost done down here, don't worry. Go back out and head west into the "room of
floating death". The mini-pod here is much like a gunnery pod, except it moves
around. Make good use of your rifle and the natural cover of the room to snipe
at it and defeat it - you shouldn't have much trouble since it's alone.
Defeating the mini-pod earns you a red key. In the cave behind him, you'll find
some rounds for your machine gun and a few extra bombs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.4] THE NORTHERN LANDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the red key in hand, head back to the village. Don't forget to kill the
lowermost pod in the entrance room if you haven't done so yet, it has a health
vial. If you already took it, kill the pod outside to get the heart it's
guarding, you'll probably need it at this point. Once back in the village, make
sure to stock up on rifle rounds. At $750, they're more value for money than
pistol rounds now, and you won't need to bother much with the machine gun until
you get its upgrade. If you build up to 99 rifle rounds now, you probably have
enough to last you the rest of the game (especially since you'll be switching
to the machine gun once you have the upgrade).
When you're all set, go back to the north part of the village and open the red
door in the north wall with your new key. You'll encounter another minotaur on
the other side, but this time, you are far better armed than the last time you
faced one of these - not to mention clad in body armor. Make short work of him
with your rifle and grab the upgraded axe, which has better range and damage
now than before. At least now you can deal with skeletons somewhat effectively
(the darn things are hard to kill even with the heavier firearms). Head north,
deal with the minotaurs and the gunnery pod, and grab yourself another health
vial. Go east from here.
A lake, a giant, a minotaur, and a house. Ignore the giant for now, and head
into the house (you'll probably have to kill the minotaur to get to it). Inside
you'll be given the aqualung, which'll let you explore the bottom of the lake
here. Head back out, kill the minotaur again, and kill the giant this time too.
Then head to the east part of the lake, use the boat to get in, sail to the
middle of the lake and switch to the aqualung. You'll be underwater now, where
you cannot wear your body armor or use any of your firearms. Only the sword and
the axe will work (choose the axe, obviously, with the upgrade it's a lot
better).
The first underwater screen has a single harpoon-armed diver. He has quite a
range on his weapon, so be careful in sneaking up on him, then use the axe to
take him out. A single hit will be enough, and a bow and arrow will be left
behind that *can* be used underwater (don't try that at home). Switch to this
new weapon - the last one in the game - and head west. More divers to deal with
in the next area, but a single shot from the bow is enough for any of them. The
westernmost enemy will drop another health vial. Head west again.
The bit of wall around the centre diver will disappear if you swim up to it.
Take out all the enemies here and head into the cave to get 40 arrows for your
bow and a clue about the "weapon the penguins fear the most". Once out of the
cave, head south using the right passage. Take out the divers and swim up to
the minotaur statue, which will disappear and reveal the upgraded bow. Swim
back north and take the left passage south this time, then head west to meet
the local boss, the Crab rider.
Take out the two divers quickly, then lure the Crab rider toward you. Ideally,
get it to go north of the purple piping and a little east, then be on the south
side of the rocks and shoot arrows through the space between the pipes and
rocks. You'll be able to score hits unpunished, and kill the Crab rider fairly
quickly, he's not that sturdy. Failing this, snipe at long distance - the
upgraded bow can shoot all the way across the screen. The Crab rider will drop
another green key for you upon death. The arrows within the piping can be
reached from the north, an opening will appear for you. Not that you're likely
to need them, the bow isn't much good anywhere above the surface. You're ready
to go back to the surface now. Don't forget to reequip your body armor.
Head back to the area just north of the village, where you got the magic axe,
and open the green door here with your key. You can head into the village for a
little extra rifle ammo if you think you will need it. Machine gun ammo is good
too, now - you'll get the upgrade soon. Either way, when you go through the
green door, the third and final registration nag will appear.
In the aply named "Land of unfriendly doormen", you'll be under attack by a pod
almost immediately. Take it out, then head to the other side of the screen to
take out the second pod and two gunmen. Grab the health vial in the northeast
corner before heading further east. Here, in the land of lava, walk up to the
old man and he'll open up a passage into the lava, walk into it, which will
hurt - but you'll get the aforementioned weapon that the penguins are so afraid
of, the upgraded flamethrower. Now kill off the mini-pods and head north.
This next area has two mini-pods and one penguin. Penguins shoot ice bullets
which hurt and also stun you for a second or two, not good. Most weapons work
well against the penguins, so don't feel obliged to use the flamethrower just
because the game told you to. It requires you to get fairly close to work well,
when the rifle and even the pistol let you kill penguins from afar. As for this
one, he'll drop the green key that you need to head into the cave here.
Inside, kill the penguins and open the door for some extra ammo. Then head
south. More penguins and a hut where you'll get a clue but nothing more. Head
west. Get through this "passage of many penguins" quickly or it'll be true to
its name - lots of penguins will enter from either side. The one penguin that's
in the room to begin with will drop a health vial if you kill it, and the
blocks it hides behind can be destroyed by most weapons. To the south, a group
of five penguins will hold the upgraded machine gun, an awesome weapon - but
don't use it against the penguins just yet, stick with the smaller guns for
just a moment more. You'll need the machine gun's ammo soon enough. Head into
the hut to pick up two bonus lives, then go back out and south to face the
dragon.
The dragon isn't as impressive as you might expect. He's big and his flame can
do a lot of damage at short range (much like your own flamethrower), but he has
a hard time getting around the lava pool in the center, and you can sneak in a
lot of hits around the corner. Which is good, because it takes a lot of hits to
kill him. Definitely use the upgraded machine gun here and let him have it, and
if you run out of ammo, switch to the rifle and finish him with that. You can
dash for the heart in the southwest corner for some extra health if you need
to. Main thing here is not to let the dragon touch you or catch you in the open
- you're quicker, so keep your distance. About 30 rounds of the machine gun
should be enough if you manage to get most shots on target.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.5] THE LAND OF THE DEAD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grab the green orb that the dragon drops, as well as the heart if you haven't
yet. If there's enough machine gun ammo left, feel free to use it instead of
the flamethrower against the penguins on your way out. Head back to the village
to stock up on ammo for the last time - machine gun ammo is your priority now,
followed by rifle ammo if you have any money left. The penguins tend to drop a
good bit of it. When you're all set, head west to the graveyard, and now that
you have the green orb, past the wise men and to the north. The skeletons here
aren't too impressed by your machine gun. Switch back to the magic axe to take
care of them, it'll take two hits per skeleton. Head north from here again.
Ignore the ghost and most of this area for now and rush into the cave, where
you'll be given two more lives and a final batch of ammo. This batch also
contains the upgraded bombs, if you happen to care. Once upgraded, they release
a whole lot more shrapnel, but fact is that there's only two real enemies left
now and the bombs aren't a good choice against any of them. Head back out.
You'll want to take care of the ghost first with two axe hits, probably. As for
the quicksand, it's simple: there is one safe route between the car wrecks to
the exit. Stray from it, and you'll sink into a room full of minotaurs and have
to fight your way out to start over. Experimentation will get you through, but
it'll hurt. To find the right route, consider the wrecks numbered as follows:
1
2 3
4
5 6 7
8
9
Starting from the southwest, pass between 5 and 8, then 2 and 4, and stop just
southwest of 1. Go straight east, under 1, then northeast over 3 until you hit
the northeast corner. Go straight south and pass between 6 and 7, then south
past the east side of 9 and through the south exit. Then head directly east.
There is a subboss in the next area, a mega pod. It's much like the mini-pods
you've encountered before, except that it has a lot more firepower and takes
more damage. Do your usual thing of finding cover and shooting your machine gun
around the corner, and this battle shouldn't be any trouble. Grab the red key
the pod drops to open the door to the north and face the final battle, against
the evil computer.
Not much to say about this battle, either. He's powerful, kills instantly on
contact and shoots a hail of just about every bullet type in the game at you.
Only way to go about it is to have your machine gun out and mash that space
bar, trying to use some cover if you can. I have the best results moving up to
his cover and to the right of it, then shooting just around that corner. You'll
still take return fire no matter what, though, and there's the risk that the
computer will move around and touch you. But with the extra lives you've gotten
just before (assuming you didn't spend them trying to get through the
quicksand), you should be able to clear this up even if you get killed once or
twice. After the computer is gone, take his grey key and head north again to
finish the game.
In this section I have listed the various items (including equipment) and
weapons to be found in the game, as well as all the enemies you will encounter.
Ammo - ammo for various weapons can be found at set points in the game, bought
in the shop in the village, or dropped by certain enemies.
Money - money comes either in the form of a bag, contained anywhere between
about $50 and $150, or in the form of a dollar sign which is worth $1000. Money
can be spent in two different shops in the game, mostly on ammo.
Heart - hearts restore lost health. They're found as either half or full hearts
(dropped by enemies), and as dark red hearts which restore all your hearts
right away. These aren't often dropped by enemies (only by a few of the more
powerful ones), but found in specific spots.
Health vial - a health vial will restore all your health as well as add a new
heart to your health meter.
Extra life - these smiley faces are a very rare find, only given to you at two
specific spots in the game, and add another life to your reserves.
Keys - green, red and grey keys are found throughout the game and open doors of
the same colour. The map is set up such that there's never a choice to be made,
each key is meant for a specific door.
Freeze clock - when collected, all enemies on screen will stop moving for a
couple of seconds, allowing for an easy escape or cheap kills.
Zap - speaking of cheap kills, picking up the Z letter when it appears kills
all enemies on screen. How come this only appears in areas that have weak
monsters to begin with?
Flashlight - found right at the start of the game, the flashlight will light up
underground areas so you can actually see what you're doing.
Green orb - guarded by the dragon, this magical item provides protection
against getting your life drained away in the Land where the Dead walk the
Earth, basically allowing you to enter the final areas of the game without
dying quickly.
Boat - the boat lets you cross a lake early in the game, and get to the center
of a second lake later on.
Body armor - the giant's armor will cut any damage you take in half, and let
you smash a boulder in the village to open up a new area.
Aqualung - obtained relatively late in the game, the aqualung lets you dive in
the second lake to enter an underwater area.
Sword - short range, low damage, the only thing that's good about the sword is
that it doesn't use up any ammo. With an upgrade it'll do slightly more damage,
making it suitable early in the game.
Axe - with a slightly longer range than the sword, this weapon can be used to
safely engage orcs from a distance. It's slower, though, and you'll need to
employ hit and run tactics. It's also the only weapon that is remotely
effective against undead enemies like skeletons and ghosts. The upgraded axe
has better range and damage. Like the sword, it requires no ammo.
Bow - it's the last weapon you'll find, actually, and it's weaker than the
other firearms. The bow's advantages are its long range - not much of a point
in that so late in the game, it's just not powerful enough - and the fact that
it can be used underwater, which makes it the weapon of choice there, and only
there. Arrows cannot be bought anywhere, but are fairly frequently dropped by
divers in the underwater areas.
Pistol - obtained early, the pistol is your first firearm, and much better than
the sword or the axe. It'll kill many smaller foes with one hit, some with two,
and has a better range. It does use up ammo, but new ammo can be bought for a
mere $500 per 20 bullets in the village. Once upgraded, the pistol has better
range and damage.
Rifle - obtained some time after the pistol gets upgraded, the rifle is about
equivalent before it gets upgraded as well, firing one shot at a decent range
with fairly good damage. Once upgraded, the rifle gains a major boost in power.
It'll now fire a salvo of four every time you press the space bar, and with a
better range to boot. It'll be your best weapon for quite some time. Rifle ammo
costs $750 per 20 bullets (or salvos) in the village.
Machine gun - even unupgraded, this baby fires salvos of six bullets each. It's
a good weapon when you find it and becomes the best in the game once upgraded.
The upgraded rifle is actually a little bit stronger before then, despite its
smaller salvos. Machine gun ammo costs $1000 per 20 salvos in the village.
Bombs - bombs are dropped right in front of you and go off after a few seconds,
sending a ring of shrapnel in all directions. It won't hurt you, but enemies
can take quite a bit of damage if they were close enough to take several hits
at once. The usefulness of bombs is limited to only a few specific situations.
Upgraded, the bombs will release more shrapnel, but at that point in the game
you have the upgraded machine gun to play with anyway. 20 bombs can be bought
in the village for $1500.
Flamethrower - initially this weapon will only shoot one pitiful little flame,
but once upgraded it'll release an entire wave which can be very deadly at
short range. Until then, the flamethrower is more of a tool than a weapon, and
can be used to burn red flowers. There is one spot in the game where this opens
up a new passage. 20 charges for the flamethrower can be bought in the village
for a shocking $4000 - but at least a free heart is thrown in.
Poor unarmed bystander - not sure if these are the citizens of Hoosier City
(the game doesn't suggest so) or just a breed of orcs that forgot to take their
weapon along. Either way, they wander the village, they are completely
harmless, and they're great fun to kill. They drop money as often as anybody so
I wouldn't spare them.
Orc - armed with swords, they are really only a threat early in the game when
you have nothing better than that. Soon as you get yourself a firearm, these
are a total joke.
Axeman - armed with axes, they have a bit more range than orcs and are harder
to kill, but a pistol will fix them just fine, too.
Ogre - ogres become more common as you get further into the game. They are
armed with swords, not so scary, but take on a lot of damage even if you use a
pistol. Be careful around these.
Skeleton - found only in and around the graveyard, skeletons are highly
annoying to kill. They take very little damage from anything except the axe,
and they'll survive four hits from that (two if upgraded). Even though they
only have swords, they're so hard to kill that you'll likely take some damage
in getting rid of them.
Ghost - the good news is that only two of them exist in the game. The bad news
is that they teleport around and hurl fire at you, and are every bit as hard to
kill as skeletons. Once again, only the axe will do you any good against them.
Gunman - found in numbers in the mid stages of the game, gunmen do a lot more
damage at a bigger range than orcs and ogres.
Minotaur - one minotaur is encountered early in the game, and he's a nightmare
at that point with powerful, long range axe attacks. Later on, you'll encounter
more of these, but by then you'll be far better equipped to deal with them.
Giant - the two giants in the game aren't that impressive. They can throw
boulders at you, but since they cannot move at all, it's easy enough to get
into a position where you can hit them but they can't retaliate. Then it's just
a matter of what runs out first, your bullets or his health.
Tank - the derelict tank in the desert is immune to everything except bombs.
Get up in his face so you can place them and he won't be that hard to kill, but
getting there in one piece is tricky.
Gunnery pod - when you first encounter these, they have you outgunned and are
hard to destroy with just about any weapon. As your own arsenal grows, they'll
be more manageable, but their firepower remains dangerous throughout the game.
Mini-pod - much like a gunnery pod except that it moves. Early on, cover is
important - later on you'll just tear through them.
Diver - found underwater, these enemies are armed with harpoons and can
actually do a fair bit of damage because you cannot wear your body armor
underwater. Their range is pretty hefty, too. Fortunately, they too are
vulnerable and can be dispatched easily with axe or bow.
Crab rider - the underwater boss, he has a lot of firepower and can stun you as
well, but is awkwardly large and easily sniped at from a safe spot.
Penguin - these unlikely foes shoot ice pellets at you which will stun you, and
can cause quite a bit of damage if they catch you in a crossfire. While the
upgraded rifle will work, the upgraded flamethrower is a better bet as they are
especially vulnerable to fire.
Dragon - this boss takes more damage to kill than anything else, but is
otherwise not that difficult to deal with. His size works against him and the
lava pool in his room provides natural cover.
Mega pod - Found once just before the end of the game, the Mega pod combines
the mini-pod's mobility with the tank's firepower, but isn't all that difficult
to defeat with the upgraded machine gun. He certainly can't take as much
punishment as the Dragon could.
Evil computer - the final adversary has ridiculous firepower at his disposal,
so cover is essential here. Make good use of what little is available in his
room, and you'll be able to take him down with repeated machine gun fire.
===============================================================================
[5] QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
===============================================================================
I suppose this is the section that would most commonly be called the 'FAQ', but
considering that A) I refer to the entire document as a FAQ already and B) As
of this writing nobody has ever asked me a question about Hoosier City, that
term seemed a bit misleading. But I digress. Listed here in Q&A format is
whatever info didn't seem appropriate for the walkthrough, but is still
noteworthy.
Q: Where can I find this game?
A: Easier said than done these days, unfortunately. It's a tad more obscure
than, say, the original Commander Keen trilogy or other fairly famous "1
shareware, 2 retail" trilogies from its era. At any rate, considering how much
Googling I needed to find a proper download for this, I decided to upload a
copy of my own. This was, after all, the point of shareware to begin with. You
can download the game from my webspace at:
http://www.mastagus.com/sash/1hc.zip
Q: Can I host a copy of this myself?
A: Yep, that's the point of shareware. If you have the webspace and the
inclination, by all means.
Q: What about episodes 2 and 3?
A: Those aren't shareware, and thus can't be legally downloaded or distributed.
They'd need to be bought. Unfortunately, I have my doubts as to whether MVP
Software is still in business and if they are, if they're still selling this. I
certainly haven't had any luck locating these episodes.
Q: I'm having trouble getting this game to work on a modern Windows machine.
What do I do?
A: DOS games and newer Windows versions often don't play well together.
Fortunately, there's help. Get the free DOS emulator DOSBox at
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net, optionally grab a frontend to make it easier to
use (I use D-Fend, off the same site), and run Hoosier City through that. It'll
run just fine, at proper speed, and sound should work too.
Q: What's the best weapon to use?
A: Varies per situation, but for the most part you'll use the pistol once
you've got it, replace it with the rifle only once it's upgraded, and then the
machine gun once *that* is upgraded. The flamethrower is good against the
penguins (but not really any better than the rifle), and bombs are
specifically of use against the tank and some of the more dangerous gunnery pod
positions in the eastern lands.
Q: Where is the flashlight? I can't see anything underground!
A: It's right next to you when you start the game. Try not to miss it. :)
Q: I need more money to buy ammo. What's the best place to get it?
A: The two village areas (the one where you start, and the one just south of
it, where the ammo shop is). The enemies here are weak and easy to kill, and
drop money bags quite frequently. My approach is to stock up on new ammo
every time I pass through the village on the way to the next part of the game,
and spend a little time fighting there to get the money for however much ammo
I think I'll need.
Q: Should I kill every enemy I see?
A: I'd recommend sticking to the ones that drop important items (as identified
in the walkthrough) and whatever gets in your way, and leave the rest. There's
no benefit in killing everything that moves, for the most part. Except when
you are hunting for money in the village. Especially avoid enemies that are
hard to kill, like skeletons.
Q: Should I pick up every item I find?
A: For the most part, items will remain in the area if you don't take them,
so you can grab them later. So if you see a heart but you're not injured, you
could leave it for when you pass through the area again, if you expect to.
But do pick up anything that killed enemies dropped, and if you find a cache
of ammo, either leave it all or take it all. If you take part of it and leave
the rest, it'll have disappeared too when you come back.
Q: What are some tips for preserving lives?
A: Engage enemies from a safe distance if you engage them at all, never
forget to reequip your body armor after having taking it off or having
reloaded the game (no equipment is selected by default after reloading),
consider leaving hearts or even health vials for when you're badly hurt.
Remember a replenishable heart can be bought in the ammo store for $4000;
expensive, but money can be raised pretty much safely in the village.
You could also save frequently and reload when you're badly wounded, since
that'll restore your health to full (at the cost of bringing you back to
the start of an area and taking away your points). Finally, it seems the
bigger enemies - starting with ogres - have an increased chance to drop
hearts if you're badly injured. Try some ogre hunting if you need to
restore your health, they're easy enough to kill once you have some
proper weapons.
Q: How do I get on and off the boat?
A: Took me a while to work this out, it's not that intuitive. Walk up to the
edge of the lake, hit Tab (not Enter, that lets you change weapons only) and
select the boat. You should automatically get on now. To get off, get to the
edge of the lake again, hit Tab, and select the empty space LEFT of the boat.
That's the space for "no equipment selected" and it's the only one that'll do.
For instance, if you have the body armor, you'd have to get off the boat this
way first and then press Tab again to equip the armor.
Q: How do I dive in the second lake?
A: Get the aqualung from the house first, then use the boat to get on the lake.
Then sail to the center and once there, press Tab again to select the Aqualung.
Getting out is a simple matter of leaving by the arrow-marked exit.
Q: My weapons won't work underwater!
A: You can only use the sword, the axe and the bow (dropped by the first enemy
underwater).
Q: How do I get through the land of quicksand?
A: Refer to section 3.6. I've caved and done a very crude little ASCII diagram.
Yes, I'm aware I suck at those.
===============================================================================
[6] REVISION HISTORY
===============================================================================
v1.0: (12 Jun '06) First version of the FAQ.
An update may follow if I find anything new. Apart from that, the guide's
pretty much done. If there's anything else you'd like to see, don't hesitate to
drop me a mail.
===============================================================================
[7] FINAL WORDS
===============================================================================
Hoosier City is a bit of a pet project for me in FAQ writing. Back when I first
played this, over a decade ago and well before I had web access, I used to keep
notes on the games I played in a little notebook, and one of the games for
which they soon got pretty extensive was Hoosier City. You might say that the
things I wrote down for myself as I played it were my first baby steps in FAQ
writing. I've long since lost those original notes (and they weren't that good,
really), but it's still a trip down memory lane to write a proper FAQ for it
now, and a thrill to share it with the world this time around. The audience for
a guide like this will be small, as always, but it's all the more fun to reach
out to the occasional player. If you're reading this to help you play through
Hoosier City - or just out of interest or even boredom - thanks. You're making
all this worth the time.
For questions, comments, suggestions, praise and criticism, please contact
the author, Sashanan, at sashanan.faqs@gmail.com. This e-mail address is for
FAQ feedback only. Whatever you wish to share about this document or Hoosier
City, chances are I'll want to hear it. Any serious mail will be answered.
If you wish to do anything with this FAQ except for just reading it, check
the Disclaimer section at the top of the FAQ to find out what you can and
can't do. When in doubt, you can always mail me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sashanan is a software engineer, a gamer, and a Dutchman, in roughly that
order. Having only gotten into console gaming during college, he grew up
mostly on the Commodore 64 and later on classic DOS-based PC games, Hoosier
City among them.
This document is a copyright of Peter "Sashanan" Butter, 2006. All rights
reserved. Disclaimer at top of document.
