Frequently Asked Questions List
Copyright 2000, by Mike Hommel
A Hamumu Software Production
http://www.hamumu.com
INTRODUCTION
Believe it or not, there are some questions that are frequently asked about Spooky
Castle. Some are asked very frequently. The #1 question by a wide margin is "How do I get
past that f&$*@&$ bat level!?" I guess I should have made that level easier. Another
common question is "How do I get into the level in the lower left of the map?" That is a
secret level - find all four hidden SPISPOPD keychains in order gain access to it. But,
like most FAQs, this one won't actually cover the actual questions I get asked frequently.
Instead, it will simply cover how to get past each of the levels in the game (mostly vague
hints, after all, it's really mostly a matter of being able to outfight the monsters), and
tell you about the secrets and cheat codes. I hope it helps. Let me know at
questions@hamumu.com what you think of it, and if there's anything you think needs to be
added.
LEVEL GUIDE
Ghoulish Glade
Truly the most basic of levels. Just grab the brains and leave. Perhaps this is a
good time to learn that you can finish a level without killing all the enemies. Only
Zombies must be killed (because they contain Zombie Brains, which are exactly what you're
collecting).
Haunted Hollow
The first glimpse of a dark level. Not tricky at all, just follow the path. Kind
of avoid the monsters and grab up those hammers and pants as you spot them. Then if you
want you can go back and get revenge on the monsters.
The Shed
A couple things to learn here. First- you can't finish the level without defeating
all the Zombies, because you need to collect their brains. Second- you can push boxes by
bumping into them. You need to do that to get all the brains. If you somehow push yourself
into a corner, or make it impossible to get all the brains, press ESC and select "Give Up"
from the menu in order to return to the map screen. Otherwise, it's very straightforward.
The Antechamber
Starts off with a little trick of sorts - you have to pick a door to enter. Pick
the top one, or you're going to be using the "Give Up" option, since you won't have the keys
you need to finish the level. Notice here that doors are marked with specific colors and
only the right colored key can open a door. Also notice that yellow keys can only be used
one time before disappearing, but keys of any other color can be used repeatedly. Other
than that, you just have to run in and pummel a huge pile of Boneheads and Zombies, then
outwit the slow-witted Mumbles to grab the last key. One fun thing with Mumbles - if you
stand far enough away to not awaken them, you can just shoot them until they collapse and
they won't do anything. But I don't recommend that, because the sound they make when they
attack you is funny. One other thing you can learn on this level: water is bad. Don't step
in the water.
The Fountain
This is sort of wide open. Just head to the right first, grab the items, then head
down, grab the key, then left to get the brains. Of course during all this you are smashing
piles of Boneheads, but it's all rather simple. This level also introduces the Reflect
Hammer, which is great fun, and makes your hammers bounce off walls.
The Barracks
Big step up from the previous levels. Start by going the only way you can, admiring
the signs along the way to see what you will be getting into (bumping into a sign reads it).
At the end of the hall you're treated to a hammer, which you can then use to smash open the
very obvious secret passage (good thing it's there, since you don't have any keys yet).
Clean that room up of Boneheads, and then head to the next room over, the Bathing Area. In
order to not bathe with the Aquazoids, you'll have to smash them. So grab your pants and
smash them all. It's easy by just staying out of the range of their shots. Once they're
all gone, the red key becomes grabbable. So take it and go to the Mess Hall, which is the
rightmost room on the bottom. Get the blue key, the brains, and the pants, and eat as much
Chinese Food as you need. Smashing the Boneheads is fun too. Then move over one room to
the left, where you'll find two brains and some minor opposition. Once that's cleared up,
move to the leftmost bottom room, where the Mumbles are hanging out. You have to smash them
all and get the yellow key. Once all the Mumbles are defeated, a passage in the next room
over to the right will have opened (it has a sign by it that tells you the Mumbles guard it,
which was supposed to be a clue). This earns you another brain and the second yellow key
that you need to enter the final chamber, the Officer's Club (the entrance is in this same
room, in the lower left). There's also a flamethrower if you're interested. You wouldn't
believe how many Zombies I had originally placed in the Officer's Club, but I toned it down,
and it's not too tough. When fighting Zombies, try to avoid getting close, and if you hear
one yelling for your braaaiiinnnsss, step aside so it doesn't squash you when it leaps.
Once they're all gone, collect their brains, and head out the door you came in. You're
done!
The Tower
Six stories of madness and mayhem. Kinda like a maze of sorts. Grab the hammer,
and take the upper right staircase. This brings you to a hammer, some pants, and 3
Boneheads. Smoke them and go back down. Take the lower left staircase, kill the lone
skeleton and grab the brain, and head upstairs again. This gets you a couple brains,
another Bonehead, another hammer, and a dead end, so deal with all that, and then head back
down twice, putting you back on the bottom floor. Only one staircase left! Go up the lower
right staircase to meet a Bonehead and a brain, then proceed up the left staircase, fight
the boneheads, and grab the semi-hidden pants (they're at the bottom, almost hidden behind
the wall). Head up the stairs into a big pile of Boneheads. They shouldn't be too tough to
plow through with all the weaponry you've gotten. From here, take the up staircase and deal
with the ever-sluggish Zombies. Then head down the other staircase, the one in the top of
the room. Then head down again, the only way you can, to meet some Mumbles and Boneheads.
There's also a yellow key and another almost-hidden pair of pants. Get 'em all and head up
twice to reach the fifth floor. Go through the door (now that you have a key), grab the
slightly less hidden than previously pants, mentally steel yourself, and head up the stairs
for the final confrontation. This, my friend, is a Super Zombie. Do not get near the Super
Zombie, keep your distance at all times. Get Chinese Food as necessary and pummel with
whatever weapons you have, but remember, don't get close. There's a later level where a
Super Zombie is right near the beginning in which you can go ahead and get close in order to
see the coolest attack in the game (no it's not the dumb little punch he does), but on this
one, after all you've been through, how about you just smash the tar out of him without
getting near him? A Reflect Hammer is here which can prove semi-helpful. Once he goes
down, note he drops two brains - that's because you make Super Zombies by sticking an extra
brain in a regular Zombie. Grab his brains, and head down lots of staircase until you reach
the bottom and you're done! Phew.
The Ancient Evil
Once you've cleared all those levels, you gain access to this one. This fight is
either easy or hard, depending on whether you find the secrets or not. The extremely
obvious secret is on the left wall. Notice how one section of wall looks very different.
Shoot that, and grab the junk inside (save the food for later in case you get injured). The
non-obvious and much better secret relies on your logic skills. If you were able open the
_left_ wall in that part, do you think perhaps the _right_ wall would work similarly?
Indeed, even though it doesn't have an obvious look to it, you can, and you get a huge pile
of firepower in there. That's probably your first introduction to the mighty Reverse Hammer
as well, which is nice, it causes you to fire the same hammers backwards as you do forward.
With all that gear in hand, walk right up the middle and pummel Richie Lich like nobody's
business. The only thing you have to look out for is his hyper death beam. Don't stand in
front of his mouth when he starts charging up that green globe. You should generally stand
a little back anyway, because of the energy bullets his eyes fire. And don't let him pin
you against the wall, because he is poisonous to the touch (you turn green and your life
gradually drains away for a short while). Anyway, if you open both secret passages, he's a
pushover, and you're on your way to the inner sanctum. There's also another pair of pants
in the upper middle of the map as well, not hidden.
Cobweb Central
Lots of spiders. Begin by heading to the lower left. You'll have to run through a
gauntlet of Spitters to grab a key. And once you do, yikes! They're set loose. Wind your
way through them, and head to the upper right of the map, the library. Use your key to get
in and grab all the weaponry in there. There's no point in trying to destroy all the Egg
Sacs, it would take so long that all the ones you hadn't yet destroyed would have pumped out
thousands of spiders by the time you were done. So just head to the upper right of the map,
and destroy the one Egg Sac that you must (there's a brain stuck in an alcove behind it), so
blow it up and grab the brain. Now head to the lower right of the map. There's two
entrances to this section. It's sort of a maze, and frankly kind of confusing. All I can
really say is don't bother killing anything that isn't really in your way, and just keep
exploring around until you get all the brains. All the ones that are left are in here.
It's not a big or complex maze, but the darkness makes it kind of confusing. Once you have
all the brains, you'd think you could just run right out to the exit and be done. And you
can, except there's a Mama Spider in the way (it appears once you get all the brains). Just
avoid it and run for the exit.
What's With The Bats?
Ah, everybody's favorite level. Yes, I made it and even I have trouble with it.
There's a little bit of tedium involved, but you can definitely rack up a 75%+ success rate
on it with a little trick. The second the level starts, don't even wait for it finish
fading in, start running for the upper left of the map. Dodge past all the bats. Take the
very first left that's available. You'll find a hammer, and then keep proceeding straight
up and you'll find yourself in a little alcove with a fairly large amount of chinese food
laying around. Stand in this room by the food, and start tossing hammers out into the
corridor (first take care of any bats that happen to have come in the room with you). Keep
tossing hammers until about 5 billion bats have squeaked in agony, grabbing food as needed.
You'll know you're done when the continuous peeping noise has finally ended and your sanity
has returned. When you still hear them peeping, but they don't seem to be coming up to
visit you anymore, you can rush downward and then back up to tempt them, but I don't
recommend trying to take a stand further out, because they will totally rush you. They're
sneaky. When you've finally cleaned the place out a little, you may venture out to collect
the brains scattered all around the level. There will still be some bats, but you'll have
smashed most of them. The level is fairly maze-like. Don't really have anything to tell
you about it, just don't get too lost. And I wonder how you get into that wooden thing in
the upper right? Could that be a super cool keychain inside it?
A Warm Bath
This starts off pretty hard, then gets real easy. It's an all out war. Start by
running all over the island you're on, collecting the weapons available without doing much
fighting. Especially avoid the Mama Spiders. You'll see a sign at the top of the island
informing you that you'll need to defeat the Mama Spiders in order to get across the bridge.
Only get food as needed of course. Once you've made a lap or two of the island and gotten
the firepower, you'll find that you've got a giant parade of Boneheads and Spitters
following you around. That's the fun part. Go full auto on them and lay waste. If a Mama
Spider comes near, get away though. Once you've taken out most of the little guys, there
should be a wide variety of mighty armaments laying on the ground. I'd shy away from the
Flamethrower. Even though it's probably the most powerful weapon, it's got a short range so
you'd have to get inside the range of the Mama's acid spit to use it, and that's never a
good idea. So run around staying just outside of their range, pummeling them with hammers
and other things (missiles are really handy) until they all go down. It takes a while. Now
you can cross the bridge and begin the second part of the adventure. This part's real easy.
Cross the bridges with good timing, it's not too hard and there's tons of Chinese Food to
help you survive. Then you reach the home of the Bats. Walk around it to the right, and in
a little outdoor shack is the key you need to get inside (red key). Go in, smash a huge
pile of bats, and go around getting yellow keys. There are 3 of them. Then leave by the
lower right exit, follow the stone path to another dangerous bridge. This one is not so
friendly as the previous. Frankly I don't really know what's good timing to get across this
one, but I can do it without taking any damage almost every time, so just watch it and do
it. That's followed by an even crueler bridge, you'll probably get hurt crossing it, but no
big deal, the remainder is not too tough. Enter the building through the three yellow doors
and make your way past all the angry Boneheads to the exit, you're done!
The Cemetery
Pretty much a straightforward violence thing. In the center of the map is something
big and mean, so grab up all the firepower around the edges first. If you screw up, you can
get completely swamped by Boneheads. Pants and hammers are "hidden" behind tombstones all
over the place. One is right by the entrance, and a bunch of other ones are in the lower
left quarter, along with a ton of Boneheads. Grab all that stuff on the left side of the
map, plow through the boneheads, and then go for the pair of pants in the middle of the map.
That'll anger the Super Zombie, so deal with him. He's very very easy here if you have
already gotten rid of most of the Boneheads. Hide slightly off of behind a tombstone, you
can arrange it so he is stuck against the tombstone and you can shoot him with impunity.
With him gone, just head to the upper right of the map to find the green key which will get
you into the tomb in the lower right. Get past the devastating guard of Mumbles, go inside
and pound the Zombies. The only thing to be careful of is the water. Don't fall in. Then
you get the brains and leave!
Super Zombie Hoe-Down
I like this level. It's just a simple test of man versus giant lumbering four-armed
undead man. Carefully wander around collecting whatever pants and hammers you can without
awakening any of the Super Zombies. Warning- the pair of pants on the left wall is in
exactly the right place to awaken the zombie. But if inch down to it, you can grab it and
go back up without waking him up. You probably shouldn't destroy all the regular zombies
before waking the Super Zombies. Being so slow, the regular zombies can be used as cover to
keep the Super Zombies from getting to you. Of course if you hang around too close to them,
they'll smoosh you. I'd say destroying half or so of them is the way to go. Then wake up
just one of the Super Zombies and battle it without getting too close to any of the others.
There are some handy dandy weapons scattered around too, use them. Be careful with them -
for instance, the missiles are great, but they might target regular zombies or worse yet,
the sleeping Super Zombies. Make sure the awakened Super Zombie is the closest enemy when
you fire them. The last Super Zombie should be the easiest, because you can grab all the
hammers and pants without being afraid of awakening anything. So get them all, grab the
brains and go.
The Lair
This is the final showdown with The Thing. The odds of an enemy dropping a weapon
in this level are much higher. So all those Thingies running around are your friends. Mow
them down to obtain tons of firepower to use in bringing down The Thing itself. However,
the most important thing to obtain is the stuff hidden in the slightly secret rooms.
There's one to the left of the beginning room and one to the right. They're very obvious,
just shoot them open. Then run out there and start attacking. Don't get close to The
Thing, as its tentacles will smack you for a lot of damage. But if you get an Energy
Barrier, which is pretty likely, you can run up and attack like mad until it wears off. I
personally like to destroy the tentacles, but you don't have to. An Energy Barrier plus a
Flamethrower makes for a horrendously powerful combination to take out The Thing. There's
really no excuse for getting killed, because there's so much Chinese Food everywhere. If
you get hurt badly, run to one of the secret rooms and grab some, if there isn't enough
laying around from all the Thingies. The most important way to avoid getting hurt though,
is to watch the shadows - you can tell where the giant energy grenades are going to land by
watching their shadows on the ground. Don't be standing where those are gonna hit. It's
also a good idea to clear out a lot of the Thingies before hand to avoid taking too much
unnecessary damage. So hammer away, and The Thing goes down, and you win! The only thing
left is to find all the secrets!
THE SECRETS
KEYCHAINS
As you may have heard, scattered throughout the game, there are four super cool
SPISPOPD keychains hidden. Find all four, and you access a secret level (the one in the
lower left of the map screen that normally is blocked off). If you don't want to know the
exact locations of these things, stop reading now.
All four keychains are located in the cave levels you find after you defeat Richie
Lich. So here is where you find them, and what levels you find them in:
Cobweb Central
Easy - once you get a hammer (on this level, there's some effort to go through to
get one), head to the upper right of the map, and there's a small section of wall which has a
crack in it. Shoot that, it will open and you can walk in and grab the Pumpkin Keychain.
What's With The Bats?
Not so easy, mainly because of the bats and the darkness. The keychain itself is in
plain view. In the upper right of the map, it's inside a big wooden box. There are three
switches around the level. They're not hidden, but they're kind of hard to spot thanks to
the darkness. Just look in corners and dead-ends. They're on the floor. One is right to
the upper right of the wooden box itself, up against the wall. Step on all 3, and go grab
the Hammer Keychain.
A Warm Bath
This one's kind of embarrassing. On the second major island, just go straight down
on the left side to the very bottom. The Rocket Keychain is just sitting there out in the
open.
The Cemetery
Super easy, the absolute most lower left tombstone on the map. It's sitting right
behind it - the Squash Keychain.
Once you have all four Keychains, you can enter the secret level, The Chamber Of
Pumpkins. How do you defeat them? It's not too hard, but there's kind of a trick to it.
You need to awaken as few as possible (notice also that if you get far away from them, they
fall asleep again). The best thing to do is walk up a tiny bit to wake up the pumpkin above
you, let it come down into your section of the screen, then run around it and go up and grab
the hammer up above. Then get violent, but don't let them corner you and hedge you in.
They're quite dangerous, as pumpkins can be. Also take advantage of their tenacity - they
always try to head straight for you, even if a wall is in the way, so you can make it so
they're sticking right off a corner, and you can shoot them without any danger. So smash
all the pumpkins and the exit in the upper left opens up. I admit it's kind of hard to see
under the life meter and all, but it's there.
THE OTHER SECRET LEVEL
The other secret level is found by simply entering the secret entrance hidden in one
of the regular levels. If you don't want to know which one, you better stop reading.
The secret entrance is in The Barracks. Specifically, it's in the mess hall. In
the lower left of that room, there's a hole in the wall. Walk into it and you're there.
Now you face one of the most vile fiends in gaming history. Really the only way to beat him
is to run at very high speed and wait for him to flex his muscles. That's the only time
he's really vulnerable (you can hurt him anytime, but he won't stop chasing you except when
he's flexing). The best way to start the level is to stand far enough away to not awaken
him, and begin shooting. When he first wakes up, he flexes once, and getting hit slows him
down a bit, so you can get in a bunch of hits before he gets too close and you have to run.
CHEAT CODES
When the game gets too tough for you, it's time to bust out the cheats. Simply type
in any of these words when playing the game, and life will get easier. In truly desperate
situations, you can type in all but the last letter, and then hit that when you need it
(although if you do, you can't use Z and X as your fire buttons, since those count as
letters). Here they are:
KABLOOIE - enormous explosions wipe out most enemies
HAMMERSPLEASE - gives Bouapha maximal hammer power
ZAPPO - wins the current level
ZOOL - gives Bouapha a complete set of keys
MEDIC - full health
AGUA - water/lava walking ability
BARRIER - shield
CONCLUSION
That's Spooky Castle for you. It's not a big game, but then again, it's cheap,
ain't it. If you're dying for more Bouapha action, I highly recommend you check out Dr.
Lunatic, which is awfully similar, but greatly expanded, and also "Spooky Castle: The
Adventures Of Kid Mystic", which is kinda like taking Spooky Castle and throwing in magic
spells, level advancement, random encounters, all that kind of RPG stuff, although really
it's still an action game. If you wanna see more info about either of those, stop by
www.hamumu.com and have a look see. That's it, have fun!
