Section Z

Section Z FAQ ver 1.0
by Mr Nutz (pcoyne@ucla.edu | mrnutz@aol.com)

INTRODUCTION
Section Z, released by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987,
is one of the most original and difficult shooters for the system. An arcade
version came out earlier, but is substantially different from the NES one,
consisting of continuous shooting action starting at Section A through to
Section Z, similar to Moon Patrol. In the NES version, you are Captain
Commando, who must defeat L-Brain holed up in Fortress Balangool. Many
elements in this title are reminiscent of the Mega Man Series, Bionic
Commando, and other Capcom games.

CONTROLS
D-Button: 8 way movement, flying and walking
B-Button: Shoot Left
A-Button: Shoot Right
A+B: Calls a Special Transmission Shell (STS, see below)
Select button: Use Powerup
Start button: Pause

ENERGY
Captain Commando starts with 20 energy units. Twenty is his maximum at the
beginning of the game. To refill lost units, one can: A)pick up energy
capsules left by fallen enemies or B)find warps with Energizers inside(see
below). Each Boss-type enemy defeated will leave an energy upgrade behind
which will increase the maximum by 8 units. Obviously, getting hit by enemy
fire will sap your energy, but surprisingly a collision with an enemy will
result in instantaneous death, as will getting caught behind a wall (since
levels scroll automatically). After instantaneous death, you will be revived
in that section minus 5 units. Continuing will also revive you in the same
section minus 5 units, so it is a useless edtion as far as I can tell. Once
you go to 0 or less enegy units you will be warped back to a checkpoint,
either section 0, 20, or 40. In all cases, however killed Boss characters
are still dead. Also, using a STS uses up 5 energy units, usually not a
worthwhile trade.

POWERUPS
Captain Commando normally moves slowly, but this is remedied by speed ups
picked up from destroyed enemies. You can speed up about 5 or 6 times, but
at higher speeds he becomes almost uncontrollable.
By destroying the Metal Eaters and also by shooting in certain areas, weapon
power ups can be obtained. A letter for the power up will appear in the top
right corner of the screen. A marker can be cycled through the various
letters by pressing right on the D-button and pressing Select will use one.
Upon death the current weapon will be lost (except for Laser). However, all
unused items in inventory will be retained.

-(L)ASER: Standard Issue weapon. Weak, but fast.
-(M)EGASMASHER: Fast and deadly. The most powerful beam.
-(F)LASH BUSTER: Three way cannon. Slow, but good range.
-(B)ARRIER SHIELD: A shield that protects Captain Commando from 32 shots, but
only from his front.
- MEGA BUSTER: While the Megasmasher and Flash Buster cannot be used at the
same time, if you are currently using the Megasmasher, and
happen to have another Megasmasher and a Flash Buster in your
inventory, you will get the Mega Buster. This is essentialy
a three way Megasmasher.

SPECIAL TRANSMISSION SHELL (STS)
The STS is an extra weapon that is powerful, but uses up energy units. By
pressing A and B at the same time, one will appear in the center of the
screen where it can be picked up and used by shooting normally. Press A and
B together repeatedly to cycle through all STSs in posession.

- MEGAMISSLE: A powerful slow missle. You start with this.
- FLASH BOMB: Exploads damaging everything on screen. It is in a warp in
section 8.
- CRUSH BALL: Spins around the Captain like a shield for 6 seconds. It is in
a warp in section 21.

I have found STSs to be slightly effective, but not worth the precious energy
they take away.

WARPS
Portals uncovered by shooting in certain areas that take you to areas in
section 0, they contain one of the following:

- STS
- Energizer: two beams one of which reenergizes a little energy, one which
reenergizes a lot.
- Transporter: two beams that send you to different sections, usually far
from the section you entered from.
- Power Rooms: full of Metal Eaters that may give useful power ups.

GUIDE TO BALANGOOL
Balangool is devied into 3 main areas, all of which are very large. This
section is organized as follows:

Section Number: upper destination/lower destination Section Notes

where upper and lower destinations are where each section's upper and lower
transporters take you, respectively. A blank in one of these spaces
means I don't know where it leads. If there is a single tunnle instead
of a transporter, just one number is given. In the case of transporter
warps, the first number corrosponds to the left beam, the second to the
right. When mentioning warps, Hi-warp means it is located at the top
of the screen, Low-warp the opposit. Some sections have 2 warps.If "Blocked"
appears, it means the transporter beam is a deadly force field until its
respective gererator is destroyed.

AREA 1
0:1 1:2/3 2:4/ 3:6/4 4:6/1 5:7/8 6:5/12[Blocked]

7: / Hi-Warp[Transporter:5/12] 8: /11 Low-Warp[Flash Bomb] 9: /6

10:8/ 11:9/10 Generator 12:13/14 Hi-Warp[Power Room] 13:16/

14:16/18 Hi-Warp[Energizer] 15: /18 16:15/18 Generator

17:19 Low-Warp[Transporter:14/] 18:16/17[Blocked] 19:20 Zamuza(Boss)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AREA 2
20:22/21 21:24/30[Blocked] Low-Warp[Crash Ball] 22:21/35[Blocked]

23:25/20 24:23/25 25: /26

26:27/21 Hi-Warp 1[Power Room] Low-Warp 2[Transporter:22/20] 27:28/

28:29/ Hi-Warp[Energize] 29: /20 Generator 30: /31 31:32

32:33 Zamuza 33:34/ 34:23/ Generator

35: /37 Hi-Warp 1[Energizer] Low-Warp 2[Transporter: / ]

36:38/ Hi-Warp[Energizer] 37:36/ 38:39 39:40 Balaba(Boss)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AREA 3
40:42/41 41:44/43 Low-Warp[Energizer] 42:41/57

43:42/51[Blocked] 44:45 45:46 Galga(Boss) 46:50/

47: / Hi-Warp[Transporter 49/ ] 48: / 49: / Generator 50: /47 51:52

52:53 Balaba 53:54/ 54: / Hi-Warp[Transporter: /56] 55: /

56:42/ Generator 57: /58[Blocked] 58:59 59:L-Brain(Last Boss)


FUTURE VERSIONS
In the future, I may include a section on Bosses and how to defeat them, but
on the whole they are pretty simple, except L-Brain, which can prove to be
trying. Any corrections or comments are welcome [people pointing out that
its lame to do a faq for a 9 year old game meed not write in :)]