TO BE ON TOP - full solution ---------------------------- So, you want to have your game completely spoiled? All right... Here's a sort of plan of your town: /--------/--------/--------/--------/--------/ / Your / Disco / Rain- / Your / TWR / / Home / / bow / Mate's / Studio / / / / TV / House / / /--------/--------/--------/--------/--------/ 1) Just to remind you. Avoid everything, when walking through the main street. Also, avoid your own mother, unless you really want to stay at home rather than become a famous musician. 2) Your Home. Walk right, taking the Video Tape on the way - from a cupboard. Turn on the television. Now you have to catch your Inspirations. There are four kinds of them: Accomp, Melody, Bass and Sequence Inspirations. You collect them by moving your aiming device around the TV screen and pressing fire when it collides with Inspiration (yes, that little ring). It is crucial which of them you'll manage to catch, because your final chart position depends on it. There are nine various Inspirations from each kind. They appear in constant order: Black, White, Red, Light Blue, Purple, Green, Dark Blue, Yellow and Brown. There are probably lots of successful combinations. I found out that WHITE Bass, GREEN Melody, BLACK Accomp and PURPLE Sequence, if put together, make very good piece of music (or at least that's how Chris Huelsbeck's algorithm estimates it). So, try your best and make sure you've collected them. Go to the piano. Make the song (Sequence forms verse, Accomp, Bass and Melody form chorus) by clicking desired colours. You should get starting chart position No. 9. Promising, huh? 3) Your Friend's House. You won't enter here without a Video Tape. Walk right. Turn on the synthesizer. It allows you to arrange your song. If you did follow my advice, your song will do best arranged this way: 1-A, 2-B, 3-B. Chart No. 5, you can see your fame coming. But for now, all you've got is an Audio Tape with a demo version of your song. 4) Discotheque. Go left, give the Audio Tape to the DJ. Walk right, stand next to the counter and get Beer. Walk left and give it to the DJ. Repeat this routine until you are given a Reference Card. 5) TWR Studio. You are here to add digi-drums to your song. Press play button. Choose drums line by clicking buttons formed in two rows below the console. If you still follow my advice, choose sixth button (counting from the left) from the first row. Stop the tape, rewind it, then press record button. Yeah! You're number two now, it means you get an RTV Invitation. 6) Rainbow TV. This is the last test for you as the entertainer; you have to perform drums live, synchronized with the playback. Don't panic, this isn't hard really. Just stress the quarters with bassdrum (fire) and one of the snares (left or right) alternately. You can use the hand-clap (up) or sampled speech -courtesy of Paul Hardcastle- (down) too, if you feel funky enough. While playing, watch the enthusiasm indicator placed in upper left corner. If it reaches green area - you are doing great, keep the beat! 7) Well done - your record has just gone gold for the first time... or try again, dear... so(u)lution (c) 2001 Smalltown Boy TO BE ON TOP - manual --------------------- MAIN MENU You have following options: F1: To start the game. F3: Display top ten. The top ten represents a high score table, and differs only in that you can replay any of the songs by pressing the relevant key (1-0). Even when you haven't been listed in the top ten before, there will still be ten songs that you can listen to. Press RETURN to go back to the main menu. F6: Load saved top ten from disk. F8: Save top ten on disk. ABOUT "TO BE ON TOP" In this game, you are a youth who tries to get to the top of the charts, against all odds. During the game, you compose a song which has a good chance to be listed in the top ten. If this song is good enough, you will be invited to perform your hit live on RTV. CONTROLS You can move the figure on the screen analogously with the joystick movements (up, down, left, right). Diagonal movements are also possible. By pressing the fire button you can open doors, communicate with other people and collect objects etc. You'll have to discover the rest on your own! STATUS DISPLAY ITEM - this will be objects that you collect during the game. LEVEL - shows the player's current position. INSPIRATION - number of collected inspirations. CHART NO. - current top ten position. STARTING THE GAME After pressing the F1 key, you must firstly type in a name for the song to be composed. Then press RETURN. Now you find yourself standing in a busy street in your home town. Be careful not to collide with any of the strange people and vehicles you meet here! You have to discover yourself what lies inside the many buildings! But beware! Make sure that you choose the right door, otherwise you will experience some very strange things! Learn from your mistakes! COLLECTING INSPIRATIONS Inspirations are musical ideas, that often are originated in the most unusual situations. These inspirations are generally taken for the main part of the song, called the refrain. A song also consists of another part which alternates with the refrain, called the verse. There are four kinds of inspirations to be collected: 1. BASS (for the refrain): sixteen different bass lines. 2. ACCOMP (for the refrain): sixteen different accompaniaments. 3. MELODY (for the refrain): sixteen different melodies. 4. SEQUENCE (for the verse): sixteen different sequences. Up to four different kinds of inspirations can be collected in four rounds. To do this you must touch the inspirations with the aiming cross and then press the fire button. But you must be quick! If you fail to collect even one inspiration from one of the four groups, the game is over - how can you compose a hit without inspirations ? Note: It is important to collect as many inspirations as possible, rather concentrate on the colours which have sounded good to you before. Also, you should not collect the same colours everytime. PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR SONG The collected inspirations are now displayed on a keyboard. Now you can choose and combine inspirations using the hand-shaped cursor. Note that you can only take one colour from each line (BASS, ACCOMP and MELODY) to compose the refrain. These combinations will be valued by the computer, and the better they are, the further you will get in the game. Have a go! You must also choose a SEQUENCE - inspiration that will form the verse. In order to avoid mistakes, you should listen to your refrain and verse at least once (simply wait until the refrain and verse have changed twice). Only then, when you are happy with your composition, should you proceed. You should know how to do this! RECORDING THE DEMO-TAPE Here a synthesizer is displayed. On the left keypad, with the hand-shaped cursor, it is possible for you to choose the sound of your instrument. Next to the three rows (each with four keys), there are the numbers 1, 2 and 3. These stand for BASS, ACCOMP and MELODY. Adjust the sound until you are satisfied (listen very carefully!), then you can leave this mode with EXIT. RECORDING STUDIO To start with, use all of the keys except RECORD. At this point you can add one of the sixteen drum sequences to your song. When all final adjustments have been made, using the Recording Studio's keypad, first rewind the tape (2 arrows facing left), and then press RECORD. Your song is now finally ready! RAINBOW TV STUDIO If your song is one of the top three titles in the Top Ten (see placings), you will receive an RTV INVITATION to the Grand Final on stage. The number of viewers that you have depends on your stage show, and naturally, in this age of omnipresent satellite-television, it will influence the success of your song. At this point, you must play the rhythm for your song live using a sample synthesizer. The following functions stand at your disposal: FIRE BUTTON: Bass drum UP: Clap DOWN: "Nineteen" RIGHT: Snare drum 1 LEFT: Snare drum 2 Here variety and "rhythm-feeling" will be judged by the audience. As long as the display in the top left corner doesn't go into the green area, this can damage your placing. If you reach first place, you can expect a small surprise! END OF THE GAME If the game ends prematurely, a screen message will appear, which you should take note of in order to avoid the same mistake next time! If you want to save the Top Ten, be sure to do this before you turn off the computer. ---This manual was extracted by Smalltown Boy from the Remember version of the game. So thank Jack Alien for it...---