Dan Laser
Game Boy
Developer: Sachen Publisher: Sachen
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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Basics [HELP]
Walkthrough [WALK]
Codes [CODE]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
Credits [CRED]
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Basics
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[HELP]
Dan Laser is a vertically-scrolling shoot'em'up game, often referred to
as a shmup. This means that your own plane can fire bullets at enemies to
destroy them while avoiding enemy fire. Unlike most of the games that came out
of the Sachen studio (also referred to as Commin and numerous other names during
the studio's lifetime), Dan Laser is actually reasonably decent, but very short,
and too easy - you can get a fully-powered ship within about a minute of play,
and there are no bosses in the game whatsoever.
You are also given lives pretty quickly, which will be a boon come
around Level 4, when the game starts to throw large numbers of wall and rock
obstacles that you must navigate and maneuever around to avoid taking enemy
fire.
The game has a total of 7 stages, plus an additional 'Crazy Mode' where
you can destroy the game's background (detailed below).
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Controls
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A - Fire your weapon (Hold for autofire)
D-Pad - Move your ship around
Start - Pause the game
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Power-Ups
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You start the Normal Mode off with a regular pea shooter, and you retain
this weapon whenever you lose a life during the course of the game. By
collecting the P-letter power-ups littered throughout each course, you can
upgrade your ship's defenses to have two orbs orbiting around that catch and
soak up enemy fire, then a missile that strikes enemies faster, and finally a
laser that you can autofire and which blasts through anything, including solid
walls and through entire columns of enemies.
E-Tank enemies are also found through every level. These E-Tanks, which
are basically square-shaped enemies with the letter 'E' on them, will shoot out
a single bullet at you. If you destroy an E-Tank, however, it will leave behind
a Power-Up for you to grab.
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Crazy Mode
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During Normal Mode, you can only destroy a few things in the
environment. By taking Crazy Mode, you start off with your fully upgraded laser
weapon, and the weapon incinerates anything and everything it touches,
_including_ the background, making it ridiculously easy to go through the stages
by just blasting what is right in front of you instead of having to go around
backdrops.
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Walkthrough
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[WALK]
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Stage One
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•Move to the left side at the start of the stage. Shoot through the
centre of the blockade of small spheres, and take out the single shooting enemy.
Once you get the three Power-Ups, press and hold A for an autofire and shoot
your way out the back side.
•Continue on, navigatnig through some narrow channels. You should
eventually get to a seemingly impassable rocky area, but you can use your
missile to destroy part of the rocky area, allowing you to pass through.
•Once you get past the rocky section, you will run into another large
enemy blockade. Focus your fire on the centre of the formation to break open a
tank with the letter 'E' emblazoned on it to reveal a fourth Power-Up. Take this
Power-Up to complete your ship and give you a very powerful weapon that you can
constantly autofire.
•Immediately following, use your laser autofire to blast through several
long columns of the inert mine spheres to rack up points. Past that, you will
face a couple of battallions of more hostile, shooting enemies. Move left to
right in a consistent matter for your laser to be able to blast through
everything in a vertical line to slowly and methodically wipe out as many
enemies as you can for a better score.
•Some time later, you will come to some horizontal ledges. Quickly dash
left and right to make your way around the gaps at the edges of the screen. That
will end the first stage.
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Stage Two
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•If you had died in the earlier mission, losing your power-ups, you can
break open the cannisters to your left to replenish your stock of four power-
ups. However, the left side leads to a dead end, so quickly retreat and go down
the center passageway next.
•The first 'split' really is not a split as there is just a small rock
in the way. Past that, going up the left side there is a narrow path through.
Once you get out, ignore the three ships to the right and just continue on up.
•Blast your way through first a blockade of mines, then another
smattering of regular enemies and finally through some destroyable rock walls to
progress.
•The next horde of enemies also offers some more E-tanks containing
Power-ups if you again need to resupply.
•When you get up to some more rocky crags, you shall have a choice of
three paths to take. The right side is probably the easiest to take, as all it
is populated by are some E-Tanks.
•Shortly following, you will get more E-Tanks, and another couple of
platoons of enemy ships.
•When you come to some more brick-layered walls, do NOT go down the
right side with more E-Tanks, as this shall lead to a dead end. Instead, go down
the centre lane, clearing out multiple mines in the path, and maneuvering around
rock ledges. As your laser shoots through walls, you can probably snipe down a
few of the enemy ships on the left side before swooping through the gap to the
far left. Once you go past them, the mission ends.
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Stage Three
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•This stage finally brings out some new backgrounds as you move into an
industrial fortress-esque area. The flashing squares that you occasionally see
throughout the level do not do anything, so do not bother trying to shoot them
(or expect them to suddenly shoot bullets out at your ship).
•At the first real split past the initial start of the level, it does
not matter which side you take. Both sides have identical line-ups of enemy
ships and an E-Tank at the end containing a Power-Up. Once you get out of there,
be prepared to blast a narrow but long wall of rock to continue, and take out
the battallion of enemy pilots behind the wall.
•Following that, you will be forced into a narrow crevice with a lot of
E-Tanks. Blast the E-Tanks right away so you are not forced to contend with
enemy fire, and be prepared to blast some more rocky wall, followed by a short
handful of enemies, and then more rocky wall still.
•You will then move into an area with a bunch of small rocks littered
around, complete with a handful of hostile enemy spacecraft, each of them
surrounded by a number of mines. Destroy the ones directly in your way as you
move through.
•One final large squadron of spaceships will await you before the end of
the level.
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Stage Four
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•After a short period of time, you will be made to go through a very
narrow centre crevice with two layers of rock walls. Blast through them to be
able to continue through safely, but keep your finger on the A button for laser
autofire. Once you make it out, quickly move left or right to methodically
destroy one half of the screen worth of enemies and avoid fire from the other
half.
•Once you get up to some cross-shaped rocks, do not even bother going
through the centre unless you are very good at maneuvering, as the passageways
can be narrow and you will face enemy fire. Instead, go up the LEFT side and
stay there until you run into some more enemies on the left side after awhile.
•Move to the right end once you get to a solid chunk of destroyable
wall, and spam your laser on the right side. Once you get to the end of the
section of destroyable wall, you will need to move up the right side anyways.
•After you get into another short fortress, take either the right or
left side to begin - your choice does not matter because both sides are
identical. At the next three-way split, however, take the centre lane as all
there are down here are lots of mines to be destroyed for points.
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Stage Five
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•In this level, there are multiple turrets that you should be able to
identify right away that will shoot at your spaceship. They can be destroyed
much like all the rest of the enemies in this game.
•To start, you will have a large platoon of enemies to your left, and
some E-Tanks to your right. If you crashed at some point near the end of last
level, take the E-Tanks for your power-ups, with one final E-Tank off to the
left side after the horde of enemies. You will also face a lot of turrets right
at the start.
•Once you get past the initial fortress area, destroy some rock wall to
progress, where you can find and destroy some more E-Tanks for Power-Ups while
proceeding up.
•The level stays fairly wide and open for some time after this.
Following some more enemy battallions and E-Tanks, the action will switch over
to a lot of turrets guarded by mines. Keep your finger on the A Button to auto-
spam your laser and mop up as many turrets as quickly as you can to reduce enemy
fire.
•After taking out a lot of turrets, you will run into a solid rock wall
along the centre and two destroyable masses to the sides. Shoot your laser
through the centre rock wall at first to destroy a lot of ships (they cannot
shoot back at you through the wall), then quickly go to either side and blast
some rocks to sneak by.
•Past another cross-shape defense of turrets with E-Tanks on either
side, the level ends.
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Stage Six
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•Take out the initial two E-Tanks to the left, and go through the only
available spot to travel right above them.
•From here on, you will have to navigate your way through rock walls
that bend and curve a lot. Continue to spam your laser as it can strike enemies
through the walls, clearing out spaces for you to move into once you get up
ahead and have to deal with more foes.
•Partways through, if you take the right side of two paths, you wil run
into mines that shoot lasers between them for about a second and a bit before
deactivating, and then starting up again. You CANNOT destroy these mines, only
time the lasers and dash in between them when they are down.
•Once you get past several mandatory lasers, quickly destroy some
destroyable rock wall and you will face another large batch of spaceship foes in
a more open space. You then have a set of six lasers that you need to quickly
dash by, followed by destructible rock walls on either side of another large
fortress wall. This is then followed by a final layer of rock walls and enemies
behind the walls.
•More enemies follow in non-destructible rock walls. Whatever side you
take does not matter again. Make your way to the center after you clear out more
destructible walls and foes to wrap up the level.
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Stage Seven
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•You will deal with an initial seven or so E-Tanks. Clear out some of
them and strike the one ship behind the rock wall near the centre before dashing
up the left side and looping around to the right side.
Once you get through, you will have to deal with more E-Tanks and
regular enemies, and lasers. Again, try to anticipate enemies and shoot them
through solid rock walls before they can return fire at you, so when you get up
to where they CAN fire at you, there are less of them to deal with.
•Once you get out of the sandy-rock area, you will wander into a rock
field initiated by eight E-Tanks. Go to the left side right away to blast
several ships through the wall, so you can sneak through the centre and left
without having to deal with them.
•Following that, you will have to simply deal with a number of laser
traps, E-Tanks, and ships, followed up with one last extremely huge last defense
of enemies that starts off with a wall of E-Tank enemies. Methodically move left
to right or right to left spamming your laser to clear out a large hole in their
reserves to make it past them, finally ending the level and game as a whole.
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Codes
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[CODE]
Input the following key button combination, IN ORDER (not all at once)
on the title screen for a Stage Select, plus the credit roll and some sort of
odd message.
SELECT + START + A + B
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Donations/Amazon
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[DONT]
I don't really care too much about donations, but if you are feeling
generous, feel free to send one via PayPal to gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT
com
Alternatively, if you ever order any items from Amazon.com, go to the
link below. You do not have to buy anything right away, but (if you do not clear
browser cookies often) any items you buy within the next 90 days will count as a
'referral order' to me, meaning I get anywhere from 4-6% as a referral/affiliate
payment of what you ordered (ie. order $100 worth of stuff, I get $4-6 from
Amazon.com)
www.amazon.com/?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=raofavigafa-20&creative=391881
Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you
have any other obscure old games that you do not play anymore, consider sending
them to me (I will even pay the shipping cost!). I write FAQs for plenty of
obscure old games with no FAQs, and having a physical copy of the game (and even
better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
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Contact Info
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[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the
FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information
from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it
and give credit where due if using information
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Credits
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[CRED]
Thanks to Blame the Control Pad for information on this game (and
other Game Boy shooters):
http://www.blamethecontrolpad.com/gbshooters/gbshooters5.htm
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©2013 GammaBetaAlpha FAQs