13 replies to this topic

[walter_J64bit]

Are there any Easter Egg's Mercenary escape from Targ & The second city?

[Gunstar]

I seem to vaguely recall mention of such, but never got any myself. Hints they gave told about special things to pay close attention too, like a spiderweb, but after hours and hours I never was able to finish this game and make it off the planet or to any second city (that was a seperate disk anyway wan't it?).

[walter_J64bit]

Gunstar, on Thu Jan 5, 2012 3:15 PM, said:

I seem to vaguely recall mention of such, but never got any myself. Hints they gave told about special things to pay close attention too, like a spiderweb, but after hours and hours I never was able to finish this game and make it off the planet or to any second city (that was a seperate disk anyway wan't it?).

Why, yes second city is on other disk. I'm going stat playing the here soon I hope, as soon as I get a copy Mercenary escape from Targ. (DATASOFT "NTSC copy") So I'll have to keep an eye out for the hints.

[sargie]

There were several... The most useful are:

The Kitchen Sink lets you pick up any object (this is replaced by one of your own bullets in Second City). You need this to pick up the Spider Web.
The Spider Web lets acts as a skeleton key (this is replaced by the crashed Prestinium ship in Second City).
The Cheese is a really good spaceship in disguise (this is a Table in Second City).

[Gunstar]

sargie, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 1:03 AM, said:

There were several... The most useful are:

The Kitchen Sink lets you pick up any object (this is replaced by one of your own bullets in Second City). You need this to pick up the Spider Web.
The Spider Web lets acts as a skeleton key (this is replaced by the crashed Prestinium ship in Second City).
The Cheese is a really good spaceship in disguise (this is a Table in Second City).

And as quick as that, all my troubles with Mercenary are solved. I wish I could have picked up on those 20-25 years ago. I'll have to go back and play and finally finish the game now.

[walter_J64bit]

Gunstar, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 3:25 PM, said:

sargie, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 1:03 AM, said:

There were several... The most useful are:

The Kitchen Sink lets you pick up any object (this is replaced by one of your own bullets in Second City). You need this to pick up the Spider Web.
The Spider Web lets acts as a skeleton key (this is replaced by the crashed Prestinium ship in Second City).
The Cheese is a really good spaceship in disguise (this is a Table in Second City).

And as quick as that, all my troubles with Mercenary are solved. I wish I could have picked up on those 20-25 years ago. I'll have to go back and play and finally finish the game now.

LOL, I've started something!

[Gunstar]

walter_J64bit, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 6:18 PM, said:

Gunstar, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 3:25 PM, said:

sargie, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 1:03 AM, said:

There were several... The most useful are:

The Kitchen Sink lets you pick up any object (this is replaced by one of your own bullets in Second City). You need this to pick up the Spider Web.
The Spider Web lets acts as a skeleton key (this is replaced by the crashed Prestinium ship in Second City).
The Cheese is a really good spaceship in disguise (this is a Table in Second City).

And as quick as that, all my troubles with Mercenary are solved. I wish I could have picked up on those 20-25 years ago. I'll have to go back and play and finally finish the game now.

LOL, I've started something!

I'd go EVERYWHERE in that game and try EVERYTHING (well, except for the kitchen sink ), But I never thought to literally carry the kitchen sink as a metaphore to allow me to pick up other items literally. I did spend a LOT of time hanging out around the spiderweb, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with it since I couldn't pick it up. Thinking the whole time; "the spiderweb is the key...literally? Figuratively? Metaphorically? What the hell..."
I gave up years ago. Now I can actually finish and enjoy the game!

Edited by Gunstar, Fri Jan 6, 2012 6:58 PM.

[AtariNerd]

Don't forget to stock up on your important 15939 supply! (I prefer Coke, myself)

Edited by AtariNerd, Fri Jan 6, 2012 8:27 PM.

[Harry1968]

If you are still stuck, you could also look for maps, solutions and hints on the Mercenary Site. But beware, the playing fun will be only half as great if you use them. However, the second city is very tricky, and creating the complete second city maps included there took me quite some time.

[Gunstar]

After 20+ years of NOT completing Mercenary, and NOT having too much fun doing it, I'll settle for "half the fun." Though maps were never my problem anyway...solutions and hints will come in handy if need be, I, of course, attempt solving stuff on my own first, now that I know how to get past where I was stuck (with the spider web and how to use it), I may need no more help. But thanks!

[therealbountybob]

I agree Gunstar... Mercenary was won of those games I kinda liked but always found it frustrating to work out what to do and usually gave up stuck in a maze - [edit for the 2nd city] there's tons of Maps tips and information in Page 6 Magazine issue #77 atarimaina has a PDF here [must be something else for 1st game too somewhere?]

Might have to give this another bash (I have the original disks!) and then there's the 2nd city

[snicklin]

I spent half of the time running around from location to location without an aircraft.

That part of it was not fun!

[Mclaneinc]

In the day the old ilogical charm of some puzzles was sort of sweet, I used to play a lot of adventures on the ZX81, Artic computing did loads of them but they were full of things like "put feather in crack in wall" tada the wall opens. I think the commands were split over a couple of entries, not sure but the idea's were insane for me. When you went to the computer shows you got a chance to ask if these guys were on drugs

So when you play Mercenary and find out that a block of cheese is actually a special craft its a tad surreal, puzzles like that drive me insane now, sweet in the day, maddening now...

[spookt]

I completed Mercenary back then and drew my own maps. Wish I could find them now. Can't remember how long it took but it was a long time. I recently found an old cassette with my save games on it too