Toki

Stages

Five stages against a clock

Each stage has its own name and its own clock, which starts at 4:30.

The stages are Labyrinth of Caves, Lake Neptune, Caverns of Fire, Ice Palace, and Dark Jungle. The clock counts down from 4:30 in the status bar $8295, and its digits change colour for the last minute $82E2. Zzap!64 found the levels fairly big and not hard early on, and called the mix of horizontal and vertical scrolling and swimming sections unpredictable.⁴

Stage 2, Lake Neptune. The clock reads 4:29 a moment after the start.

Stage 3, Caverns of Fire. The clock reads 4:29 a moment after the start.

Stage 4, Ice Palace. The clock reads 4:29 a moment after the start.

Stage 5, Dark Jungle. The clock reads 4:29 a moment after the start.

Lives and score

Five lives, and a spare for every twenty items

A new game starts with five lives, and the game hands out more.

A new game puts 5 in the lives counter $83ED. Every round, the first included, takes one off, and each stage's introduction adds one back, so starting a stage costs nothing $089D. The two-digit counter beside the lives counts the items collected, and every twentieth item sets it back to 00 and adds a life $A868. One other kind of item adds a life on its own. Score awards come in three sizes, 10, 50, and 100 points, kept as three five-digit numbers $02BB and added to the score digit by digit $439B.

Weapons

Five weapon records, and a countdown

Toki spits fireballs, and picking up an item can change how.

The game stores five weapon records, and an item that carries a weapon copies the matching record's address into the pointer the fire routine reads $B8F8. The pick-up also stores the weapon's number, 0 to 4, which the fire routine tests $08E0. Weapons 0 to 2 make one shot for a press of fire, and weapon 1 takes 2 hit points off an object instead of 1. Weapons 0 and 1 play a firing sound and weapon 2 plays none. Weapons 3 and 4 make two shots and play a different sound. A picked-up weapon lasts until a countdown runs out, and then the game goes back to weapon 0 $08CD.

Another item gives Toki a timed effect $A868, and his sprite flashes as the effect runs out $B8CF. Zzap!64 says the American football helmet gives a brief period of invincibility.⁴