If you liked the early arcade game "Galaxian" and its follow-up "Galaga", you'll like Edgar M. Vigdal's (edgarv@powertech.no) shareware game "Deluxe Galaga". It's very playable and well worth the requested shareware fee. It has a number of game "secrets", that you can buy for 1,000 credits each. I'd bought them all and wished I'd written them down, but I was always too busy playing to do so.

Well, thanks to Ivan Wheelwright of Australia (ivanw@attic.apana.org.au), myself, and Andrew Pullen, for some additional information, here they are:

1. Catching one of the red, green, or blue skulls will increase the chances that more or less powerful weapons, extra lives, letters, credits, or bonus multipliers, will appear.
2. By shooting a hurry-up ship, you'll be given the opportunity to collect a needed rank marking. It will be the slowest falling (highest in the display) of the ones that you need.
3. After you've collected a "gem" smart bomb, and the gems are falling, you can make them gravitate toward your ship by holding down the joystick. Note however that this does not work for the "credit" smart bombs.
4. If you have a 2x or 5x multiplier in effect when entering a meteor storm, you may get a lot of points (i.e the multiplier may remain in effect for its normal (or extended by the time token) duration).
5. Catching a warp icon in an alien stage bonus level will give you a perfect score for the level. That would be levels: 4, 8, 12, etc. If you catch a memory game icon, meteor storm icon, "gem" smart bomb, or "credit" smart bomb during these stages and no aliens have yet escaped, you will also be awarded a perfect score for the level.
6. If you can capture a Red, Green and Blue skull, you will receive a very good weapon - generally fire balls or plasma, and the optimum ship speed. However this is usually only useful in the early stages of the game. If you already have a more powerful weapon, it would behoove you to avoid the skulls as they will reduce your power and maneuverability by one level.
7. When hurry-up ships have appeared eight times during a level, a money ship will appear.
8. If you have a weapon type, and catch another token for the same weapon, you're firepower will be increased by one increment (up to the maximum allowable increment for that weapon type).
9. Completing the Meteor-storm will add 100,000 points to your score and 1,000 credits. And if you ... hmm. He He... If you hold the fire button down during the meteor stage, the asteroids fall at a faster rate. If you can navigate the asteroid belt successfully while keeping the fire button depressed, you will be rewarded with a 5,000 credit bonus instead of a 1,000 credit bonus (however this was not implemented in version 2.3).
10. You may be able to figure out what skulls you lack by looking at the color of the meteors in the meteor storm. This will take some practice. I've never found it to be of much use. You will generally only find this technique useful in the early stages of a game. You should avoid the skulls once you have a powerful weapon because contact with a skull will drop your weapon type, speed, and number of bullets (I think) by one level.
11. After you've caught two aliens with the scope and while it remains active, you get greatly enhanced point values for any aliens that come into contact with the scope and are twirled off the screen.
12. If you have the rank of Admiral and you buy or acquire another set of rank markings, you will get 1,000,000 points.
13. Having a multiply active when completing the game will give you a lot of points. It seems to be impossible, you would have to get the bonus multiplier on level 74 (Bonus Level) and keep it during the whole level, and then kill the level 75 beastie in record time, which would have to be quick. Ivan though, did notice multipliers do stay active longer as each round of 75 starts again...
14. If you have all the rank markings for a new rank, and then buy more rank markings, you will instead buy a new rank.
15. The maximum number of extra lives is four. If you have four lives, and need more armor buy more lives (at 400 credits each) rather than more armor (at 600 credits each). Your armor will be increased for 200 credits less per unit. The maximum number of shield (armor) increments that you can acquire is 8.
16. The maximum credits that you can accumulate is 500,000. Any additional credits acquired above that limit are lost.

If you die during a warp malfunction, the game skips the tax-free shop and the next level. You can use this to your advantage in the harder levels, especially in the Big Trouble stages. Be sure you have plenty of lives left. When you get to the level you want to skip, especially Big Trouble, just pray for a warp malfunction! If you do get it, just allow yourself to be destroyed during the warp malfunction scenario, although it's a good idea not to do this until there's only one alien left on the screen.

It is generally not a good idea to spend any credits until you have at least 500. When you get 500 credits, buy the Super Weapon.

If you hold down the 'fire' button (make sure to disable auto-fire if you have it on) from the moment you grab the Meteor Storm icon, right up to the end of the Meteor Storm, you will get the secret $5,000 bonus (This only works in version 2.4 and possibly 2.5).

In Version 2.4, it's not a good idea to buy the $3,000 weapon until you're in the later levels: 51 - 75.

The weapons that cost $750 and higher are generally not very handy unless you have the higher intensities of auto-fire (Version 2.4). If you do have auto-fire and have one of these weapons, you have an incredibly nasty weapon!

You can cheat by using a hex editor and editing the main program. Just find the part of the code that lists all the prices in the tax-free shop (ensure they are not part of the menu, if you modify the menu in any way, the game won't run!), and change the numbers to whatever you want. This way, you can make everything cost whatever you want! However, you'll still need $50 to enter the shop, and $400 for continues ($200, in version 2.3).

The "Hurry Up" ships tend to appear during the latter part of a level. When destroyed, they will drop a rank marker that you need. The rank markers in order of speed dropped are:

1. Red - very slow
2. Orange - slow
3. Green - a bit faster
4. Blue - medium speed
5. Pink - fairly fast
6. White - quite fast

The slowest rank marker that you need will be dropped after the first ship is destroyed, the second slowest that you need will be dropped when the second ship is destroyed, and so on.

Here's how you can get any needed rank markers and a good supply of credits. Having a weapon grade of at least plasma and several units of armor is recommended before trying this. Pick a level that does not have "rank marker dropping" aliens associated with it (i.e. the first two after each time you've visited the Deluxe Tax Free Shop) and destroy all the attacking aliens on the level but one. Avoid its shots for another sortie or two and a "Hurry Up" ship will soon appear. Shoot it and you will be rewarded with a needed rank marker. Since you know which one will be dropped, you can anticipate how fast it will fall and where your need to be to intercept it without being hit by a falling shot or missile yourself. Continue avoiding the last alien and another "Hurry Up" ship will appear. Shoot it and receive the next (faster) rank marker you need. Repeat this process until you have all six rank markers. The sooner you can destroy the "Hurry Up" ship, the less likely it will be able to fire missiles at you. If you continue doing this until the seventh "Hurry Up" ship appears, you will be rewarded with the appearance of a money ship along with the eighth "Hurry Up" ship. Now destroy the last alien, the eighth "Hurry Up" ship, and then the money ship and you will be rewarded with a shower of coins. Generally while you're capturing coins, the ninth "Hurry Up" ship will appear and fire off several missiles. This is where a unit of armor comes in very handy.