General:

Date of Release: 19^th October 1988

Model Nr: MV-64
Acronym: Montezuma's Vengeance
Rating: DC3V 0.0002W
Battery: Alkali-Manganese batteries LR44 (or SR44) x 2
Manufactured: Japan
Sold: Less than 250,000 (USA & Europe Only)
Nr. of players: 1
Lives: 3
Modes: Game
Controls: 1 Control Pad. Jump Button.
Other Buttons: Game, Continue, Time, Alarm & ACL

Game-Play:

Gold Cliff is the first game with a continue option. Your first mission is to climb the walls of the ancient ruin. You need to be quick as the steps soon disappear. Next you need to skilfully grab the key on the right wall. You need it to open the door at the top and get to the next chamber. Sometimes you get to a treasure chamber. Here you need to grab the sword on the left wall and use it to stab the enemy that is guarding the treasure. This way you will be able to get hold of the treasure. All you have to do is watch out for the crabs that patrol the bottom of the screen.

Game differences:

This is the first game with a continue button. When the key is held down, the top score and the words 'continue'  will be displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen. When you release the key, you can start the previous game. However, the score and the number of mistakes are cleared and you start from '0'.

Trivia:

Highest possible score is 9,999.

Cheats and tricks:

To play with the sound off, hold the left side and the bottom side of the control pad down simultaneously while pressing the GAME key to start.

The floor appears in a set pattern. If you look carefully, you can guess where the next floor will appear. You can also move left and right when falling or jumping. Holding the Jump button will make you jump further and keep you in the air longer as well.

Points:

As soon as you start playing, the timer will start to count down from 50 to 0. When you have cleared that screen, the remaining counter number will be added on to your score. You get an extra 100 points by beating the enemy and getting hold of the treasure.

Misses:

You only loose a life if you bump into a crab at the bottom of the screen. With 3 misses (shown by 3 bruised adventurers at the bottom centre of the lower screen), the game is over.

Other notices:

If you hold in the Game key the highest previous score will be displayed. If the unit is left as it is after game is over, time display will appear in about four minutes. A game is not interrupted even if TIME key or other game keys are depressed during game playing. Pressing ACL switch or removing batteries erases high score from memory.

Issue Differences (click to enlarge pictures)

The table will show how to tell the different Issues that were made:

The battery covers seem to have a number on the back, but they seem to vary a lot and I won't even speculate what the difference is.

Box Variations (Click to enlarge):

Game Variations:

Shipping Box:

Fits 10 games

Instructions (English):

Instructions (Japanese):

Pictures Wanted