Introduction
Following the success of the original Barcode Battler, Epoch released the Barcode Battler II in 1992. In a bold move, they released this version world wide during 1993, under the original Barcode Battler banner.
Changes
The main changes from the original Barcode Battler can be seen in the card set. The new set introduces Wizards, Magic, Survival and News cards.
Key changes to the game program include more enemies in C1 (formerly B0) mode, and the way in which Method 2 barcodes are interpretted.
The limitation of Survival points also added a new dimension to the gameplay - now you had to time your recovery carefully, or risk losing a key battle!
Main Menu
The Main Menu presents you with three options. Pressing the SELECT button cycles through these choices.
The first of these is C0 which is a two player game. Each player swipes in their chosen fighter, and if they want, a power-up.
Next is C1 which is the main single player story mode. The player must face 120 enemies in their quest to build up enough strength to face the enemies of the next mode...
Finally there is C2 which completes the story mode. As well as the cards supplied with the machine, several sets were released which used this mode as their sole mode of play. C0
This mode is the 2 Player Free Style Mode, an exhibition match between two players.
This mode is a free-for-all which sees you able to use Hero, Villain and Custom barcodes against each other.
In this mode, you may combine a character (Warrior or Wizard) with certain power-up items before battle.
Note that Info barcodes have no function in this mode.
It is also possible to use characters as power-ups - so adding a Pandoral to a Droome would give you a Droome with HP=72800, ST=20400, DF=19000.
This may be considered to be cheating, but there's no rule against it in the game program.
However, the maximum values are HP=99900, ST=19900, DF=19900.
To play in this mode, use the following steps -
Swipe in your character, then your opponent's character.
Each of you choose a power-up. Some power-ups may not work with certain types of character.
Swipe in your chosen power-up.
The BCB will randomly select somebody to go first.
Do one of the following -
Press the BATTLE button to attack, or
Press the POWER button to restore health, or
Press the SELECT button to enter the POWER menu. Using SPs will recover Energy. The more SPs used, the more Energy will be recovered.
Only Wizards may use MPs and spells.
The other player now has their turn to perform step 5.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until a player has their HP reduced to 0.
The winner is the last person with Energy points.
C1
This mode is Part 1 of the 1 Player Adventure.
The Sacred Keys made of Regista Stone which crystallise time have been stolen by the evil Emperor Boss!
Travel across four Eras in search of these precious keys.
Each Era contains five Light Worlds, and a Boss Station. Three keys may be found across the five Light Worlds in each Era. Only when you have all three may you face the horrors contained within the Boss Station!
Emperor Boss has hired 120 hench-monsters to do his bidding. But you don't have to face all of them - simply defeat the Boss on any Light World, and all the enemies you haven't defeated in that group are destroyed!
The only strategy I can think of involves training up only one character.
My chosen cards are Cide (custom barcode 000104 062473), a Warrior, Cool Candy, a Wizard, and Wimp Knife (custom barcode 050060 996435), a ST Boost which cuts the enemy Strike in half.
To power these two up to their highest available strength in C2, use the code P23-368.
You are rewarded for beating each enemy with a small boost in stats.
Defeated Warriors give you Strike points and Survival points.
Defeated Wizards give you Defence points but only Wizards can claim Magic points.
Defeating a boss gives you some Energy points, Strike points and Defence points.
The battles in this game are similar to the battles of C0, but instead of swiping your characters in at the start of each battle, you only need to swipe them in at the start of the adventure.
Make sure you press R-Battle to save the characters you have swiped in so you don't have to swipe them back in if you lose your first battle.
The following form indicates the power of your enemies. Your choice of heroes has an effect on the stats of the C1 enemies.
Now you must choose which Light World you wish to battle on.
Once you have chosen your Light World, a random enemy will be drawn up.
At the start of each battle, you must choose a Hero to fight - either the Wizard or the Warrior. If you have lost one character, you have no choice but to use your remaining character.
If you feel you are unable to win, you may attempt to press R-Power to try to escape. Sometimes, you may not escape...
After choosing your Hero, you must swipe in a compatible Power-up. If one doesn't work, try another. I recommend HP boosting items, Magic Spirit, or Mandrake, as these can be very useful, and can last after the battle if they are not used up.
Strike and Defence boosting items only have a temporary effect.
Before the battle starts, make sure you make note of your Energy points.
The battle now flows in the same way as the C0 game, each player trading blows until only one remains - the winner.
Once you have defeated your enemy, press Select while your reward is flashing. If you have just defeated a Warrior and you press L-Power, you may get information on the location of a key. You may now recover without being hit right away! If your Energy points after recovery are significantly less than they were when the battle started, switch the game off, then back on, and re-load the game where you last saved, and try again. Otherwise, I suggest you save the game using the R-Battle button.
If you are having a really bad time, you may press L-Power when not in battle to swipe in a fresh pair of heroes. You will lose all your progress in whichever Era you are in, but at least you may try again.
If you press L-Battle when not in battle, the "F-" screen appears and requests a three digit number. Please see the cheats page for full information.
You may reload your game from the last point it was saved by pressing the R-Battle button when you would normally swipe in your Hero barcodes.
The Barcode Battler appears to be able to store a save game even if the batteries are removed from the machine. This may be done with an EEPROM chip, but we are not certain.
Once you have defeated the final Boss in an Era, press the L-Power button and make note of the code. The codes obtained at the end of Era 4 are listed on the C2 page.
Simply repeat this process until Boss Tank is defeated.
Congratulations - you have defeated Mode C1!
C2
This mode is Part 2 of the 1 Player Adventure.
With Boss Tank destroyed and peace restored to the Barcode Nebula, your heroes must now take on the might of the ten Anti-Matter Monsters!
These evil super monsters are all that stand between you and the Emperor Boss!
First you must swipe in your heroes. If they are the same heroes you used to defeat Boss Tank, you may input the power-up code after they have been swiped in.
Press L-Power to enter the code entry screen. Press Select to cycle through the numerals, and Set to move on to the next digit. Pressing Set on the final digit will enter the code.
A correct code will power-up your heroes, and they'll be ready to face the Anti-Matter Monsters!
I recommend battling the Anti-Matter Monsters in the following order -
Rezadon, Pandoral (Can severely reduce your HP before battle!), Dolcoon, Barbirian (Can severely reduce your ST before battle!), Gilger, Zanbee, Air Dragon, Baguza, Darman, Droome (Ends C2 once defeated.).
I must point out that it is not possible to save during C2.
For strategy, if you must face Pandoral, fight him before any of the enemies which reward you with HP. This is because Pandoral will permanently reduce your maximum HP by 30%. By facing him when your HP is at its lowest, you won't lose 30% of the bonus from defeating Dolcoon, or any of the HP power-ups you use which all have a permanent affect, even after a battle.
After defeating Droome, you are rewarded with a C2 code which will make your characters EVEN MORE POWERFUL! This was believed to be the highest possible state for your characters...
Warrior
Wizard
Code
Jaw Breaker
Beast Feast
P33 - 668
Cool Candy
P33 - 666
Razor Fist
P33 - 665
Mega Blaster
Beast Feast
P33 - 666
Cool Candy
P33 - 664
Razor Fist
P33 - 663
Jam Bam
Beast Feast
P33 - 669
Cool Candy
P33 - 667
Razor Fist
P33 - 666
However, if you have defeated Droome loads of times, and need a new challenge, try this enemy barcode - 999999295997. I engineered it myself. Since you don't get an Emperor Boss barcode with the game, then I have decided that this insanely powerful (it's stats are the highest allowed and it cannot be powered up, even in C0) enemy is (unofficially, as Epoch don't seem to want anything to do with me) called "Emperor Boss".
He comes with his new friend, Silent Skull, a warrior with an enchanted club - 999999265273.
TAKE NOTE! The two barcodes above are merely fan fiction. They work, to a very devastating degree. Epoch may have released an official Emperor Boss barcode in Japan, but we don't know about it. Yet. If it exists.
Cards
You can view images of the cards supplied with this version in our new Card Viewer (opening soon).
As well as these, there were many other card sets which were released for the Barcode Battler II, but they were only on retail sale in Japan.
Some of the sets were stand-alone games played out in C2 mode, such as Legend of Zelda, Super Mario World and Dragon Slayer.
It is possible that at least one of the sets was a booster pack for the original cards. We have called it the G set, as every card has a letter "G" before it's number.
Some of the sets were also released for use with Famicom and Super Famicom games.
Spells
In all game modes, Wizards start with 10 Magic Points and have access to ten magic spells. The spells may be viewed in the form below.
Connectivity
A secret fourth mode is accessible if you plug in a standard 3.5mm mono jack plug into the expansion port on the left hand side of the unit, hold down the R-Battle and R-Power buttons and turn the unit on, the Barcode Battler II goes into scanner mode.
This mode is there to support the connectivity function to various games consoles and provides no gameplay on the unit itself.
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