3 lives to start and one bonus life at 10k Must start a new game , must to use an original NES , you may use an original cart or ever drive . Leetching is permitted and for some will not last with the AI becoming crazy with swarming bullet's and to the point of shooting on and off their bellies . The leetching still cannot be done forever. A recent discovery by a gamer demonstrated the game freezes after a certain amount of bullet's are fired/missed . You may reset elevators as needed to avoid enemy speed up , taking the risk of instant death , you DO not have to advance and may stay on stage one . the game ends when you lose all your lives or freezes . Pausing is not allowed unless done by accident abuse of the pause button will result in DQ (You may pause to switch tapes ONLY ) . If you manage to get a potential unknown yet to be seen max , please make sure you continue to kill a few more enemies to show that . Failure to comply with these rules will result in DQ No codes or passwords nor emulations are allowed will result in instant DQ