I played my games with 3 lives.
You can put 5 lives by changing the dip switch settings.
I played a few games this week with 5 lives, I got over 500K.
Twingalaxies shows 3 lives.
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"ROMSet: CityCon
Lives: 3
Unknown: Off [All]
Cabinet: Upright
Special Rules: You may freely use the Balloons to warp to a different level. An Extra Life is awarded at 100,000 Points and every 200,000 Points there after.
Special Note: due to a bug in the game's implementation, all scores above 900,000 MUST be monitored carefully for your correct score due to a bug which gives infinite lives. [If you pass the extra life threshhold after exceeding 900k, you may freely use that extra life from 900k and every 200k [1.1m, 1.3m, 1.5m, etc.] thereafter until you die and no longer would normally have any lives if this glitch did not occur.]"
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It's right that the bonus points are not very interesting.
The best way to stack up points is to shoot at the other cars on the bottom level. Just don't stay to long there or a wall will appear.
I don't have any problems with the controls.
You can make a low and a high jump. For the high jump, for example to jump on the upper level, you put the joystick up.
When you're going down, you can change direction in mid air. For example you can go from the 3rd floor to the 2nd or 1st.