********* YAK'S PROGRESS In the beginning was the Screen. and the Screen was blank. Then Commodore moved upon the face of the Screen raying 'Let there be Sprites!'... and there were Sprites... These games are a record of my progress with the Commodore 64, which was launched by Commodore as a business machine but which turned out to be the hottest games machine of all time. The early ones are obviously VIC-influenced, and have their roots firmly in earlier VIC-20 code. The later ones get considerably more complex and detailed as I get used to the freedom and power afforded by the Commodore 64. Many of these games are unavailable or difficult to get hold of. And so gathering them together in one collection seemed like a good idea - both for those seeking an introduction to my particular style of gaming, and for those who just want to check out some of the earlier stuff. The common theme linking the games is the conflict between humanity and the evil Iraran/Zzyaxian Empire, a nice bit of pseudo-sci-fi nonsense to lend some sort of storyline to tha various battles. There follows a brief History of the Zzyaxian Empire, reprinted from our newsletter 'Nature of the Beast' 4: [ Picture: The Llamasoft Logo ] A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ZZYAXIAN EMPIRE Some people have writen in asking for the complete background of Terran battle against the Zzyaxians, so I'II give you a brief history of the battle and the circumstances leading to it. First indications of something amiss came when the Earth government funded the construction in space of huge orbiting solar-power stations. These were placed in a geosynchronous orbit and the power was beamed down to Earth receivers in the form of microwaves. The receivers fed the power thus obtained into the Terran grid for use by us. Malfunctions in the Grids (as the lattice-shaped collectors were known) turned out upon Investigation to be caused by hostile droids of extraterrestrial origin. The crack Gridrunner squadrons there formed to rid the Grids of this menace. And they succeeded. Or so it seemed. The ten years after the Grid Wars were peaceful except for a single incidence of hostile droneships attempting to abduct sciantists from a Terran research base, but luckily that base housed the then-experimantal ProtoNeutrinoSuperHyperConductiveBlammBlammKapow Photon Cannon which was used to good effect in warding off the attackers. There were also a number of unexplained UFO sightings over Egypt which no-one really seemed too worried about... The peace was shattered in the next ten years: the Droids returned to the Grids and displayed their first use of psychodisorientation, a characteristic Zzyaxian tactic, by deploying strange cameloid creatures against the Matrix squadrons which were sent into battle. Terran analysts failed to make the connection between the dromedary nature of these strange assailants and the UFO sightings over Egypt, and so were caught totally and terribly by surprise when the now-legendary Attack of the Mutant Camels was unleashed to ravage the planet... The huge neutronium-shielded beasts wreaked havoc upon the Earth until they were finally halted by the valiant efforts of the Terran pilots sent against them in their tiny but lethally equipped fighter craft. Following that battle, we learned, through our first tentative interstellar contacts, the evil nature of the entities who were our foe. The combined might of the empires of Zzyax and Irata enslaved the sentient races of half tha Galaxy. Earth, in pushing out towards the stars, had brought itself to the attention of the Evil Overlords who responded in the manner to which they were accustomed... with blasters blazing. We'd managed to resist them so far, though, and they weren't too pleased... Meanwhile, Terran science was being advanced in the urgency of war. Soon we had developed our own enhanced MetaBeasts, genetically modified animals capable of rational thought, meaningful relationships, the ability to appreciate Pink Floyd and Genesis, score over 100.000.000 on Star Gate and as often as not, spit laser bolts. Armed thus, and riding in ships equipped with our recently- perfected Interstellar Overdrive (the basic mathematics of which were derived from a harmonic analysis of an early Pink Floyd track) we set out to free the Galaxy of the blight which anslaved half its people. Where Zzyaxians popped out of hypertunnels near the Earth, we constructed Laser Zones and later Hell Gates to blast them as them as they materialized. Our telepathic MetaGoats contacted the abducted Terran camels being held on a Zzyaxian research world, and having convinced the camels of their loyalty to Terra, initiated a rebellion by the dromedaries which caught the Zzyaxians completely unawares and destroyed their complete research post on that planet. The battle at Sothis B led to the development of the Battle Sheepoid and the liberation of a number of Ancipital creatures, later to become our allies. Our farthest outposts were defended by Metabeasts descended from Andean camelids... and so we defended Terra (so that humans like Gordon Bennet could mow their lawns in peace) and even now, the Terran Confedaration aided by the resistance movements upon countless worlds gathers its strength for an onslaught upon the black world of Zzyax Prime... Who knows when that final assault may come, or what form it will take? Will the Mutant Camels finally be reunited with the Humans, man and beast joined in battle against the foe? Will the Metagalactic Llamas turn their lasers on the Zzyaxian slime-creepers? About the Games: Design Histories... AMC: This was the first Real Game I did for the Commodore 64. Despite the fact that GRIDRUNNER got published first, AMC was the one I started earliest, it got interrupted to do Grid, then finished after Grid's release. I admit that a lot of the idea was a steal from the Star-Wars type videogame I'd seen with large, lumbering robotic tanks, looking a bit like camels. I've long had a thing about camels, and upon seeing this game, I decided that it was just the excuse I'd been looking for to do a game with massive camels in. The camels themselves are 4 sprites bolted together, and these were the first sprites I'd ever used, bar a little tinkering in BASIC... The scrolling is really chunk-rez by today's standards, but I think I may be forgiven,'coz I didn't even know where the scroll registers were! Admittedly the camel graphics look like 2 fat men in a camel suit, but I hadn't studied the real beasts much... and the camels' bums drop off at extreme left of screen, but to the fact that the game was developed on an early US-standard machine and the sprites work slightly differently in the UK. Matrix: The last of the Grid games, transferred over to the '64 in an intense 3-day hack session just before my holiday in Portugal. The graphics look a bit thin and weedy if you've been used to the nice fat Vic display, but the action is very fast. Despite its Centipede roots, I still look on the Grid series as quite a nice bit of blasting. The XY cannon makes them just sufficiently different to be a decent blast. I never did get through all 20 levels without resorting to cheating (the cheat mode is accessed by holding down Commodore, Shift, CTRL and a letter key, and is left over from when I was testing the levels), best I managed legitimately was to reach Level 17. Laser Zone: This game, although a version of a VIC-20 game, is not just rehacked VIC code; I sat down and completely re-wrote the game to use sprites and a larger display (I didn t want the 'washed-out' look of the Grid conversions due to narrow characters). I redesigned the graphics in multicolour, replaced the Pods with the Zapstar and added a two-player mode to take advantage of the extra joystick port on the '64. This program also has the first ever use by me of a grav routine (admittedly not a very good one) for the bits of debris that come off when you lose a ship. Laser Zone is also fun when you play 2-up with a cannon each, and I still rather like the double-cannon idea. Hover Bovver: This broke new ground for me for a variety of reasons. I used an interrupt for the first time!! I wrote a little IRQ thing that'd play a tune, and once the theme of the game was decided, I got a musician mate of mine to arrange some appropriate music... in the early days there was no game at all, just a Commodore with a blank screen playing 'English country Garden'. The game idea came out of a visit to Birmingham, we stayed in a farmhouse with immaculately-mown lawns and lots of hedges, and the idea came out to me and my father for a game based on lawnmowing. It is also the first 'long' game, the rest had all been 8K or so with a view to going on ROM. Hover Bovver was 16K, and the first game to take months rather than weeks. It had a slick title screen and quite classy graphics, plus the tune - and in those days there weren't many tunes about... The first game of mine to be in the 'modern' style, and starting to exploit the '64 a bit. Revenge of the Mutant Camels: This one had to come. I liked the Mutant Camels idea, and I wanted to improve on the AMC theme, and also to have the camels as our allies rather than our enemies. Multi-screen games were just starting to come 'in', and everyone was amazed whan Manic Miner had a whole 20 screens!! I decided to design a shoot'em'up game with lots of waves and the camel as hero. I sussed how to smooth-scroll from the C64 refguide and knocked up a nice smooth-scrolling background. I couldn't be doing with those pot-bellied camels from AMC, so I sat down and looked at camels and redesigned the camel sprite. Most of the attack wave ideas came to me whilst I was on holiday in Crete, and I still have the Greek notebook with all the jottings in! My musician friend once again arranged appropriate music. This was my longest game so far, and took me several months. It is noteworthy for various innovations: the style of scrolling credits, introduced in Revenge, has since been widely copied; and it was the first UK program to use a fast loader - we used the German TURBO system for one side of the tape, but recorded the other side in normal-speed mode for safety's sake! In these days of fast-loaders-as-standard, it's strange to think that before Revenge you'd have to wait about 15 minutes to load a decent-sized game... Sheep in Space: This grew from just the bare-bones idea of some sort of ship flying between two opposing surfaces. My own preoccupation with animals turned the idea into Sheep in Space. It owes something to Defender in basic game elements but possesses sufficient original touches to make it a worthwhile game in its own right. I was getting well into raster Interrupts by then, hence the 'show-off' title screen with 16 sprites. I used the Filter a lot in this game, but unfortunately the settings of the SID chips vary from Commodore to Commodore and some of the sounds come out differently depending on which machine you're using. A weird one, this. Some people have written it off as a Defender-clone, but to those who persevered, Sheep has a special sort of appeal. I still come across people who think that Sheep outclassas Revenge... but it's all a matter of taste I suppose. Starts to get very difficult up around level 17. Metagalactic Llamas: or the last of the unexpanded VIC game transferred across to the '64 by a mate of mine whilst I was writing Ancipital. The game itself is a shoot'em'up pure and not so simple- the evil twist is the way you have to deflect your bullets around the screen. Spruced-up for the '64 with larger graphics and tune/scrolling credits. By the time this was done the VIC was on its way out; Meta represents the last of the pure-shoot-'ems on one screen with just more and more aliens style of scenario. From here on in it had to be tunes, scrolling, a zillion screens and hyper-hyper presentation - the old, simple VIC blasts were dead. A shame really, sometimes I like a good, honest zap without having to worry about mapping and suchlike... mind you, I was heavily into mapping with... Ancipital: possibly the most complex zap I've done, consisting of 100 waves linked as rooms with doors, keys etc. like an adventure, necessitating mapping and a bit of strategy. In writing Revenge I'd seen that it'd be perfectly possible to write a game with 100 different waves, and so with Ancipital I set out to do just that. I developed some zarjaz 4-way gravroutines to enable our hero to walk on the walls. I even had enough memory left over to put in a 'help' page for each of the rooms. By this time I was looking at ways to get away from the stereotype that had developed in Commodore games: smooth-scroll, pretty tunes, pastel graphics etc. 'Cippy was fast and mean, blasting all the way, graphics over black with heavy stroboscopics, and drum rhythms instead of tunes. Also the first game to feature Rory the Savage Guinea Pig. 'Cippy himself came from a species of alien in a sci-fi book I was reading at the time of Sheep Space (in which the graphic first appears). His poor little graphic scurries about and looks most harrassed, not bad for only 4 frames! I liked him so much in Sheep that I decided to give him a game of his own. Loading Instructions: Place the disk in the drive and type LOAD "*"8,1. The screen will blank and after a few seconds you'll be presented with a Llama-shaped menu of the games on the disk. Simply press the appropriate key to load the game of your choice. Loading instructions for Tape Users There are two tapes, each with two games on each side of the tape. All the games are loaded using the NOVALOAD format - to load any game, just position the tape at the start of the desired program, then hold down SHIFT and tap the RUN/STOP key. Press PLAY on the deck as directed. The program will auto-run upon loading. I suggest that to make location of the start positions easier, you make a note of the tape-counter readings you get for those games located in the middle of a side. Game Instructions: There now follows the instructions for all of the games... If this product should prove to be faulty. DO NOT return it to the place of purchase. Send it to LLAMASOFT. 49, Mount Pleasant, TADLEY. Hants, RG26 6BN, for testing. If the fault is confirmed, a replacement will be supplied and postage refunded. This in no way affects your rights as defined in the Sale of Goods Act. ATTACK OF THE MUTANT CAMELS ATTACK OF THE MUTANT CAMELS A hyperfast blast for COMMODORE 64 2. PREPARING TO PLAY Use a joystick plugged into the 'A' Joystick slot. Pressing the F keys changes the optionr as follows: F1 : Selects 1 or 2 player game F3 : Selects skill level, 1-31 F5 : Selects collision option. NB. With collisions set to 'YES' flying into a camel results in your immediate de-resolution! SKILL LEVELS: There are 31. Any or all of the following parameters may change: Speed of camels walking Accuracy of camels firing Proportion of normal/nasty bombs Speed of camels firing Speed of rockets at Hyperwarp. 3. PLAYER OPTION: Both share the joystick for alternate turns. Sufficient time is given between turns to pass the joystick between players. 4. THE IDEA BEHIND THE GAME The evil alien nasties have invaded the earth - but not in person! They have abducted some camels from earth and used devious genetic engineering to mutate the normally harmless beasts into 90 foot high, laser spitting, neutronium shielded death camels! Your mission is to pilot your tiny spaceship in combat against these mutants. Your craft is very manoeuverable and is fitted with a long range scanner, shields, Antimat cannon and trans-spatial warp fields. 5. CONTROLLING THE SPACESHIP Pushing the joystick up or down mover your ship up and down. Pushing the stick in the direction you are facing causes acceleration. Pushing it in the opposite direction causes a reversal of direction. Pressing the red button fires the antimat cannon. Rapid fire is achieved by holding down the button. 6. YOUR OPPOSITION The camels are shielded by neutronium, the hardert substance known to science. You can only destroy the camels by weakening their neutronium shields to such an extent that they become destabilised. You do this with repeated hits with the Antimatter projectiles fired by your Antimat cannon. You will see the neutronium change colour ar it weakens, until if eventually flares into irridescence at the instant of destabilisation. 7. CAMELS WEAPONRY Camels spit 2 types of laser bolt. Standard bolts home in on your ship, and you can withstand 4 hits before your shields collapse and you blow up. Nasty bolts home in more accurately and make a very distinctive noise. These bolts penetrate your shields straight away and blast you to atoms. 8. LIMITATIONS OF YOUR CANNON Range is critical. If you are too far away your shots may glance off the shielding. If you get too close, your shots may be deflected round. Note, however, that the closer you get the faster is your rate of fire. 9. TRANS-SECTOR HYPERWARP When all camels in a sector are destroyed, trans-sector hyperwarp begins. Move up and down to dodge the rockets until your trans- spatial warp field engages. 10. SECTOR PENETRATION If you allow any camel to reach the right hand end of your scanner your sector defences are penetrated. Earth base is so annoyed with such a useless pilot that they push the destruct button and blow you into tiny bits. 11. SCORING One point is awarded for each hit on a camel. A bonus is awarded for destabilising a camel. This starts at 100 points, and doubles each time a camel is destroyed. This bonus is reset to 100 in the following circumstances: 1) Trans-sector warp is achieved, or 2) Your ship is destroyed. HINTS ON PLAYING 1) Get on close! You can blast really fast, and weaken the camels quickly. 2) Listen out for nasty bombs! When you hear them, watch out! 3) Learn ship control! Become able to fling your ship around accurately and easily. This is essential as the camels fire more accurately. 4) Stay alive! The bonus is reset when you die! The key to large scores is letting the bonus mount! You are good if you get scores over 60.000! Awesome scores are over 100.000! Keep on blasting 'em !! MATRIX It is 10 years after the infamous Grid wars. You, one of the few survivors of the Gridrunner squadrons, are sitting watching TV when suddenly an announcement breaks in: "All pilots with Gridrunner experience report to bare immediately. This is an emergency!" Arriving at base, you are shown into a briefing room. already thronged with pilots. The briefing begins: "We have brought you here because once again earth it in danger. The droids have returned - with superior weapons and tactics! We intend to form a new squadron - Codename MATRIX - of the best pilots to combat this menace! You will be flying the latest fighters - capable of operation on or off the power matrix and with improved firepower and manoeuverability. However, the droids have better weapons, to.... Scouts have reported droids dropping bombs and flying at crazy angles, and areas out in space with forcefields which are liable to hurl your fire straight back at you! We also believe the droids are attempting some kind of bizarre psychological disorientation tactics - some pilots have reported sighting what appeared to be camels running down the matrix.... We can only advice you to be prepared for anything to happen. You will be assigned twenty sectors each - Please do your best to clear all sectors! The earth depends on your success!....... So now you find yourself seated in your fighter as the Power Matrix slips gently by below you, every nerve taut as you wait to unleash a stream of white-hot death on the enemy.... MATRIX - CONTROLS 1) SKILL LEVELS There are 20 zones (skill levels). The first 6 only are selectable before play. To achieve levels above 6, you must do battle. Press any key to select. 2) SHIPCONTROL This is achieved by joystick. You can move anywhere bar the top four lines. Press the red button to fire. Hold it down for continous fire. 3) PAUSE Press SHIFT and any letter key to pause action. Press letter key again to re-start. MATRIX - GAME FEATURES 1) DROIDS These attack in squads which fragment when hit. They may drop bombs if feeling nasty. They will begin diagonal tracking on reaching matrix base. 2) COSMIC CAMELOIDS These appear in two situations: a) TARGET WAVES - Cameloids on their own. Your score counts down during these waves. Blast Cameloids fast to keep score level or increasing. b) IN NORMAL WAVES - Cameloids mix with droids, confusing player and causing droids to descend faster. 3) DEFLEXORS On waves with Deflexors, your bullets can be deflected into different paths. Watch out for ricochets, and learn how the deflexors change. 4) DIAGONAL WAVES These appear only above wave 6. Droids are liable to begin their attack in diagonal tracking phase. 5) ZAPPERS Beware the Y BEAM!! 6) THE SNITCH The snitch is a traitorous humanoid who appears on zones after zone 2. He runs along the top of the Matrix and, if he finds you, waves to the aliens to point you out. If he is waving when the Y Zapper goes by beneath you, it will zap and destroy yuu. Note that as you continue up the levels any or all these features can combine in any one wave! MYSTERY BONUSES There are seven bonuses from 2000 to 8000 points. It is up to you to discover how to score them! MATRIX - SCORING For a LEADER DROID 400 pts For a DRONE DROID 100 pts For a CAMELOID 106 pts For a POD 10 pts For CLEARING A ZONE 1 extra ship Look for over 150.000 points. High score is kept and displayed LASER ZONE ---------- It is a dark time for the Terran federation. The evil Empire of Irate and the devilish Warfiends of Zzyzax have combined forces to attack Tarranoutparts throughout known space. The attack consists of the vile Iratain Skull ships and the extremely nasty Bugships of Zzyzax. To counter this horrifying onslaught, the Terrans have constructed the Lazer Zones - upon which two computer-controlled plasma cannons deal instant death to the swarming alien hordes with relentless accuracy. "Fine", you say. "Let the computer destroy our enemies while we stay safe on Earth". Unfortunately, you just happened to be on Laser Zone 106-A when the computer failed. Even worse, hordes of Iratain end Zzyzaxian ships have just materialized and are converging on your zone. So now you must manually co-ordinate two very powerful plasma cannon, each capable of destroying your enemies - or each other. You must make the two cannons weave a web of plasma impenetrable to the enemy. Be warned. You won't find it easy................... THE CONTROLS The controls of Laser Zone are quits complex, and must be mastered absolutely to play effectively. 1) Plasma cannon movement: Moving the joystick up and down causes the vertically mounted cannon to move. Moving the stick left and right causes the horizontally mounted cannon to move. Using the diagonals cause both cannons to move - unless you are firing - see below. FIRING Pressing the FIRE button unleashes plasma bolts towards your enemy. Each cannon can fire in two-bolt bursts. DIAGONAL FIRE Diagonal firing is the key to masterful Laser Zone play. Holding down the FIRE botton and pressing the joystick in a South-Westerly direction causes the vertically mounted (or "AXIS") cannon to fire diagonally, onto the track of the horizontal (or "BASE") cannon. Likewise, pressing FIRE and pushing the stick - to the North East causes the base cannon to fire diagonally towards the track of the axis cannon. Releasing the fire button releases any diagonally-firing cannon to normal mode. The importance of this manoeuvre cannot be over-stressed. An enemy landing on the Base track will march towards the Base cannon and can only be destroyed by an Electro bolt (see below) - or by a well aimed burst from the Axis cannon. Likewise, aliens attacking the Axis cannon can be destroyed by the Base cannon. But be warned: a badly-aimed diagonal burst may destroy the cannon you aim to protect! Don't shoot yourself! ELECTRO BOLTS Your Laser Zone is capable of discharging a limited number of Electro Bolts. Press the Commodore Logo key to fire the bolts. These bolts destroy all Skull - and Bugships in your zone. Use them sparingly - supplies are limited! Your store of Electro Bolts is displayed on the right of the screen. ATTACK WAVES Attacks come in waves of a specific number of alien ships. Keep an eye on your THRESHOLD gauge. When it hits zero, the attack wave is over. At the end of a wave you receive bonus points - and if you have fewer than 4 Electro bolts, an extra Electro - before beginning the next wave! LATER WAVES In later waves you will be attacked by RHOMIKONS, RABBITRONS, COSMIC CATS, ELECTROCUTED SPIDERS, MANIAC MICE and VIRALOIDS! IRATAIN DEATH SATELLITE This can appear after the first Zone is cleared. It drifts randomly and unleashes lethal energy bolts towards both bases. It possesses Neutronium deflector shields. Fire repeatedly at it and eventually the Neutronium will de-stabilise - you will see it change colour as it does. SCORING Points are awarded as follows Skull ship or Bugship etc. 100-800 pts Iratain Death Satelite 1000 pts Clearing a wave Bonus plus 1 extra electro The highest score to date is displayed at top right. GAME PLAY OPTIONS There are four 1) SOLO/COMPETITIVE. Select COMPETITIVE for competition between two players or teams. Player 1 controls Primary Zone, player 2 controls Secondary Zone, taking alternate turns. 2) INDIVIDUAL/TEAM In individual play, each player controls both cannon. In team games, two players can operate a single zone. Two joysticks are required tor team play. The front stick controls the Base cannon and the rear stick controls the Axis cannon. 3) LEVEL There are 20 levels. The first 9 are selectable. 4) STICKS Set to 1 if you only have a single stick and want to have competitive play. Pass the stick back and fourth between players. If set to 2, each player can have his own stick. TRAINING MODE Press T to enter Training Mode. You can practise moving and firing without actually being attacked. To leave this mode press SHIFT - P. PAUSE MODE During the action press SHIFT - P. The screen will freeze. To re-start the game waggle the Joystick. PLAY HINTS 1) Learn diagonal fire! It is your key to success. 2) Use ELECTRO sparingly. Use it, if you can see it will push you over Threshold - you'll get a new Electro at the end of the wave. 3) Blast 'em when you see 'em. If you let them land you'll need fancy shooting, or an Electro, to get out of trouble. 4) The Iratain Death Satellite fires on alternate sides. Attack the side that has most recently fired. Keep at it for a useful 1000 points. 5) Don't panic and have fun! HOVER BOVVER ------------ Summertime in England.....and all across the land lawns are growing and men's thoughts turn to mowing. So it was with Gordon Bennet. But when he want to investigate, he found to his dismay that his cylinder mower had rusted into a heap of junk. 'No problem', he thought. I'll pop round and borrow Jim's 'Air-Mo'. (For of course, borrowing the neighbour's mower is a traditional aspect of English suburban life). So Gordon popped round to Jim's house, abstracted Jim's mower and began mowing his lawn. Unfortunately, Jim has decided he wants his Air-Mo back and no sooner has Gordon begun his task than Jim sets out in hot pursuit intent on retrieving his mower. Your task is to guide Gordon Bennet on his mowing mission, trying your best not to annoy your dog Rover or the gardener, and avoiding your neighbour's unwelcome attentions. PLAYING THE GAME You manoeuvre Gordon and his Air-Mo using the joystick. Your task is simply to mow the green areas on the lawn displayed on the screen. However, certain things occur as you attempt to mow. These are as follows: 1) There are hedges on the screen. Gordon, Rover, the Neighbour and the Gardener cannot pass through hedges. 2) At the start of each lawn, the Neighbour begins his pursuit from the upper left. Rover roams around in a random fashion, starting at upper right. 3) Rover is annoyed by the sound of your mowing. His tolerence to your mowing is indicated by the Dog Tolerance scale at the bottom of the screen. When the Dog Tolerance scale reaches zero, Rover will run after you, ampting to attack the mower. 4) Should Rover hit the mower, you will be forced to do an emergency stop and as a result your mower will overheat. You will be immobilised and must wait until the Mower Overload scale goes down. All Dog Tolerance is also lost. 5) As you mow, the mower heets up. The faster you mow, the hotter it gets. If you let the Mower Overload scale reach maximum, you will be immobilised until the Mower Overload scale goes down. 6) You may let your mower cool either by standing still, or by passing over terrain already mown. 7) Rover is a well-trained dog. He will never run over a flower bed unless you have mown a path through with the mower. 8) Should you mow over any flowers, the Gardener will appear at top of screen and start to chase you, aiming to relieve you of your mower before you do any more damage. 9) The Gardener has a healthy respect for your flowers. The Neighbour couldn't care less. 10) The Gardener is not afraid of Rover unless he is barking. 11) Upon pressing your Joystick button. Rover will run after the Neighbour, barking. The Neighbour and, if present, the Gardener, will both run from Rover. 12) All the while you ere setting Rover onto the Neighbour, your Dog Loyalty scale is counting down to zero. When you run out of Dog Loyalty the dog will no longer respood to your commands 13) The Neighbour has a healthy respect for the dog and will try not to get too close to him. Remember all these factors as you mow. Keep an eye on your Dog Loyalty, Dog Tolerance and Mower Overload scales. SCORING 1 x Lawn number - for each square mown. Constant increase in score whilst the dog is actually biting the neighbour. Canine Fidelity Bonus at the end of wave for any remaining Dog Loyalty. (This is calculated on the remaining Dog Loyalty and the Lawn Number achieved). DANGERS Should the Neighbour or the Gardener catch you, they will make off with your mower. You can borrow mowers from Jim, Tom and Alf. Once you lose Alf's mower, the game is over. PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY Once a lawn is cleared, you receive any Canine Fidelity bonus due, and then progress to the next lawn. There are 18 in all. Neighbour and dog speeds increase. You must dodge the neighbour more nimbly, but as compensation, when you set Rover onto the Neighbour he goes like a canine rocket. Should you complete lawn 16, the speed is put at MAXIMUM and you start Lawn 1 again. To complete Lawns 9 - 16, it is necessery to mow through flower beds and thus incur the wrath of the gardener. SYSTEM CONTROLS To play HOVER BOWER, you should use a joystick in the one player joystick hole(Port 1). Pressing the FIRE button during the introductory animations or whilst the Top 5 scores are on display will cause the Start/Setup screen to appear. On this screen you may use FIRE to set the initial Entry Lawn (1-8 are selectable; you must play Lawn 8 to see Lawns 9-16) Pressing OPTION sets Number of Players(1 or 2). Pressing SELECT sets Number of Joysticks. This is usually set to one, even for a two player game (Players pass the stick back and forth between plays). If two sticks are available, each player may to use his own stick. Plug the Player 2 stick into Port 2/B and set STICKS to 2 with PLAYERS at 2. Pressing START starts the game. CONVENIENCE CONTROLS Certain controls are provided for your convenience. These controls respond only during the time you have control of the mower. Typing + letter P will freeze the game action, allowing you to answer the phone, swat a fly, turn your bicycle around etc. Pressing ANY OTHER KEY will restart the game. Pressing M will mute the theme music, leaving only sound effects such as dog barks, mower noise etc. To regain the tune, simply type M once more. HIGH SCORES The top 5 scores are recorded and displayed on the Top 5 list. Should you achieve a position on the list you will be asked to enter your initials. Moving the Joystick left and right will select the initial, and pressing FIRE will enter it. END OF GAME At the end of the game, after any high scores have been entered, your score is shown under the heading PLAYER ONE at base of screen, in the same position as it was during game play. At the conclusion of a two-player game, both scores are alternatively displayed on the screen. STRATEGIES Bear in mind the relationships and behaviour of the various HOVER BOVVER characters. Use hedges to hide behind and let your mower cool down. When the dog is after you, use a quick jab on the dog button to send him behind a hedge. In setting the dog onto the neighbour, ensure that a) the dog's eager pursuit does not lead him to collide with your mower end b) neither the Neighbour or Gardener will, by evading the dog, run into you! Use the Neighbour's reluctance to get near the dog. Placing the dog between you and the Neighbour can make him stop in his tracks. (Flower beds come in very useful here). Save up Dog Loyality. It can be useful for getting you out of tight spots. Don't be tempted to savage the neighbour too much. The extra points are few in relation to a nice big Canine Fidelity bonus at the end of the wave. When you are immobilised due to overheating, use the dog to keep the Neighbour from getting his mower back. Happy mowing! REVENGE OF THE MUTANT CAMELS ---------------------------- THE CAMELS ARE BACK! The Attack of the Mutant Camels can be considered a turning point in Human history. Everything is familiar with the story behind the devastating attempt to invade Earth, how the Zzyaxian/Iratian Empire abducted camels from Earth and genetically mutated the beasts to lead an abortive attack on our home planet, and how our own scientists were stimulated by the attack into producing the Metabeasts, the cerebrally-enhanced animals that we all know and love (and in some bizarre cases marry). But what became of the camels which were not used in that devious attack upon Earth? Little was known until recently, when a group of telepathic MetaGoats made contact with familiar but strangely hostile entities. Further research established that the contactees were in fact the herd of Terrestrial camels abducted and enhanced by the Zzyaxians, from which the attack force had been drawn. Psychic deprogramming by the best Human psi operatives enhanced by the strength of 10.000 telepathic MetaGoats served to beak the Zzyaxian conditioning and convince the camels of their loyalty to Earth. We learned from them that they were on Zzyaxians' Psychologicals Disorientation Warfare Development planetoid Phensyk III, and that the whole planetoid was being driven at speed towards Earth in readinass for another attack. The camels, awakened at last to the nature of the heinous galactic abductors are determined to strike a blow for the Earth and all Earthly life forms. So it was that a brave group of Mutant Camels set out across the deep blue sands of Phensyk III with the avowed intention of taking over the planetoid for earth. The horrified Zzyaxian overlords, taken by surprise, unleashed some of the most bizarre psychodisorientation weapons ever developed, designed for use against Earth but now pressed into service against the camels. Once again the beasts went to battle - but this time on the side of Humankind against the vilest forces this Galaxy has ever seen... PLAYING THE GAME 1) SELECT YOUR PLAY OPTIONS Press 'o' on the keyboard to bring up the Options screen. Pressing f1 changes the Wave Sequency. WAVE SEQUENCY: There are 42 attack waves. In NORMAL wave sequency, you start at wave 1 and proceed to wave 42 in numeric order. In RANDOM wave sequency, your next wave is drawn randomly from amongst the first 32. (The last 10 waves can only be seen by playing in NORMAL sequency through waves 1-32!). Pressing f3 changes the number of players: 1 or 2, both using the same joystick plugged into the REAR Joystick port. Pressing f5 selects the DISTANCE between zones. Your camel stays in any one zone until it has walked a certain preset distance, when the next wave will begin. The standard distance is 7km, but if you are a good player, you may adjust this distance by pressing f5, up to a max of 19km. Pressing f7 reurns you to the Title screen. If you do not select Options at all, default options are assumed: STANDARD sequency, one player, 7km zones. 2) CHECK YOUR JOYSTICK! The joystick should be plugged into the REAR joystick port 2 3) PRESS FIRE BUTTON TO START If the game does not start, check the joystick. If it still won't go check you're still in OPTIONS screen. If you are, press f7 to return to TTTLE screen. THEN press the fire button! You should see the message STAND BY YOUR BEAST, PLAYER ONE AND HEAR A SORT OF LOW PITCHED ELECTO-BELCH FROM THE SPEAKER, STANDBY - YOU'RE GOING INTO ACTION. CONTROLLING YOUR CAMEL Moving your joystick to the right causes the beast to walk to the right. Moving it to the left causes the animal to stop and be carried left by the motion of the screen. Leaving the stick central causes your camel to walk at the same rate as the background moves end appear to 'walk in place' on the screen. Pushing the stick UP causes your camel to jump. The animal can jump straight up, or slightly to the left or right. Useful for jumping over things. Pulling the stick DOWN causes your camel to sit down. It will stay down until you release or push up the stick and if the motion of the screen threatens to carry it off the leftmost screen edge it will rise and begin walking. FIRING Holding down the FIRE button and tilting the joystick in any of the 8 directions causes the beast to spit in that direction. When your finger is on the FIRE button the camel will not jump or sit down. Note that a seated camel must rise in order to spit. PAUSE CONTROL If, during the game. you need to suspend the action, press SPACE. The screen will show PAUSE MODE ON ANY KEY TO RESTART Press SPACE again to carry on where you left off. SHIELDS Everybeing knows that mutant camels have Neutronium shields, and yours is no exception. The status of the current beast's shields is shown in two ways: by the animal's colour and by the ions bar at the top of the screen labelled NEUTRONIUM STATUS. Each time you are hit, your shields are damaged. When that bar gets short, be careful. When it is reduced to a little sliver - better watch out! YOUR OBJECTIVE Your aim is to win through as many of the 42 attack waves as you can, scoring as many points as possible along the way. You must learn attack and defensive strategies for all the waves - not a short-term operation! ATTACK WAVES These are of fixed duration. A counter at top of screen shows to the nearest whole KM how far you have to travel in a particular zone. When it reaches 0, you are on the point of being transferred into the next zone. As you leave a zone, you receive bonus points for remaining Neutronium, and your shield strength is doubled. GENERAL Should you complete all 42 attack waves, you will proceed to Level 2 in the game - longer sectors and faster attacks. When all 5 camels are lost the game is over. If you get on the top 4 list you may enter up to 36 characters for the score table. You may use letters, spaces, dots and even commas. Press RETURN done. HINTS AND TIPS 1) Evolve a strategy for each wave. At first learn how best to survive, later you can look at potential high scoring strategies. 2) Are there safe spots? Some waves have places where you are safe, or where a simple firing pattern will keep you safe. Usually this won't score much, but it's useful if shields are low. 3) Is the wave aggression related? Some waves are designed such that if you don't zap them too much, they won't go for you much (these waves usuaIly give good scores for being aggressive - but if you've weak shields, play it cool). 4) Are there any specially high scoring features in this wave? Some waves have ways to score lots of points - find out how! 5) Remember to duck and jump if necessary! 6) Watch out for things you can't shoot. 7) Be especially wary of: Sheep; anything belonging to British Telecom; knives from Sheffield; things which rotate; anything belonging to Ronald Reagan; British Rail sandwiches; bad software; smoking (it's bad for camels); Australian skiers... GOOD SCORES I can only give you my best to date; this is a score of 907, 785, going through all 42 waves and getting my come-uppance on Wave 2 of Level 2. That was extremely tough and I achieved it after about 1 and a half hours' play, finishing at about 2 am. So completing all 42 is NOT GOING TO BE EASY chum! Anyway - good luck! May all your camels be mutant ones and may your life be filled with llamas. If you beat my score, call and let me know. I'll keep track of the current best. SHEEP IN SPACE -------------- 1) THE COLONIES OF SOTHIS B In the first millenium A.M.C.*, a Human colony was established in orbit around the neutron star Sothis B. A research team was established in a free-fall environment in order to study the extraordinarily dense star, and peripheral supply modules were maintained to support the colony. Within the toroidal supply modules an Earth-like surface ecostructure was established with the aid of artificial gravity - on both 'floor' and 'ceiling' (although these words of course have no real meaning in a space colony). Due to the toroidal shape of the structure, it was possible to walk completely 'around the world' within a distance of about 8 miles. An observer so doing would encounter trees, grass, technical installations and even stretches of water. The 'seas' were stocked with fish and the 'pastures' with animals which the humans, in ageold manner, would periodically take, kill, cut up into pieces and eat. Thus the colonies were supported by the self contained ecosystems; the humans were happy and so were the animals (until they were taken away and cut into pieces). 2) THE ATTACK ON SOTHIS BASE The Humans were, of course, prepared for attack, close as Sothis B was to the fringes of the Evil Empire. The main living module was defended by Mega Super Zappera Proton- Photon-Muon-Zeon Pulsed Beam Ion-Path Hyperatonic Blaster cannon in banks of 13. Oh yes, the living modules were certainly safe. Then the Zzyaxians attacked the defenceless supply modules...... 3) THE ZZYAXIAN STRATAGEM Not daft, these Zzyaxians. They introduced robot drones into the modules and set up a Planet Buster destructor gun between the two parallel ecostructures. The robot drones set about stealing energy from the power stations within the modules, and carrying the charge thus gained to the Planet Buster. When the charge on the 'buster reaches maximum, detonation occurs with subsequent destruction of the module. Destroy all the modules and the humans are left without food. All supremely logical to their evil Zzyaxian minds.... 4) THE HUMAN SOLUTION At the time of the attack, the humans had some sheep which they hadn't yet sliced up to eat. Genetic mutation transformed them into multi-shielded combat sheepoids capable of projecting Bonios of Doom and utilising Dimension Jump translation modes. YOUR MISSION is to command an Interstellar' Space Sheep in combat against the Zzyaxian droids, preventing build up of charge in the Planet Buster, and destroying all the Droids within your module. * = AFTER MUTANT CAMELS GAME OPTIONS With the theme music playing, pressing any key will bring in the options screen. Change options using F1, F3 and F5 F1: No. of players 1 or 2 F3: Planet buster initial charge 0 to 4. The charge detonates the buster when both poles reach 5, so if the initial charge is high the importance of destroying charge carriers is emphasized. F5: Entry level 1 -9. There are a possible 48 levels. The last new alien is introduced on level 21. When the options are in view, pressing FIRE begins a game with the displayed option settings. Both players use one joystick in the REAR Joystick port. CONTROL OF THE SHEEP Moving the joystick up and down causes the sheep to move up and down. Joystick left and right, selects direction of flight. (see diagram). Speed is controlled by altitude over planet surface. Flying low results in a low forward speed. Flying high in the Free Zone gives the fastest possible forward speed. [ Diagram showing the controls ] YOUR BULLETS Your ammunition, known colloquiaIly as "Bonios of Doom", is fired by pressing the fire button. Whilst in the Free Zone the projectile flies straight, but as you close in to the planet surface, the projectile curves in to impact upon the planet due to gravity. LANDING ON THE PLANET Your sheep may land on either of the planet surfaces, but only in the grassy fields. All other planetary surfaces and objects are lethal to our little sheepy friend. THE ALIENS' MISSIONS There are three different types of robot drone. Denizens of the of the Free Zone, aftack your sheep and attempt to stop it in its mission. The Charge Carriers fly low over the planet's surface shuttling between the Power Station and the local pole of the Planet Buster. (When carrying charge, they flash). When the charge on each pole of the Buster reaches 5, detonation occurs followed by a Firefight in Free Space. If the charge on the pole is already maximum, any Charge Carrier reaching that pole generates a new enemy ship and adds to the charge on the opposite pole. Non-charge-carrylng-Planet Surface denizens roam about the planet, firing at you whenever possible (as do all enemy). The Planet Buster | | /_____\ |_| ___ __|_|__ \ / | | The Power Stations \-/ | ___ |----- \------ THE BATTLE IN FREE SPACE If destruction of your planet occurs, you must destroy a number of hostile ships in Free Space. This is difficult as there is no opportunity for feeding or for DJUMP (see below). Surviving Free Space results in an extra ship and the next wave. Dying in Free Space results in getting the same wave again. FEEDING All this exertion makes our little shaggy entity rather hungry. Watch the STOMACH status. If it gets low, land in a field to eat. While you are down, the stomach will fill and new shields will be added (max 6). DO NOT over eat though, or you'll explode. DJUMP DJUMP is a method of warp-drive devised to aid fast destruction of hostiles. If more are in visible range, pressing SPACE will warp you to within range of a randomly-selected hostile target. Pressing F1 will DJUMP with preference to an upper-planet target, and pressing F7 will DJUMP to a lower-planet target. Use DJUMP rather than fruitlessly searching the planet (which is very large!). PROXIM SCAN This device gives you early warning of hostiles outside your screen area. The range is approx 2 screens either side of your screen, with hostiles showing up as distinctive colours on the scale. Detects all types of hostile in all zones. CHARGE CARRIER INDICATORS These are located near the planet surface to which they refer, at the extreme left and right of the status displays. They light up to indicate the presence and direction of any charge carriers on the planet. Flying in the direction indicated by the arrow means you are flying towards a charge carrier. (N.B. These have no function in space). These indicators go out when you destroy all charge carriers on a planet. SHIELDS Loss of 1 shield occurs when you are hit by an enemy bullet. Loss of 1 or more shields occurs on hitting a hostile enemy. You get 6 shields with each new sheep. Shields can be replenished by FEEDING. GAME OVER Occurs when all sheep are destroyed (through running out of shields, overeating, starvation or by hitting something). THE CAMELS The humans love camels and keep some on the surface of the planet. DO NOT shoot at them. Doing so upsets your Karma. WAVE STRUCTURE The wave ends when the Ship Counter reaches zero. The ship counter decreases by 1 with each drone you destroy. At end of wave, you get 1 extra sheep (max 9). the Charge is reset to 0 a new Planet is generated and you receive a bonus dependent on how well you prevented charge build-up during the battle. CONVENIENCE CONTROLS (active while sheep under joystick control) Press P to pause and restart geme. Press the Left Arrow Key to abort a game during play. HIGH SCORES The top 5 are held in memory. Type normally when asked to enter your name, press RETURN when done or DELETE if you make a mistake. You may use up to 16 characters. TIPS FOR SKILLFUL PLAY 1) Use DJUMP well. If charge builds on a particular surface use specific DJUMP to locate targets on that planet surface. 2) WATCH your STOMACH! Too many players forget the status display and die of starvation. Eat when necessary! 3) EAT for SHIELDS! Replenish shields by eating if necessary. 4) Practise LANDING! The ability to land accurately under pressure is vital. Watch out for the inertia! It may cause you to skid on landing. 5) If you're inevitebly going to lose your Planet. EAT WELL FIRST! You can't eat in Free Space! 6) Use your shields as a weapon! You can off your enemies with a quick collision - but watch out for the bounce! 7) Concentrate on Planet Surface denizens and Charge Carriers. They are worth MUCH MORE than Free zoners. 8) WATCH YOVR PROXIM. WATCH YOUR CHARGE LEVEL. WATCH THE CARRIERS PATROL THE PLANET BUSTER 9) Remember that grass and trees are at the opposite end of the planet to the industrial buildings. Learn the planet so you can always fly to grass when necessary. GOOD SCORES are anything over 500,000. Scoring over 1,000,000 would be totally AWESOME. HOSTILES Here are some of the creepies it'll be your privilege to blast: ROTOSATS SLIVERS HOVERCHARGERS EVIL EYES ANCIPITALS SATURNS BOVNCING DOGOIDS OF SIRIUS SPIRAL GALAXIES VICIOUS ROCKETS SINGULARITIES (these are NASTY!) FLYING FISH (sorry Fish) GREY ANCIPITALS MEAN MOONS and more...watch out for the FLYING BACTRIANS ILLUMINATED BACTRIANS!!! (but I love them really!) Anyway good luck and zap 'em! Remember to eat. Watch out for the SIGMEN of leval 9! Stage competitions and spread the sheepish word wherever you go. May your 'Buster never detonate and may all your Beasts be hairy! METAGALACTIC LLAMAS BATTLE AT THE EDGE OF TIME ---------------------------------------------- Man is on his way to the stars. After millenia in the racial cradle of the mother planet Earth, the human race finally began the push to the stars early in the 24th century A.D. War, as ever, was the spur which prompted the tremendous technological advances necessary for interstallar exploration and settlement. The famous Grid Wars forced advances in spaceship design which were passed on to the first interstellar probes. The same branch of physics which rendered the orbiting Matrix unnecessary - allowing energy to be derived from the very stresses in the space/time continuum - resulted in the development of the Instantaneous Phase Translation drive. The IPT drive allowed interstellar distances to be covered without all that tedious massing around with Relativity. As expected by scientists of Earth, Man discovered that he was not alone in the Universe. Many intelligent beings were discovered on countless planets. Spacefaring cultures were common. And without exception, they lived under the shadow of a mighty Enemy......... The combined Empires of Irata and Zzyax sprawled like a blight over one-third of the Galactic Cluster. Its inhabitants were united only by their desire to subjugate or destroy all other intelligent life forms. Human outposts were established throughout the Galaxy. Often they were attacked by raiding ships of Zzyax or Irata. Once again technology responded to the pressure of war. Huge Laser Zones faught the enemy spaceships. But perhaps the most interesting advances had been recently made in the field of genetic engineering. Following an abortive attack on Earth in which agents of Zzyax mutated camels into awesome war machines in an attempt to overrun Earth, our scientists worked hard to crack the secrets of genetic manipulation. This research has finally borne fruit in the so-called Metabeasts - animals enhanced physically and, most important, mentally. It is perfectly possible to converse intelligently with a cerebrally enhanced Metabeast (although don't expect them to make scintillating conversation at dinner parties). These enhanced beasts are often used to run observation outposts throughout the Galaxy, keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the Evil Empires. One such outpost was OP/37- out on Galactic Rim, known to the MetaLlamas which operated there as the station at the Edge of Time. Some five years after the setup of the outpost, it came under attack by Zzyaxian cyborg arachnid mutants. Armed only with their laser-spitting capability and the still-experimental Planar Field Generator, the Metagalactic Llamas must defend Humanity's outpost at the Edge of Time! GAME PLAY Moving your Joystick left and right moves your llama in the corresponding direction. Moving off either screen edge causes the beast to reappear at opposite edge. Pushing the Fire button causes the beast to spit in the direction it is facing. Spit may be deflected off the screen edges and off the force field. Moving the stick up and down moves the force field up and down. THE ACTION Cyborg arachnid mutants descend from the top on threads, which you may break by shooting or which eventually break of their own accord. You should watch out since, on breaking, the cyborg drops to the surface, mutates into a disgusting Weeviloid, and crawls towards you with the avowed intention of doing you in. Skilful ricochets are needed to pick off the grounded Weeviloids. SCORING Shooting arachnid while still on web 100 Shooting falling arachnid (off web) 400 Shooting gounded Weeviloid 600 Breaking arachnid's web 200-700 (earlier the break, higher the bonus) There aro three llamas on OP/37r. Since the gestation period of a llama is considerably greater than the duration of the battle, no extra beasts are likely to appear however much you score. STRATEGIES 1. Break webs early. High bonuses earnt for doing so! 2. Let Weeviloids form if you get good enough, since they are worth 600 each. 3. Vse the Force Field wisely. By moving it up and down expectoration may be aimed at many parts of the screen from a static Ilama. 4. Keep an eye on the Quota meter; it tells you how far you are from the end of the wave. Good scores are over 100,000. Good luck with the beasts! ANCIPITAL --------- The Master Map Black walls are impervious. Shaded walls are removed by finding and touching the appropriately coloured Camel Keys. You begin your adventures in square 0.0 (top left) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ----------------------------------------- - : : : # : : : - : - 0 - : : : # : : : - : - ASCII translation - : : : : : : : # : : : : : : : - : : : - of the 'Ancipital' - : : : # : : : - : - map: 1 - : : : # : : : - : - - solid walls - : : : : : : : # : : : : : : : - : ----- # shaded walls - : : : # : : : - - - 2 - : : : # : : : - - - - : : : : : : # : : : : : : : - : - : - - : : : # : : : - - - 3 - : : : # : : : - - - ----------------####------------- - - - : # : : : : : # : - : - 4 - : # : : : : : # - - - : # : : : : : # - - - : ----- : : : : : : : : : : : # : - : - 5 - : - : : : : : # - - - : - : : : : : # - - ----- : - : : : : : : : : : : : # : - : - 6 - : - : : : : : # : - - : - : : : : : # : - - : : : -####------------###----- : - : - 7 - : - - : : : : - - - - : - - : : : : - - - - : : : - : - : : : : : : : : : - : - : - 8 - : - - : : : : - - - - : - - : : : : - - - - : : : - : ----- : : : : : : : - : ----- 9 - : - : - : : : - : - - : - : - : : : - : - ----------------------------------------- It is s good idea to draw your own copy of this map, adding the positions of camel keys and magic goats as you discover their positions. Mark also rooms you have a lot of trouble with, routes which bring high scores or extra lives, and mark off rooms as you complete them: this saves you searching for active rooms amongst loads of empty ones at the end of the game where time cannot be wasted! Ancipital Background to the Battle The Ancipital life-form evolved on a little-known planet out on the edge of the Galaxy. In the flesh it resembles a cross between a humanoid and a goat, walking erect but possessing long, curving horns and a thick, shaggy coat of white hair. Right from the start the Ancipitals have had a pretty hard time of it. Climatic changes on their home planet aided the evolution of a hairless humanoid creature which soon began warring with the unfortunate goatoids. Pretty soon the newcomers dominated the planet, and became extremely nasty to the Ancipitals, enslaving, speering, shooting and acting genocidal towards the hairy creature. Things looked grim. A little good luck befell the creatures when Yak-Shoggoth XXVII, a Galactic hippie, passed by the planet in his psychedelic VW Starcruiser. Being quite hairy himself, and also being on the run from the Zzyaxian patrols, he took pity on the creatures and descended to their planet. Eventually a starship was prepared end the survivors of the acipital race piled in. After saying goodbye to Yak-Shoggoth they set out across the Galaxy in search of pastures new. They figured their luck was in. Atter a while wandering the Galaxy they scanned a planet which seemed to be just what they required, end set down upon it. Unfortunately for them, the planet turned out to be none other than Zzyax Prime, and the hapless beasts were immedietely enslaved by the fiendish Zzyaxians. (In case you don't know about the Zzyaxians, I'll fill you in. They are allied to the Iratain Imperials, and between them they are responsible for just about everything evil in the Galaxy, from the H-bomb to the sending in of Baiters at the end of a wave in Defender). The ancipitals were forced to perform many nasty end unusual tasks, not least fighting against their will in the Zzyaxien's long-running battle against the Human Race (Cheers! Fanfares! That's Us!!!). That is the reason why they were spotted in the Zzyaxian attack on Sothis B (the battle which led to the development of the Space Sheep). Some of the enslaved Ancipitals managed to steal a Zzyaxian light stellar cruiser and, remembering the help that the humen Yak-Shoggoth had given them, joined forces with the humans, sweering revenge on the evil Zzyaxians. A raid was planned on a Zzyaxian weepons-research outpost where research was taking place into methods of freaking-out the Human mind so as to render us easy meat for an attack. Within the base were 100 chambers of defences. The air was saturated with a powerful hallucinogenic calculeted to totally burn the brains of any humans who might attempt to enter. Battle-spacesuits could not be used, since entry to the base had to be by teleport. This is where our Ancipital allies became vitally useful. Drugs which totally freaked the Human mind caused only mild visual and auditory disturbances in the long Ancipital skull. A small volunteer force of Ancipital warriors entered the base, their aim to enter and render harmless each of the 100 rooms there in. They were provided with a sketchy map provided by Human intelligence. The hairy horned heroes set out to do their best in a battle vital to the future of man, goat, half-man, half-goat, and Mutant Camel... The Options/Start screen When the game first comes up, you will see the option/start screen appear. Whilst in this screen, you may set Game Difficuity to Easy or Hard by pressing function key F3: you can turn Stroboscopic Effects on or off with function key F1 (these are extensively used in this game, and if they upset you or if your eyes are a little tired, setting Strobo FX Off disables the very brightest of thrm). You can start the game by pressing the Fire button on your joystick. Pressing any other key than thosee specified results in a random strobo effect (if enabled) and sonic. If this screen is left for a while, the game goes into Attract Mode in which a brief look is taken at a few randomly-chosen waves. To get out of Attract Mode back to the options screen just press a key on the keyboard. Learning to Play When you press FIRE to start your game, your first Ancipital will fall to the base of the screen where the creature awaits your joystick commands. The beast is followed in short order by the assailants. Those on the first wave are deliberately quite easy in order that newcomers might easily pick upthe basis of play. I recommend spending a little time in the first frame familiarising yourself with basic control movements and especially with the Jump-Turn (of which more later). But first let's take a look at the basic screen layout. [ Here follows a hardcopy of the Ancipital screen ] SCORE 0143453 NORTH 3 T:03 STRENGTH CCCCCCC WEST 3 %:09 WAVE TITLE ~:06 STRENGTH: Camels show strength level NORTH, WEST: Map co-ordinates T: Timer %: Percentage ~: Lives left As you can see there are various indicators at the top of the screen. These function as follows: 1: The score: seven digits are shown; clocks itself at 9999999. 2: Strength: this is shown as a strip of purple camels. The shorter this gets the closer to Death you get. 3: Map Co-ordinates: These numbers give your position in the 10x10 matrix of cells. 4: Timer: This counts down from 16 upon entry to a room. At zero, any open walls become activated. 5: Percentage: This shows how much af the adventure you have completed so far. 6: Lives Left: shows how many ancipitals remain. 7: Local Map Generator: shows the wall status of the room you're in and all rooms closest to it. 8: Wall Strength Indicator: These arrows change colour according to the strength of the four walls, indicate whether or not a wall is solid or not. and indicate which keys are necessary to unlock walls. Basic Control Movement Walking is achieved by moving the joystick parallel to the surface you're standing on. You can stand with equal ease on any of the four walls, thanks to the multiple-gravity system employed in this game. Basic jumping is achieved by pushing the stick towards the opposite wall. Your ancipital will flip over and fall to the opposite wall. Do not press the fire button at the start of the jump, or you won't take off. Jump-Turning is probably the most important manoeuvre in the game. It is necessary when you need to jump onto one of the walls perpendicular to your current orientation. The Jump-Turn consists of two distinct motions: 1: Lift Off just like a standard jump to an opposing wall. Once you're moving, do the second phase. 2: Press the FIRE button and simultaneously lean the Joystick towards the wall you're aiming for. The Ancipital should rotate and fall feet-first onto the target wall. It's important not to leave the second phase too late, because there is a certain amount of inertia inherent in the Jump-Turn. If you leave it too late, you'll overshoot and end up embedded in a well, which is fatal. You'd be well advised to practise both Jumps and Jump-Turns until you can go from wall to wall without any difficulty. Remember not to Jump into walls (or even walk into them!) since contact with a Wall other than by standing on it is fatal. Firing is fairly straightforward. Holding down the FIRE button results in the best fire rate available. As many bullets are given you as are available under the demand-fire system (a new system I implented to get over the frustration of only having a single bullet.) It can be dangerous to fire during a straight Jump, since if you lean the stick you might inadvertantly start an unintentional Jump-Turn and impale yourself. Whilst firing, bullets can be aimed in 3 directions by leaning of the Joystick. Fire usually originates from you, but there are certain waves where fire originates from a remote object, or where there is no firing at all. Getting Around in the Rooms Unique to this game is the method of opening and passing through walls. There are three types of walls, each of which shows distinctively on the Wall Strength Indicator. Impervious walls are shown by the absence of an arrow on the Indicator, and may never be opened or passed through. Locked walls are indicated by a coloured camel on the indicator. These walls stay closed until you find and collect the similarly-coloured Camel Key. Once this is achieved the wall becomes open. Normal walls show up as a coloured arrow on the Indicator. Damaging these walls by any of the means detailed below weakens them - changing the colour of the arrow - and eventually opens them. The strongest walls are shown by a white arrow, follwed by a blue, red etc. until finally an open wall is shown by a white arrow again - but with the wall visibly open, i.e. a yellow striped band set into the actual wall of the robm you're in. How to Damage Walls is what you must discover, and it is different for each room. Usually you must shoot specific targets, which fall onto the walls and damage them. You'll see the screen shake whenever a wall's strength is reduced. On most waves, you stand on the wall you aim to open and upped targets fall down towards you. On some, however, you stand on the opposing wall, and upped targets fly away from you to impact the desired wall opposite. Whilst most of the screens require simple zapping of targets to open walls, others require you to touch objects (usually glowing or highlighted in some way), which then fall and do the damage. Still others require you to fire at the walls. It is up to you to discover the ways of opening walls in each room. Late into the game, if you have collected all the Goats (see below!) you can damage walls by just jumping on them. Useful for the end-game, where there are rooms only do-able in this way or with a Body-Bomb. Passing through open walls is possible when they become Active. When you enter a room which you've never been in before, a timer on screen begins counting down from 16. When it reaches zero, all opened walls become Active. This is shown by the yellow Portals beginning to shimmer. At this stage you may leave by passing through a Portal via a Jump from an opposing surface or via a Jump-Turn. You will not leave by just walking over an active Portal, or by dropping from a parallel plane onto a Portal. You should avoid accidentally leaving a room prematurely, for reasons detailed below. If the Portals are active and you need to Jump or Jump-Turn, ensure that you land on solid brickwork. The fimer is important. Upon entering a room for the first time, the attack wave commences and the timer counts down. At t=O any open walls become active. You are not obliged to leave straight away. You can stay as long as you like, opening other walls, scoring and collecting keys. When you leave, that room is done. If you return, it will be empty. No keys, no opportunity to open walls you missed (unless you have GOATS). Thus it is vitallly important to open sufficient doors and collect all hidden keys within a room before you leave. There's no second chance. Provision has been made for a stalemate circumstance. If you find that you failed to open enough doors in a room, and return there to find yourself blocked off from the rest of the maze. you can use a body bomb. Pressing 'B' on the keyboard triggers this. You blow up, losing a life but simultaneously blasting open all Normal walls of any strength in your room. This works whether the room is full or empty. Your next incarnation can proceed through the extra walls thus opened. Body bombing is a last-ditch measure, however. A good player will never use it (except strategically. See Strategies below). Camels and Goats As mentioned above, keys are present in certain rooms in the form of camels. It is essential to get these before you leave a room, since a locked door cannot be passed any other way, even with a Body Bomb. There are also five Magic Goats scattered around the rooms. Each one you collect adds a letter to the word 'GOATS' next to your score. If you complete the word, you are granted the power to damage walls just by jumping on them. This power must be obtained to complete 100% of the game. Mission Objective Your task is to visit and de-activate each of the 100 rooms within the maze. You should attempt to score as much as possible alang the way. Your progress is recorded as a score and as a percentage of the game completed. A bonus is awarded for successful completion, modified by a multiplier depending on the number of lives left in hand upon termination. Help! Due to the varied nature of the challenges facing you. I have provided a Help mode for each screen. Pressing 'H' at the keyboard pauses the game and displays a little text which offers some sound advice for the particular screen you're on. Pressing any other key when ready resumes the game. Other Helpful Controls Pressing 'D' toggles the drum rhythm generator on/off. Hit this if the background rhythms annoy you. It leaves firing sounds intact. Pressing the left-arrow key at the top-left of the keyboard provides escape from a game in progress back to the title/option screen. Use this if you want to abort for any reason. Bonuses Every time you open up a wall, three camelsworth of strength is added, up to a maximum of ten camelsworth displayed. You lose strength when you are hit, and there is also a natural entropic reduction in the strength level with Time. Whenever you take a camel key, you also receive 3 extra incarnations. However, there are only six keys; after you've got them all you can't earn any more lives. Strategies Don't walk into walls. This may sound obvious but just as you can tell a Defender novice by the way he flies smack into things, so most Ancipital novices display a marked enthusiasm for becoming one with the brickwork. Don't do it. Make a map. Learn the positions of goats and camels, and waves you find nasty so you can be sure to approach them with plenty energy. Learn the wave characteristics. Know safe spots and rich bonuses. Learn so you know instantly you materialise what you need to do. (Tip: if the desired target seems reluctant to appear, try easing off on the firing). Remember that waves exist where no firing is allowed, or firing is dangerous. Some of the rooms are puzzles. Take time to think. Use the Help mode often. Save up walls. You get an energy bonus each time you open a wall. At the end of a game, you can't get any mare lives because you've got all the keys, so make the energy last by opening walls you left yourself earlier on in the game. Listen to some good rolid rock. Aids the thought processes no end and helps you get in the swing of things. Beware of Rory the Savage Guinea Pig. Body Bomb before you die. If you're about to die in an awkward room, Body Bomb rather than let them finish you. You can then make good your escape with your next incarnation, provided you survive until t=0. Anything more is up to you. Practise makes less imperfect. The best achieved by the author so far was 83% and some 3.4 million, so until someone out there advises me otherwise I hereby proclaim myself to be Supreme Ancipital Oslactic Champion. ********* End of the Project 64 etext of Yak's Progress. *********