STARFIRE (Virgin Games) by Martyn Charles Davis Instructions * You are Commander of the only remaining EARTH SPACE AGENCY ship in the entire galaxy. The rest of your fleet has been wiped out by a powerful alien force, leaving YOU to navigate the galaxy and destroy the alien fighters SINGLE-HANDED. The future of civilization depends on you. YOU MUST SUCCEED! * Determine the degree of difficulty of your mission by selecting a skill level from android (1) to impossible (10). Your Galactic War Report will now detail the task ahead: the number of aliens you must wipe out, how many starbases you may land on to recharge your energy supplies, and the number of stardates (time) allowed. * Now climb aboard and press key C to call up your computer. It will list all the commands available to you: * Navigate - key N The galaxy consists of a grid of 10 x 10 squares or quadrants, making 100 quadrants in all. The quadrant in the top left-hand corner of your screen has co-ordinates 0,0 - the first representing the number of quadrants down, the second being the number of quadrants across the grid. By pressing 'N', your ship can move from one quadrant to another. But remember, navigating uses up both time and energy. * Should "Red Alert" flash on your screen when in this mode, you have entered a quadrant where there is an alien fighter. * Battlestations - key B Move into this mode only when in the same quadrant as an alien. Now manoeuvre your laser torpedo sight over the alien ship by pressing keys B, H, F and T. Then press 4 to release your torpedoes. Beware, the alien can fire back, or worse, can self-destruct, taking your ship with him! So as soon as you see the flashing light marked SD on the bottom left of your display, stop flashing, you have only TWO SECONDS to abort the attempt by pressing key A, or to destroy the alien. * Galactic War Report - key R This gives an immediate update of your mission: how many aliens you have yet to destroy, the number of starbases and stardates left. * Computer Call - key C Not only will your computer list all the commands available to you, it will also provide you with an all-important energy allocation, and damage report. Energy is allocated for three functions: defensive shields, reactors and smart bombs. It is up to you to decide how much energy you wish to award to each of these functions; this will vary according to your plan of action. The damage report gives you a detailed account of your ship's damage and will show the percentage of your ship destruction factor. * Long Range Scan - key L This allows you to see if there are any aliens or starbases in the quadrants adjacent to your own. Nine two-digit numbers will appear on the screen, the middle quadrant always being your own. The first of the two-digit numbers indicates the number of aliens in that quadrant, the second shows the number of starbases. * Smart Bombs - key S These can only be used in the command mode, to destroy aliens in the same quadrant as your own, and in each adjacent one. (WARNING: Consumes a great deal of power, so use sparingly.) Periodically it will be necessary to dock with a starbase to refuel, re-arm and to repair any damage. Make sure that there are no aliens in the quadrant first however, and note that your shield value must be less than 2000 if you are to dock. Press key D to enter the docking mode, and enter the required amount of retro-thrust from 0 to 100, to avoid being drawn in too quickly by the force of gravity, and crashing into the base. You must dock with a velocity of less than 10 m/s. It at any time you think you are being sucked in too quickly, press A to abort your attempt. The galaxy is full of surprises designed to stretch your skills as Commander to the limit. If you come across a time portal, use keys 6 (down) and 7 (up) to steer your ship. Move through an asteroid storm by waiting until you see a clear path through the field, then press any key to get across. CONTROL SUMMARY: A - ABORT B - BATTLESTATIONS (THEN B,H,F,T TO MANOUEVRE & 4 TO FIRE) C - COMPUTER CALL D - DOCK L - LONG RANGE SCAN N - NAVIGATE R - GALACTIC WAR REPORT S - SMART BOMB * Martyn Charles Davis - born 1965, Longfield, Kent - moved to Loughborough 15 years ago. Studying Biology, Chemistry, Physics and English Literature 'A' levels and planning to study medicine at university, but is now working on a series of adventure programs. * Started serious computing in 1981 with a ZX81. * Games likes include Backgammon and Chess. * Hobbies, apart from computing, are book collecting and playing the guitar. Musical interests vary from classical music to heavy rock. * Until recently, very interested in wargaming. During 1982 had an article published in "Military Modelling Magazine" on wargaming with the ZX81. * 'STARFIRE' was written in three solid weeks of programming. The purpose was to create a complex, yet entertaining, game to last over an hour. (p) 1983 Virgin Games Ltd. (c) 1983 Virgin Games Ltd.