		 THE AIM OF THE GAME
		=====================


Congratulations fellow Java[tm] user for downloading `Humanoid', a
pure Java based arcade game by XeNoNSoFT, written and produced by
Peter Pilgrim.


Here is the aim of the game. 

Your mission, quite simply, is to protect ten humanoids that walk the
planet below from abduction by enemy alien forces. These humanoids are
stranded on some planet somewhere out in the unknown universe. They
were trying to settle down on the planet to mine rarely found
N-PolyLithiumSilicate Crystals, which is one of the essential
ingredients for faster-than-light travel, when Aliens invaded their
solar system. The humanoids have no weapons to protect themselves, but
they slowly walk around in a feeble attempt to escape from the
Aliens. The visitors from another planet send enemy ships, known as
Landers, which materialise in waves to search for the humanoid
settlers. After the Landers appear, they immediately descend to
surface and float just above it, moving either left or right,
searching for that unlucky humanoid. Once they locate a nearby
humanoid they will try grab it, and quickly ascend to the top of the
screen, where they consume the trapped humanoid, presumely biting his
or her head off and salivating over the succulent brain
tissues(!). Once that happens a Lander will suddenly tranform into
devastating fierce Mutant. A Mutant is not concerned with any
humanoids at all, but instead will attack your Starship
relentlessly. You will recognise a Mutant instantly, because it will
be a blue and purplish and obviously angry thing rushing towards your
ship at speed, firing bomblets at your ship, while trying at the same
time to do a violent version of "Shake Your Groove Thang". You have to
kill all the Landers before catch a humanoid, before they rise to the
top of the atmosphere (your screen), before they eat the captured
humanoids in a giant bite, and finally before they transform into a
very deadly Mutant.


The good news is that you can rescue a human that has be caught by
Lander, but shooting it (carefully avoiding the human schackled below
the alien craft). If your shot is accurate enough, the Lander will be
destroyed and the human fall to the earth. If not the human will fall
to the earth all the way down. If the distance is short, then human
will survive the fall, otherwise the human will die on impact. Fly
your starship directly into the perilously falling human, and it will
be rescued. You wont kill the humanoid even if fly your Starship at
high speed into the settler. Also once you rescue an human settler, he
or she becomes impervious to your ship's laserblaster. No Lander can
recaputure the humanoid, if he or she is being rescued by your
Starship. If you rescue a human you can set it loose again on the
planetoid again, by flying your ship to the surface. Any rescued
humans are set free behind your flying ship's laserblasters. Be
careful not to change of direction suddenly after you set them free,
only to destroy them with your ship's laserblaster.

There is more bad news. Once all ten of the humans are consumed by
Landers, or have been accidently destroyed by laserblast, or did not
survive any huge falls, then the planet will explode! I am afraid,
that this pitiful band of Humanoid settlers, built a DOOMSDAY NUCLEAR
DEVICE and left it mined deep inside the planet. Naturally, the Aliens
don't know about this device of course. It is intended as a fail safe
to destroy all the PolyLiSi crystals prevent the Aliens or other
invaders stealing the mine and having a local star system monopoly of
the rare minerals. Incidentally, every humanoid settler was fitted
with a tiny nano transducer probe and transmitter to register the
beating hearts of the humanoids. Should the nuclear device not receive
any heart-beat pulses from any of the humanoids, then it detonate and
blow the planetoid's inner core, effective destroying the planet,
rather like the first Death Star did to the planet Alderaan in the
first Star Wars movie. If the planetoid explodes, then ALL surviving
Landers will transform into Mutants because the nuclear pulse released
gives them all enery they need to mutate. So it is good idea to wipe
as many of the Landers as you can, to prevent the planet exploded.

In the first sheet you only face only "one" wave of Landers. And yes,
the game gets much more difficult (worse in fact), because already by
the second sheet there are two waves of Landers, and in the seventh
there are three waves, and after the twenty firsth there are four
waves. However Landers, are not the only invading enemies out to go
you and just visiting here. (That would be far too easy for an popular
video arcade game). To hurry you up, eventually yellow slim and deadly
Baiters will appear after two minutes or so. Baiters can fly faster
than your starship capable of, and fire bomblets at your ship once
they are within range. As consequence your starship cannot outrun
them, but must evade and try to shoot them with the lasers. The
Landers, Mutants and Baiters in the first wave are joined by two
Bombers and a Pod in the second wave. A Bomber looks like a blue
square with white red square in front that moves up and down the
screen in a diagonal fashion. The Bomber leaves little bomblet mines
as they trace the world, which disappear after a short interval. Avoid
flying your starship directly in the mines obviously. A Pod is like a
purple round orb, rather looking quite like a dull marble or
gobstopper sweet. Pods, apparently innocently, drift across the
planet. However, be warned that these so-called harmless Pods are
extremely dangerous to your health and sanity. If you blast one with
your starship's laser it will be, of course, destroyed, but it will
release deadly fanatical heat seeking aliens, called Swarmers. Each
Swarmers is a mortal bloodsucker. The problem with these particular
aliens, although they are not as mobile as Baiters, are their small
size. Swarmers are more difficult to shoot down because they are zippy
and tiny, making them harder to kill, before they crash into your
ship. There is one Pod (and nine Swarmers) in wave two, three Pods in
wave three, and four in wave four, and finally five Pods to contend
with in wave nine and onwards.

To finish a sheet and go to the next, you must laserblast all Landers
and Mutants, and any other other aliens on the same sheet, except for
Baiters. Once the level is completed the screen will award you 100
extra points for each remaining humanoid that remains on the
surface. At the end of the second wave you will get 200 points for
each humanoid left alive, 300 points for the end of third wave, and so
on up to a maximum 500 points in the fifth and following sheets.

NOTE: A sheet is another video arcade game synonymn for a level.


	+------------+
	| Controls   |
	+------------+

The game playing controls:

    `A'	        move starship up.
    `Z'	        move starship down.
    `Return'    fire laser.
    `Shift'	thrust engines.
    `Space'     changing flying directions.
    `S'	        smart bomb.
    `H'	        jump to hyperspace.
    `P'	        pause the game.
    `Ctrl-Q'    quit current game.


The prologue screen controls:

    `Ctrl-E'    exit session.
    `Ctrl-K'    reconfigure game keys.
    `Ctrl-M'    mute sound effects.
    `Ctrl-L'	jump sheet bonus
    `Space'     start new game game.


Enjoy, Baby Bop

*PP*, Mon Aug 09 01:11:19 BST 1999
