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*********

The Project 64 etext of Yak's Progress. Converted to etext by Matthias
Jaap <Matthias_Jaap@hhs.hh.schule.de>. (C) by Llamasoft.

YAK10.TXT, November 1996, etext #130.

Attack of the Mutant Camels, Matrix, Laser Zone, Hover Bovver, Revenge
of the Mutant Camels, Sheep in Space, Metagalactic Llamas, and
Ancipital.

*********

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.

*********
