Far out in the murky backwaters of misty space, amongst
the flotsam and jetsam, lies a world -- a mechanical
artificial world. Designed by genius, built by craftsmen,
inhabited by nihilistic, anarchic death machines. Their
world is perfect. It is a world free from natural disorders
and disease, where the dangers posed by the elements
are vanquished. Unfortunately, they have one flaw: their
religion is war and the conquest of other planets --
Earth is their next destination.
Their
mechanical world takes the shape of an enormous chain
of cylinders, each rotating at such a speed to induce
the required centripetal force to act as a form of gravity.
From a distance this chain takes the form of an enormous,
hideous caterpillar gently winding its way through space
on an awesome mission. Moving in a little closer, the
fine detail of the inner surface of each fantastic cylinder
becomes clearer. You have penetrated their surrounding
protective field in your military spaceship. Now you
have been assigned the mission of defeating the enemy
within . . .
Several
missions have already failed to deter the invaders --
this is the last chance before the imminent destruction
of Earth begins. There are twenty cylinders in all,
each one serving a specific purpose -- some residential,
some military, others Governmental. Your actions in
one cylinder determine the outcome in another, depending
upon the amount of Droidians -- defence robots -- that
are destroyed.
The
game is viewed from above, looking down upon the action,
with a status window placed above the main action showing
players, lives (you begin with three), score, energy,
current cylinder, and two bars which are very important.
The first, on the left hand side of the screen, indicates
the target zones and the second, positioned on the right,
shows the time remaining. If you are killed or collide
with an impassable object before your time runs out
then a life is lost. However, if you are still surviving
after the time limit then the area turns blue, allowing
you access to the next section.
Having
temporarily shut down the ships reactor, you must fly
under the surface until you reach the escape portal,
which links one cylinder to another. Unfortunately the
inhabitants have had the foresight to install a security
system -- but it can he cracked. The screen fills with
squares of several colours which scroll from right to
left and a colour is displayed in the border. To crack
the code you must position two cursors over the squares
corresponding with the border colour and blast them.
When they are hit the squares turn black. To open the
entrance to the next cylinder all the squares of the
correct colour must be hit.
Once
inside the next cylinder, the inhabitants launch their
attacks more viciously and sadistically, making any
further penetration more difficult. Your overall ambition
in the game is to destroy all twenty cylinders by annihilating
all the meanies and building up a massive score in the
process.
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