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- STARCROSS
-
- Is it Earth approach time already? No, that's the alarm bell ringing! Now
- what? Time to get up and see what's up on board the Starship STARCROSS. Up and
- at 'em and don't forget that tape library. Go starboard and push the red button
- to turn off the bell. Push the blue button and go starboard. Get the suit and
- safety line then back port to the control panel.
-
- Ah, peace! Since you can hear yourself think again, sit down and fasten your
- seatbelt. Let's see what the hullabaloo's about. Read the screen. So that's
- it, a mass is out there...maybe it's another black hole or asteroid, or who
- knows! Look up the mass's location on your starchart and key the coordinates
- into your onboard computer as follows:
-
- TELL COMPUTER "RANGE IS xxx"
- TELL COMPUTER "PHI IS xxx"
- TELL COMPUTER "THETA IS xxx"
-
- After several seconds of blinking lights, the computer should say the
- coordinates have been fed into the navigation prograam and it's waiting for
- confirmation. Tell the computer "confirmed" and wait for the countdown. Good
- thing your seatbelt was secured or you would've bounced all over the cabin! Now
- you're on your way to the mass. So you'll have to keep typing in LOOK or WAIT
- until the STARCROSS is held firmly by the grappling hooks of the....
-
- Alien Artifact?!? My stars, what have you gotten us into? Well, too late to
- worry about that now. May as well have a look around. So unfasten your belt
- and stand up.
-
- Open the inner door and exit. Close the inner door and put your suit on. (In
- space, no one will hear you explode if you come into contact with vacuum!) Open
- the outer door and go outside. Your first problem stares you in the face. An
- alien sculpture beckons you. This is actually the red airlock's welcome mat.
- But before it will allow you entrance, you have to tell it where you're from.
- Upon closer examination, you see it's really just a bas-relief of the solar
- system. So push the fourth bump (which represents Earth). The whole sculpture
- recedes except for one hexagon. Push it and a black rod is thrust forth. Take
- the rod and voila! The airlock opens!
-
- Enter the airlock and close the outer door. Remove your suit and open the
- inner door. The air is breathable...for a while, that is. We're off to collect
- rods to repair the systems that have failed and stalled the Artifact in space.
- The black rod is not one of the required rods, so drop it here and head out.
-
- You're in a long red hall with side corridors. In the Artifact, the standard
- directions can replace the fore, aft,starboard and port directions, so if you'd
- prefer using north, south, east and west, feel free!
-
- First, we're going to repair the air supply. So go fore, starboard four times,
- fore and starboard. You're in some sort of Intergalactic Zoo and there's a nest
- of creatures that look like a cross between rats and ants! Ferocious little
- beggars aren't they? Look closely at their nest and you'll see a red rod has
- been used as part of the structure. Trying to just take it isn't notably
- helpful since these little critters nip at you everytime you try. So the only
- way to get the rod is to destroy their nest and divert their attention. Throw
- the tape player at the nest. The rat-ants go into furious activity repairing
- your handiwork! While they're busy, get the rod and your tape library back.
- Now go port, aft, port, and aft. There's a blue airlock here. So open the
- airlock and go down. Now close the inner door and open the outer door. There's
- an umbilical connecting the blue airlock to a series of bubbles. Go aft to the
- bubbles and another umbilical connects the bubbles to a ship grappled just like
- yours is! Go aft to the ship and look! There's a multi-eyed creature staring
- at you. It looks like a spider, but don't worry, it's friendly and certainly
- very lonely. Wonder what would perk it up? Say, turn your tape library on and
- play it. Well, well, well, look at that guy! He's all ears! Give the spider
- the tape library and, in gratitude, he gives you a yellow rod! Nice guy! Take
- the rod, bid farewell to your new-found friend and head back fore to the blue
- airlock. Enter the airlock, close the outer door, open the inner door and go
- up twice.
-
- We're now going to repair the lighting and air supply aboard the Artifact.
- You're standing inside the Inner Region of the Artifact. Evidently, the aliens
- recreated an ecosystem which sheltered a race of weasels and their food
- supply...Unicorns! But you haven't got time to explain to the weasel hunting
- party that unicorns are extinct. If you don't fix the air supply, more animals
- will become extinct...including you! So go aft and you see a covered hatch.
- Open the hatch and go down. You're now in the Repair Room. Get the metal and
- ceramic square you see lying here then take a look around. My goodness look at
- all those slots! What goes where? Well, logical deduction tells you that you
- should put the yellow rod in the yellow slot. Do so. Now about those red
- slots: There are three of them and depending on what sort of gas you're used to
- breathing (the aliens thought of everything!)will dictate which slot you choose
- to put the red rod in. The dots are representations of gases, and if you look
- very carefully, you'll see the second slot's dots represent oxygen. So put the
- red rod in the second slot. You hear hidden machinery hum to life! Nice going!
- Okay, back up and fore then down back to the blue airlock area.
-
- Now, go aft and port. You've found the Weapons Deck and there's a strange
- looking raygun laying here. Get the gun and look inside. Aha! A silver rod!
- Get the silver rod and keep the gun. Go back starboard, aft, port, and fore.
- You're in the yellow airlock area. Open the inner door and enter the airlock.
- Now close the inner door, put your space suit on and open the outer door. Hmmm,
- it's a bit tight, better try opening it again. Oomph! Finally! Okay, go
- outside and attach your safety line to the suit and the hook you find here.
- This will keep you from floating off into space!
-
- Go port and look! There's a dead alien here tangled in the debris and it's
- clutching a pink rod! Get the rod and go back starboard, detach the line from
- the hook and enter the airlock. Close the door, remove the suit and get that
- strange basket you see here. It'll help you carry your rods. Insert the pink
- and silver rods in the basket, open the inner door and go back up to the yellow
- hall.
-
- Now go aft twice and then starboard. You've found the laboratory! And look at
- that! There's a strange silver globe seemingly floating in mid-air! If you
- turn the dial to 1, the globe shrinks in size revealing a blue rod firmly
- embedded in the globe! Very curious! Turn the dial back to 3 for now. Get the
- red and blue disks you see hanging on the wall here. These disks are extremely
- important since they are teleportation disks!They will help you out of several
- tight squeezes later on. But for now, they are instrumental in acquiring the
- blue rod.
-
- Drop one of the disks on the floor and put the other one under the silver
- globe. It doesn't matter which disk you use where since they both have the same
- properties. Now place the basket on top of the globe. Let's see now, turning
- the dial to 1 made the disk smaller, so turning it to 4 should make it larger,
- right? Right! So turn the dial to 4 and...gracious! The globe expands to a
- point where it is resting on the floor (and, o. ains the blue rod!Turn the dial
- back to 3 and retrieve both of the disks, your basket and all the rods.
-
- Now head port and go fore four times, then port and aft. You've located the
- Computer Room and it's awfully quiet in here. Let's see if we can get the old
- girl humming again!
-
- Open the access panel and you see one of the cards is missing. The metal and
- ceramic square you're carrying would probably fill the gap! So insert the
- square, close the panel and turn the switch on. Shoooom! The computer comes to
- life with a bewildering blinking of lights and gauges. They won't mean much to
- an alien (you!), so don't bother trying to decipher them. The object of this
- lesson, though, is in an output hopper...a gold rod! Get the rod and insert it
- in your basket. We're off to locate a janitor and a chief!
-
- Go fore out of the Computer Room then go starboard and start heading aft until
- you see the mechanical maintenance "mouse." When you do find it, drop one of
- the disks and do an occassional "examine receptacle" until you see the disk you
- dropped in its receptacle. Then head aft until you get to the farthest aft
- yellow hall. From there go port twice then fore twice and starboard twice.
-
- You are now in the Village Center of the Weasel's Warren. If the Weasel Chief
- isn't here, wait until he arrives. He will start pointing at your spacesuit.
- When he does, give it to him. He will be very grateful and offer you his wives
- and children, but don't accept them. Instead do as he did and point to the
- brown rod he has hanging around his neck! When he gives you the brown rod,
- he'll leave. But don't lose him! Follow him everywhere he goes. If he stops
- and is just standing there, do a "look" and he'll take off again. But whatever
- you do, don't give up following him!
-
- Eventually, he'll lead you to the Center of the Warren and the entrance to a
- green airlock, then he'll sit down and patiently await your return. So go down
- to the airlock, and close the inner door. Open the outer door and exit into the
- umbilical that's connecting the airlock to yet another alien spacecraft moored
- port of here. Inside, you find yourself in a cargo hold. Get the visor you see
- lying here then go fore to the Control Room. Shhhh! An alien commander's
- skeleton reposes here in eternal sleep. You seem to have discovered some sort
- of altar, for scattered about are fruits and vegetables. Move the skeleton and
- something falls to the ground. It's a violet rod! Get the rod and insert it in
- your basket. Now you can also insert the brown rod in the basket. You didn't
- have a chance to do so before because you were so involved following the chief!
- Now drop the other disk you have and step on it. You're instantly transported
- to....
-
- Say...where the heck are we? Looks like some sort of garage or something. And
- look over there...a garbage dumpster filled to overflowing with trash! Let's go
- do some trash searching and see what we come up with. Hmmm, there's our other
- teleportation disk. Further digging reveals all sorts of junk, but finally you
- find a green rod! Get the green rod, insert it in your basket and let's get out
- of here. There's only one exit so go fore and you're in a room on Ring Four.
- Go port twice, fore twice, starboard, fore and port. You've found the
- Observatory! What a strange projection! Use the visor to look inside the
- projector and you see a crystal clear rod there! Get the rod and insert it in
- your basket, drop the visor and go starboard.
-
- Time to get the artifact re-programmed and moving again! Go aft twice then up
- to the Inner Region. Go aft twice then starboard. You're at the base of a very
- tall tree and it's climbable. So go up the tree twice to the top. Gravity is
- very light up here and you can see, within jumping distance, a silver slot next
- to a door leading into a Drive Bubble. So jump and insert the silver rod into
- the silver slot. Glory be! The door opens and you scamper inside. There,
- floating in the weightlessness of this place is a white rod. Get the white rod
- and insert it into the white slot. Now exit the Drive Bubble and go up on the
- Drive Bubble. On the other side of the Inner Region you can see the Control
- Bubble. But how to get there? Well, let's jump to get started in that
- direction. Now if we just had a propellent of some sort. Ah...the raygun!
- Fir le. So go down and insert the gold rod into the gold slot and enter the
- Control Bubble.
-
- This is it, the very heart of the Artifact. Looking around all you see is a
- crystal clear slot. Insert the crystal rod and long-dead machinery hums to life
- and reveals five different colored slots...blue, green, violet, brown and pink!
- Insert your remaining rods in their correspondingly colored slots. As you do
- so, spots of the same color appear next to each slot. These spots are the
- trajectory, speed, course and map controls. First press the large pink square
- until you see the inner solar system from the Sun to Jupiter. Now press the
- brown spot until you see Earth displayed. Select the speed of the Artifact by
- pressing the green spot until you see a slowly flashing series of dots.
- Finally, set the orbital course to a circular one by pressing the violet spot.
- Now we're ready to start the Artifact heading toward Earth. Press the blue spot
- to start the age-old engines and look. You're heading toward Earth in a slow,
- grand trajectory! As you approach Earth and slowly slide into permanent
- planetal orbit, the viewscreen comes to life showing one of the Aliens who built
- the Artifact. His congratulations and warmth pour from the speakers and all
- Earth rejoices with the return of the Galactic Overlord!
-