A.C.E. 1/ACE CD 1.iso/files/docs/xenon1d.lha/Xenon.doc

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 11.3 KB | 248 lines

                              XENON

Taken from an ST SEWER SOFTWARE docs disk. Typed in by BRIAN.
Edited by Parsite.


GAMEPLAY:- You have to negotiate four sectors, each divided into
four zones. You have a choice of two craft, which you can change
between at will. You have a ground craft, capable of eight way
movement, and a faster jet fighter. You need to select the
appropriate craft to negotiate the obstacles facing you and be
prepared to change between them rapidly. Some of your opponents
are ground based and some are at altitude, you need to be in the
correct craft to shoot the alien that you are facing. Certain
weapons can only be collected and used by the fighter craft.
You can only use the ground craft on the ground, you cannot land
on the top of buildings, you need to fly over these in the
fighter. Shooting the aliens and their weapon emplacements
reveals power cells. Collect these by moving over them, to give
your craft extra power.
There are eleven types of power pill:

A - Armour            Makes your ship invincible for 15 seconds.

F - Fuel              There are two types of fuel cell, those
                      with one orange band restore five units of
                      fuel, those with three restore all your
                      lost fuel.

H - Homing Missile    Shoots homing missiles for 15 seconds.

L - Laser             Arms your fighter with lasers.

G - Gun               Cancels the lasers and reverts to normal
                      bullets.

P - Power             Increases the distance your shots travel.

R - Rate              Speeds up your ground craft.

S - Side              Arms fighter with side lasers.

W - Wings             Gives you wing tip weapons.

Z - Zap               Again there are two types of zap pills.
                      Those with a single orange band zap the
                      aliens and screen, those with a triple band
                      zap everything, aliens and emplacements.

Balls                 Collect up to three rotating balls that
                      follow you and mimic your fire pattern.

Each time you are hit by the aliens' weapons you lose at least a
unit of fuel which is used to recharge your shields. If you collide
with any of the aliens you will suffer substantially more damage
and consequently use more fuel. If your fuel runs out you lose a
life and have to restart from the beginning of the zone.
Some aliens will require more than one hit to kill them, these
flash every time you successfully hit them. Some of the aliens
are invulnerable.
Half way through each sector you will be faced with a single
large opponent. This is a 'Sentinel' so called because they are
set to guard the path and they are fully sentient, that is smart.
You need to find out where they are vulnerable and concentrate
your fire on the appropriate points. Colliding with a 'Sentinel'
is fatal.
At the end of each section you will have another large and more
dangerous 'Sentinel' opponent. These are only vulnerable to
certain attacks, and completely invulnerable to all others. If
you succeed in defeating this you will be refuelled and re-
equipped ready for the next section. You lose any weapons you had
collected on the previous section.

THE SECTIONS:- In the first section the domes and aliens are
either ground or air based, as are their bullets. When you shoot
the lift domes, they are then replaced by either another dome,
nothing or a power pill. You need to pick up the power pills to
add extra weapons and abilities to your ship, be careful though,
as picking up some pills switches off the bonuses you have
already collected. You need to use the fighter to fly over the
obstacles and the ground craft for close combat with the aliens.
The second section uses only the fighter craft. You must avoid
the sides and the various weapon emplacements mounted in the side
walls. Once again there will be power pills to pick up. The third
section is similar to the first, in that you have the use of both
of your ships. You have to make the correct decisions as to which
ship to use. Using the wrong ship can prove fatal. Finally you
must negotiate section four. You are nearing your goal. Time is
of the essence. Fly your fighter at speed through this section to
achieve your goal.

THE ALIENS:- In order to complete your mission successfully it
will probably be necessary for you to read the following notes on
the various enemies that you will be facing.

Ladybirds - These are standard Xenite craft. They are used in
several defence operations, as they are cheap and effective. They
are small ground based craft. They are equipped with a low power
unit and basic enemy identification, detection, and tracking
equipment. They are armed with a forward firing missile.

Pods - These are basic self-destruction type guards. They are
equipped with an array of sensors enabling them to track and
intercept intruders. They are not armed but explode on impact.

Eyes - An upgrade to the design of the pods. These have a
superior power plant and computer, giving them greater speed and
the ability to track intruders at a greater distance. They will
attempt to follow and collide with your ship.

Spinners - Fly in either arrowhead or a single diagonal line
across the screen. They keep to their place in formation as they
are not equipped with sensors. They're, however, equipped with
very powerful engines allowing them to attain high speeds.

Launchers - Sitting on the side walls of the passageways. These
are heavily armoured doors. They periodically open to launch a
single rotator. It has been noted that the rotators launched from
these show greater intelligence in their movements than the
normal rotators that appear in packs.

Rotators - These appear either as single craft launched from the
launchers described above or in patterns of four or sixteen that
attempt to block the passageway. No rotator has been known to be
armed with any weapons, they are self-destruction craft relying
on collisions for their effect.

Sidewinders - These are among the largest of the flying Xenite
ships. Equipped with lasers they have a nasty habit of lurking at
the side of the passageways and coming out into the middle when
they detect intruders.

Sideshooters - Another large flying ship. These are equipped with
two lasers. They have slightly less armour than the sidewinders,
and fly in patterns rather than having sensors.

Middleshooters - Earlier version of the sideshooter, these only
mount a single laser, and again move in a variety of patterns to
cover the whole of the passageway.

Side Guns - There are quite a number of different types of gun
emplacements that sit on the side walls of the passageways. They
vary in the amount of detection circuitry and movement that they
are equipped with. Some rely on shooting a constant stream of
missiles across the passageway, so that there is no way that an
intruder can pass without taking a large amount of damage, others
can track intruders and aim their guns or even follow intruders
along the passageway itself. You will have to learn the
differences between these types yourself as it has not been fully
documented.

Spinners - An upgrade on the simple ground based pod, spinners
fly in patterns. Later models are equipped with missiles. They
have some extremely nasty habits in their flight patterns. Watch
out for these.

Cells - These most often appear in groups of four. They have
basic sensors and will move along the passageways until they
detect an intruder, then they will switch into a pattern mode
firing their missiles along the length of the passage.

Kites - These move down the passage at very high rates, they are
not armed with missiles.

Pumps - More of a hinderance than anything else. These expand and
contract regularly, blocking the entire passage at their greatest
extent. They are heavily armoured and therefore require an
extremely large number of hits to destroy them, it is simpler to
avoid them instead.

Blinkers - Similar to the side guns that you will already have
encountered. These fire salvos of three missiles at a time. They
also have more armour than most of the other side weapons and
will require several hits before they are neutralised.

Hearts - These move in a variety of patterns. They come in a
range of models with different power packs and ornaments.

Circle Moulds - Fast moving craft armed with missiles.

Brain - These are highly intelligent, heavily armoured powerful
craft, among the most powerful in the Xenite armoury. They are
armed with smart missiles.

Stalks - These are invulnerable. They will either launch a large
number of missiles, or if shot enough times they release the
bubble that they hold at the top of the stalk.

Bubbles - These come in two varieties. Some are equipped with an
intelligent sensor and will try their best to collide with any
intruder. Others are simply fast moving and launched in large
groups to provide blanket cover.

Lip Guns - Highly armoured, these are only used in defending
important Xenite Colonies. They are armed with both lasers and
normal guns. Besides these there are the Sentinels that appear at
the end of every section. These are unique creatures or at least
there have never been previous reports of the Xenites using the
design of any Sentinel more than once, and a large number of
these have been reported from other sectors. You will have to
find out for yourself the particular method of destroying the
Sentinels that you are faced with. They are definitely the most
feared of all the Xenite weapons met so far.

STATUS PANEL:- Down the right hand side of the screen there is a
status panel. This displays all the information you need to know
about the state of the game and of your craft.
At the top of the display there are four numbers. The top number
is your score. Underneath this there are two single digit
numbers. To the left is the number of lives you have left, to the
right the sector number. Underneath these is your altitude.
Beneath this there is your long range communicator screen. Most
of the time this is blanked off, but at the start of each section
Captain Xod will appear and tell you which section you are
starting.
Underneath this there is a bar display showing your fuel level.
Underneath this there are two bar graphs. The left one is your
rate, and the right one your power - the distance your shots
travel.
At the foot of the display there is a weapon panel. This has ten
letters on it. Weapons active are highlighted in red. The weapons
are:

W - Wing
L - Laser
S - Side Shot
H - Homing Missile
A - Armour
B - Ball
X - Extra ball making two
X - Extra ball making three
O - Time left on homing missile
O - Time left on armour


CONTROLS:- When the program has finished loading, you will see
the main control panel. Your protective shield is down, and the
mission screen is switched off, so the main display is covered in
static.
Press - F1 to select one player option
        F2 to select two player option
        Fire to start play

To change between air and ground craft, press Space or rapidly
wiggle the joystick.
To Pause the game press F3.
The fire button will restart play.
To quit press F10.