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- XENON 2 - MEGABLAST
-
- Typed in by PHANTOM LORD (MEDWAY BOYS). Edited by PARASITE.
-
-
- THE SCENE IS SET
- No-onelikes a bad loser. And no-one comes more universally
- despised than the Xenites. For a thousand years they have been
- plotting revenge for their humiliating defeat in the last Galactic
- Conflict. Now the very fabric of time is in danger... The Xenites
- have planted five Time Bombs through history. Only you can
- save the day - not to mention the Universe. The last time you
- met it was a playground scrap.
- This time it's war.
-
- HOW TO PLAY
-
- THE SHIP
- The Megablaster is a small but perfectly formed battlecraft. basic
- model is equipped with a thruster to aid movement, a simple blaster
- for the purpose of destroying anything that moves, and a sheild to
- absorb collisions. When the sheild run out, the ship is destroyed
- with the next hit sustained. A squadron of 3 fighters are at your
- disposal.
-
- CONTROL
- Plug your joystick into the hole WITHOUT the mouse in it, (Port Two).
-
- PICK 'N' CHOOSE
- The Selection Screen allows you to turn the in-game music on and
- off by moving the joystick in the appropriate direction. you can also
- start a one or two player game in the same way.
-
- THE SCREEN
- Your journey through time follows the process of evolution,
- represented by five increasingly adurous horizontally scrolling levels.
- Each has distinctive scenery and lifeforms - from the lowest form of
- life in pre-historic times through to metallic mayehem in the
- spaceways of centuries to come.
- Sadly these creatures won't listen to reason. the powerful radiation
- emitted by the Time Bombs planted at the end of the levels has
- mutated the once harmless beings into crazed aggressors which are
- now best shot or avoided. Some of the lifeforms you can expect to
- encounter are found later on.
-
- SCENERY
- The scenery doesn't damage your ship - unless you get trapped in a
- corner and crushed as the screen continues to scroll. You can reverse
- the direction of the scrolling by pulling back on the joystick when
- the ship is at the bottom of the screen, which creates a larger playing
- area of proportions more oftenassociated with scrolling shoot 'em-ups
- of the horizontal variety. However the effect is short-lived, so be
- careful not to get trapped in the maze-like landscape of the later
- stages.
-
- BIG BOYS
- A large guardian is found at the end of every level and each is
- destroyed in a special way for you to discover. Only then will the Time
- Bomb be defused. In the last four levels, large lifeforms appear not
- only at the end but halfway through, and once again it's up to you to
- find a means to an end.
-
- CAPSULES
- Bored by the basic blaster? Beef up the ship by collecting the tokens
- left by Special Capsules which occasionally float across the screen.
- Details of the more common Special Features can be found later on.
-
- IT'S THE REAL THING
- Creatures which bite the space dust leave behind Real Cash, the
- quantity and value depending on the size of the thing destroyed.
- Collect the Cash and use it to but equipment when you visit the shop.
-
- SWOP SHOP
- Megablasters are given two opportunities per level to sell or buy
- equipment (once halfway through and again at the end). This is... well,
- the shopkeeper. Its name is unpronouncable in our language but
- loosely translated it means 'Crispin'. He doesn't speak very good
- English, so it's fortunate that his garbled speech is translated in the
- window below.
-
- SELL
- When you first enter the shop you are invited to sell the equipment
- accumulated (it's displayed in the bank of video screens to the left).
- Use the joystick to move the highlight to the desired position. Pressing
- the fire button while the highlight is beneath an item doesn't sell it but
- you are given a price (usually less than half of what you paid for it). If
- the shopkeeper's offer sounds reasonable, move the highlight to
- SELL at the bottom of the screen and press the fire button to make
- the transaction. your bank balance will be credited automatically.
-
- BUY
- With the selling over, move the highlight to EXIT and press the fire
- button to view the equipment up for sale. Over two-dozen articles are
- in stock but only those you can afford are displayed in the bank of
- video screens to the left. The procedure for buying equipment is much
- the same as selling it, only your bank balance is debited accordingly.
- An extract of the shop's catalogue is found later on.
-
- DEATH
- Should you lose a ship - all is not lost... Each level features six
- Restart Positions, which means when you are unfortunate enough to
- lose a ship, you won't be returned to the very beginning of a level
- but to the last Restart Position passed.
-
- HIGH SCORES
- A table of the top ten Megablasters is displayed on the attract
- sequence. To see your initials in lights, get a score big enough to get
- on the table then move the joystick left or right to advance through
- the characters available. Press the fire button to enter a character into
- the table.
-
- EQUIPMENT
- There are three distinct types. These tokens activate weapons.
-
- ADVICE
- Crispin's tips on how to play, including which weapons may be most
- suitable for a particular section. This information is more often than
- not useful but sometimes misleading.
-
- SIDE SHOT
- Causes bullets to emit from the left and right sides of your ship when
- the fire button is depressed.
-
- ZAPPER
- Erradicates everything on screen in a blinding flash of light.
-
- SUPER NASHWAN POWER
- A devilish taster device which provides a full 10 seconds of Total
- Destructive Power !
-
- HEART (SMALL)
- Restores your ship's shield to half the maximum level.
-
- HEART (LARGE)
- Restores your ship's shield to the max.
-
- These spherical features enhance and enrich your way of life.
-
- SPEED-UP
- Who needs go-faster stripes when you have this little baby, eh?
-
- POWER-UP
- Improve the strength of your shot by boosting your bullets to up to three
- times their origional size!
-
- ELECTROBALL
- Sticks to your ship like Sharon to Darren until you hold down the fire
- button... now you can move the ball (watch out - it's four times as
- sensitive to control as the ship) and use it to bash anything bad.
-
- AUTOFIRE
- No need to wear out your trigger finger, just hold down the fire button.
-
- DIVE
- And you thought that parallax scrolling was just a frill. Press the Space
- Bar to dive 'into' the screen. A timer will appear and count down until
- from ten to zero, whereupon the ship will come back 'up'.
- Alternatively, pressing the Space Bar a second time gets you back up into
- the swing of things. However, be careful not to come out of the screen
- and crash into any scenery.
-
- Impress the girls with these exciting attachments.
-
- MEGABLASTER
- The boy-blazers' favorite shoots a stream of intense laser fire. A
- maximum of three can be bolted on the front of the ship.
-
- MINES (SMALL)
- Hold down the fire button to leave a trail of floating death which explodes
- after a second or two.
-
- KNOW YOUR ENEMY
- The lifeforms found on each level come in all diferent shapes and sizes,
- with individual characteristics for you to learn. Here are some of the
- beings you can expect to do battle with...
-
- BRACHIOPOD
- These shellfish creatures wiggle and giggle down the screen. Fortunately
- they don't shoot at you.
-
- FLATWORM
- The candy-striped creatures twist and shout but don't bother shooting
- at anything.
-
- SEAWORM
- These wriggly beings live in the rocks found in the centre of the first
- level. They appear from the tubes attached to the rock and slither
- around in a menacing pattern. Beware the pieces of body which shoot off
- when shot.
-
- TRILOBYTE
- The crusty-skinned lovelies are understandably wary of your presence, which
- is why they keep their distance before they shoot - and they don't even ask
- questions later.
-
- JELLYFISH
- Pulsate around the screen having a good time. Kill them quick to ensure
- they don't interfere with yours.
-
- THE NAUTILUS SHELLFISH
- Watch out for this crustacean's probing appendage - it spits mines in your
- general direction. Find a weak spot and pump it full of laser fire until
- the calcium-coated creature explodes into a shower of Real Cash.
-