Solar Empire
Players

Far, far away, in a galaxy presently undiscovered by mankind, a battle for
survival is taking place. The evil Dargons, masters of the planet Dartress,
have masterminded a plot to enslave the populations of the entire galaxy.

As a Commander of the Liberation Fleet, it is your mission to stop the Dargons'
invasion forces from overrunning the galaxy. The Dargons utilise colony ships,
known as RingWorlds, which are ordered to fly towards targeted planets,
conquer, and then occupy them. Once occupied, a planet can act as a base for
the further expansionist activities of the Dargons. Soon, the evil Dargons will
have conquered the entire galaxy - only you can stop them!!!

CONTROLS AND EQUIPMENT

To succeed in your mission you must destroy all the RingWorlds (to scale they
are bout the size of a planet) and liberate all the occupied planets.
RingWorlds can be destroyed by making a number of direct hits with your photon
torpedoes. In order to liberate an occupied planet you must first capture a
shooting star - there are plenty of these around - and steer or two it into the
vicinity of the occupied planet. Once in place, release the shooting star
towards the occupied planet. The shooting star will destroy the Dargons, and
you will have liberated the planet.

Your fleet is equipped with the following vital components:

A solar power collector - this recharges your energy. You must be adjacent to a
sun, or a friendly planet. Beware of overloading your power cells if you hang
around too long.

A tractor beam - this will let you tow wondering planets, and pods, around
behind you. It is activated/deactivated by pressing SPACE when moving.

A long range scanner. This lets you see the positions of the various things in
the universe - unoccupied planets (cyan), stars (white), occupied planets
(red), RingWorlds (yellow with pointers showing which way they're going), and
wandering planets (green). The range of the scanner depends on your power level
unless you are next to a power source (planet or star). Activated by SPACE when
you are not moving.

A shield/missile launcher. This is activated by pressing FIRE. When you run out
of missiles it still acts as a shield while FIRE is pressed. Missiles have an
auto-repeat until they are all used up, then they are limited to one per press
of the FIRE button to conserve them.

All the above components user power, and wear out. You can get replacement
components from pods, which you will occasionally discover floating in space -
specifically if you shoot a RingWorld. Pods come in two varieties:

- Coloured ones. These boost one of the above four components depending on what
colour they are when you collide with them.

- White ones which have to be shot and have various effects. They will either
split into two coloured pods, give you an extra direction of firing, give you
an extra missile platform which orbits your main craft, or repair some of the
damage sustained by your fleet.

CONTROLS

You may use either the keyboard, or a joystick.

Keys:

Q - UP
A - DOWN
B - LEFT
N - RIGHT
1 - FIRE

STATUS PANEL

There is a status panel on each side of the screen.

Left Hand Status Panel

- Score
- Red Arrow - distance & direction of nearest RingWorld
- Magenta Arrow - distance & direction of nearest occupied planet

Right Hand Status Panel

- Number of lives left
- Energy status
- Damage status
- Energy of Rapid Fire Unit
- Energy of Scanner
- Energy of Solar Cells
- Energy of Tractor Beam
- Yellow Arrow - distance & direction of nearest friendly planet or star
- Green Arrow - distance & direction of nearest pod or shooting star

CREDITS

CODE & GRAFFICS: CHARLES GODWIN
FRONT COVER:     TIM WHITE