********* The Project 64 etext of ~X-Out manual~ for C64, Amstrad CPC and Spectrum, converted by Eero J. Uusitalo , aka MetalHead on 7th April 1997. XOUT10.TXT, April 1997, etext #209# Readapted for the Spectrum in 2000 AD by Alessandro "Gazzosa" Grussu http://members.nbci.com/gazzosa ********* 1 Loading the game 1.1 C64 Tape Insert side 1 of the "X-OUT" tape into the datassette and rewind to the start if necessary. Now press SHIFT and RUN-STOP at the same time and then press PLAY on tape. The game starts automatically. Please follow the instructions on the screen. 1.2 Amstrad/CPC Diskette Please insert side one of the 'X-OUT' disk into your drive. Now type RUN"RNR" or RUN"DISK" and confirm with the RETURN/ENTER-key. Please follow the instructions on screen. 1.3 Amstrad/CPC Cassette Insert side 1 of the 'X-OUT' tape into the datassette and rewind to the start if necessary. Now press CONTROL and ENTER at the same time and follow the instructions on screen. 1.4 Spectrum +3 Disk Please insert side 1 of the 'X-OUT' disk into your disk drive. Now choose the menue-point LOADER in the main menue and follow the instructions on the screen. 1.5 Spectrum 48K Cassette Insert side 1 of the 'X-OUT' tape into the datassette and rewind to the start if necessary. Now press the key J and after that the keys SYMBOL SHIFT and P twice at the same time. Confirm with the ENTER-key. 1.6 Spectrum +2/+3 128K Cassette Insert side 1 of the 'X-OUT' tape into the datassette and rewind to the start if necessary. Now choose the menue-point LOADER in the main menue and press PLAY on tape. 2 Prehistory In the year of 2019. 40, what an age. With 40 life ends. "Not for you, Grainger". I always said to myself, "not for you!". But not only my blasted 40th was due in 2019. I was sacked. I was turned out on my ear. Two months of hanging around, two months of boredom and jobhunting. I had given up until at last the 22-7 had come: my birthday. I'm not one of these fussy guys who have to tell all the world about their lucky day, definetly not. But this.... . Just as the first cork burst on the third bottle of whiskey and pleasant fog was closing in on the old Grainger something happened, whereupon about 12 billion people have always waited for. The first contact with extra-terrestial life! Lucky guy, you might be thinking, a nice conversion about a holiday on Alpha Centauri and new friends to clean out, playing poker (if they can grab the cards with their big, green suckers). But not by any means. My birthday-aliens deeply disappointed me and the rest of humanity. 1. They didn't come from "above" (as expected), they materialized in the deepest deep sea. 2. They had nothing elese to do but destroy my home town in Pennsylvania and about 10% of the left earth's surface. 3. They didn't even play poker (although they had hands), because our neighbour star had already cleaned out their race. I don't really want to say that this story about 1/10 of the earth's surface really bothered me (my ex-mother-in-law used to live there), still I thought this penetration to be impolite. Two days later and now missing another 20% of our earth's surface, the guys "in charge" started to think about all this. After some squabbling a UN-representative of a totally insignificant country had a very important idea: The aliens would have to be driven out or wiped out from the bottom of the sea. Since no one had yet come up with this brilliant solution, it met spontaneous approval and immediately all financial aid for the small country was canceled to build an underwater-weapon, never seen before. At this point I, the old Grainger joined the game. Suddenly someone thought of my admittedly unbelievable skills as a pilot and found out quickly, that only one man could be as good, as broke and as stupid to take this job. After another two days the old Grainger was so broke, so stupid and still so drunk from his birthday, that he spontaneously said "yes". That's my story. I'm sitting here in this "thing" for an hour, waiting to avert the most evil threat to mankind since the invention of commercials. That's it..., the gate opens! Oh my god, it's full of water! 3. General remarks X-OUT consists of 8 big worlds, which are populated by crowds of enemies and 8 mighty monsters. It's your task to free all these worlds of intruders, and with it the world and your birthday. All of the alien weapon systems are available to you, because spies were able to steal plans and material from the aliens. Unfortunately the government isn't generous enough to put this material at your disposal for nothing, they even want cash from you (that's how far capitalism has got in 2019). So you have to scrape together your last savings to save the world of the claws of evil. 4. Starting the game Press the red button in the Intro-screen to enter the first world. 5. Keyboard definition and joystick functions 5.1 C64 Firebutton: Pressing briefly activates the normal shot, pressing longer, the primary weapon system. F1,F3,F5,F7: Speed of own ship SHIFT or Commodore-key: Switching the secondary weapons system SPACE: Activating the secondary weapon system P: Pausefunction All other keys: Bringing in the drones 5.2 Amstrad/CPC & Spectrum Steering:Joystick or Q+A: Starship up/down O+P: Starship left/right Firebutton or SPACE: Triggering a normal shot by pressing briefly, triggering the primary weapon system by pressing longer. C: Choosing the secondary weapon system M: Triggering the secondary weapon system H: Pausefunction G: Bringing in the drones 6. Shop Before we start of each level you choose your armada and its weapons freely respectively according to your score. The strange looking creature in the top left is a deserted alien technician, who looks after the weapons and sells them for the government. In the bottom right corner your score which server as means of payment is displayed. Underneath there is a Melob, a creature highly qualified for steering stargliders. It has taken a temporary job at trash utilization plant. If you don't want an already installed part of your starship (or the whole ship), you can give it to the Moleb and you will get your money back. 7. The weapons and their function: -In the lower left there are three rows with standard shots. According to your financial status you should choose an accordingly powerful, widely spreading one. (3 shots at the same time) -To the right, the four types of ships you can choose are displayed. They differ in their carrying capacity of extra weapons. -beside them there are various extra weapons which are triggered either automatically, via firebutton or via keyboard (from top to bottom): -1.Row: 3 differently effective missiles and a jumpbomb. All four weapons are released automatically but they exclude each other. -2.Row: Electric Bow (primary), claw arm (primary), flame-thrower (primary), smart shot (secondary). Examine the functions of the weapons during the game! -3.Row: Drones (secondary, max. send out:6). Drone-collector (you can only bring back drones with the collector). Teuton-laser (strengthens drones and satellite shots), shield (secondary). These weapons should also be tried out in the game! Beside the extra weapons there are also satellites which will appear on the exact positions you choose in the shop. It's possible to create a shield of satellites by positioning three, one on top of the other, in front of your ship. In the satellite shop (to the left of Moleb) you can choose between moving and non-moving satellites. In the menue you can see a non-moving satellite in the upper left part, below it there is a satellite which adjusts to the height of the enemy nearest to you, below and beside it there are satellites with pre-fixed movement. All satellites behave as displayed. 3 satellites are the absolute maximum installable. All operations in the shop can either be executed by mouse or by joystick. Credits Amiga/Atari ST version by Heiko Schr”der Amiga/Atari St graphics by Celal Kandemiroglu C64 Version by J”rg Prenzing C64 Graphics by Andreas Escher Amiga Sound by Chris Hlsbeck ST Sound by Jrgen Piscol C64 Sound by Fame Level Design by Holger Schmidt Support by Factor 5 and Thomas Fanslau Directed by Teut Weidemann Playtesting by Thomas Heinks and Jae-Uk Lee Cover Artwork by Celal Kandemiroglu Manual by Julian Eggebrecht Cover and Manual Layout by Uwe Schaffmeister Thanks to Marc Ullrich, Kristin Dodt, Simon Harvey, Achim Moller and the Turkish Tea Machine. Shop Prices: Orange shot weak That's a give-away Orange shot normal 800 Orange shot strong 1600 Blue shot weak 1000 Blue shot normal 1600 Blue shot strong 3200 Best shot weak 2000 Best shot normal 3200 Best shot strong 6400 Ship 1 (very small) 3000 Ship 2 (small) 4000 Ship 3 (medium) 5000 Ship 4 (large) 6000 weak guided Missile 500 normal guided Missile 800 strong guided Missile 1200 Bouncing Bomb 2500 Energywall 4500 Flamethrower 3500 Firedaw 2500 Smartbomb 2000 Shield 2000 Drone Collect device 1000 Laser 6000 Drone 2500 Satellite 2500 Guided Sat 3500 Sat:half circle movement pattern 2750 Sat:large circle 2500 Mirror 3000 VSat 2500 Sat:Small circle 2500 Oval 2500 Price for complete ships: F1 Ship 1 complete: 8100 F2 Ship 2 complete: 9700 F3 Ship 3 complete: 20900 F4 Ship 4 complete: 26400 ********* End of Project 64 etext of X-Out manual. *********