Loading Instructions

Amstrad CPC Cassette

Press CTRL and small ENTER keys simultaneously. Press PLAY on your cassette recorder.

Amstrad CPC Disk

Type RUN"DISK and press ENTER. Follow on screen prompts.

BLASTEROIDS has four different Warps of incresing difficulty:- EASY, MEDIUM, HARD and EXPERT. Each Warp contains several Galaxies, and each Galaxy consists of 9 or 16 sectors depending on its level of difficulty. Fly down the tunnel of the Warp you wish to play. HARD and EXPERT warps are to be avoided unless you are very experienced at piloting yout thrust craft.

Your craft is transformable between:

SPEEDER - The quickest ship *
FIGHTER - has the most firepower *
WARRIOR -has the heaviest armour *.

You control your craft by rotating and thrusting, but remember that your ship has mass and momentum.

To clear a sector you must destroy or disable all the asteroids present. Shooting large asteroids will break them up into smaller asteroids, which in turn must also be destroyed. Collisions and thrust use up energy, and you must replenish your fuel energy supplies by collecting crystals. Crystals are released from red asteroids when they are completely distroyed. The energy content of the crystals reduces as they decay. Fly over the crystals to absorb their energy.

You will come across various types of enemy ships during your journey through the Galaxy. These all have different appearances and attack in different ways. Destroying an enemy ship often reveals a piece of special equipment - fly over these to collect them.

When you have completed a sector, the next portal will spin into view - fly down this to get to the Galactic Map.

To control your ship, move the joystick left or right: to rotate the ship in the direction desired. To thrust, push your joystick forward. For rapid fire, hold down the FIRE button.

The Galactic Map

You may select the next sector by rotating your ship until the sector you wish to visit is highlighted. Press FIRE to enter the sector.

The contents of each sector are represented by miniatures, indicating asteroid and enemy type (if any). Sectors you have already cleared will contain nothing - visiting these again only wastes precious fuel. Sectors which are out of range will have question marks - you will have to travel closer before discovering what they contain.

Asteroid Types

NORMAL asteroids can be destroyed by shooting them * RED asteroids contain Power Crystals.

POPCORN asteroids require several hits before they are deactivated and stop. They will expand as they are hit. All popcorn asteroids must be deactivated before the sector is cleared.

EGG asteroids contain LEECHES. When released leeches will home in on you and attach. They will begin to absorb your energy. Fly very fast or collide with objects to try and shake them off.

SEEKER asteroids will fly towards you at high speed when they are first shot. Shoot them several times to destroy them.

Special Equipment

The equipment released when enemy ships are destroyed takes one of 8 forms:-

SHIELDS - these provide a limited amount of protection against collisions and enemy fire. The number of shields are displayed at the top of the screen. They deplete as you are hit.

BLASTERS - these provide double shots.

EXTRA SHOT POWER - the penetration of your shots is improved with this piece of equipment.

RIPSTAR - this weapon, when activated, will cause your ship to spin furiously and emit huge amounts of firepower. Only once per Ripstar. To activate, pull back on your joystick and press the FIRE button.

EXTRA FUEL CAPACITY - this will allow your ship to carry more fuel at a time. The fuel guage will enlarge to display this.

BOOSTER - increases the thrust of your ship.

CRYSTAL MAGNET - when collected, this device will attract loose power crystals towards your ship.

CLOAK - this piece of equipment makes your ship invisible to the enemy, and prevents them homing in on you.

All these special features only function for a limited time.

Mukor

When you have completed all the sectors in the Galaxy, you will have to face MUKOR. He will attempt to destroy your ship by ramming you and by sending out miniature enemy ships to attack you. You can attack MUKOR by shooting his tentacles. Once you have destroyed all of them, MUKOR will slide away and leave you some special weaponry. If you have completed all Galaxies (there are several Galaxies in each Warp) and manage to defeat MUKOR then you will have finally conquered him and cleared the entire Warp.

Joystick (All Computers)

FORWARD - Thrust; BACK - Transform; LEFT - Rotate anti-clockwise;
RIGHT - Rotate clockwise. FIRE BUTTON - Fire.

Amstrad:

To use 2 joysticks, you must have a double adaptor and configure the second joystick to mimic the keyboard.

Keyboard

Spectrum/Amstrad:
Keys are user definable.

OTHER CONTROLS:

H - Pause; R - Restart; SHIFT + Q - Abort Current Game.

Two Player

By pressing FIRE on the second set of controls, a second player can join the game. This will use one extra credit. Two players can play independently, or the ships can be DOCKED for extra power and protection. To dock, one player must be in SPEEDER mode, the other in WARRIOR. Fly the ships together and they will dock. The WARRIOR pilot flies the STARLET and controls the thrust and has some firepower, the SPEEDER pilot has control of the TURRET and the most firepower. To disconnect, just transform one of them into a different mode.

When disconnected, the first player to fly down the exit portal will obtain a large bonus and have control of the Galactic Map for the next sector.