Plan B

Ever fancied blasting your way through a truly brilliant game on the Electron? For all the best reasons (action, concept, simplicity, pace, graphics, addictiveness... you know the score!), absolutely nothing comes close to playing Andrew Foord's Plan B. True, your Bad Ass drone does look like a toddler's toy... and the game may depend on some good fortune as well as a carefully figured out plan of action. But roaming around a playing area blasting anything that moves never gets anywhere near as hairy as in this monochromatic little number. Whizzing, fizzing and purring sound effects all add to the thrill of the chase and the glide of the machine code animation - with no reduction in speed even when the whole of the mutant robot population descend upon you en masse - have to be seen to be believed on the little Electron!

If the time has come though where you think you've seen - and battled! - it all, and still haven't managed to complete the adventure part of the game, this complete solution will help you figure out just where you've been going wrong. Originally written by Paul Sanderson and distributed by The Impact Games Club, this new version can be used with or without the map of the playing area opposite. Be warned though - find and use that pause key if you have to refer to it regularly. Those robots have been drinking nothing but instant coffee for several years now!

Click here to download a large .zip file of the entire Plan B playing area

Generally do not collect ammo, spanners or oil cans if your supply is full as they will be wasted. Also if a screen becomes too congested leave it and then re-enter.

You start in the room Plan B. Leave by the right hand exit (There's no other way to go anyway!) and on the next screen (with the 'Out' sign) drop down. Collect the key at the bottom of the screen. Now go back up into the screen with the 'Out' sign and collect another key. Destroy the two computers. Go up and you will be on a screen called In The Tower. Go to the door at the top of this screen and open it. Go up into the Top of The Tower screen. Collect the two keys that you find there. Now drop down through the In The Tower screen to the room with the 'Out' sign. Go right to the Crossroads and then up to The Helipad. Destroy the computers then leave by dropping down into the Crossroads again.

Starting Off - Don't Collect The Powerups At This Point As They Will Be Wasted!

Go left into the room with the 'Out' sign and down. Go left into The Terminal Room. Collect all the ammo and energy that you need and shoot any and all computers you see en route. Now go right to leave The Terminal Room and right again into what appears to be a dead end. Go into the top left of this screen and shoot at the wall to the right. It will disintegrate and allow you to destroy two computers. Now go back left, up, right (into Crossroads) and down into the area where the two computers were. You can now blast a wall to your left to destroy two more computers. Return up, left, down and right and destroy a wall to your right and two more computers. Finally trek left, up, right and down again and collect the two keys and all the ammo and energy.

Go back up into Crossroads, right and down. Go down again. The vertical pipes which seem to bar your way to the right disintegrate when shot. Shoot them and go right into a room called High Security. Open the door and collect the key on the right. You can usually collect both pieces of ammo quite easily but the spanners are more difficult and you may consider just shooting them so as to get to the computers they protect more easily. Once the room is clear, make good your escape left and then go up two screens (to the screen with the 'Out' sign) then left to the starting room Plan B.

Open the door on the bottom left and go left and down to a room filled with goodies. Clear this room of everything. Now go up again. You can blast away the small dividing wall and go left. In this room are four computers. Destroy these. Then clear a path to the top right hand corner by shooting away the supporting walls. Go right, collect the key and destroy the computers (and the walls that protect them!). Then go back left, drop down a bit and return right into the bottom section of the area so you can get another key. This can use up a lot of ammo so try and go easy on the fire button. Return left to the adjoining room then go left again into The Dark Room.

Follow the right hand wall and the bottom one to collect the key. Then go to about two-thirds up the right hand wall and work your way left (using the hover key as necessary if you meet an invisible obstacle) until you reach the left wall and enter the next room (Up In The Roof) at the top.

Destroy the two computers then proceed left, open the door, go into the antechamber and destroy the four computers. Go down into a room where you can blast away a small vertical wall and gain access to a small area with a computer and two keys. Get the keys and kill the computer. Don't worry about the smaller room toward the bottom of the screen.

Return back up, right, through The Dark Room then drop down one screen and go left into The Storeroom where you'll need to probably collect everything to replenish your supplies. Continue left and go up one screen to find two computers barring the way to some ammo. Destroy the computers then drop down again and go left around the outside area along the bottom of the screen. Destroy any computers in the way and wind your way into the centre where the key is. When you come up on the right hand side of it, blast away the dividing wall and collect it. Collect the key then open the door underneath it. Although this looks as if it leads to nothing, if you drop into it then hover up from the screen beneath you will transported to a secret room.

In the secret room, collect all the keys, open the necessary doors and blast away all the computers. To exit the room move to the bottom left where the wall can be blasted away. Passing through it sends you back to just left of The Storeroom so do an about face and move right through The Storeroom again. On the next screen is a door leading to two computers and two keys. Do the obvious and escape back through the same door then drop down and left into a particularly difficult screen called The Return Route.

On this screen you need to drop into the small areas on both sides of the screen and shoot away the barriers that obstruct the middle passage. This is usually a matter of luck as a few badly placed baddies in such confined spaces can drain your energy extremely quickly. Try and get right up close to the wall you want to destroy. This will keep the aliens at arms' length and reduce the number of bullets you waste. Make sure you don't blast the spanner and oil can accidentally as these are exceptionally useful in this kind of environment.

Battle it out and escape down the middle passage and to the right. You pass under three screens, blasting the lights away on each one and then drop into The Basement. Towards the bottom of the screen is a walled compartment filled with ammo. Blast away at it until you can get the ammo then blast at the wall behind the ammo. You can then pass through the wall into another area of the game.

From The Cellar, drop down two screens into The Underground Computer Room. Here there are numerous doors to open, computers to destroy, etc, etc. Go back up to The Cellar again and this time go left and take the top left exit into The Underground Pool. Grab the ammo and head left. There are some computers on the left of the screen that appear inaccessible. However, carefully placed shots through the wall can destroy these – which is handy, as they can't be got to any other way. Blast away the pipe to the right too and then drop down, blasting another obstruction, into Strange Things Part 1. Here, destroy the computers and collect the key then return by the same route you entered. (The room is actually a trap if you use any other route!)

Go back up and right, through The Underground Pool, right and this time leave the room you come to by the bottom exit. You will reach the Not The End room which, by blasting the bottom left area of the wall near the third computer from the top, can be exited. Needless to say, make sure you've whacked out all the computers before you do so.

You will now be in the Down The Mines room which is at the very bottom of the Plan B map. These rooms are a lot quieter than most and give you chance to get your breath back and replenish your ammo supply. You will find some computers to destroy and a key to collect in this room and the adjoining More Mines. When the area is clear, blast away at the bottom left hand wall to create a passage adjoining the vertical one you can see.

Go up, hit the three computers on the way and blast through the right hand wall to get the keys in Strange Things Part 2. (Don't bother with the doors on the right hand side of the screen as they simply teleport you to the other one!) Instead, go back through your makeshift entrance and up through the door. In Back Up Again, grab the key and continue upwards to reach the Computers in the Basement room.

Open the door to your left, collect the (probably much-needed) spanner and blast the two computers. Return right, shoot out the horizontal wall dividing the small left section from the rest of room and go up and right to another door.

This part is the hardest of the whole game, signified by those deadly 'square' aliens being the only kind which attack – and oh boy, are they out in force here! The idea is to cross three screens from left to right along the top, drop down through three doors then cross the same three screens from right to left along the bottom. You also need to blast five computers in the final stretch. If you make it, there are two spanners to replenish your energy supply so you can fight your way back again. However, the odds seem about 5-1 against you making it - so steel yourself before you dive in!

Now go left, across The Return Route, Computers in the Basement and Into The Garden. Go up two screens from The Cesspit. Collect the key and go right Onto The Roof. Ignore the goodies in The Attic for the time being and shoot away its chimney so you can continue going right. Go right one more screen and you will find two huts, each containing a computer and a key. Destroy each computer and get each key. Now return left two screens to The Attic and raid it. When you destroy these two computers the indicator should reach zero in the overhead panel. This completes the first part of the mission. All you need to do now is get your drone out alive.

Go back left three screens, drop down to The Cesspit and go right three screens back to The Return Route. You have to go through this tort rigmarole of this again, presumably with very little energy – shooting out the obstruction then taking the middle passage. Go right, along the bottoms of The Long Dash screens and shooting out the lights that bar the way. Drop down into The Basement and head up by the right exit. Move up to the top of the next screen, shoot away the two bricks second from the top and head up through the next screen to the room with the 'Out' sign. Go right over the Crossroads and open the door.

Finally, open the remaining nine doors until you reach the end and complete the game.

Dave E