The Story

Spiders like dark places, and Carling The Spider was no different. In fact, he was very proud of the vast abandoned mine he called home, and had lived there happily for many years, undisturbed.

With that in mind, imagine his surprise when he awoke one morning (or evening, it's difficult to tell when you live underground) to find his home had been transformed into a high security diamond vault, littered with traps and guarded by the ominous automated Balls of Steel!

Carling knew the only way to return his home to darkness would be to shut down the security system by stealing every last glittering diamond from each room in the vault. But with the Balls of Steel getting faster and increasing in numbers with every room looted, this was never going to be an easy task...

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to collect every diamond on the screen. Once all diamonds are collected, you must make it to the exit square to progress to the next screen. Use the bouncy rubber blocks to reach higher platforms then normal jumping will allow. Look out for the Balls of Steel; you will lose a life if they catch you. Touching spikes of barbed wire will also cause a life to be lost. You can win an additional life by collecting a heart or amassing 100 diamonds.

There are eight diamond rooms to clear, and three skill levels (indicated by the border colours Blue, Red and Yellow). If you manage to clear all the rooms on the Blue level, you will progress to the Red level, where the Balls of Steel will move faster and appear in pairs more frequently. If you make it to the Yellow level, the Balls of Steel get even faster and will always appear in pairs, and to confuse you, the screens will be mirrored horizontally! If Carling can beat the Yellow level, he will have earned some peace and quiet...

If you lose all of your lives, the game is over, and you will have to return to the first room. Once you reach a new skill level, the game will remain at that skill level even if all of your lives are lost.

Game Controls

Carling The Spider can only be played using a Joystick (plugged into either joystick port).

Press Fire to begin the game.

Push the joystick left and right to move Carling.

Press Fire to make Carling jump.

Loading

LOAD"*",8,1 (RETURN)
RUN (RETURN)

Side 1 of the disk contains the PAL (UK) version of the game.

Side 2 of the disk contains the NTSC (USA) version of the game. To access side 2 of the disk, simply turn your floppy disk over, insert it into your drive and follow the loading procedure above.

Game Credits

Game designed and coded by Joe 'Polygon' Dixon
Cover art by Trevor 'Smila' Storey
Packaging by Jason 'Kenz' Mackenzie
(c) 2009 Polygon Productions. All rights reserved.