Omega Orb - new improved brain-straining arcade adventure - with added shoot-em-up Blast and Zap! And brought to you in glorious BLIPVISION!

BLIP, the bouncing Omega Salesdroid, has been transported to the high-tech mining complex of Mynix. Help him find pieces of core material with which to repower his crippled cruise ship. The lives of a thousand space holidaymakers are in your hands!

Omega Orb has everything! An orgy of exploration and mapping; Code-doors; barriers; lifts and mind-warping puzzles to solve; mindless zapping of hostile droids; 146 Blipvision screens of brilliant graphic detail; 32 objects; Interactive communication with computer network; Buying and selling of lives; And guest appearances by Head Maxroom - and SPRECO, star of the Thunderstruck series."

Advertising has an unsavoury public image. Most people simply don't like salespeople harassing them to 'buy this' or 'try that'. So by the 23rd century, humankind had delegated that thankless task to droids - friendly, cute, bouncing droids. It was found that the public responded better to these droids than they ever did to the dubious looking characters in loud suits that we know so well.

The Omega 'BLIP' class droid was a successful class of salesdroid (BLIP stood for nothing in particular, but sounded nice to those who decided such things). In an effort to make these as nice as possible, some grain of personality was programmed into them. In certain circumstances this could lead to something approaching 'soul' developing.

BLIP-QE-875523 was a case in point. In his job of enticing holidaymakers to part with their hard-earned credits he was well liked by those aboard the interplanetary cruise ship, Cyplex. The seeds of personality had led over the years into this BLIP evolving from his hard-selling, blandly cute beginnings into a genuine, caring chap - so much that his bosses, the UniStrad Corporation, were seriously considering replacing him!

But one day while undergoing a routine recharge, images of death and destruction started flying through BLIP's internals. And, sure enough, these premonitions began to come true. One by one the vital computer systems of the Cyplex began to fail. The EnviroPuter struggled to keep functioning, and with a last surge of power, BLIP was told that it was up to him to save the crippled liner. The teleport system functioned just long enough for BLIP to be transported to the nearby planet Mynix.

Our hero, BLIP, the bouncing Omega salesdroid, finds himself on the planet Mynix, a planet consisting largely of a high-tech, computer controlled mining complex run by droids. BLIP is armed with a defence laser, charged up with a finite amount of energy, and carries 500 credits. His task is to find twelve vital pieces of a special material that can be used to replace the energy core of his stricken cruise ship and save the doomed holidaymakers on board. There are other objects that he can pick up which can then be used via computer terminals to solve puzzles or get by obstacles. Only one object can be carried at a time, so they must be used (including core pieces) or dropped before you can pick up another. Pick up an object by bouncing on it. (If you don't want the object, the next bounce will drop it.)

The computer network of the complex still functions, so BLIP can use it to help him. To activate the network, bounce on the floor of the computer cubicle or pod, pressing SPACE. The first number shown is the number of the terminal you are currently accessing. It costs 100 credits to access a computer - if you don't have enough, you can't use it!

You can interact with the computer network by entering the following commands...

You start with five lives. Lives can be bought and sold. The droids that run the complex don't like outsiders plundering their energy sources. You can shoot them with your defence laser (gaining 5C for each hit). Some emerge from generators - you can stop this by shooting the generator itself. Some generators are impregnable - simply get by as quickly as possible!

Don't hit the magnetised generators - your energy will rapidly drain. Some of the floors and walls are also magnetised - watch out for them! Some of these can also be shot - this will be necessary to progress in certain areas of the game.

There are lifts which can be used - press SPACE when on lift to activate. Two of the lifts need to be enabled by using special objects.

When the title screen appears, press any key to load the rest of the program.

Z - Left, X - Right, RETURN - Fire (Uses a little energy), SHIFT - Hyperbounce (Bounces higher and faster), SPACE - Activate computer or lift
S - Sound, Q - Quiet, COPY/DELETE - Pause/Restart, R - Restart Entire Game