Introduction

One of your robot-controlled space cruisers is on a routine reconnaissance flight. You see it in bright red in the centre of your screen. It is surrounded by a protective, clearly visible as an oval round your craft. Everything seems to be very peaceful.

Asteroids

Some asteroids appear. They drift around rather aimlessly. You have several options:

1. You can leave your space cruiser where it is and wait for things to happen. There is no cause for immediate alarm because your craft is well protected by its shield and will withstand a collision. The asteroid will actually explode on contact which means that you score a point!
2. You can avoid a collision by manoeuvring your craft with the joystick of the right handset.
3. You may also decide to ram the asteroids and destroy them. Every time you do, you score one point again, which is added to your total, shown in red figures in the right-hand bottom corner.
4. You may also try to destroy those asteroids with your laser gun. This isn't very easy though. There's only one place where your laser beam can pass through the protective forcefield of your craft. It is indicated by a bright, flickering spot. If you press the action button, your laser gun will automatically fire in that direction. You have no immediate and direct control. With some practice however you can still aim fairly accurately. Quickly rotate your joystick and the bright spot in your protective shield will move clockwise. You have an unlimited amount of ammunition but the reach of your laser gun is limited.

Attention

It takes energy, of course, to maintain your energy shield and fire your laser gun. If you have a collision, it takes a second or so to generate enough energy to restore your protective shield. This means that two collisions in rapid succession will probably be fatal. The same danger exists when you have a collision while firing your laser gun! So watch out and be careful!

Magnetic Asteroids

Even though asteroids are relatively harmless, they can form another type of hazard! If two of them collide, they fuse into a new kind of asteroid with magnetic properties. It means that they will actually be drawn towards your spacecraft and pursue it. You can easily recognise them, since they twirl much faster than the regular asteroids. Still, your forcefield offers sufficient protection and you may also destroy them with your laser gun. Every time you do so, you score three points!

Attacking Satellites

The gravest danger you will encounter is the enemy satellites! They appear unexpectedly, and are equipped with very powerful laser guns, obviously manned by competent operators. They have a deadly aim. Your protective shield offers little or no protection!

You may try and shoot them down, but here the limited reach and manoeuvrability of your laser gun forms a handicap. If you succeed, however, you score ten points!

You may choose to avoid a direct confrontation. You can do this by seeking refuge behind the asteroids. The satellites have no protective shield; if they collide with an asteroid, they explode immediately. Here you have an edge over them, of course, but no score to yourself.

Scoring

As we explained before, you can score points by destroying asteroids or belligerent saucers:

When an asteroid or belligerent satellite explodes, the fragments fly in several directions. If you are lucky, those fragments will destroy other asteroids or even a satellite, which means that you will score extra points! Just try and fire your laser gun into a compact group of asteroids!

The Winner

The battle is over when your craft explodes. The score on the right-hand side tells you how well you have done. It won't stay there very long however; a new encounter follows almost immediately. The highest score on a series of encounters is registered on the left-hand side.

When there are several competitors, you can register the name of the champion. Just type it in on the keyboard. If the name has less than six letters, you can remove the remaining question marks by pressing the SPACE key as often as necessary. That name will remain there until the score is surpassed again, in which case the name of the new champion should be keyed in.