Starstrike

"...suddenly there were the Outsiders. Appearing in massive fleets on the edge of the galaxy, they seemed uninterested in conquest, only destruction. Earth's fleets were decimated and the Federation lay on the brink of collapse. In desperation, the Federation Command chose to strike directly at the Outsider control centres. These immense bases were constructed within hollowed out moons.

To destroy them required a direct hit on the bases reactor systems at the very centre of the moon. The only access to the reactor chamber was through two cooling ports in the base's equatorial duct. To reach these, however, an attacker was forced to run the gauntlet of the base's heavy ground and space defences. To penetrate these, a new generation of starfighter was created - the "Starstrike" series..."

Playing Starstrike

The game is divided up into sections.

1. Shoot enemy ships and fireballs
2. Shoot ground bases and fireballs, avoid hitting towers and ground bases. Shoot tower-tops for extra bonus.
3. Shoot fireballs. Avoid obstacles in trench.
4. Shoot reactor pods between rotating towers to deactivate force field.

Starstrike: Game Controls

< - Bank Left, > - Bank Right, CAPS LOCK - Climb (up), SHIFT - Dive (down), SPACE - Fire

Use a joystick or the cursor keys (COPY to fire) or use the following keys:

ESCAPE - Toggle Pause, DELETE - Abort (When paused)
1 - Pause, 2 - Resume, 3 - Sound On/Off (When paused), 4 - Abort (When paused)

Starstrike II

The Outsiders have been driven from Federation space by the Starstrike series of starfighters. Now, Federation Command is launching an all-out offensive on the Outsider's home planetary systems with the next generation of Starstrike ships.

Playing Starstrike II

The Ship: The control panel is at the bottom of the display. It shows a computer screen and three gauges. The gauges show te level of laser energy, fuel supply and force-field energy. At certain points in the game you can recharge your force-fields from your fuel supply.

The Outsiders

The Outsiders' home planets are grouped around five stars in the Lesser Megallanic Cloud. There are 22 planets in total, of three basic types: industrial, military and agricultural. The planets are of varying difficulties. To neutralise a military planet you must knock out its battle computer, an industrial planet is neutralised by destroying the reactor that powers it and on an agricultural planet you must knock out the control system that runs the robot farming machinery.

Military intelligence suggests that the military planet Delta V, the industrial planet Alpha I and the agricultural planet Beta II are poorly defended examples of their respective types.

Star Selection

The star selection screen appears whenever you enter the Support Module and allows you to choose a new star to refuel your ship. Next to each star is a display of the planets in that system. Neutralised planets are shown in blue, unvisited planets in green.

Planet Selection

The planet selection screen shows you the position of the remaining targets in a system and allows you to select your destination. A small text display shows the name, type and range of each planet as you select it. The controls of this screen are the same as for the star selection screen.

The Space Wheel

All military and some industrial planets have wheel-shaped orbital space stations. To destroy one of these huge space wheels you must shoot the defence pods spaced around its edge. When all the pods have been destroyed, an entrance will appear on the main body of the wheel. To dock with the wheel, you must centre it in your sights and press the 'D' key.

Left and Right will now act as rotation controls to allow you to match roll with the wheel. To successfully dock the entrance must be horizontal as you hit the wheel.

A successful docking manoeuvre leads into the space wheel's internal hanger. The exit from the hanger is an iris valve on the rear wall that is continually opening and closing. There are three control units around the iris. As the last control unit is destroyed, the iris will freeze its motion, so shooting the final unit must be timed to stop the iris when it is in an open position.

Defence Fields

All Outsider planets are surrounded by defensive force-fields. The only way through these force-fields is by way of small openings maintained to allow Outsider ships to pass. These openings are heavily defended and you will need split second timing to pass through them successfully.

Orbital Fighters

Once through the planetary defence fields your ship goes into orbit around the target planet and you must face its fighter defences. When a ship is destroyed it sometimes leaves a fuel pod; collide with this to replenish your own fuel supply. If a fuel pod is not collected quickly then Outsider scavenger ships will scoop it up.

To enable you to track enemy targets you have two head up displays. The right hand display shows the altitude of targets relative to you, the left hand display gives a plan view o the combat area. These displays appear automatically whenever no target is visible on your viewscreen. The targets are shown on the display as:

+ - Enemy ship
x - Fuel Scoop
‐ - Fuel pod

Once all the orbital fighters are destroyed you descend to the planet's surface.

Ground Attack

Fly over the enemy terrain destroying the targets on the ground and avoiding the airborne defences. Your lasers' point of impact is shown by a cross-shaped sight which runs along the ground in front of you.

Ventilation Duct

Fly down the ventilation duct avoiding the fans and other obstacles. In this section your guns are disabled and the fire key switches your control so that Up accelerates and Down decelerates your ship. It is not possible to accelerate and manoeuvre at the same time.

Reactor System

Destroy the tetrahedral reactor vessel and exit through the iris valve on the rear wall: the iris will only open after the reactor has been destroyed.

Battle Computer

Knock out the battle computer and escape through the iris valve that opens on the far wall.

Agricultural Control Centre

As with the battle computer you must destroy the control system and escape via the exit on the rear wall.

Game Controls

O - Left, P - Right, Q - Up, A - Down, SPACE - Fire

Z - Accelerate, X - Decelerate, H/J - Heads-Up Displays Permanent/Automatic, D - Dock

ESCAPE - Pause, RETURN - Resume Game, DEL - Abort (While Paused)

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