Cholo ===== Cholo ----- The surface of Cholo smoulders and glows. No oceans, no trees, no live... Only post-nuclear fallout and instant suntan. The days pass slowly in the confines of the bunkers and shelters beneath Cholo's ravaged surface. You pass away your pointless life, working at a terminal and listening to the committee reports from Cholo topside. One piece of software is very popular: 'Rat', a computer game guiding robots and roving eyes in and around a shattered city, a sity similar to the ones that scatter the surface - maybe too similar. Could you *really* be in contact with Topside? And if so, where is the lethal radiation which is reported in the official committee bulletins? Objective --------- It is important that you read the manual so that you fully understand the consequences of the holocaust and the enormity of the plight facing the human race trapped in their nuclear bunker. More importantly, you will understand the full extent of your responsibility for their future. Using the popular bunker game 'RAT', you have access to the only surface robot under the control of the bunker computer. All other computers and robots are lost to their own misguided and corrupted logic circuits; bent on maintaining the seal on the tetrahedral bunker cap. It is up to you to break this seal. The robots are not totally lost, by hacking into them, you can reprogram them to accept your control and to access the surface computers to gain the information within their files. It is up to you to use the robots and information that you find wisely, so you can discover the secret to blowing the bunker cap and freeing the bunker population. Getting Started --------------- Once Cholo has loaded, you will be in Menu Mode. In the View Screen, you will see a spinning RAT droid, the only robot under control at this point. Ignore the rest of the Menu Mode displays for now and press the Select Robot key to gain control of the RAT droid. Your display will look similar to the one below. [] 1. Damage Shows how much damage a particular robot has taken. All robots will slowly self repair. 2. Map/Radar Shows an overall view of Cholo surroundings if the radar program is installed. Neither operate indoors. 3. Message Area All status messages and important clues are displayed here, so keep an eye on it. 4. Radiation Shows how 'hot' the area around a robot is. Beware, once radiation reaches a certain level, dependent on the type of robot, that robot will take heavy damage until it leaves the area. 5. Compass Shows which direction (N,E,S,W) the robot under your control is facing. 6. Rampaks These four rampaks are used to hold programs and text files which are vital to solving the game. 7. View Screen Shows the camera eye view from your robot's surveillance equipment, or the current robot in Menu Mode. 8. Sights These will only appear if the robot under your control is equipped with a weapon. The Rat Droid starts inside the Central Computer building, just off Bridge Street, facing the entrance. By using the Main Robot control keys (given in the key guide) you can move the Rat droid around the building. If you steer the Rat into the computer room, shown on the map below, and collide gently with the Cyber computer inside, the Rat will establish an interface with Cyber I and will be able to swap programs with it. [] Swapping Programs ----------------- Once an interface has been established, you are given the option to: 1. Read a program into one of your rampacks 2. Write a program from a rampak into the computer 3. Disconnect from the computer Use the accelerate/decelerate keys to choose which option you want and then press the Fire key. Read Gives you a list of all the programs held in the computer's memory that the interfacing droid is allowed access to. This option will not be given if the computer is not holding any programs. Use accelerate (decelerate keys to select a program then press the Fire key. Now use the turn left/turn right keys to select which rampak you want to put the program into then press the Fire key. Note: you can overwrite programs held in a rampak. Write Lets you store programs held in your interfacing robot's rampaks into a computer's memory for safe keeping, and works in the same way as read. This option will not be given if your robot is not holding any programs. Disconnect Selecting this option and then pressing Fire will log off the computer and return normal control to your robot. You will find the file PasslTXT (Password-list.text) in the Cyber I. Read this file into one of the Rat droid's rampaks, disconnect from the Cyber and then press the 'goto menu' key. Running Programs ---------------- Some programs in a rampak such as RadarPRG work automatically while others like PasslTXT need to be run. To run a program held in a rampak, go to menu mode by pressing the goto menu key and use the next rampak/last rampak keys to select which program you want to run. Then press the run rampak key. The message area will indicate the result of running the program, if any. If you run PasslTXT, you will be given a list of robot entry passwords! Note these down as you will need these in order to gain access to the other robots in the game. Press the select robot key to regain control of the Rat droid and make your way to the entrance of the Central Computer Building. Once you leave the building, your view should look like the one below: [] Hacking Other Robots -------------------- Now that you are outside, your bird's eye view map of Cholo city will be operational (unless RadarPRG is being run). You should also see a small Hacker class robot travelling East does Bridge Street. Turn right, chase after the Hacket matching its speed and open fire with the Rat's ion cannon. After several direct hits, the Hacker will be temporarily paralysed and a confirming announcement will appear in the message area. Stop firing, otherwise the Hacker will be too badly damaged to be of any further use. That is unless you can find a way of repairing it later. Now guide the RAT up to the Hacket until they are touching, and an interface between the two will be established. You will now be given three attempts to enter the Hacker's correct password. If you get it wrong three times, the robot interface is cut, though you may try again. Once you have correctly logged on, you are given the robot's name and password and the option to swap programs in exactly the same manner as with the computers. (It is a good idea to keep important programs in more than one robot as once a robot 'dies', you will lose all the programs which it carried.) Switching Between Robots ------------------------ Once you have successfully logged into the Hacket, Disconnect from it and press the goto menu key. You will not find that Rizzo The Rat and Igor The Hacker are being alternately displayed in the view screen. You now have two robots under your control! You can speed up the process of examining the robots under your control by using the next robot/last robot keys. The damage and radiation gauges will alter for each different robot along with its position on the map and rampak contents. Notice how damaged the Hacker is after the Rat had paralysed it. A few more shots would have killed it! But as all robots have a self repair mechanism, the Hacker will be as good as new within a few minutes. Use the next robot/last robot keys until the Hacker is shown in the view screen and press the select robot key. You are now in control of the Hacker and can guide it around Cholo. Notice that the Hacker has no sights as it is not equipped with any sort of weapon. You now know enough of the basics to get used to the controls and get used to the layout of Cholo city with the aid of your pre-war map, before attempting to rescue the bunker dwellers. Land To Ship Teleporter ----------------------- Teleporter ---------- There are two types of teleporter in Cholo city: one to transport you from land to land and one to transport you from land to ship. To use a land-to-land teleporter; first move a robot on top of one teleporter pad and stop. You will hear a noise indicating that your robot is correctly placed on the teleporter pad. Then take a second robot to the other teleporter and place it on the teleporter pad; again, you will hear the correct position indicator a few times and then the two robots will swap places. Note: Land-to-land teleporters work in pairs. A given teleporter is only connected to one other. You will have to find out which teleporters are connected to each other. To use a land-to-ship teleporter, first dock a ship on the side of the pier closest to the land teleporter. You will be told once you are docked correctly. Then move the robot you wish to board the ship onto the land teleporter pad. You will hear the correct position indicator a few times and then the robot will board the ship. You will be told once, you have boarded correctly. To leave a ship, first dock the ship, then take control of the robot on board. The robot will be teleported to the land teleporter. Helpful Information ------------------- Be very careful around the shoreline, if a robot falls into the sea it will die and there is no way of getting it back. Be patient when trying to paralyse the flying eye. It will come down to earth every now and again. If the flying eye is up in the air and not moving, move to a new position some distance from where you are. This is because all robots are continually working out where to go next, and if you are where they want to go and they can go no other way they may just sit where they are. RadarPRG is invaluable when trying to find robots which have done out of view. Sometimes this may be the only way of finding them! The Guard robots always appear in groups of four patrolling an area. If you try to take a Guard robot out of its area, it will die. When you enter a Guard robot patrol area with a new robot, all the Guard robots in that area will be reset. Therefore, move all the robots you want into a Guard robot area before you start shooting. Otherwise, the moment you move a new robot into the area, the Guard robots will be back at full strength and your shooting would have been in vain. Prologue -------- In the beginning was the light, and the light grew brighter So that the sun paled in its majesty And in the end was a darkness and its evil was mightier Than the evil of Beelzebub. And after that the storms came and rains of foul pestilence. A wind blew that stripped the land of life And laid bare the very soul of Earth, So that nothing stirred but vapours of poison. And the land became ash and the waters sick, Defined with a filth that would not cleanse. And the sky itself was soiled with blood So that the Earth wept with the pain. Then the single seed, planted deep against unholy fire, Cracked and flexed, and began to stir at last. Saving A Game ------------- Remove the Cholo game disc and insert your saved games disc. Type in a filename up to six characters and press RETURN. Replace your Cholo game disc and press any key to continue playing. Note: You can only load an old position at the start of the game. If you want to restart or load in an old position, press SHIFT and hold down BREAK with the Cholo game disc in drive 0. Saved positions have the prefix C. Do not type in this prefix when entering an old filename. Game Controls ------------- Main Robot Controls: Z - Turn Left, X - Turn Right, : - Accelerate, ? - Decelerate, RETURN - Fire (only if weapon is fitted) Camera Controls: Z - Yaw Left, X - Yaw Right, ? - Pitch up, : - Pitch down Flying Eye Controls: < - Move Left, > - Move Right, RETURN - Up, SPACE - Down, ; - Pitch up, @ - Pitch down, Z - Yaw left, X - Yaw right Aeroplane Controls: Z - Roll left, X - Roll right, / - Pitch up, : - Pitch Down, RETURN - Throttle up, SPACE - Throttle back In-Menu Mode: ------------- : - Next Robot, / - Last Robot, RETURN - Select Robot, f0 - Save (You can only save if the last robot selected was indoors), Z - Last Rampak, X - Next Rampak, SPACE - Run Rampak Other Controls: ESCAPE - Goto menu, DELETE/COPY - Pause/Resume Game Credits ------------ For the BBC B, Commodore 64/128, Spectrum 48/128 and Amstrad CPC. Cholo was conceived, designed and programmed by Solid Image (S-I) who are Joey and Glyn Williams. Cholo Story by Mark Peirson Package Design by Assorted iMaGes Ltd Cover photography by OZ