NIHILIST
(Electric Dreams)


LOADING
Ensure the cassette is fully rewound. Type LOAD"" and then ENTER, then
start the tape. This cassette can be loaded on 128K machine from the
"tape loader".


INTRODUCTION
The setting for NIHILIST is a seven-level mechanized complex patrolled
by droids of eight different ranks: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon,
Lambda, Pi and Omega. The player starts as an Alpha-droid, the lowest.
By killing as many other droids as possible, the player advances his
status through the other ranks.
Droids may be killed by using any of the weapons that the player can
find (initially you are unarmed). Firing a weapon drains energy, the
amount depending on the class of the weapon.
You can also destroy lower-ranking or equal droids by ramming them.
However, impact with superior droids will drain your energy. So your
first task is to search for the weapons rooms (which are heavily
guarded). Impact with Omega-droids is always fatal, even if you have
attained Omega-status.
Some areas are linked by airport-style automatic doors, which open as
you approach them.
There are also forcefields blocking the access to certain areas of the
complex - to disable these you will need to increase your clearance by
locating forcefield passes.
Impacts with forcefields will also cause energy loss. When your energy
falls to zero, your droid is destroyed.
You can recharge your droid's energy by interfacing with an ioniser;
the game starts with your droid next to one, and there's one on each
level. However, when an ioniser has been completely discharged, it
becomes unstable and will then drain your energy if you try to
interface.
A faster way to move around the complex is by using the teleport
system. A transmitter tile has arrows pointing towards it, while a
receiver tile has arrows pointing away from it.
No matter how many droids you kill, the only way to attain Omega
status is to drain all seven ionisers of their energy. At this point
you are promoted immediately to an Omega-droid and receive a Meson
Interruptor - the only weapon that can kill the other four Omega-
droids that are patrolling the complex. However, the Meson Interruptor
severely drains your energy, and since you can no longer recharge at
the unstable ionisers, this weapon must be used carefully if you are
to complete your mission of destruction and achieve the ultimate status
of NIHILIST.

GAME CONTROLS
The droid is operated with four direction controls and a fire button.
Players may use a suitable joystick, or the following keyboard
equivalents:
    LEFT    RIGHT     UP    DOWN    FIRE
     Z        X        L    Symbol  Enter
                             Shift
The space bar provides a pause/unpause function.

The fire button is used on the different types of special floor tile
as follows:

		[see NIHILIST.GIF for icons]

[TELEPORT]  Teleport to the             [PASS]      Obtain a forcefield
            matching receiver tile                  pass from the 
                                                    pass-tile

[WEAPON]    Exchange the current        [SCREEN]    Access the terminal
            weapon with the one                     screen for information
            on the weapon-tile                      and clues

If the droid is not standing on any of the above floor tiles, then
pressing FIRE will fire the current weapon in the direction of travel.


(c) 1987 Electric Dreams Software