ACADEMY (TAU CETI II) Designed by Pete Cooke 1. Loading the program AMS CASS RUN" AMS DISC RUN "DISC" CBM CASS SHIFT RUN STOP CBM DISC LOAD "*",8,1 After loading you will see the title page appear on the screen with the message 'Press Fire or Joystick Button to continue'. You will now see the Main Menu for Academy appear with seven options. To the right of the menu is a small arrow. The keys O, P, S and X (or joystick) will move this about the screen. To make a choice simply point the arrow to the choice (it will be shown in inverse) and press FIRE. 2. About the Academy The Galcorp Academy for Advanced Skimmer Pilots (GASP) was founded in 2213. With an intake of over a hundred would be skimmer pilots a year, only a few meet the exacting requirement of flying and combat skills. In order to graduate from the Academy cadets must complete 20 missions, grouped in five levels of four. 3. A run through the menus The first thing to do after loading is to enter your name. Having entered your name the next task is to choose one of the four level I missions. Move the pointer to 'Select a Mission' and press fire. The screen will clear to the 'Select a Mission' submenu. A list of four missions will be shown. The mission selected at present is marked with a tick. To select another mission move the pointer to it and press 'FIRE'. Below the mission list is a set of three options. 'Info on this mission' will explain the task required and ships and buildings that you are likely to meet on a mission (System support means repair and refuelling centres). You can also call up information on the planetary system where the mission is set to find out about conditions on the surface. The program will also recommend a suitable skimmer for the mission. 'Load in Next Level' will be marked with a cross and cannot be selected until you have an average score of over 90% on the first four missions and are ready to load in another set of four. 'Selection Complete' returns you to the Main Menu. Select the first mission ('If it moves . . .') and call up the information on the mission and system. When you have finished move the pointer to 'Selection Complete' and press FIRE to return to the Main Menu. Having chosen a mission you will need to choose a skimmer for that mission. Move the pointer to 'Select a Skimmer' and press FIRE. The screen will clear to the 'Skimmer' sub menu. A list of six skimmers will be shown at the top of the screen. The last three skimmers are not defined and cannot be selected yet (see 'Design a Skimmer' below). The skimmer selected at present will be marked with a tick. To select another skimmer move the pointer to it and press FIRE. Below the list of skimmers are four options. 'Info on this Skimmer' gives a list of the equipment carried on the Skimmer (See Section 6 for more information on this). 'View Panel' allows you to see the panel layout. Press FIRE to return to the menu. 'Design Skimmer' allows you to put together a customised craft for a particular mission or group of missions. 'Selection Complete' will return you to the Main Menu. The recommended skimmer for 'If it Moves . . .' is GCS Lenin so select this skimmer and move the pointer to 'Selection Complete' to return to the Main Menu. Having selected a mission and a ship you are ready to try a mission. Move the pointer to 'Accept Mission' and press FIRE. 4. On to a Mission The screen will clear to show the Skimmer's instrument panel. On the top line is a 'Status bar' which will show the ships state (Docked), the mission score (000%) and the mission time (00:00:00). Below this are the Viewscreen, various gauges and dials and a small blue rectangle - the computer window. The message 'Skimmer Ready. Type help or some other command' will appear followed by an input prompt. You are now in one of the two game modes, called ground mode, and can communicate with the skimmer's computer by typing in one of a list of commands:- HELP Lists all commands available. SIGHTS ON Turns on skimmer's sights. SIGHTS OFF Turns off skimmer's sights. PAUSE Freezes the clock ('FIRE' continues). WAIT Advances clock by five minutes. EQUIP If docked allows you to refuel and repair the skimmer. STATUS Shows equipment status (whether damaged or not). CODES Allows you to manipulate any code pieces found in a mission. LOOK If docked with building gives information on same. DEAF Allows practice on D.E.A.F. unit. QUIT Abandons the mission in progress and updates scores. LAUNCH Sends the skimmer out onto the planet's surface. 5. Flight mode Having launched, the skimmer is controlled by single key/joystick presses. The default keys are as follows, but may be redefined from the main menu:- Left O (or joystick) Right P (or joystick) Accelerate S (or joystick) Decelerate X (or joystick) Fire Lasers Space (or joystick) Missile M Launch missile if carried. Amm A Launch Anti missile missile if carried. Flare F Fire Flare if carried. Bomb B Drop delay bomb if carried. View V Switch view - forward/left/right/rear. Height+ H Take skimmer up. Height- G Take skimmer down. Jump J Allow skimmer to use jump pads. Land L Return to Ground Mode (the skimmer must be on the ground to land). Infra-red I If carried. Status Report R As in ground mode. 6. About the equipment The skimmer can have several different items of equipment and armoury for a particular mission. Shields All skimmers are equipped with shields but they may have differing strengths. Lasers Again, always equipped but three types are available. Scanner Optional. Very useful piece of equipment which gives a 360 degree radar scan of the area around the skimmer. Missiles Optional. Missiles will home in on a selected target and are much more destructive than lasers. Flares Optional. On all but one-face worlds the sun will set after a period of time and the view will become dark. Flares will provide light for a short period. Amms Optional. Anti missile missiles will destroy any incoming enemy missiles. Unfortunately they will also short circuit any missiles that you may have fired. Delay Bombs Optional. Extremely powerful over a short range. Once dropped the internal timer allows roughly ten seconds for the skimmer to escape before detonation. Most useful against large stationary objects. Infra-Red Optional. Infra red provides a method of viewing the planet's surface at night. Compass/ADF unit Optional. The compass will give the craft's heading and the Automatic Direction Finder is usually locked on to the Galcorp Landing Vehicle (G.L.V.). Jump/Door Activator Optional. Jump pads are found in larger colonies and cities and allow ships to jump from one pad to another saving time. The jump unit will activate these pads. Many of the larger buildings may have docking facilities, the door unit will provide the correct decoding sequence to allow the skimmer to dock. Docking at high speeds is not recommended. Target/Tracking unit Optional. When the ship's lasers are targeted with a vessel the upper bar will show red. The central bar shows red if your skimmer is being tracked and the lower bar lights if your shield unit power is being drained. Gauges All skimmers are equipped with gauges showing Laser Temperature (lasers are prone to overheat if used continuously), Shield strength, Fuel remaining, Height and Speed). 7. Completing a mission When a mission is completed (a score of 90% or over) docking with the Galcorp Landing Vehicle will terminate the session. The display will return to the Main Menu. N.B. If your ship is destroyed your score will not be recorded. While on the Main Menu you can access your rating on each of the missions by selecting the 'Progress Report' option. This will display the four missions available on the level along with a score for each mission and an average score overall. 8. Designing a Skimmer Apart from the three skimmers in the program, it is possible to design and equip your own ship for any mission. To do this go to the 'Select a Skimmer' option from the main menu and select 'Design New Skimmer' On the left is a list of possible equipment and in the centre are two or three boxes showing whether the skimmer has the equipment/how many items the skimmer has/what strength the unit has. The present value is marked with a tick and on the right is a value for the weight of the equipment. To alter the equipment level, move the pointer to the correct box and press FIRE. For example, to equip your skimmer with a Scanner Unit, find the line 'Scanner Unit', move the pointer across to the box marked 'Yes' and press FIRE. A tick will appear against the 'Yes' box indicating that the item has been selected (It's a good idea to set all equipment to its lowest level first and work up from there). The two main limitations in equipping a ship are the weight of equipment and the total cost, both shown in cyan towards the bottom of the page. The basic skimmer hull will not carry a weight of over 100 Galactic Megatons and Gal-Corp's budget will not stretch to designs costing over 100M credits. If either of the two figures are over the limit they will show red and you will need to remove some items of equipment before continuing. When you are happy with the equipment selected, move the pointer to the 'Design Complete' option near the bottom of the page and press FIRE. This will take you into the 'Design Panel' section, where you can design the Skimmer's Panel layout. Choose a background texture and colour from the list and select 'Place Instruments' to actually lay out the panel. The screen will clear to the panel texture and colour and a window will appear in the top left hand corner with the options:- Place Viewscreen Undo last step. Move the pointer to 'Place Viewscreen' and press FIRE. The pointer will disappear and be replaced by a large white rectangle representing the viewscreen. Move this to the position you want and press FIRE to place it (you can go back to the previous menu at any time by moving up into the top line where the block will turn back into a pointer and selecting the Menu option). Having placed the viewscreen the pointer will return, move it onto the menu bar and press FIRE to place the next item. (N.B. you cannot place an item over the top of another, the item block will show yellow when an overlap would occur.) If you have chosen a large complement of equipment for a skimmer design you may find it a little tricky to fit all the items in the available screen space, a useful hint here is to tuck the viewscreen away in a corner of the display to allow you to place dials or gauges off to one side of it. After all the equipment has been placed select the 'Design Complete' option and press FIRE. Finally choose a name for your skimmer and type it in followed by ENTER. The display will return to the 'Select Ship' page with the new skimmer shown below the three built in designs. If you have already filled the three custom design slots you can select which design to replace by marking it before going to the 'Design New Skimmer' sub menu, otherwise the program will automatically replace the last design with any new one. 9. Loading in the next level In order to progress to the next level and the next block of four missions you must have an AVERAGE score of 90% or over. To load in the next block of mission data, move to the 'Select a Mission' sub menu from the Main Menu. The option 'Load Next Level' should now be marked with a tick. Move the pointer to this and press FIRE. The five blocks of mission data are stored on the second cassette in the package. Levels I, II and III are on the first side of the cassette and levels IV and V on the second. Wind the cassette to approximately the right place and press FIRE. When the computer finds a mission data block it will print 'Its name' and when the correct block is found 'Loading xxxx'. 10. Saving the game You can save your total game position at any time from the main menu by selecting the 'Tape Menu' option 'Save Game File'. Place a blank cassette (Not the Academy Game or Data tape) in the cassette player and press FIRE. To reload a saved game select the 'Load Game File' option from the same menu. Any user defined keys are saved with the data but note that you cannot save the game while in a mission. N.B. if Joystick option is selected for keys, then the Joystick must be connected when game is reloaded. It is also possible to save any Skimmers you have defined using the 'Save Ship Designs' option. All three custom-designs (if used) are saved to tape. 11. The View/Redefine Keys Menu This menu allows you to alter any or all of the keys used in Flight Mode on the planet's surface. A list of the present keys is given, followed by three options. Alter keys. Joystick/AMS Mouse. Return to Main Menu. If the mouse's connected use the right fire button. A question mark will replace the key for 'left' in the keys list. Just press the key you wish to use for Left, Right, etc. in sequence. If you make a mistake or choose impossible keys you can always return to the default key setup by pressing ESC. 12. Identification chart Below is a copy of the standard issue identification chart given to all new cadets on entry to the Academy. [Identification chart - see Academy_IdentificationChart.jpg] 13. The Mission Below are listed the current training missions in use at the Academy. . . . at the OK Corral. Ceti Revisited. Cipher. Don't Panic. Hades II. Hide and Seek. If it moves . . . Laserium. Meltdown. Mission Improbable. Needle in a Haystack. Out of the frying pan . . . Paz! Protector. Red Dawn. Softly Softly. The coal mine. The Sands of Time. The Shepherd. Where to Guv?