EBONSTAR DOCS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is the year 3000 A.D. Mankind has reached out out and conquered the stars, building colonies on millions of worlds throughout the galaxy. Crime, war, and poverty have been abolished by an interstellar computerized bureaucracy that tends to the needs of every citizen. Man has even tamed the ancient scourges of disease and aging. With advanced medical care, death occurs only through the rarest of accidents, or by individual choice. In this golden age of leisure and decadence, where every citizen's whim is satisfied by machine, a new breed of thrillseeker has arisen. Now, every galactic cycle, thousands of sportsmen and millions of spectators gather at the EbonStar in the hub of the galaxy. There, an immense battle to the death evolves around the edge of the EbonStar's synthetic black hole. Both the timid and the brash are destined to perish in EbonStar's crushing gravitational field. In successive melees, losers are culled out, alliances are forged or shattered in an instant and friend becomes foe. As the battle escalates, a certain victory can crumble into a sudden defeat. Fame, wealth, and everlasting glory await the ultimate victor! Thousands will compete, but in the end, there can be only on Champion of EbonStar! BASIC GAME PLAY You are a gladiator piloting a small, one-man starship through a series of bouts around the rim of the EbonStar. You have one weapon, an energy bolt that repels anything that it strikes. To defeat your opponents you must out-maneuver them and drive them into the EbonStar with repeated blasts of energy. At the same time, you must evade your opponents missiles while you skirt past the relentless tugging of EbonStar's enormous space-time curvature. Every time you hit an opponent with your energy bolt, drive a foe into the warp, or destroy the EbonStar, you accumulate points. At the beginning of the game, you start with five ships, extra ships are gained every ten thousand points. The point values of defeating your enemies grows as you battle your way through the higher rounds. GETTING STARTED Start up EbonStar the same way you start a standard Workbench disk. If you don't know how to do this, refer to the manual that came with your Amiga. When the EbonStar title screen comes up a list of options will be displayed. The arrow keys on the keyboard are used to select the number of players and the type of controls used to pilot their ship. Initially, all four spaceships will be inactive except for green which will be set for Keyboard Mode. This is the standard configuration for one-player play. Green can be made inactive if another color ship is desired. The UP and DOWN arrow keys are used to move through the list of ships, and the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys are used to select the controls for each ship. These ships can be controlled using the keyboard, "absolute" or "relative" joysticks (see controls), or mice. Each method of control has both advantages and disadvantages; practice with all of them to find the one that suits you best. Once the controls are selected, pressing the SPACE BAR will start the game. A demonstration game can be viewed by pressing RETURN from the title screen. Pressing the SPACE BAR from the demonstration game will return you to the title screen and selection of ships. ENERGY BOLTS Hitting an opponent with one of your energy bolts does not kill then; it merely repels them away. Your energy bolts rebound from the perimeter of the playfield, so single and multiple bank shots are possible (and a valuable tactic). Since you may only have one energy bolt on the play field at a time, firing again will "recall" the old bolt and cause it to be refired. Therefore, you must not refire if you want a bolt already on the playfield to travel far. On higher levels, special weapons will also become available. ARCH Arch is the computerized referee and overseer of the EbonStar competition. At the begining of each round, it flies on the screen and generates the EbonStar. Throughout the course of combat the Arch will release an inexhaustible supply of enemy ships and drones that are designed to destroy you and your opponents. DESTROYING THE EBONSTAR Shortly after the EbonStar is generated, the Arch will project a maintenance beam into the center of the EbonStar. A precise shot will disrupt this channel of energy, causing the EbonStar to destabilize and explode. For this shot to succeed, it must be precisely aligned along the beam of energy. Inaccurate shots will rebound, or fall harmlessly into the EbonStar. Perfecting this shot requires careful timing, accuracy, and patience. Destroying the EbonStar is the only way of advancing to higher scoring levels, new opponents, and new obstacles. ENEMIES AND OBSTACLES Arch will launch a variety of increasingly dangerous drones and aliens. Avoid them or repel them into the EbonStar to gain points. The most dangerous of your opponents is Nemesis, a mammoth alien starship that originates in an antimatter universe, and arises out of the depths of the EbonStar. Any player who collides with it or is struck by its fireball will be destroyed. Each time Nemesis is knocked back into warp or destroyed, it will be faster and more dangerous the next time it appears. Other enemies and obstacles are: Rival: Pink. These are the least formidable of your enemies, they turn and move slower than the players and fire regular energy bolts. Inflictor: Purple. These are quite a bit more dangerous, as they turn and move faster than the players. They also fire regular energy bolts. Assassin: Orange. Assassin turn and move at the same speed as the players, but fire guided energy bolts that are very accurate. GravBubble: Blue. This distortion of space cannot be penetrated by anything and serves as an obstacle to both you and your enemies. MagnePod: Color varies. Attracted to player of same color. Colliding with MagnePod repels play as if hit by an energy bolt. Quark: Color varies. Steers towards player of same color. Colliding with a Quark repels the player as if hit by an energy bolt, but always towards the EbonStar. TeslaSphere: Blue. Moves erratically. When a players is first zapped by a TeslaSphere he loses the ability to fire. A second zap takes away the ability to thrust. The controls are regained in a few seconds unless player is destroyed by a third zap. Nemesis: Orange and Red. Chases the closest player, fires lethal fireballs, and explodes upon contact. Nemesis cannot fire, or be repelled into the EbonStar until it is far enough from it & drops its shield SPECIAL WEAPONS Certain objects Arch releases are special weapons, that when caught by a player temporarily change his weapon from regular energy bolts into the special one. These weapons may be accumulated and saved. Gyron: Orange and Red. Grants twenty guided missiles. Pulsar: Orange and Red. Grants one lethal fireball. If guided missiles are also stored, the shot fired will be a guided fireball. Spark: Blue. Grants one lightning charge to player. The lightning charge destroys all enemies within a certain radius around the player. CONTROLS Keyboard Using the keyboard you can control your ship with four controls, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Thrust, and Fire. Each ship has a cluster of keys on the keyboard used to perform these actions. As many as four players can play on the keyboard simultaneously. It is suggested that you place the index and middle fingers of your left hand on the Rotate Left and Rotate Right keys and the index and middle fingers of you right hand on the Thrust and Fire keys. Rotate Left/Rotate Right: Causes your ship to rotate counter-clockwise and clockwise, respectively Thrust: Turns on thrusters, pushing your ship in the direction it is facing. To stop, release the thrust key. Fire: Fires an energy bolt, or refires an old one already on the screen. Five other functions are accessed by holding down the Right-Amiga key and then pressing the special key desired. They are: ^A: Toggle music off/on ^S: Toggle other sound effects off/on ^Z: Pause game until selected again ^Q: Quit game and return to title screen ^T: Start game with Tournament Rules Joystick Ships can be controlled by joysticks by selecting one of the joystick options on the title screen. Joysticks may be used in either Port One or Port Two, or in both. There are two options in using joysticks: absolute or relative controls. In the Absolute mode, your your ship turns and moves in the direction you move the joystick. In the Relative mode, moving the joystick left causes your ship to rotate left (counter-clockwise), and moving your joystick right causes your ship to rotate right (clockwise). Pressing the joystick foward causes your ship to accelerate. Press the trigger button to fire. Joystick Movement Absolute Mode Relative Mode Left Face Left & Thrust Rotate Left Right Face Right & Thrust Rotoate Right Foward Face Up & Thrust Thrust Down Face Down & Thrust No Effect Mouse To control a ship using a mouse plug the mouse into either Port One or Port Two. Choose th corresponding mouse option on the selection screen. To make the shipface a certain direction slide the mouse in that direction. Small, steady movements usually give the most precise control. To thrust, press the left button. To fire, press the right button. TOURNAMENT RULES From the title page you may start a new game under Tournament Rules by using the special function key described above. The Tournament setting is desinged to allow multiple players to concentrate on competing against each other, instead of having to fend off hordes of drones tossed out by Arch. While playing a tournament game Arch will not launch any enemies, but will toss out special weapons occasionally to make things interesting. Arch, however, has no control over the appearance of Nemesis. KEYBOARD CONTROLS The following are the keys used if you will be using the keyboard rather than a joystick or mouse. Left Right Thrust Fire | | | Yellow F7 | F8 | F9 | F10 ---------------------------------------------- Red . | 3 | 6 | 9 ---------------------------------------------- Blue Ctrl | Shft | Alt | Amiga ---------------------------------------------- Green N | M | , | . | | | End...........