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INSTRUCTIONS CONTENTS Credits Loading Instructions Introduction The Aim of the Game Starting Extractors Playing Extractors Playing the Game Mining Zargon Bank and Shop Completing a Level Bonus Asteroids Further Help and Hints Credits Design and Amiga Programming Toby Simpson Additional Amiga Programming: Rickey Costas PC Programming at East Point Software: Chris Bradley & Kevin Cook Additional PC Programming and Testing at East Point Software: Martin Cook, Neil Beresford, Mark Rundle & Mark Stamps Graphics: Jason Riley Additional Graphics: Jon Baker & Tony Heap Box Illustration: Nik Coole Art Director: Mark Rafter Book Text: Martin Oliver Narration: John Henry Hughes, Pete Searles & Gina Landor Music and Sound Effects: Richard Joseph Audio and Video Production: Chris Homer Audio Post Production: Pete Murphy Map Design: John Lemming Additional Map Design: Jason Riley Quality Assurance: Steve Murphy, Kelly Thomas, Jim Archer & Dave Sturgeon Production: Gina Blakemore Associate Producer: Toby Simpson Producer at East Point Software: Mark Stamps Producer: Chris Homer Loading Instructions... The game should be run from MS-DOS. Log on to your CD-ROM drive and type SETSOUND. This will allow you to specify your sound card, if any. Then type XTRACTOR. If your CD-ROM drive is E:, for example: E: SETSOUND XTRACTOR The game will then load. Introduction Many thousands of years ago, the Flinarjian people co-existed peacefully with the other races upon the Planet Zarg. The Flinarj were very different to the other extractors on the planet, uninterested in the competitive world of mining, they concentrated their skills on creating machines and technology that enabled them to live in comfort on the inhospitable surface of the planet. However, the wealth brought to them by their capabilities made the Flinarj a target of the warlike Quarrior nation. Led by General Igneous Crust with tectonic efficiency, the Quarriors were soon encamped outside the Flinarjian capital city - their final stronghold. The Flinarj were not beaten yet. Just as the Quarriors were about to launch their final assault, a sound like thunder split the air and the earth trembled. The Quarriors could only watch in amazement as the Flinarjian city shook itself free from the planet and floated up into the sky. At the same time, twenty five other land masses were ripped from the surface of Zarg and joined the capital city in space. Over the years, these lands became known as the Hanging Worlds of Zarg. The Planet Zarg is almost entirely run by its mining interests. It is a planet with a rich history, and varied inhabitants who have evolved to take maximum advantage of their surroundings. The mining operations (and therefore pretty much the whole planet) are run by the Zargon Mineral Trading Authority, the ZMTA. The continued mining of the planet resulted in a new system, introduced several hundred years ago, whereby only one month of frenzied Digging was allowed each year - the Glorious 412th. Recently, however, the interests of the ZMTA have risen slightly higher, several thousand meters higher to be precise, to the Hanging Worlds of Zarg. This is particularly relevant since the recent invention of the ZMTA's flying machine. The Flinarj have not been idle, however. Seeing this potential threat, a vast shield has been installed around their central capital, powered by many shield generators, one built deep inside each and every Hanging World. Now the call has echoed through the galaxy for expert extractors - their goal; to deactivate the shield generators, and then return the floating lands back to the surface of Zarg. The reward is more money than an extractor can possibly carry. The reward reflects the risk. The Aim of the Game You have to find and de-activate each of the Flinarj's shield generators. There is one in each of the 30 levels. The levels are made up of 25 Hanging Worlds, and 5 Bonus Asteroids. The Asteroids are booby-trapped, and will explode a matter of minutes after your arrival, so it is vital to work as quickly as possible to locate and destroy the shield generator. The shield generator is destroyed using explosives, which can be bought at any time in the game so long as you have the money required. Having destroyed all of the generators, it will be possible to enter the Flinarjian capital city. Destroying the final generator here will switch off the floating land machine, and all the Hanging Worlds will slowly descend back to the surface of the Planet Zarg, completing the game. Unfortunately this job is not made easier by the gross inefficiency of the ZMTA's flying machine. You will need to locate, and mine, enough fuel on each level in order to fly to the next. The only levels where you do NOT need to find fuel are the Bonus Asteroids, which sit between Hanging Worlds, so you still have enough fuel to continue having destroyed the shield generator. The Hanging Worlds have been left to their own devices now for 2000 years, and the creatures which have evolved on them are different to say the least. You will have to defend yourself against all sorts of strange things, including the Privateers. The Privateers stole designs for the Flying Machine and are rumoured to already be up there, paid by the Flinarj, to defend the capital city for as long as possible from the ZMTA's mercenaries (that is, of course, you!) In order to make your job easier, the ZMTA have provided access to a varied selection of mining equipment, available at a competitive price. (The idea being, that if you fail in your mission, at least you've gone some way to increasing their vast fortune...). Starting Extractors After the Introduction sequence, the game will cycle around between the main menu, and a demonstration mode, which shows Extractors being played on a variety of different levels. This can help you to see what sort of dangers you may be expected to face. The Extractors Main Menu has four options, Start Game, Load Game, Trainer Mode and Zargon Book. If you are not already at the Main Menu, pressing the Select button will take you to it. Here is what the four options do: Start Game - Starts a new game of Extractors. Load Game - Allows you to continue with a previous game of Extractors which you have saved. Trainer Mode - Playing Practice. Trainer mode allows you to practice playing Extractors in complete safety, to get the hang of controls without worrying about dying. Zargon Book - The Zargon Electronic Book. This is a guide to the Hanging Worlds of Zarg prepared by the ZMTA with all of the information that they know. It is invaluable for checking on the sorts of creatures you may expect to meet, and the environments you will have to work in. Playing Extractors When you start a game, you will firstly have to pick your team of extractors. You have to pick 5 extractors, and you have 3 races to pick from. Each extractor you pick costs you 100 Zogs of money. You start the game with 600 Zogs, and you don't have to pick all five if you don't want to. The races are: Habbish Strange spiritual characters with little patience. They get bored quickly, and are prone to sitting down for no apparent reason and praying to the Lord High Habborg. Performing this act gives them great stamina, but unfortunately it is totally unpredictable. The Habbish are very intelligent. Boids Descended from the ancient F'Targ race, the Boids have exceptional stamina and heal from wounds very quickly. They are not very fast at digging, however. Raldein The ultimate mining machine! They dig fast, and they are strong. Unfortunately, they tire quickly. You can pick any combination of the 3 available races to make up your team, and it is a good idea to have a mix of them all, as they are all suited to particular tasks. You pick your team by selecting the race you want with the Left and Right Selector controls, and then use the Select button to buy an extractor. When you have finished selecting your team, use the Screen Exit button. If any of your team die during play, you will get the opportunity (cash permitting, of course) to replace your casualties between levels. It is in your best interest for them to survive as long as possible, as extractors become more experienced for each level that they survive, gradually becoming stronger. In later levels extractors can carry their own weight in jewels! Having picked your team, a scene setter is shown, and the game will commence. Your extractors will assemble outside your ship and await your first command. If you leave them for long enough, they will eventually get bored and think of something to do themselves, which may not necessarily be part of your master plan, so beware! You now have to control your extractors, and find and then destroy the Flinarjian Shield Generator. Your ship is your home base, and provides a gateway to the ZMTA shop and banking facilities. Your extractors can walk, run and jump, as well as some other duties such as digging, picking up objects and putting them down. You have to select which extractor on your team you are controlling, who will be shown with a yellow animated pointer. Playing the Game You use the keyboard to control your extractors in-game. The keys F1 to F5 will select members of your team, F1 will select extractor number 1, for example. When you have selected an extractor, you can then use the left and right arrow keys to walk, and space bar to stop. If you hold down SHIFT or ALT when pressing the left and right keys, the extractor will run instead of walk. The up arrow makes the selected extractor jump, if you are running when you select jump you can jump twice as far. The Return key is particularly important, as it brings up a menu for the object you have selected. If this is a stick of dynamite, for example, there will be one option to start the timer. When the menu is shown, you can use left and right arrow keys to select which menu option you wish to choose, and then the space key to select. Pressing Return a second time will get rid of the menu. The menu for an extractor contains the following buttons, reading from left to right; Teleport This teleports the extractor to the next telepole. You have a telepole built into your home base, so you can always use this to return to your ship. You can buy additional telepoles from the shop. Wait Makes the current extractor wait. Dig Makes the current extractor dig. You then select the direction of digging using the keyboard. Diagonals can be selected using the Home button, for up and left, PgUp for up and right, PgDn for down and right, and End for down and left. The left, right and down arrow keys allow digging for those directions. Search Instructs the current extractor to wander around and pick up any jewels or fuel that may be lying around. Pick up Picks up the object next to the extractor. Drop Drops the current object. Cycle Object Cycles through the possessions that the current extractor is carrying. This is used to choose which item will be dropped with the drop button. Use the up and down arrow keys to choose which item you wish to drop. All of the above extractor menu options have keyboard short-cuts, these are: D Dig T Teleport S Search G Get (Pick up) R Release (Drop) W Wait In addition, the Tab key cycles between objects currently on screen, selecting each that is available in turn. You can then use the Return or Enter key to access the menu for that particular object. P or the Pause key will pause the game. The Escape key can be used to abort your current level and return to the main game menu. Other keyboard controls for different areas of the game, such as the shop and race picking sequence are as follows: Select Button Space Screen Exit Button Escape Left and Right Selector Left/Right arrow keys The Space bar can be used to skip past some screens also, and abort long running animations which you do not want to see. Mining As you explore the Hanging Worlds, there will be opportunities to mine both jewels and fuel. The rocks give you clues to where the jewels might be found. These rocks contain colours, which tell you what sort of jewels you might find. So a rock with green and blue in it might indicate that emeralds and diamonds can be found nearby. Any jewels or fuel found can be traded at the ZMTA bank and shopping facility. There are several kinds of jewels you may encounter. These range from rubies, the least valuable, up to jennite. Jennite is the hardest to find, and most valuable jewel which can be found on Zarg. The Zargon Bank and Shop To enter the bank and shop facility, make one extractor walk into your ship, and jump up. Any fuel, or jewels which that extractor was carrying will be traded in automatically. Once the trading process has been completed, you can look through the wide range of items available in the shop. You can buy any amount of equipment provided that you have the required money and can carry them. The Electronic Book contains a wealth of information about the equipment available in the shop. Completing a Level When you have found the fuel and blown up the shield generator, you can leave the level by going to the shop. You can tell that you are ready when the "Game State" indicator on the control panel goes green. You then have the option to save the game at this point by pressing the Screen Exit Button. This is recommended! Waiting, or pressing the Select Button will move on to the next level. A review of the map follows, allowing you to browse around the map and see what it looks like. Use the Directional Control Pad and Post Mortem Accelerator to look around the map. Use the Screen Exit Button to continue. If you have suffered deaths, then you will have the option to replace casualties, otherwise you will proceed directly to the next level. Bonus Asteroids Every five levels, you will encounter a Flinarjian Storage Asteroid. These are primed to explode soon after your arrival, so you will have to work fast to locate and destroy the Flinarjian Shield Generator before your time runs out. You do NOT have to mine fuel on these levels. A count-down of available time is shown on the control panel. Further Help and Hints The Zargon Electronic Book contains a wealth of information about the planet Zarg, including a list of all items available from the shop, and details of the plants and creatures you may expect to find. It also has a list of helpful hints and tips, gathered by the ZMTA when testing their new Flying Machine. Indeed, the version of the book given to you contains the special edition free History of Zarg section!