For centuries, the beast has fed on the souls of mortals who have been tempted by his evil ways. In 2005, all nations of the Earth signed an agreement now known as the “Peace on Earth” treaty. Approval of this document, sparked a virtual end to war and crime on the planet. The beast and his demonic hordes, hungry for souls, are now retaliating, reclaiming what they have lost. We want you to get our people back!
GAME PLAY
OBJECTIVE
NetherWorld is divided up into multiple abysses. Your mission in each abyss is to pick up the required number of souls, as shown in the upper left of the screen.
SOULS
The souls that you are trying to save, are not very helpful in facilitating their removal from Hell. In fact all they do is stand there flapping their arms, telling you where they are. If there are not enough souls remaining to complete the level, then "No Win" will appear under the soul counter.
NETS
Since the souls are obviously too scared to climb aboard you ship themselves, you have a handy net affixed to the bottom of your ship. There are three different levels of nets, and due to budget restraints, you start off with the cheapest net available. It is possible, though, to grab a net off of some demon, after you lay waste to his bodily form. The incremental levels of nets allow you to pick up souls at greater speeds. When you start off, you need to come to an almost complete stop, while the maximum net allows you to pick them up at nearly full speed. There is a speed indicator on the net icon, represented by a skull. If you see the skull, you splat the soul. Your current net level is indicated in the lower-left corner of the screen.
DEMONS
Since you are in Hell, there are demons everywhere. Unfortunately, the demons are not very friendly, and look on you as a snack. There are several different races of demons, and you will have to learn the characteristics of each to be able to play efficiently. When you destroy a demon, the contents of his pockets tend to spill out. Surprisingly, these demons carry around some pretty cool stuff, so it is pretty beneficial to pick it up.
GUNS
With the seemingly overwhelming odds against you, there is one advantage that you carry. This advantage is in the form of dual mini-guns mounted to the front of your ship. Unfortunately, due to the same budget restraints that affected you net system, you start out with bottom-of-the-line guns. It just so happens that some of the demons carry mini-gun upgrade kits (pretty convenient, don’t you think). The upgrades will increase the amount of damage that your guns inflict, and also increase the cone of destruction in front of you. The current gun level is indicated in the lower-left of the screen.
THE BEAST
Just when you thought you had enough problems, there is also the beast. Luckily, the beast needs a lot of beauty sleep, and you know exactly when he will wake up. There is a clock on the top edge of the screen, just left of the radar. When this clock reaches zero, it is time for the beast to rise and shine. When the beast wakes up, he tends to be a little grouchy, so you should stay out of his way.
RADAR
Another little goodie that you have is a radar. This radar is essential to your survival in Hell. The radar will tell you whenever there are souls or demons nearby, but for some reason, the beast doesn’t seem to show up.
CONTROLS
You can use any combination of the keys below. The keyboard is set up for you to use both the numeric keypad and your cursor keys. All keys are simultaneously active, allowing you to use whichever combination you feel comfortable, without having to reconfigure the keyboard.
Accelerate (8, Up Arrow, A)
Increases the speed of your ship.
Decelerate (2, Down Arrow, Z)
Decreases the speed of your ship.
Turn Left (4, Left Arrow)
Rotates your ship to the left (counter-clockwise).
Turn Right (6, Right Arrow)
Rotates your ship to the right (clockwise).
Shoot (Space Bar)
Unleashes the awesome power of your mini-guns.
Pause (Esc)
For those times when nature calls.
COMMANDS
USING THE MENU BAR
To gain access to the menu bar, simply move the cursor to the top of the screen. When you move the cursor out of the menu bar region, the menu bar will disappear. You may type the key equivalent for a command, even if the menu bar is not visible.
File : New (-N)
Starts a new game.
File : Open... (-O)
Opens a save game file from the disk, and lets you resume playing at the level you left off.
File : Save (-S)
Saves information about your current game, so that you can return to it later. This command only saves the status of your ship as you entered the current abyss.
File : Save As...
Lets you save the game, specifying a new name for the game. See also File : Save.
