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- QUAZATRON
- Hewson Consultants / Graftgold Ltd, 1986
-
- CONTROLS : Keyboard, Cursor, Kempston
-
- Note : Quazatron is played diagonally, except when in grapple mode.
- If you are using a joystick it may help to rotate it 45 degrees
- clockwise.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- AIM : You control KLP-2 (Klepto), a droid assigned to deactivate the
- hostile alien droids of Quazatron. You must destroy the alien droids
- by laser fire, by pushing them to destruction, by ramming them (if
- you are stronger than they are!) or by grappling with them using your
- experimental Grapple Device. This allows you to dismantle the droid
- and use their parts to increase your own power and facilities. In
- addition, the alien computer system can be tapped to provide level
- maps and data on the droids and their various parts.
-
- WEAPONS : Your weapons can be fired using the fire button or by
- pressing W to activate autofire. Weapons fire in the direction KLP-2
- is facing. There are many different weapons which can be taken from
- enemy droids. The weapons can only be used while KLP-2 is moving.
-
- GRAPPLING : Decide on your target droid, make KLP-2 stop moving and
- press fire until the yellow message at the bottom left shows GRAPPLE
- and the G light flashes. Then you can ram the enemy droid to dismantle
- it. To turn off GRAPPLE mode, press fire again. To successfully grapple
- you must overcome the enemy droid's security circuit. You must use your
- Pulsers to turn at least 7 of the 12 rectangles on the central bar to
- your colour. You have a few seconds to move left or right to select
- the side of the circuit which you wish to use. Your target uses the
- opposite side to fight back. Move your Pulsers up and down the wires
- and activate them with the fire button. Avoid Terminators, Joiners and
- Colour Switchers. Aim for Splitters and Auto Pulsers.
-
- If you succeed in interfacing, the status of the enemy droid's Drive,
- Power, Weapon, Chassis and Devices are displayed. You can "steal" any
- of these parts for your own use by selecting them with up/down and
- pressing fire. Damaged elements are unusable. If you win overwhelmingly
- in the grapple game, the parts of the droid are less likely to be
- damaged. You should choose parts wisely. A weak power unit, for
- example, is likely to drain quickly if used with heavy weaponry.
- Similarly a poor drive unit will not support good shields.
-
- The alien droids are classified from A-1 (the highest and toughest)
- to X-9 (the lowest and weakest). The higher classes tend to have the
- best parts. The droids' identifiers are stamped on their breast plates.
- (Look out for the programmer's own "pet" droid, the A-B Andrewoid...)
-
- LEVELS : To change levels, find a lift square and press fire. A side
- view of the city is shown. Move up/down to the required level and
- left/right to exit the lift.
-
- CONSOLE ACCESS : Find a console and press fire. Use left/right to
- select an icon and press fire. You will see four icons:
- 1. Robot - Return to game
- 2. Diamond shape - 3D map of current level
- 3. Side view- side elevation of citadel
- 4. Query robot - droid data library
-
- LIBRARY : Use left/right or up/down to move to the next screen. Press
- fire to exit. You can only view data on droids of a similar or lower
- security class to your current class. To improve your status you must
- grapple successfully with a higher class of droid. The first screen
- displayed shows your current status including data on Weapon, Drive,
- Power, Chassis and Devices.
-
- ENERGY : Your energy is shown by the rotation speed of the head of
- KLP-2. KLP-2's expression changes from happy to upset as he runs out
- of energy. Energy may be replace from energy points on some levels
- but your maximum energy allowed continuously falls as your power unit
- burns out under the burden of your Grapple Device. Replace power
- units for longer life. Extra equipment affects the rate at which your
- energy is consumed.
-
- ALERT STATUS : The light on the right of the lower panel is the alert
- status monitor. Disabling droids in quick succesion causes the alert
- status to go to red and more points can be scored.
-
- POWER DOWN : When the last droid on a level is destroyed the citadel
- lights automatically go out.
-
- COMMENTS : "One of the best games ever to come out on the Spectrum."
- RATING : 94% (CRASH #29, June 1986)
-
- NOW : A superb game - one of the best 8-bit games of all time, in
- my opinion (although ex-C64 owners may prefer Paradroid, on which
- Quazatron was originally based).
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- KEYS : Left/up - A, S, D, F, G Joystick left
- Left/down - B, N, M, sym shift Joystick down
- Right/up - H, J, K, L Joystick up
- Right/down - Z, X, C, V, caps shift Joystick right
- Fire - ENTER Joystick fire
- Autofire - W (toggles on/off)
- Pause - P (Not in Grapple mode)