<p>SunBurst is a 2D shoot-em-up-come-Elite style game where you must fly a spaceship around 4 different galaxies to eventually stop an alien race from taking over. You traverse galaxies gaining money by trading where you can upgrade your ship and buy new ones while completing various missions. To hyperspace to another galaxy you do not need to purchase any equipment, all you need to do is to fly to a special space station (one in each galaxy called JumpStat) and press 'H'. A hyperspace gate will open and you fly into it. Docking is equally simple, all you have to do is gain permission by pressing 'D' and if granted you fly into/over the space station.</p>
<p>The missions roll on one after the other so you don't have to be a specific status to trigger most of them. The radar is located to one side of the main screen as well as in the centre of the main screen, a sort of head-up-display. To pick up cargo, you need no extra equipment, just fly over the yellow cylinders to pick them up and sell them at any station.</p>
<p>Some space stations have games to play, either a casino or a phase-to-stun game, these can gain you money but equally use up your money.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#L0003">Copyright</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0004">Credits</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0005">Background</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0006">Effect of damage</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0007">Misc features</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0008">Tutorial</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0009">Ship's Energy</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0010">Targetting</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0011">The Mission</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0012">Cargo Ejecting</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0013">Mission Continued</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0015">Main keys</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0026">Misc keys</a><br>
<li><a href="#L0016">Glossary</a><br>
</ul>
<a name="L0003"></a>
<h5>Copyright</h5>
<p>It is a criminal offence to sell, hire, offer or expose for sale or hire or otherwise distribute infringing (illegal) copies of this computer program and any perons found doing so will be prosecuted.</p>
<p>In other words, it is illegal to copy any part of this software (except the QTM module and the Stasis modules which have their own copyright notices). One copy is permitted for personal use. The Acorn games scene is dying so don't completely kill it by copying this.</p>
<p><i>Now then, in my day we didn't have none of this fancy matter transporter stuff. Life was simple. You tried to keep yourself out of the way of the empire, and alive, with enough credits to your name to stop Shotgun, and Dribble from blowing your kneecaps away for not paying them back the money you'd been lent.</p>
<p>Aye, in them days you knew what a real fight was. None of this drone fighter stuff. We had to fight proper, with our bare hands. We used to have to press the trigger ourselves, none of this poncy mind control rubbish you kids now-a-days get off on. And if we were lucky, we'd come home at the end of day, with our spacecraft shot to bits, that's if you had your own space craft, which many of us didn't. And ah mam'd give us a pan of gruel and ah dad'd beat us round the head with a long stick, and we'd be glad for it.</p>
<p>Luxury! We didn't had a home, we had to live on an asteroid in space. We'd spend all day scrubbing our asteroid clean and stopping them Polaniss scum from mining it. We got paid half a credit each for that. And at the end of t'day, we'd come home and ah mam'd give us a pebble to suck and ah dad'd beat us to within an inch of our lives with a metal bar, and we were the lucky ones!</p>
<p>An asteroid! An Asteroid! I'd have given my right arm for an asteroid. We had to live on a piece of debris flying through space. We had to pay ah mam 5 credits to get up at the crack of dawn and spend the entire day, and half the night mind you, licking the debris clean and trying to stop the emperial forces from taking it over, and the Polaniss scum from mining it. An' when we'd come home ah mam'd break all our teath and make us eat them and ah dad'd flog us to death with roll of barbed wire. And that were on our birthday.</p>
<p>Debris? Debris! I'd have given my entire body to medical science for a lump of debris. We had to live on a particle of space dust traveling at the speed of light through hyperspace with no oxygen. We had to sell our soul to the devil every morning so as we could spend 25 hours a day wiping the atoms off our debris using the lenzs of our eyes. And we had to stop the hoards of aliens in hyperspace from devouring our space dust, and we had to stop the Polaniss scum from mining it and the empire's evil forces from taking it over. And when we'd come home, our mam'd spit in our faces and our dad'd rip off our arms and beat us to death with the soggy end. Then he'd fling our limp bodies on the fire so that he an' our mam could watch us burn. And that were if it were a good day....</i></p>
<p>Really grandad?</p>
<p><i>Well.... no. But we didn't have any matter transporters.</p>
<p>Aye, them were the days.</i></p>
<p>SunBurst (yep, we defy English by having a capital letter within a word), is a 2-Dimensional space shoot-em-up with 360° rotation. There a four worlds (Imperial, Poliniss, Virain and The Void) each with three space stations. The idea is to trade between the space stations and different worlds to gain money which can be used to upgrade your ship, buy a new ship or to buy new cargo. You don't need to buy any galactic hyperdrive to enter another world, what you have in each world is a 'jump station'. This station can create a jump gate upon request to jump to a world of your choice.</p>
<p>SunBurst is mission based so you are nearly always doing a mission with the ultimate goal of stopping a gigantic bomb from ripping a world to bits.</p>
<a name="L0006"></a>
<h5>Effect of damage</h5>
<p>Damage only takes (accumulative) effect when the damage has become critical. This is shown by the red section of the bar on the status screen.</p>
<p>Damage can also be seen as a series of LEDs next to the shields. Green is ok, yellow is damaged, but repairable, red is critical damage. The righthand LED is the status of the ECM and cloak if fitted.</p>
<ul>
<li> life support - If critical, then a counter showing the time until total life support lost will be shown in the message bar. You must return to a space station for repairs as quickly as possible.<br>
<li> engine - Reduces the maximum possible speed.<br>
<li> weapons - Reduces the firing rate.<br>
<li> scanner - If critical, the scanner may malfunction.<br>
<li> targeter - If critical, the targetter is unable to work out the distance to the target or its shield's strength.<br>
</ul>
<a name="L0007"></a>
<h5>Misc features</h5>
<p>Automatically swaps hud (Head-up Display) map to medium when main map is system - otherwise hud shows close range.</p>
<p>Auto-repair only works when shields are >66% ie showing green.</p>
<p>ECM will only work when fully charged.</p>
<p>Cloak will automatically turn off when discharged and cannot be activated again until approx 1/4 charged.</p>
<a name="L0008"></a>
<h5>Tutorial</h5>
<p>Load SunBurst by double clicking the !SunBurst icon. SunBurst will install on the icon bar.</p>
<p>Click MENU on the icon and explore the available options, noting the Status window and the information available there.</p>
<p>Click SELECT on the icon bar icon to enter the game. After the intro you will be returned to desktop where you can either load a new file or you can start anew. Click SELECT on the icon on the icon bar and you will receive your first mission and a few handy hints. Read them, scrolling the message down by moving the mouse, and clicking at the bottom of the screen to return to the game. To read a past mission message you can press F2 and select the message you want to read again.</p>
<p>You may press F12 at any time (except when reading messages) to return to the desktop.</p>
<p>You are in flight mode; your ship is the one outside the green rotating space station. You may enter the space station by requesting docking permission and then moving into it.</p>
<p>Use the ZX/' keys to fly around for a while. You may shoot anything you like with the "Enter" key.</p>
<a name="L0009"></a>
<h5>Ship's Energy</h5>
<p>Note that when you shoot, your laser charge gets used up. When you stop firing, it recharges slowly. The rate of recharge is controlled by your energy levels which are displayed on the right-hand side of the control panel around the centre (three green bars).</p>
<p>Press the = key to increase your laser energy level. Note how the laser recharges faster, but your top speed has now been reduced.</p>
<p>Press <-| (Backspace) to increase the energy level to your engines. You can now fly faster again, but your laser recharge rate (and shield recharge rate) are reduced (possibly to nothing).</p>
<p>If you attempt to fire with no laser charge, a handy hint will appear at the bottom of the screen to tell you which button to press to raise the level.</p>
<p>The - key increases the recharge rate of your shields. Use the - = and <-| keys wisely to control the flow of energy around your ship.</p>
<a name="L0010"></a>
<h5>Targetting</h5>
<p>Press T. This will set your current target to be the closest object. The small white cross flying round your ship points towards it.</p>
<p>Use R and Y to move through the targets available. Information about them is available in the target window at the top right. Your target will flash on screen and also on your close range and medium range maps (F9 and F10).</p>
<p>Use targeting to fly towards a distant object, and to target your missiles. (M to fire, if you have bought any).</p>
<a name="L0011"></a>
<h5>The Mission</h5>
<p>Press F2 to allow you to read the messages you have received, and click on the message you got when you first started.</p>
<p>It tells you that you have a package and that you need to deliver it to Research1, a space station in the Void system. Click out of the message and click again at the bottom of the screen to return to the flight screen.</p>
<p>Press F1 to go to the status screen. In the middle of the screen, under the secondary systems heading, you should find that you have a parcel. If you click on it, then it appears in the secondary systems display to the right of the screen. It should say that its status is OK.</p>
<p>When you buy or receive new secondary systems, you can select them from here. However, you do not need to have them selected to activate them.</p>
<p>On the right hand side there should be a list of available targets. Move the mouse over them and watch the map change. Click on Research1. It will appear in your system target window at the bottom right.</p>
<p>Research1 is not in the Imperial system, so you will need to use a hyperspace jump gate to get to the void system. You must first go to the Imperial hyperspace jump station. Each system has a similar station which you must use to jump out of the system.</p>
<a name="L0012"></a>
<h5>Cargo Ejecting</h5>
<p>On the ship status screen (F1) the left hand list shows all the cargo available. Unless you have picked any up, you shouldn't have any, and your hold will be empty. The space available is shown. If you click on a cargo type, then the next cargo you eject (with the tab button) will be of that type, if you have any.</p>
<a name="L0013"></a>
<h5>Mission Continued</h5>
<p>Click off the bottom or right of the status screen to return to the flight screen.</p>
<p>Press F11 to choose the map of the current system. You are the blue flashing dot, the other flashing dot is your current system target, and it should be the hyperspace jump station.</p>
<p>On the system map, the hyperspace jump station is in the top left of the map. Imperial HQ, where you are now, is on the right middle. To move across the system map, you must point your ship in the correct direction (facing the way you want to jump) and then press the J button.</p>
<p>You will probably be too close to another space object. Fly away from them using normal power. Hold J down until you jump.</p>
<p>Continue to jump until you get to the hyperspace jump station.</p>
<p>NB The map wraps round the side, so you can jump off one side of the map and come back on the other to get to your destination quicker.</p>
<p>You cannot just FLY across the system map. You must do a jump to move about it. Space is very large!!!</p>
<p>When you are at the hyperspace jump station, dock by pressing D to request docking permission. Then run into the station.</p>
<p>Press F12 to return to the desktop and save your game using the menu option. This option is only available while you are docked at a station.</p>
<p>Click on the icon again and launch your ship. Press H to request a hyperspace jump gate. Fly into it. You will find yourself in the Void Station near the hyperspace jump station (Near on the system map).</p>
<p>Your system target should now show Research1. Fly towards it, and dock there.</p>
<p>You probabley have to buy these things in the equipment shop under misc</p>
<ul>
<li>S - Auto-pilot, steers ship towards target when active. Press C to deactived.<i> NB needs autotracker to work.</i>
<li>C - If autotracker is fitted, this points ship towards target - hold it down
<li>A - If Attractor field fitted. This will attract the target towards the player (while the key is held down) as long as the target has no propulsion of its own, eg cargo, asteroids. Note that this is an experimental piece of technology and its powers of attraction are a little suspect!
<li>E - Electronic Counter Measures. This is an anti-missile device and its effect on any missiles in the area will vary depending on what type (of ecm) you have.
<li>Q - Turn cloaking device on
<li>W - Turn clocking device Off
</ul>
<a name="L0016"></a>
<h5>Glossary</h5>
<ul>
<li> Message Chip - A small blue computer chip which is used to hold messages. They can be encrypted in which case, the reader will need the key code to read the message.<br>
<li> Tight Band Message - A message sent via Subspace in a tight directional signal. The signal can not normally be picked up by anybody except if they are on the line in which the message is sent.<br>
<li> Subspace - Normal space, as opposed to Hyperspace.<br>
<li> Hyperspace - Hyperspace is a second dimention which is smaller than Subspace, which means that if you cross into hyperspace, then move 1 km, then cross back, you will have moved 10km in Subspace. Hyperspace Jumps are used to move quickly but they only graze the surface of hyperspace. To move between quadrants you have to move a long way and so you must enter hyperspace toatally. since it takes massive amounts of energy to open cross the hyperspace barrier, only Jump Stations can open Intersystem gates to and from hyperspace.<br>
<li> Virain - The Virain are a battle weary system of people who are holding out from the empire by using their small fleet to defend their home world. They are rumered to be engaged in several secret attacks against the emperial fleet and the emperial home world. They regard the Poliniss as allies.<br>
<li> Poliniss - Poliniss is a strong prospering trader world and the world you were born on. They trade with both the Virain and the empire. However, they are on the brink of joining the Virain to defend their old allies against the new force. But since you are a mercenary, you can't be expected to join in. Can you?<br>
<li> ZIF - Zero Insertion Force. An interface for plugging chips into a computer which will not break the legs off them.<br>
<li> Jump Stations - These are space stations which allow you to move into other quadrants by opening gates to and fom hyperspace when requested by passing ships. They reserve the right not to let you jump and are ultimatly in control of the system in which they are situated.<br>
