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EXILE ----- Docs typed by Rygar! AMIGA ----- Insert the game disk in drive DF0: at the WORKBENCH prompt. Once the title screen has fully appeared and the music is playing, you may press the SPACE BAR or JOYSTICK fire button at any time to begin the game. Press F10 in the game to select between different foreign languages for the text messages. ATARI ST/STE ------------ Insert the Game disk in drive A: and reset the computer. Once the title screen has fully appeared and the music is playing, you may press the SPACE BAR or JOYSTICK fire button to continue loading the game. Press F10 in the game to select between different foreign languages for the text messages. THE STORY SO FAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After yet another dangerous mission on yet another alien planet, you lie back in the commander's seat on the deck of your space-craft and look forward to being warm and comfortable on planet Earth once again. In your heart of hearts you know that one day soon you will get the calling, indescridable urge to explore new galaxies, discovering new planets and naming them after your favourite cartoon characters. But for now, you tell your commander's seat to recline to near- horizontal call up 'Eart Sound Effects - Babbling Brooks IV' on the ship's hi-fi, close your eyes and think of home. The relaxed harmonious envirement of your ship is suddenly interrupted by a crackling on the speakers. The INCOMING DISTRESS SIGNAL message is projected onto the main display screen, along with hundreds of seemingly random statistics. Suddenly the sub-ether comms link is activated..... "This is Commander Sprake of the Columbus Force Ship Pericles, on a mission to colonise the planet Phoebus. Here's the data....." The screen in front of you fills with even more numbers. You'll analyse them later. You think to yourself. Of course, you know all about the Columbus Force. After all, they gave you the training and experience that has kept you alive so far. They perform the most dangerous part of any colonisation procedure the initial setting up of a base. The rewards are immense, but they work with little, if any, back-up. You continue to listen to the disembodied voice extracted from the ether. "We're in real trouble down here. You must help. Not for our sake- we may be dead by the time anyone picks this up- but you MUST stop Triax! Please read this information......" The screen flickers. It now shows and old news bulletin about the genetic engeneer who was found to be tampering with the brains and bodies of helpless victims, turning them into ruthless terminators called himself TRIAX. He was convicted and sent into space for punishment, destined to drift helpless in the infinite void for the remainder of his life. You look at the date of the report. It is over a century old - surely Triax should be long dead by now. Yours thoughts are almost immediately answered by the Commander's voice. "We didn't initially realise that anything was wrong, since he had hidden himself in the Western system. Beneath a seemingly impenetrable door. The planet is riddeld with caves and tunnels, excavated by an ancient civilisation now reduced to some pitfull imp-like creatures. We set up base in some caves, away from the vicious winds on the surface. "We dismantled a large section of the Pericles for material standard procedure for colonising a new planet. It seemed for us to do so. The worst things we found were some kind of giant wasps, but they usually seem to stay out of the way, near to their nests". You shudder with reculsion -you have always hated wasps from the first time you regret losing all of your weapons in your last escape from the Acid Creatures of Ravinox 5. But you will try to help. After all, where would humanity be without having the explorers and colonists of the Columbus Force to satisfy insatiable appetite for expansion? And they'd pay good money too - you wouldn't need to sell your valuable personal transporter if you could rescue the Columbus Force personnel, or avoid their deaths! You listen on intently...... "We knew something was terribly wrong when our Destinator went missing, leaving us no choice but stay and explore further. We found that the mysterious western door had opened - the entrance of Triax's domain. The screams of the doomed exploration party still seem to be echoing around this hateful place. they had our plasma gun and the latest PX312 Blaster Weapon with them, but it did them no good against the shear magnitude of Triax's evil creations." You have heard of the PX312, but have only dreamed of posessing one. It emits a blast otf energy in directions without effecting the user. If only you could find it, and the plasma gun too. You'd have to get through that western door first, though. "There are terrible creatures down there, the result of Triax's vile experimentation. His lab is very deep down. He is creating a race of maggot creatures to infest the universe. He has a giant machine manufacturing them. You must destroy it! He must be stopped! Anyone! You must come! For pity's sake.....!" Sprake's voice, up to now the unnaturally calm voice of a condemmed man, seems to lose control. There are confused noises in the background, panicked voices intermingled with sporadic icer shots. Sprake barks out some futile orders in desperation, then there is a loud crashing sound, followed by silence. You hear the distinctive sound of a Transporter materialisation, then a new voice, filled with evil and malice. "Finally I have you, Sprake. You and your surviving crew will make fine fodder for my experiment. Humans are so much more interesting than the stupid imps and maggots I've been forced to use for the last hundred years. Come, we will now go to my laboratory." All thoughts of the warmth and comfort of Earth are now forgotten. You are heading for Phoebus...... SECURITY SYSTEM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *** Once you have located the correct code you must enter it, either by using the spacemen to hit the corresponding digit on the AMIGA or ATARI ST. For example, if you are given the code 4354, the two codes are 6167 (OUTER) and 0700 (INNER). If you are using a pirated copy of EXILE, watch out! The game will modify itself subtly to stop playing as the game progress, so it may not be immediately apparent that somtehing is wrong. You will enjoy playing the game much more if you have bought a genuine copy! ----------- When the game begins, you will find yourself in your spacecraft above the planet Phoebus. You see Triax materialise and steal your Destinator. Your ship is helpless without the Destinator - there is no other way of tracking the sub-space fractures which make intergalactic travel possible. The ultimate aim of the game is to destroy the Maggot MAchine, recover your Destinator, and bring it back to your ship, at which point you will blast away from Phoebus. You will get a large bonus for each member of the original launch party that you rescue from captivity in the process. Before youcan complete the task, there are many problems to overcome and puzzles to solve. There are often several ways to doing something. You must explore as much as possible, and you may experiment freely with anything in the environment. If you find yourself stuck, go back and explore - there maybe something that you missed the first time. You could also read this manual again, since it does include many helpful hints. GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section describes how to complete the first part of the game. this may seem unusual, but it is a insignificant small part of the whole game, and it is a good way to painlessly introduce you to some of the main control methods used in EXILE. It is not the definitive method of completing this part of the game - you can, for example, get more grenades before going underground. Feel free to miss out on a section if you want to explore by yourself. When you arrive at Phoebus, you will see Triax teleport into your ship, steals your Destinator and then teleport away again. That is the last you will see of the Destinator for a long time! Without it your spaceship is stranded, so you need to get out and explore. To manoeuvre, you may use either the directional thrust keys or the eight usual joystick directions. You can see the pair of airlock doors, but they are locked. To unlock the doors, you need to press the switch near the front of the ship - just bump yourself against it. You may accidentally press the switch a seconf time, which will lock the doors again. Once unlocked, the doors will open when you touch them. So just stand on the top door, fall through, wait for the second door to open, fall through, and you are out! If you now just drop straight down, you will land on the partially dismantled spacecraft Pericles. Now press the REMEMBER TELEPORT POISTION KEY (R). Nothing seems to have happened, but your teleport circuitry (your "valuable personal transporter") has remembered your position - this will be demonstrated later. Move to the right, off the end of the ship, down onto the ground, and remember your position again. Watch out for the occasional meteorite showers! Keep walking east (to the right) and wou will find a irritating (but harmless) bird. Keep moving, and you will see a granade. If you walk or fly against it, you will push it along the ground. You need to pick it up, not play football with it! Hold down the PICK UP KEY (<) and carry on pushing against the grenade until it jumps into your hand. Put the grenade into your pocket by pressing the STORE OBJECT key (S). The bird may knock you around a bit, but is doesn't actually harm you (you will encounter much nastier birds later on!) However, you will want to get away from the bird since it hampers you. You haven't any weapons yet. I know you have a grenade, but you need to keep that until later and it's a waste using it to blast a harmless bird. So you can't kill it, you can't grab it (some animals you will be able to pick up and carry) and if you fly back to the Pericles it will probably just follow you. Here is where you can use your personal transporter..... Lead the bird to the east, until it can't fly into the wind any further, then press the Teleport key (T). You will be teleported back to the last position you REMEMBERED (on the ground by the Pericles, well away from the bird). If you teleport again, you will end up at the position before that (on top of the Pericles). So, teleporting takes you back through the positions you have remembered with the R jey. Only the last four positions are stored as the "last resort" position, which you can always get back to in case if dire emergency. You will also be automatically teleported if your health is very low (it never lets you die - a valuable piece of equipment indeed!) - Read the TELEPORTING section of this manual for more details. Now fly back onto the ground to the east of the Pericles, Press R, then fly to the left, under the ship. You will see a passage down into the ground, protected by a defence gun. If you are quick, you will be able to get down the hole without getting "killed" (i.e. teleported back to the surface). If you are killed, you should re-REMEMBER your position (making sure you are in a surface place), and let your health recover before trying again. Since the gun takes a while to turn it's barrel to face you, it might be a good idea to try approaching from the other direction. When you get down the hole, move quickly to the left hand of the cave, out of the sight of the gun. To the right you will see another horizontal door blocking your path down. It is locked and there is no switch to open it, but you can blow open this door with your grenade (some doors are stronger than others - this is a week one). REMEMBER your position (R) and GET out your grenade (G). Now fly over to the door, press M to drop the grenade onto the door, then go back to the left to shield yourself from the blast. After a few seconds the grenade will explode, blasting the way clear. If you are caught in the aftershock you will "die", but the only result of this is that you will be automatically teleported (having REMEMBERED your position). Wait for your health to recover, re- REMEMBER your position, and then carry on down into the depth of the planet. Good luck..... THE CONSOLE ~~~~~~~~~~~ At the bottom of the screen, you will see the console (or control panel). This console shows the current status of all your vital equipment, as well as your health, score and elapsed time. It also displays important messages throughout the game. On the far left of the console are the six horizontal Equipment Status Indicators. The top indicator shows the amount of Jetpack Fuel remaining. The next four bars are your Weapons Status Indicators (numbered 1 through to 40). The sixth indicator shows your Space Suit protection field status. On the far right of the console, you will see the six pass-key slots. As you collect the keys from around the game, the relevant slots are filled. If you are holding a key in your hands, the corresponding indicator pulsates. Below the pass-key status area is your Health Indicator, shown in white. This indicator reduces are you get injured, until finally you are so badly hurt that you are automatically teleported away. In the centre of the console is the EXILE panel. It will begin to glow if you are injured, and also if your jetpack becomes clogged up with mushroom spores (see later in the manual for more information on the mushrooms). To the right of the EXILE panel is an indicator which illuminates when your Jetpack Booster is activated. Below the EXILE panel you will see your score and underneath that is the elapsed time panel in the scrolling message area and to the left are the joystick control icons (accessed by pressing the SPACE BAR). THE CONTROL SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following section of this manual describes all the controls used in EXILE. You have greatest flexibility you use the keyboard, but you can use a joystick for thrusting and firing, together with the keyboard for the extra functions (throwing, dropping, etc.). At first the number of keys available may seem daunting, but if you persist it will soon become second nature. Note: - Due to a hardware limitation, the ATARI ST is unable to accurately register more than two simultaneous keypresses, so you may experience a lack of responsiveness if you are trying to press three or more keys together (e.g. thrust up and left, as well as fire). If you prefer not to use the keyboard at all you can use the joystick for everything (however, uou always keep the opportunity of using the keyboard whenever you like). The joystick control system is icon driven. You need to press the SPACE BAR to get the first icon set, press it again for the second set, then a third time to return to normal thrust control. Move the joystick to highlight the required icon, and press the fire button to select it. For many functions, you need to keep the fire button held down when you use the joystick to complete a selection. When you release the fire button, the joystick will revert to normal "thrusting" mode. Note: - If you have an auto-fire feature on your joystick, it should be turned OFF! THRUSTING ~~~~~~~~~ FUNCTION:- KEY:- JOYSTICK:- Left Q Push Left Right W Push Right Up P Push Up Down L Push Down Thrusting causes a pressurised jet of air (or water, if you are underwater) to be blasted from your jetpack. You will see this jet as a stream of particles. The Jetpack uses energy - its energy bar on the console shows how much energy remains. If you are standing on the ground, thrusting sideways causes you to walk or run, using no energy. If you thrust up while standing on the ground, you get an extra upward impulse by jumping. If your Jetpack is out of fuel, or temporarily blocked (e.g. with mushroom spores), you can still run and jump. AIMING AND FIRING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ | | | | | | /ÿÿÿ\ | | | / | | ÿ|ÿ | | | | -- -- | | | | | | |/ | | | | | | | | | | \___/ | | | \ | | _|_ | | | +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ | | Aiming Mode Raise Aim Lower Aim Aim Sideways | |(Set 2, centre right) | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Once you have found, pick it up, and selected a weapon you can then fire it. It is fired in the direction you have chosen using the aiming controls (see below). Additionally, the fire key/button can affect some held objects - for example, if you are holding a grenade, you can use it to start and stop the countdown to detonation. Holding down the fire key/button gives auto-fire on the missiles, but you can fire more rapidly by repeatedly pressing it quickly yourself. NOTE: If you are using the joystick for thrusting, the SPACE BAR is used for icon selection, but if you are using the keyboard for thrusting, the SPACE BAR functions is the FIRE KEY. The Aiming function controls the trajectory of firing and throwing. You can raise and lower the direction (a stream of particles shows the direction of aim as you do this), and by holding the RAISE AIM and LOWER AIM keys together, you can show the current aiming direction without altering it. To aim using the joystick, select the icon and keep the fire button held down. You will see a stream of particles showing your current aiming direction. Move the joystick up and down to direct it, or sideways to centralise it. When you release the button, you will return to normal thrusting mode. To pick up an object, you must hold the PICK UP key as you touch the object in front of you by moving into it. You may also be able to grab an object that is on your head, or under your feet, as long as it is not actually behind you. To use the joystick, select the PICK UP ICON, and keep the fire button held dwon while you thrust against the object, until you have succeeded in picking it up. Not all objects can be held, and some objects will hurt you if they are carried (e.g. radioactive crystals - until you gain radiactive immunity). On the other hand, some creatures can be held, thus stopping them hurting you (try grabbing a wasp). * Try picking up the big fish......... Once you are holding something, you can drop or throw it. Pressing the THROW key launches the object in the direction defined by your aiming trajectory. Realistically, light objects are thrown further than heavy ones. Also, thrusting and walking are slower if you are carrying a heavy object. If you select the THROW or DROP icon with the joystick, you won't actually throw or drop the object until you release the fire button. This enables you to manoeuvre whilst you drop or throw. This can be very important, because you can throw objects faster by thrusting and throwing at the same time. USE OF POCKETS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+ | +--------+ +--------+ | | +--------+ +--------+ | | | /ÿÿÿÿ | | |ÿÿÿÿ | | | | |ÿÿÿÿÿ | | ____\ | | | | | | | \| / | | | | | | | | / | | | | ÿÿÿ| | | \/ | | | | | ÿÿÿ| | | | | | | | ___/ | ||______|| | | | |____| | ||______|| | | +--------+ +--------+ | | +--------+ +--------+ | |Store object Icon set 1 | | Get object Icon set 1 | | bottom left | | top left | +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+ You have four pockets into which you can store some carried objects. The pockets are actually stasis fields, desgined so that a stored opject is completely suspended in time and space (a live grenade won't explode, for example) and doesn't affect your weight. Pressing the STORE OBJECT key, or selecting the STORE OBJECT icon, will put the object you are holding into a pocket. If this doesn't work it either means the object is too large, or all your pockets are occupied. If it is the latter, you can still use GET OBJECT to see which item(s) you might want to discard. Pressing the GET OBJECT key will take an object out of your pockets and put it into your hands. If you are already holding something, the held object will (if possible) be put in a pocket first. Repeatedly pressing the G key will cycle through all the items in your pockets. Selecting the GET OBJECT icon with the joystick is similar to pressing the G key, except that if you keep the fire button held down you can cycle through the items in your pockets by moving the joystick up (just like repeatedly pressing the G key), or you can store the object away (like pressing S) by moving the joystick down. Release the fire button to return to normal thrusting mode. TELEPORTING ~~~~~~~~~~~ You will quickly find out the importance of your personal teleporting capability, and it is imperative that you learn to use it properly and get the best out of it. When you teleport, you go to the last position stored with REMEMBER. This position is then lost, so the next teleport will take you to the position remembered before that. You will usually want to re-REMEMBER your position immediately after you have teleported, in order to keep this position intact as your destination. Your teleport circuitry remembers only the last four positions, plus a "last resort" position, back at the ship. You can teleport voluntarily (by pressing the TELEPORT KEY) or automatically (when you are badly injured, in which case you lose points). Because of this, it is a good idea to only remember your position in places which are SAFE. If you are teleported automatically, you will want to recover without something immediately hurting you, and causing you to teleport again. You cannot teleport voluntarily if you are holding something, and if you are teleported automatically you will drop whatever you are currently holding in your hands. You may even have something drop out of your pockets, so try and teleport voluntarily before this situation occurs. If you arrive at your destination very hurt, there will be a short delay (a couple of seconds) before you are able to remember your position again. Listen for the sound effect when you press R. You can use your teleport strategically too. For instance, to get past a creature that keeps pushing you away, you could REMEMBER your teleport position, be pushed back, then TELEPORT. You will then be on the other side of the creature! WEAPON SELECTION AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +------------+--------------------------------------------------------+ | +---------+| +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ | | | /ÿÿÿÿÿ/ || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ÿ//ÿÿÿ || | F1 | | F2 | | F3 | | F4 | | F6 | | F7 | | | | ÿ || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------+| +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ +------+ | |WeaponSelect| Gun Icer PX312 PlasmaGun Protec- Jetpack | |(Set 1, cen-| Blaster tion suit (Also ESC| |tre left) | key) | +------------+--------------------------------------------------------+ Certain weapons and items (listed below) that you pick up are automatically attached to your spacesuit, and cannot be dropped again. Initially you have only your jetpack (not to be confused with the jetpack booster). These items use energy from their own batteries, but energy can be freely transferred between them. You can see how the energy is distributed by looking at the energy bars on the console. The weapon selection and charging functions have no effect until you have picked up your first weapon, and when you have picked it up you must remember to select it before you can fire it. KEYBOARD WEAPON SELECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To select a particular piece of equipment you need to press the relevant key. You can transfer energy to the selected weapon by pressing SHIFT together with the key corresponding to the item from which you want energy to be taken. For example, if you have Weapon 1 selected, you can transfer energy to it from the jetpack by pressing SHIFT together with the jetpack key. You will see the energy transferred on the console. If you need to recharge your jetpack from a weapon, you need to select the jetpack first, and then press SHIFT together with the weapon key. JOYSTICK WEAPON SELECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Firstly, select the WEAPON icon (Icon set 1, centre left icon) and keep the fire button held down. You can now choose your weapon by moving the joystick left and right or you can charge/discharge the weapon by moving the joystick up and down. Release the fire button to return to normal thrust mode. When a weapon (or the jetpack) is low on energy it will function intermittently. To gain extra energy, you need to pick up Power Pods. These are released when robots or gun turrets are destroyed, and they supply energy to the jetpack battery (from which you can charge the other items). Power pods become unstable and begin to pulsate if they are disturbed, so you should pick them up quickly before they burst into flame and self-destruct. THE GUN ~~~~~~~ This is the first weapon you will find, and fits into slot 1. It fires bullets which cause damage on impact and are quite light. It is quite a feeble weapon, but capable (with lots of shots) of stunning robots and turrets temporarily. THE ICER ~~~~~~~~ This fits into slot 2, and fires explosive energy packets which do more damage than bullets. Not surprisingly, it uses more energy than the gun. It is carried by a hovering robot, which you need to destroy to get the Icer. THE PX312 BLASTER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This weapon (slot3) causes a blast of energy away from your suit, damaging and pushing away anything that is close to you. It uses a lot of energy though. Just watch the energy drain away as you use it! THE PLASMA GUN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The weapon in slot 4 launches plasma balls (very hot charged gas), using about 10 times the energy of the gun. THE PROTECTION DEVICE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This item gives you greater protection from anything that hurts you. In doing so it uses up enrgy, and when it is low in energy it will lose its effectiveness, so you will revert to your normal strength. Watch the console to see when it needs recharging. The more you are being hurt, the more quickly energy will be used in trying to protect you. SCREEN OFFSET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To enable you to see more of your surrounding environment, you can move the screen by using the cursor control (arrow) keys, or by selecting the screen offset icon and moving the joystick (with the fire button held down). Pressing the left and right cursor keys together will centralise the screen horizontally. Pressing the up and down keys together centralises the screen vertically. BOOST ~~~~~ These functions are only applicable once you have picked up the jetpack booster attachment. The booster gives you the capability of doubling the amount of thrust from your jetpack, although it uses four times the amount power in the process (you can see it's status on the console). Once installed, you can switch it on or off as required and you can also activate it for short bursts of energy. The booster is particilarly useful (if not essential) when you are trying to carry a heavy object. WHISTLES ~~~~~~~~ There are two whistles to find an pick up. They are needed to control the fiendly robot "Chatter", who is initially deactivated. When you are able to, try feeding Chatter some Coronium crystals, and then using the whistle. LIE DOWN ~~~~~~~~ This option forces you to lie down on the ground - useful for getting through small gaps, or ducking enemy fire. To stand up again, release the key or joystick fire button. TURN AROUND ~~~~~~~~~~~ This option makes the spaceman turn around to face in the opposite direction. IF he is lying down, he will turn to face upwards. REPEAT LAST MESSAGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You will occasionally see messages scrolling along the bottom of the console. They are usually initiated when you touch something for the first time, telling you what it is. Sometimes there is a queue of pending messages waiting for you. This option will repeat the last message for you. MENU ~~~~ The menu screen gives you the option of loading and saving positions. This is described in detail later on in this manual. PAUSE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~ There is no visual indicator to show that the game has been paused, so if the game seems to have "frozen", try pressing this key! SCORING ~~~~~~~ To the left of the EXILE logo on the console is your current score. You gain points for killing enemy creatures, and you also scores bonuses for completing certain tasks, such as destroying Triax's Maggot MAchine, and rescuing crew members. If you are injured enough to be automatically teleported, you will lose points. Also displayed on the console is the elapsed time. This is the actual playing time taken to reach this point in the game. You lose one point per second from your score, so it doesn't pay to hang around for too long doing nothing! ********************************************************************** SOME THINGS YOU WILL SEE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --DOORS-- There are doors to be found throughout the game, hindering your progress. An unlocked door is easy to pass through - all you have to do is to touch it and it will open. If a door is locked, however, you will need to either find a way to unlocking it, or you may be able to blast it open with a grenade (there is only one type of door that can be blasted in this way). You can lock or unlock a door by using the RCD (see below), but only if you possess the key corresponding to that door. Sometimes there will be a switch that controls a door, or there might be an invisible trigger-point nearby which activates its mechanism. Different doors have different strengths - weak doors can be destroyed with a grenade, for instance, while the other doors require either the Cannon or a Coronium blast to destroy them. Ancient rock-doors cannot be affected by the RCD, even if you have all the keys. TURRETS AND ROBOTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are easy to spot, since they shoot at you at every opportunity! If you manage to damage a robot or turret badly enough, it will start flashing, indicating that it's "Stunned". This puts it temporarily out of action. If your weapon is strong enough you should be able to destroy it completely wit a few more quick shots. It may release a power pack, or maybe something more useful when it expires. IMPS ~~~~ Imps evolved from the remnants of the ancient civilisation which originally built the underground system of Phoebus. They are not very friendly - they bite you and throwing mushrooms or other things at you given half a chance. However, if you give an imp something it likes (or even if it steals something) it may give you something useful in return. SWITCHES AND TRIGGER POINTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You have already encountered a switch in your spaceship. Switches can lock and unlock doors, open and close doors, enable and disable transporters, and even change transporters destinations. You may be walking or flying through what seems an empty tunnel, then suddenly there is a sparkling effect, and a door opens or closes. You have encountered an invisible trigger-point. You can sometimes leave an object in the trigger area to keep the effect going (e.g. keeping a door open). TRANSPORTERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transporters are teleport booths. Any object that touches the scan- beam gets transported to the location programmed into it. The scan- beam stops if the transporter is deavtivated -either with a switch, or the RCD (if you have the correct key). GRENADES ~~~~~~~~ When a grenade is thrown or dropped, it will become "live", exploding a few seconds after the countdown begins. You can start the countdown without dropping the grenade by pressing the FIRE key. Press it again to stop the countdown. If you are quick, you can grab a live grenade, press the FIRE KEY to deactivate it, and then keep it for your own use. THE REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE (RCD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The RCD is a vital piece of equipment that you need to locate and recover. It was dropped by a member of the Pericles down through a trap door, into a fire. It is used to lock and unlock doors, or activate and deactivate some transporters. To use it, aim it at the centre of the door or transporter (using the AIM keys), and press the FIRE key. You will hear a sound and see it emit a particle stream, showing that it is functioning. Each door and transporter has its own activationcode, witch means you need the correct pass-key in order for the RCD to have any effect. You must be close enough for this to work, and the further you are away the more you care you need to take to aim it (just like old-fashioned TV remote controls found on earth). There are two pass-keys which you can find in the early stages of the game. If you use the RCD on a door or transporter, or touch a door or transporter beam, the corresponding pass-key slot will flash in the console. If you don't already posess it, this shows which pass-key (if any) will control that door or transporter. THE CANNON RCD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a second RCD which operates similarly to the first, except that this one fires the cannon (no pass-key is required). AIM it at the Cannon, then press FIRE. Watch out for the blast! FLUFFY ~~~~~~ Originally a pet of one of the colonists, Fluffy is a strange alien creature who has a tendency to squeak repeatedly when frightened by loud noises such as gunfire. Once he's befriended you, he'll stick by your side through thick and thin. Fluffy is extrememly agile, and can squeeze through very tight gaps to retreive objects for you.... MUSHROOMS ~~~~~~~~~ Mushrooms on Phoebus are really annoying, since their spores temporarilly block up your jetpack. There are two types of mushrooms. Some are of a hallucinatory nature, making you fall over helplessly when you are affected by them. The others just block your jetpack - you can walk through areas of these mushrooms. After a while your jetpack will automatically unblock itself. You can eventually protect yourself from these effects by finding and storing away a special immunity filter. Even without immunity, you can still PICK UP and STORE AWAY mushrooms, since they don't always disintegrate on impact. Whilst you are suffering from the effects of the mushrooms, the EXILE logo on the console flashes green. CORONIUM ~~~~~~~~ Coronium is a glowing, radio-active substance. There are small, unstable Coronium crystals, and large Coronium rocks. Touching any two of these together causes an explosion, the most powerfull explosion being when two Coronium rocks collide. You can manufacture Coronium crystals by burning the Mushrooms. Initially you get badly hurt if you touch Coronium, but eventually you will find a radiation protection pill which stops this happening. You will need to get a Coronium rock from the Eastern tunnel system to blow open the entrance to the Western tunnel system. HINT: There is a two-stage method of converting "Slimes" into Coronium ROcks. SUCKING CLAMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are GIANT clams scattered around the lower regions of the tunnel system. Each clam can generate a powerfull force, attracting or repelling anything in its sight (including you!). Some are fussy eaters, and only suck when they see their particular food. USING GUNS AS TOOLS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everything in EXILE has mass, varying from light wasps to large heavy boulders. Winds have less effect on heavy objects than light ones. Conservation of momentum applies on all impacts, so that a fast, light object may move something as much as a slow, heavy one. Because of this, you can use your guns as tools to move heavy objects around. The second gun (The ICER) has heavier projectiles than the first, so it will move things more effectively. Note, however, that this uses up energy very quickly. Most pieces of equipment you will find (keys, RCDs, Guns, Whistles, the Cannon, the Booster, the Protection Suit, the Destinator) are indestructable, so don't be afraid of damaging them. Feel free to shoot at them or blow them up in order to move them. If you are trying to move something heavy along the ground, it helps to aim slightly upwards as you shoot. This tends to lift the object off the ground, thus reducing friction. Aiming straight upwards as you shoot is an effective way of lifting something up into the air. SAVING AND LOADING POSITIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you enter the menu screen (by pressing HELP) you are given the option of loading/saving to DISK, or loading/saving to RAM. Use the joystick and fire button or the cursor keys and RETURN to select the required option. Select CONTINUE to return to the game. Saving a position to RAM is very useful during gameplay, since it it is a good idea to temporarily save your position before trying something dangerous or tricky. Imply select RAM SAVE or RAM LOAD. To save your position to disk you must have a blank, formatted disk to use as your EXILE data disk. You must REMOVE YOUR GAME DISK, place your blank disk, or a previously initialised EXILE data disk into drive A and select DISK SAVE. If the disk hasn't been initialised as an EXILE disk, you will be asked if you want this disk initialised. Once the disk has been initialised, it should only be used as an EXILE data disk. You will not be able to use the disk other than from within EXILE. When the disk has been initialised, you should choose one of the slots into which you want to save the position. Do this by either the slot's identification letter, or use the cursor keys and Return, or use the joystick and fire button. You can then type in a name, followed by Return, and the position will be saved. Pressing Esc during this process will cancel the operation. To load a position from disk, place the EXILE data disk into drive A: select DISK LOAD choose the required slot (as described above) and press Return.