Star Spores

Alien creatures from the Star System Nastira have visited our planet and are preparing to attack at any moment. This game is designed to train you in fighting the "Nasties". Six families of Nasties must be fought and destroyed to enter the bonus round.

Joysticks optional

Loading instructions:

See side of cassette.

Method of play:

When you see the title page, press any key or fire button on the joystick. Special Keys: To pause the game, press "P". To start it back up again, press ENTER. To abort the game, press BREAK and CLEAR at the same time until the title page appears. To play a keyboard game, use the arrow keys, and the space bar to shoot. Alien creatures from the star-system Nastira have visited our planet and are preparing to attack at any moment. This game was designed to train people in the techniques of fighting the "Nasties".

The Nasties: The Nasties appear on the screen in groups of eight, in cryo sleep, until they are called in for battle. Your job is to kill the sleeping Nasties. This requires two hits because of their extreme strength; one to prematurely "wake" it, and another to kill it while it is still disorientated. Mature Nasties are literally "killing machines" and because of this, it is not possible to kill one. For this reason, you have only been provided with fuel to last you until they mature. This fuel supply is represented by a bar at the top of the screen. When the Nasties mature, the "unhatched" ones will awaken and all will use every bit of power they have to destroy your ship.

The Nasties' Weapons: The Nasties can kill you in any number of ways, the most popular of which is the Kamikaze dive at your ship, causing mutual destruction. They may also choose to shoot at you, with one of four weapons:

Pellet Shots: Corrosive acid pellets, which destroy your ship on contact, and are fairly easily avoided.

Streamer Shots: Compressed energy rays, which also destroy your ship on contact. These rays always travel in a vertical path, so they are also fairly easily avoided.

Energy-Depleting Rays: These steal some of your ship's vital supply of energy and give it to the Nasties. It should be noted that your ship cannot survive after 5 hits from these shots. Because of this, your ship has been equipped with an alarm which will sound when you are within range of a Nastie capable of hitting you with one of these shots. A stronger version of the energy-depleting shot is used to steal all of the energy from your ship by mature Nasties. The only warning you get is an alarm indicating a shortage of fuel, warning of their imminent maturity.

The Nasties' Classes: There are seven classes of Nasties, and with the exception of bird class, which may appear at any time, they appear in groups with other Nasties of their own class. The Nasties name for these classes are difficult to pronounce so nicknames have been given to them:

Evil Eyes: These are nearly harmless Nasties which zigzag across the screen, as they approach and retreat, only occasionally shooting pellets at you.

Crosses: These Nasties are equipped with radar, and their favourite method of killing is collision. They also occasionally shoot pellets.

Qubes: The Qubes are multi-dimensional creatures, which go in and out of phase with this universe, shooting pellets fairly often. Notice that the Qubes are only vulnerable when they are visible in this dimension.

Stompers: As their name suggests, these Nasties track you down with radar and use their atomic feet to crush your ship. In case of failure, they are also armed with pellets.

Armors: These are Nasties which are similar in appearance to armour-clad tanks viewed from above. The Armors are very squeamish, and therefore tend to stay in orbit far from your ship. The weapons used by the Armors are streamer shots, fired from their turret-like filaments.

Psychlops: The Psychlops bounce around the screen in a set pattern, sometimes using their energy-depleting rays when in range of your ship. They also, although ineffectively, try to hypnotise fighter pilots by flashing.

Birds: These are informants to Nastie Command, which can appear with any level during the game and bring between 100 and 800 points when killed. During the bonus rounds, which occur after each cycle of the six families of Nasties, the point value may change. These creatures have no defences and do not attach you (unless they mature).

Scoring:


Dragon 32/64

Type "CLOADM", then Enter. The game will start automatically.