
                          XENON 2 - MEGABLAST


THE SCENE IS SET
No-onelikes a bad loser. And no-one comes more universally
despised than the Xenites. For a thousand years they have been
plotting revenge for their humiliating defeat in the last Galactic
Conflict. Now the very fabric of time is in danger... The Xenites
have planted five Time Bombs through history. Only you can
save the day - not to mention the Universe. The last time you
met it was a playground scrap.
This time it's war.

HOW TO PLAY

THE SHIP
The Megablaster is a small but perfectly formed battlecraft. basic
model is equipped with a thruster to aid movement, a simple blaster
for the purpose of destroying anything that moves, and a sheild to
absorb collisions. When the sheild run out, the ship is destroyed
with the next hit sustained. A squadron of 3 fighters are at your
disposal.

CONTROL
Plug your joystick into the hole WITHOUT the mouse in it, (Port Two).

PICK 'N' CHOOSE
The Selection Screen allows you to turn the in-game music on and
off by moving the joystick in the appropriate direction. you can also
start a one or two player game in the same way.

THE SCREEN
Your journey through time follows the process of evolution,
represented by five increasingly adurous horizontally scrolling levels.
Each has distinctive scenery and lifeforms - from the lowest form of
life in pre-historic times through to metallic mayehem in the
spaceways of centuries to come.
Sadly these creatures won't listen to reason. the powerful radiation
emitted by the Time Bombs planted at the end of the levels has
mutated the once harmless beings into crazed aggressors which are
now best shot or avoided. Some of the lifeforms you can expect to
encounter are found later on.

SCENERY
The scenery doesn't damage your ship - unless you get trapped in a
corner and crushed as the screen continues to scroll. You can reverse
the direction of the scrolling by pulling back on the joystick when
the ship is at the bottom of the screen, which creates a larger playing
area of proportions more oftenassociated with scrolling shoot 'em-ups
of the horizontal variety. However the effect is short-lived, so be
careful not to get trapped in the maze-like landscape of the later
stages.

BIG BOYS
A large guardian is found at the end of every level and each is
destroyed in a special way for you to discover. Only then will the Time
Bomb be defused. In the last four levels, large lifeforms appear not
only at the end but halfway through, and once again it's up to you to
find a means to an end.

CAPSULES
Bored by the basic blaster? Beef up the ship by collecting the tokens
left by Special Capsules which occasionally float across the screen.
Details of the more common Special Features can be found later on.

IT'S THE REAL THING
Creatures which bite the space dust leave behind Real Cash, the
quantity and value depending on the size of the thing destroyed.
Collect the Cash and use it to but equipment when you visit the shop.

SWOP SHOP
Megablasters are given two opportunities per level to sell or buy
equipment (once halfway through and again at the end). This is... well,
the shopkeeper. Its name is unpronouncable in our language but
loosely translated it means 'Crispin'. He doesn't speak very good
English, so it's fortunate that his garbled speech is translated in the
window below.

SELL
When you first enter the shop you are invited to sell the equipment
accumulated (it's displayed in the bank of video screens to the left).
Use the joystick to move the highlight to the desired position. Pressing
the fire button while the highlight is beneath an item doesn't sell it but
you are given a price (usually less than half of what you paid for it). If
the shopkeeper's offer sounds reasonable, move the highlight to
SELL at the bottom of the screen and press the fire button to make
the transaction. your bank balance will be credited automatically.

BUY
With the selling over, move the highlight to EXIT and press the fire
button to view the equipment up for sale. Over two-dozen articles are
in stock but only those you can afford are displayed in the bank of
video screens to the left. The procedure for buying equipment is much
the same as selling it, only your bank balance is debited accordingly.
An extract of the shop's catalogue is found later on.

DEATH
Should you lose a ship - all is not lost... Each level features six
Restart Positions, which means when you are unfortunate enough to
lose a ship, you won't be returned to the very beginning of a level
but to the last Restart Position passed.

HIGH SCORES
A table of the top ten Megablasters is displayed on the attract
sequence. To see your initials in lights, get a score big enough to get
on the table then move the joystick left or right to advance through
the characters available. Press the fire button to enter a character into
the table.

EQUIPMENT
There are three distinct types. These tokens activate weapons.

ADVICE
Crispin's tips on how to play, including which weapons may be most
suitable for a particular section. This information is more often than
not useful but sometimes misleading.

SIDE SHOT
Causes bullets to emit from the left and right sides of your ship when
the fire button is depressed.

ZAPPER
Erradicates everything on screen in a blinding flash of light.

SUPER NASHWAN POWER
A devilish taster device which provides a full 10 seconds of Total
Destructive Power !

HEART (SMALL)
Restores your ship's shield to half the maximum level.

HEART (LARGE)
Restores your ship's shield to the max.

These spherical features enhance and enrich your way of life.

SPEED-UP
Who needs go-faster stripes when you have this little baby, eh?

POWER-UP
Improve the strength of your shot by boosting your bullets to up to three
times their origional size!

ELECTROBALL
Sticks to your ship like Sharon to Darren until you hold down the fire
button... now you can move the ball (watch out - it's four times as
sensitive to control as the ship) and use it to bash anything bad.

AUTOFIRE
No need to wear out your trigger finger, just hold down the fire button.

DIVE
And you thought that parallax scrolling was just a frill. Press the Space
Bar to dive 'into' the screen. A timer will appear and count down until
from ten to zero, whereupon the ship will come back 'up'.
Alternatively, pressing the Space Bar a second time gets you back up into
the swing of things. However, be careful not to come out of the screen
and crash into any scenery.

Impress the girls with these exciting attachments.

MEGABLASTER
The boy-blazers' favorite shoots a stream of intense laser fire. A
maximum of three can be bolted on the front of the ship.

MINES (SMALL)
Hold down the fire button to leave a trail of floating death which explodes
after a second or two.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY
The lifeforms found on each level come in all diferent shapes and sizes,
with individual characteristics for you to learn. Here are some of the
beings you can expect to do battle with...

BRACHIOPOD
These shellfish creatures wiggle and giggle down the screen. Fortunately
they don't shoot at you.

FLATWORM
The candy-striped creatures twist and shout but don't bother shooting
at anything.

SEAWORM
These wriggly beings live in the rocks found in the centre of the first
level. They appear from the tubes attached to the rock and slither
around in a menacing pattern. Beware the pieces of body which shoot off
when shot.

TRILOBYTE
The crusty-skinned lovelies are understandably wary of your presence, which
is why they keep their distance before they shoot - and they don't even ask
questions later.

JELLYFISH
Pulsate around the screen having a good time. Kill them quick to ensure
they don't interfere with yours.

THE NAUTILUS SHELLFISH
Watch out for this crustacean's probing appendage - it spits mines in your
general direction. Find a weak spot and pump it full of laser fire until
the calcium-coated creature explodes into a shower of Real Cash.


END
