Elite
space trading and combat simulation game for Commodore 64, 1985

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INSTRUCTIONS
Command your Cobra space ship in a fantastic voyage of discovery and
adventure, a supreme test of your combat, navigational and
entrepreneurial skills.
Trade between countless planets, using the proceeds to equip your ship
with heat-seeking missiles, beam lasers and other weapons - corporate
states can be approached without risk, but unruly anarchies may be
swarming with space pirates.
Black market trading can be lucrative but could result in skirmishes
with local police and a price on your head!
However you make your money, by fair means or foul, you must blast
onwards through space annihilating pirate ships and hostile aliens as
you strive to earn your reputation as one of the Elite!
YOUR RATING AS A COMBATEER
To become an elite combateer requires great skill and great patience,
because expert trading is essential before the necessary more powerful
armaments and equipment available to the Cobra ship can be bought:
beam lasers, more missiles, energy bombs, a docking computer, galactic
hyperdrive, etc.
As you sail through space between the stars, and as you trade, you
will live with your combat rating. You will begin as HARMLESS. If you
survive your first skirmish you may be reclassified as MOSTLY HARMLESS.
But on the slow climb to a status level that reflects a growing talent
for combat you will have to engage many different ships, in many
different skirmishes, in the System Space of many different worlds.
You will then be classified as POOR, then AVERAGE, then ABOVE AVERAGE,
then COMPETENT. Then you will become DANGEROUS, then DEADLY. And at
last a few will become ELITE.
Your kills are photographed and transmitted by TS ComDirect to the
nearest GalCop Federal Law Centre. Your rating as a combateer will
increase in direct proportion.
Fly your Cobra craft wisely and carefully. Remember: other pilots may
be attempting to increase their own combat rating by attacking either
innocent traders, or police Vipers (the ships of the GalCop Police
Force). If you resort to such tactics (or if you adopt the fast-credit
routine and trade in illegal goods) then your combat rating may rise,
but your legal status: CLEAN -> OFFENDER -> FUGITIVE, will make you
Public Enemy Number One with the Federation Crime Monitoring Authority
and you will not be left alone.
CONSOLE READINGS
+----+------------+-------------------------------------+------------+----+
| FS | |||||||||| | __ ___________ __ | |||||||||| | SP |
| AS | |||||||||| | / \ __--- ---__ /* \ | || | RL |
| FU | || | \__/ / \ \__/ | || | DC |
| CT | || | < FLIGHT GRID SCANNER > | |||||||||| | 1 |
| LT | | \__ __/ | |||||||||| | 2 |
| AL | |||||||||| | E ---___________--- | |||||||||| | 3 |
| -> | | | | |||||||||| | 4 |
+----+------------+-------------------------------------+------------+----+
Front shields Status (Green, all safe; Yellow, Speed
Aft shields possible danger; Red, immediate Roll
Fuel level danger; Flashing, critical.) Dive/Climb
Cabin temperature Compass (Centres on planet or Energy bank 1
Laser temperature space station; when dot is not Energy bank 2
Altitude solid, object is behind you.) Energy bank 3
Missile status ECM detector - ECM activity near Energy bank 4
EQUIPMENT
Item Tech Level Price/CR
Fuel Always Varies
Missile Always 30
Large Cargo Bay Always 400
ECM System 2 600
Pulse Laser 3 400
Beam Laser 4 1000
Fuel Scoops 5 525
Escape Capsule 6 1000
Energy Bomb 7 900
Extra Energy Unit 8 1500
Docking Computers 9 1500
Galactic Hyperdrive 10 5000
Mining Lasers 10 800
Military Lasers 10 6000
HINTS AND TIPS
* Agricultural worlds need specialist food and raw materials, but
mostly basic machinery and spare parts. If they are rich, they need
luxuries and high tech industrial machines. They produce food in
quantity, raw materials and specialised 'organic' items, like some
textiles.
* Industrial worlds need agricultural produce, raw materials (for
refining), resource exploitation machinery, and (if rich) high tech
goods. They produce basic items of need for civilised worlds: beds,
seals and gaskets, power storage units, basic weapons, mass produced
fertiliser, mass produced medicines, etc.
* Trade in illegal goods (Slaves, Narcotics and Firearms) is the most
profitable, but may harm your Legal Status.
* Destroying pirate vessels earns a bounty, but attacking innocent
traders may harm your Legal Status.
* Once your Cobra is within automatic-docking and protective range of
the Coriolis space station, the scan console will display an S next to
the compass.
* Asteroids (and spacecraft!) can be mined with the appropriate lasers,
and the debris collected in fuel scoops.
* Thargoid (alien) battle-cruisers may 'hover' in Witch-Space
(hyperspace) and attack through-coming craft.
* Using an Escape Capsule effectively resets your legal status to
Clean.
DOCKING PROCEDURE
Docking with a Coriolis space station is never easy, unless the ship
is equipped with an automatic docking computer (in which case C will
activate it). The Navy Training Manual recommends the following
approach and dock sequence.
Locate the Coriolis station and approach it. The entrance tunnels to
all these stations face the mother planet. Fly near to the station and
then on towards the planet (monitoring altitude carefully). By turning
a half circle you will now find your ship orientated towards the
entrance.
Approach the final moments of docking at DEAD SLOW SPEED. Failure to
dock cleanly can be fatal but may simply result in your scraping the
sides of the aperture, with consequent loss of defensive shield(s) and
quite possibly your cargo. Manually control the Cobra's roll motion to
match the rotation of the Coriolis station. The entry port must be
nearly as horizontal as possible.
If docking is successful, the protective field across the station
entrance is penetrated, and a break pattern appears on the screen.
Berthing is handled automatically.
QUICK KEY CONTROL GUIDE
Space Flight Controls
Anticlockwise roll < - or joystick
Clockwise roll > - or joystick
Dive S - or joystick
Climb X - or joystick
Increase speed Space Bar
Decrease speed ?
Front view F1
Back view F3
Left view F5
Right view F7
Space Combat Controls
Fire laser A - or fire
Target missle T
Fire missle M
Unarm missle U
ECM E
Energy bomb C= [ Commodore Key ]
Escape capsule <- [ Back Arrow at upper-left ]
Docking computer ON C
Docking computer OFF P
Navigation Controls
Hyperspace H
Intergalactic jump ctrl H
Distance to system D
Cursor cross home O
Cursor cross control Cursor Keys
Galactic chart 4
Local cluster chart 5
Trading Controls
Launch from station F1 - only while docked
Buy cargo 1 - only while docked
Sell cargo 2 - only while docked
Equip ship 3 - only while docked
Galactic chart 4
Local cluster chart 5
Data on system 6
Market prices 7
Status page 8
Inventory 9
Find Planet F - only while docked
Game Controls
Game skip J
Freeze game Inst Del
Continue game Clr Home
Initiate save @ - only while docked
Other Controls
Note: these controls can only be used when the game is frozen
Keyboard recentering toggle A
Keyboard damping toggle Run Stop
Keyboard/Joystick toggle K
Reverse joystick Y-y channel only
Reverse joystick J-both channels
Docking music ON/OFF M
Sound effects OFF Q
Sound effects ON S
Flashing RED/YELLOW toggle F
Planet surface lines P
Start new game <- [ Back Arrow at upper-left ]
The keyboard recentering toggle (A) will disable and re-enable the
recentering in roll and dive/climb control. When recentering is
enabled, a small amount of climb (or clockwise roll) cancels any dive
(or anticlockwise roll) and vice versa.
The keyboard damping toggle (RUN STOP) will disable and re-enable the
automatic damping of a roll, dive or climb while in keyboard control.
The J key will reverse both channels of the joystick enabling it to be
held either way around. The Y key will reverse the Y-channel only so
that pushing the joystick forward will result in a climb and pulling
it back will result in a dive; roll will not be affected. The J and Y
keys can be used in conjunction.
The F key will make the dial information appearing in red flash red
and yellow. This will make the screen display clear for users with
black and white televisions or monochrome monitors.
*********
Sample prices and quantities for some systems. Price and availability
may vary ;-)
*********
Name Lave Leesti Diso Orerve Oresqu Erlaza On Rira
Econ Rich Ag Poor In Ave Ag Main In Ave In Ave Ag Rich In
Gov Dict Corp Dem Feudal Multi Dict Corp
Tech 5 11 8 6 10 6 14
Pop 2.5 5.0 4.1 2.5 4.0 3.0 6.0
Prod 7000 35200 13120 7000 17280 6720 52800
Rad 4116 3085 6155 5132 5142 2846 6678
Food 3.6/16 6.0/10 2.8/18 5.6/13 7.2/9 3.2/19 7.6/6
Tex 6.0/15 8.0/12 6.4/18 8.0/16 8.8/14 6.0/17 8.8/12
Rad 20.0/17 26.0/12 19.6/22 25.2/18 27.6/12 20.8/25 26.8/25
Slave 6.0/- 20.8/- 8.0/10 12.8/- 16.8/- 15.6/29 23.2/-
Liq 23.2/3 31.6/9 25.2/35 30.0/17 34.0/7 26.4/38 34.0/-
Lux 94.4/28 85.6/38 98.4/8 89.2/33 82.8/49 98.0/7 79.2/56
Narc 49.6/14 46.8/62 64.4/34 26.4/- 3.2/- 83.6/- 23.6/24
Comp 89.6/- 73.6/28 96.0/- 79.6/17 68.4/45 95.6/- 62.4/58
Mach 58.8/- 54.0/32 62.0/6 56.8/29 52.0/41 63.2/9 47.6/42
Alloy 33.2/10 40.8/35 37.6/21 35.2/21 34.4/23 45.2/40 38.4/35
Fire 75.6/- 61.6/7 81.6/- 68.0/- 57.6/23 82.8/- 50.4/31
Furs 52.4/17 84.0/34 52.8/28 62.4/- 69.6/- 73.2/15 77.6/-
Min 10.8/58 12.0/55 11.2/61 12.8/59 13.6/57 10.8/60 13.6/55
Gold 36.8/7 39.6/8 37.2/10 40.4/12 41.2/10 38.4/13 39.6/4
Plat 64.4/9 74.8/15 67.6/13 68.8/4 70.4/- 75.2/32 75.6/9
Gems 16.0/8 18.8/- 19.6/10 19.6/4 20.4/2 20.8/13 18.8/-
Alien 51.2/- 34.8/- 58.0/- 42.0/- 30.0/- 59.2/- 22.0/-
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Some useful keyboard shortcuts
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[PAUSE] - stop/continue game
[F9] - quick load game state
[F12] - quick save game state (still stored after leaving the site)
[F11] - toggle fullscreen mode
[ScrollLock] - quick switch control ports
[PageDown] - make a screenshot (320x200)