Nebulus
arcade platform game for Commodore 64, 1987
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scenario:
Down on the planet Nebulus all is not
well. Someone or something has been
building giant towers in the sea and
they didn't even apply for planning
permission.
In the offices of Destructo Inc. you
awake from your afternoon nap with the
phone almost erupting on your desk. The
boss is shouting about some little
destruction job he's got for you. Still
half asleep talking about the brand new
Mk.7 Mini-Sub he's got for you and the
words "pay rise" you're out of your
office in a flash, leaving the phone
dangling out of the window as the boss
goes on to talk about the extreme danger
being involved...
Controls:
Use a joystick in port two only.
During game:
Joystick left .... Walk left.
Joystick right ... Walk right.
Joystick up ...... Enter door or go
up on lift.
Joystick down .... Go down on lift.
Joystick fire .... Shoot snowball or
jump (if pressed
while walking).
P ................ Pause game, press
fire to restart.
RUN/STOP ......... Abort current game.
On the title page:
F1 ... Select ONE player game (default).
F3 ... Select TWO players game.
F5 ... Music/sound effects ON (default).
F7 ... Music/sound effects OFF.
Playing the game:
You arrive at the bottom of each tower
in your trusty submarine. Climb to the
top of the tower within the allowed
time. The towers are covered with
various ledges, tunnels and lifts. You
may also discover ledges which dissolve
when you stand on them and slippery
ledges which will push you
left or right.
Flashing blocks and bouncing balls can
be destroyed by shooting them, but the
silver rolling balls can only be stopped
in their tracks for a few seconds. All
other creatures are indestructible. If
hit by a creature, you will tumble off
the ledge and land a few levels down. If
you fall into the sea, you lose a life.
Entering the final door at the top of
the tower sets off the destruction
sequence. You are awarded bonuses for
the time left and for technique and the
tower will crumble into the sea.
When a tower has been destroyed, you get
back in your submarine and travel under-
water to the next tower. During this
time you can pick up bonuses by catching
fish. This is achieved by shooting air
bubbles to capture the fish, which can
then be collected.
Scoring:
Flashing block ... 50 points.
Bouncing ball .... 100 points.
Bonus points while climbing a tower.
Extra life every 5.000 points.
General hints and tips:
* The key to complete a tower is to
learn the most efficient route to the
finish. For the first few towers this
is straightforward. However, the later
towers give several choices, some of
which lead to dead ends. Make a map.
* Make a note where the dissolving
ledges are. Some need to be avoided by
jumping over them. Others have to be
fallen through to get anywhere.
* One of the main hazards are the
spinning aliens which fly across the
screen. These can easily be avoided by
careful use of the tunnels. If one
appears when you are near a tunnel
door, wait until the alien is fairly
close to you and then walk into the
tunnel. By the time you come out the
other side you should have avoided it.
* The spinning aliens usually appear
when there are not many other aliens
around, so you should be able to
predict their appearance.
* Shoot all of the flashing blocks and
bouncing balls as you will get an
extra bonus for each on completion of
a tower. You also get technique
bonuses if you do not get knocked
off ledges.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some useful keyboard shortcuts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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)