Copyright: Helpfile Generated by VB HelpWriter!


Introduction

Space Monkeys is a game about searching, trading and fighting aliens in an effort to recover a big yellow space banana . The main screen shows your ships in the upper right, a big space area called the galaxy , a few buttons and a picture of you, the Space Monkey.

Basically it works like this: you have four ships with chimps, apes and gorillas (your Space Monkeys), 10 coconuts to trade, a handful of cards to do battle with and help in finding your banana and your resourceful nature to find what you're looking for. Sound silly and simple? It is.... in the beginning.

How To Play

Your Spaceships

Planets and Aliens

Attacking Planets

Playing Cards

Strategy and Hints

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


How To Play

Moving Around the Galaxy

 You have two ways to move a space ship  around the galaxy: by clicking on the screen or using the navigate  dialog box. The first way: click on a picture of a ship in the upper right corner of the screen. Next, click somewhere on the screen where the stars are. See? The space ship warps out from where it was and warps to where you clicked. The second way: click on the picture of the space ship to move. Next, click on the button with the picture of the satellite dish. A dialog box will pop-up. Select a planet  to navigate to and click on the ok button. Your ship will warp  out and warp on to the planet you select.

Switching Ships

 To switch from one ship to another, just click on the ship picture in the upper right of the screen. The background around the ship will change to red and the screen will change to that ship's galaxy  (if it is in a different galaxy).

The Viewer

There is a little box in the middle right of the screen. The rectangle in that box represents what you can see on the screen. When you find planets and wormholes , the viewer  will display them as little yellow and blue dots respectively. Move the rectangle around with your mouse by clicking and dragging. The screen will change to show a new part of the galaxy.

Scanning

You won't get very far in locating the banana  without scanning. To scan, just click on your ship in the galaxy. A circle will begin at your ship and expand outward. Every time the circle encounters a planet or wormhole, it will appear. Once you find a planet, it will be remembered in your navigation list. You have to remember yourself where wormholes are located.

Depending on what type of scanners you have, when you land on a planet, you will see different amounts of information. You can buy better scanners for each ship as you get the cash  to do so.

For more information, see Your Spaceships

Landing on Planets

To land on a planet, click on it. The ship will move over the planet and a planet dialog box will appear. The alien  who occupies the planet will appear along with some planet information (at least the name and a picture, but more will appear if you have better scanners) and alien information. At the bottom of the dialog box, you can choose to scan (that is what you are doing when you land on the planet), trade (to get some goodies to trade with other aliens or sell some stuff to get some cash) or news (if the alien likes you, he might tell you something useful). Once you are done playing diplomat with the alien, you can either leave or attack. If you choose to attack, you cannot change your mind later --- you will have to follow through with your attack . If you choose to leave, you can come back any time.

For more information, see Planet and Aliens.

Moving Through Wormholes

To move through a wormhole (and so on to another galaxy), click on it. By the way, wormholes are those exit signs you see in the galaxy. If you don't see any, you either haven't found any (you must scan to find them) or they are off the screen (use the Viewer to move the screen around to one of the blue dots). Note that only the current ship moves through the wormhole!

Cards

 Cards help you mainly in attacking aliens, but they also can be used to move around the galaxy, give you free cards, more cash, better scanning, and other neat things. To play a card, click on the card button. Your hand will pop-up. Next, click and hold on any card title (your cards are stacked neatly on top of one another in order). The card will pop to the top and show a brief description of what it does. In short, you can have three types of cards; attack cards (blue with a number on them), special attack cards (yellow) and space cards (green). To play a card, click and hold on the card you want to play and drag it into the galaxy. When you let go, the card will play. But before you get too hasty, you really should read the help about how and when to play cards.

For more information, see Playing Cards

Options

 Under options you can choose to turn the sound effects on or off. Just click on the appropriate radio button and then click ok.

Help

 To get back to this help at any time, just click on the big question mark button on the right side of the screen.

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Your Spaceships

More Information about Spaceships

 To see the contents of a ship , double click on its picture in the upper right corner of the screen. A dialog box will appear which shows what's in the ship. In the middle at the top is the total cash  you have available. You begin with $10,000. Below that is a picture of the current spaceship . To the right of the picture, a number shows how far your scanners scan. Below this (still in the middle of the dialog box), you see three circles --- red, yellow and green. These are the colors of your troops. Your start with 10 of each --- chimp (the weakest), ape (medium) and gorilla (strongest). The current troop has a red background. To select a different troop, just click on the circle.

Attacks and Defenses

 As you change between troops, the left side shows how much a single unit costs and below that, you can see the level and type of attacks and defenses. There are 15 types of attacks and defenses (from left to right): lightning, laser, fire, water, ice; magnetic, physical, mental, sonic, radiation; acid, poison, air, slime and explosion. If you forget what they are called (or are just curious), move your mouse over the picture and press the right mouse button.  A little yellow hint box will appear showing the type of attack or defense.

Above the types of attacks and defenses, you will see a number next to a spin control. The number represents how tough that type of troop is --- ranging from 0 (really bad) to 10 (really good).

Buying and Selling Troops

 To buy more troops, just click on the up arrow of the spin control. If you have enough money, you will get another troop. If you don't, you won't. If you want to sell a troop, click on the down arrow. You cannot sell your troops below 10 (the inital starting number). If you did, who would fly the ship? Who would save the day? Who would be left to find the banana ?

Modifying Troops

You can modify each troop type on a ship. That is, you can add attack levels, attack types, defense levels and defense types. To add a level, just click on the up arrow next to attack or defense. Each level will cost you $200 per troop. You can sell a level by clicking on the down arrow. For each troop, you will gain $200. Of course, selling levels makes your troops weaker, but hey, sometimes you just need the cash.

To add attack types or defense types, click on the picture of the type you want to buy. Each type costs $500 per troop. To sell a type, click again. You get $500 back per troop. But just note this: you cannot have more than 5 types of attacks and 5 types of defenses for any one troop. The reason? We don't want to overburden monkeys with fancy weapons and armor, now do we? They have enough to worry about as it is --- flying around the galaxy , getting into trouble and just general preservation of the Monkey Kingdom.

For more information on how attacks and defenses make a difference, see Attacking Planets.

Buying Scanners

 To buy scanners, just click on the check boxes (it only works if you have the cash to buy additional scanning options). Each enhancement costs you $2500. To sell options, just click on the check boxes. Now, what do these scanners do for you? Well, when you land on a planet , they will tell you this:

Total Cash: it will tell you the total cash the alien  has. If you attack and defeat him, you get the cash.

Total Cards: you'll know the total cards the alien has. Again, you beat 'em, you get 'em.

Troop Count: tells you how many troops the alien has defending the planet (24 max, but just a couple would be easy pickings, right?).

Alien Name: tells you the alien's name before you crush him. Well, it may not seem too useful, but when you get news about somebody, it is good to recognize them. And the name tells you something about what types of attacks and defenses might be smart.

Alien Toughness:This is an estimate of how tought the alien is compared to the troops you have on your ship. It ranges from "Extreme" (this alien can kill you quickly) to "Weak" (send in the clowns).

Resource List

In the bottom right corner, you will get a list of the resources  you have available. Every ship has access to the same list of resources. You begin with 10 coconuts (can you believe they would send you out into space with just 10?). When you meet other aliens, you can buy and sell resources. Sell them coconuts, buy some gold coins, gems or cubes of jello (there's always room for jello!). You'll find all kinds of goodies in the galaxy and some will make you a tidy profit with the right buyer. But the only one you need to be concerned about (really), is the banana. Oh, what you would do for just a glimpse of the fabled banana!

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Planets and Aliens

Scanning

  When flying through space and scanning, (click on the ship  in space to scan), you will find many planets and wormholes . To see the name of a planet , click on it with the right mouse button. A little yellow hint box will give you the name. This name also appears in the navigate  box. When you have landed on the planet by clicking with the left mouse button, your ship will warp  there and a box will pop up. You'll get a good look at the alien  and some information about the planet. You can also choose to trade with the alien or get some news.

For more information on scanning planets, see Your Spaceships

Trading

When you click on the trade radio button, one of two things will happen: either the alien will show you three resources  that he likes and how much he has of each or he just won't talk to you at all. Trading doesn't mean if you give him beads, he will give you corn. No, it simply means you sell what you have and buy what he has. This is how it works: the alien lists three resources. The top one in the list buys and sells for $100 a piece. The second one buys and sells for $300 and the bottom one for $500. So, it is really simple: you buy low and sell high. That is, find an alien that sells something for $100 and find another that buys the same stuff for $300 or $500. Sell what you bought and make a profit! Use the money to beef up the troops or buy better scanners.

To buy resources, just click on the up arrow. You can buy until you run out of money. Hold the button down to speed the purchase. To sell resources (you must have some to sell, of course), just click on the down arrow. Hold the button down to sell all you have.

News

If the alien likes you, you can ask him for some news of the galaxy  and the universe. They really only know a few things: like where certain resources are, what an alien might want before he'll talk with you and what planets are important in finding the Golden Banana.  Pay close attention to what they have to say (aliens never lie), but don't let it bug you too much. News is not too hard to find.

Special Planets

Some aliens require certain resources before you can do anything else at the planet. In fact, you must find these planets before you can locate the Golden Banana. When you land on a special planet, one of two things will happen: either he will not talk to you except to demand a certain resource or he will take the resource he was looking for and act like a normal alien (if you can call aliens normal). Eventually, through finding special planets, you will encounter the banana . Kill that alien and you win!

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Attacking Planets

Landing on a Planet

To land on a planet , just click on it. When you land on a planet, you can (if you really feel you must), talk with the alien  on the planet, get to know him as a person, walk around in his alien shoes.... you get the idea. Or, you can just take what you want. In fact, in some cases, you can only take what you want: aliens just won't always cooperate with monkeys. You know how it is: they just don't see you for who you are.  Once you do land, you can either leave and come back another day or attack.

For more information on trading and news, see Planets and Aliens.

Beam Party

Now, instead of leaving, you can click on attack. When you do so, you cannot change your mind!   So think before you jump. But when you do click, another box will pop up. This is the beam  box. You can choose which monkeys to send down (you have to have some, of course)  by clicking on the circle of the appropriate troop. To take a troop off, just click on the circle in the box above your troop types. If you really don't care, just click on the military advisor button. This guy just chooses which troops will probably be the best to send down. He always sends as much as he can, so be careful when you use him.

In the bottom half of the beam box, you can see not only how many of each troop you have on your spaceship , but also the attack level and defense level of each type. The attack level is on top and the defense level is on the bottom.

For more information on attacks and defenses, see Your Spaceships.

On the Planet

 When you click ok on the beam box, you will beam down to the planet. The screen will change, putting your picture at the bottom right and the alien's picture at the top right. In the middle are a few buttons: retreat (only if you are the attacker, the battle will end and you will return to your ship  in shame) and play (see below on this). Also, there is the card button (to pop up the cards you have) and the help button (to get you back here).

At the top of the screen, you'll notice several circles of a peculiar color. Each of these represents a single troop of the alien's defensive force. At the bottom, you'll see your brave monkeys.

Attacker and Defender

This is important: when you beam down to a planet, you will either be the attacker or the defender (it's random).  The attacker gets to choose his attack cards first and (this is the nice part), can retreat! To retreat, just click on the button. As defender, you get to choose your cards last (not a bad thing, by the way), but you cannot retreat. As attacker, you get to resolve your hits first and remove the enemy troops. As defender, you get to take it on the chin and then return fire with whatever troops you may have left.

After being attacker for a round of cards, you will automtically switch to defender and after being defender, you switch back to attacker. This goes on until the battle is over or you retreat.

Playing Cards

 To see all the cards in your hand, click on the card button. To play a card, click on the title of the card (your cards are neatly stacked in order --- high cards at the top and in alphabetical order) and it will pop to the top. Hold down on the left mouse button and drag the card over to the planet surface (the left part of the screen). Let go of the button and it will drop onto the planet.

As attacker, you can play up to 2 cards before the defender plays up to 2 cards. If you don't want to play 2 cards or only want to play one card, click on the play button. (Note: you may have to move the card window over to see the play button). When the defender has played up to 2 cards, the attacker can play one more card for a total of up to 3. Again, if you don't want to play another card, click on the play button. Finally, the defender gets one last card for a total of up to 3.

Attack, Defense and Kickers

So what cards do you play? You can play attack, defense or kicker cards (they are all blue). Attack cards have a number on them ranging from 3 to 40. The idea is to get a higher number than the defender. Defense cards range from 5 to 20. These subtract from the attacker's total card value. Kickers multiply attack and defender cards --- so an 8 attack with a 3 kicker makes 24.

For example, you play a 3 and a 6 (total 9 attack). The alien plays a 5 defense and a 10 attack. You now have 4 attack value and the alien has 10 (looking bad for you). Last, you play a 10 defense and the alien plays a 5 attack. You now have 4 attack value (you get 4 attacks on the alien) and the alien has 5 (he gets 5 attacks at your troops).

Special Cards

Along with attack, defense and kicker cards are special cards which can be played. These are yellow and are stacked in the middle of your hand in alphabetical order. They are all useful and come in a variety of types. You have Killer cards (removes types of opponent cards),  Protecto cards (protects against Killer cards), Take cards (you get a number of cards from the alien's hand), Swap cards (you trade some cards with the alien --- they are chosen at random), Clear cards (all cards are removed this round), Heal cards (you get a number of troops back even if they are killed), Reverse cards (you get the alien's attack and defense and he gets yours), Armor cards (adds a defense type to all your troops for this round only), Weapon cards (adds an attack type to all your troops for this round only), Keeper cards (keep your cards after you play them), and the all-powerful Nuke card (all opponents troops are killed).

Getting More Cards

Whenever you drop below 10 cards in your hand, you get dealt enough cards to get back up to 10. You can also get cards in combat by playing the Take and Swap special cards.

Note: You cannot play any green cards while in combat. These cards can only be played in space.

For more information on types of cards and how and when to play those green cards, see Playing Cards.

Resolving Attacks

For every number you have in the positive after all cards are played, you get that many attempts at killing alien troops. Likewise, they get a number of shots at you. After all cards are played, the combat is resolved like this: starting from left to right, each troop gets to fire a shot at the opponent's troops until you run out of attacks or troops. You attack with all the attack types and levels that troop has and your opponent defends with all the defense types and defense levels he has. If the attack gets through the defenses, the troop is killed. When all troops on one side are gone, the other side wins.

Booty

If you win, you get all the cash  on the planet, all the cards on the planet and (most importantly) all the resources  on the planet.

For more information on resources, see Your Spaceships.

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Playing Cards

Playing Attack (Blue) and Special Attack (Yellow) Cards

For more information about playing cards (and using them to attack planets), see Attacking Planets.

Playing Space (Green) Cards

 Of the three types of cards, the blue and yellow ones are played when attacking planets. The green cards are called Space Cards. They are called that because you play them in space. To do so, click on the card button. Next, click and hold down with the left mouse button on the card you want to play. Drag it over into space and let go. The card will play and disappear.

Now there are some Space Cards which need to be played on a planet . These types are Friends, Spy, Stealth, and Steal. To play a Space Card on a planet, click with the left mouse button and drag into space like you do with other green cards, but make sure you drag over the planet to play the card on. Let go of the button and the card will disappear as it plays.

Discard

You don't have to play every card. Some of them are stupid, you say to yourself. I have way too many attack 4 cards, you think. To discard a card (and get a new card in return), click on the discard radio button at the bottom left. Now when you click and drag, the card will drop into space never to be seen again (until the deck gets reshuffled). A new card will appear in your hand. To play cards again, click on the play radio button. Now when you drag and drop, the card will play just like before.

Card Types

There are three categories of cards: Attack, Special Attack and Space. Attack and Special Attack cards are explained under Attacking Planets. The green cards are Space Cards and they come in several types: Friends (adds percentage chance for an alien  to be friendly with you), Worm (wormholes you to a random galaxy ), Scan (increases your scanning distance of the current ship ), Seer (shows all planets in the galaxy), Spy (pops up the planet you play on with the best scanner possible), Reveal (shows all wormholes  in the galaxy), Stealth (takes all the cards off a planet), Steal (takes all the cash  off a planet), Cards (gives you a number of cards) and Cash (gives you more cash).

To get a better idea of how all these cards work, just play around a little. Drag and drop a few here and there. The Seer and Reveal cards are especially useful.

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Strategy and Hints

Attacking

Ok, so you want to beat every alien  you find in combat? Here are a few tips:

 Play big value attack cards. Don't overplay your cards (save some good ones for later). Don't play more attack cards and get an attack number greater than the number of troops you have --- you can only attack once for every troop. Play enough defense cards to prevent the alien from attacking. If you run out of good cards, retreat. If you can't seem to kill aliens after 2 or 3 attacks, retreat until you can find some special attack weapon cards.

Hey, here's a few things to remember as well:

 Aliens have friends. If you attack an alien and another one in the galaxy  is somewhat like it (has a similar name and looks similar), that alien won't like you anymore because you attacked his buddy. Instead, roam around the galaxy being the good monkey fairy. Trade and find out news. Then come back and clean house, taking what you want.

And as far as troops are concerned:

 Send down as many troops as you can to fight the alien. The more the better. Note that the troops who are in the front line get killed first, so keep your expensive guys in the back if you are unsure about the alien you are fighting. Get your troop attack and defense types built up as fast as possible. Better troops are more important that bunches of troops (unless the bunches involve bananas, of course). Don't forget you have more than one ship . Getting a single ship all built up does you no good if it become stranded in some galaxy far, far away.

Trading

Trading is easy. Warp around the galaxy finding out who wants what. Go back around and buy all the cheap stuff at $100. Sell that to the highest bidder (the aliens who place the resource last in their list). There is very little reason to horde money: buy anything you need. You can always sell stuff back at the same price you bought it for (unless the troops are dead, of course).

Finding the Bannana

To find the banana , there is only one strategy: search everywhere. Note that the banana is always located on a planet  guarded by an alien who will never be friendly. This alien always wants a certain item and is always very hard to kill. Get that resource he wants and go to the planet with your troops as tough as they can be. Kill the alien and win the game. Take the banana and go back to your Monkey Kingdom in glory.

Space Monkeys (c) 1995 Commonwealth Software - Helpfile generated by VB HelpWriter.


Glossary

A

alien

B

banana

beam

C

cash

G

galaxy

N

navigate

P

planet

R

resources

S

ship

spaceship

V

viewer

W

warp

wormholes


navigate

This dialog box keeps track of all the planets you encounter. It shows the galaxy they are in, the planet number and the planet name. For example, [01.12] Globwax would be Galaxy 1, Planet 12, Globwax.


planet

Planet are pictured in the galaxy in all differnent colors and sizes. They usually have an alien of some kind, some resources (stuff you can trade for or just take by defeating the alien), some cash and some cards. Each galaxy has 5-10 planets.


galaxy

A Galaxy is a set of planets. The Galaxy is bigger than the window, so you have to use the little galaxy box (the "viewer") in the middle right of the screen. It will also show planets and wormholes when you find them.


ship

As a Space Monkey, you have four ships --- each is a different color. Each ship can have many monkeys and certain scanners which differ in range and what they can see on a planet.


viewer

The Viewer is the little galaxy box in the right middle of the screen. When you find planets and worm holes, they will appear in the Viewer. You can also click and drag the rectangle to change what part of the galax you see on the screen.


banana

Above all else, Space Monkeys treasure the Golden Space Banana. If this is not recovered, the entire Monkey Kingdom will fall into doom and despair. Or, in the very least, be very disappointed.


warp

This just means your spaceship disappears and reappears somewhere else in the galaxy or in a different galaxy (when you travel through wormholes).


wormholes

A wormhole is represented on the screen by the word EXIT. When your ship lands on one, it will warp to a different galaxy.


cash

Cash is just money. You get it by selling resources to aliens or selling off what you have previously purchased.


spaceship

As a Space Monkey, you control four spaceships. Each is a different color, can hold different types and amounts of monkeys and have different types of scanners.


resources

Resources are the commodities of the galaxy. There are all kinds of things in the universe --- from gold coins to cubes of jello! Aliens on planets buy and sell resources. Your list of resources can be found by double clicking on any ship's picture in the upper right corner of the screen.


beam

The beam dialog box allows you to choose which troops will beam down to the planet and attack the aliens.


alien

Aliens are the creatures which rule the planets. Some are friendly and some are not. There are about 1000 different aliens of several different species.