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Frozen Fish 1: Amiga
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Moonbase
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Instructions
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1990-02-12
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Destination: MoonBase
(c) 1990 by Jimbo Barber
All Rights Reserved
Instructions
* System Requirements
Any Amiga model with 512K, one disk drive and a joystick
plugged in port #2.
(This game may not work correctly on an Amiga with only 512K
and TWO disk drives. There may simply not be enough
available RAM. You are welcome to try it, of course... but I
make no guarantees about how well it will work.)
* Hard Drive Installation
Simply copy (drag) the "MoonBase" drawer anywhere on your
hard drive. It's that simple!
* Object
Guiding a lunar lander, the player must ferry cargo from an
orbiting space station to bases on the surface of the moon.
The player gets the cargo and fuel for the lander by docking
with the space station. The main goal is to complete all
the assigned cargo deliveries, and destroy as few landers as
possible in doing so.
* Game Elements
Along with successfully controlling the lander, the player
must also be aware of the following game elements:
1) There are a limited number of lunar landers per
game. Therefore, the player must be careful not to
destroy the landers during the missions.
2) There are limited fuel supplies, in both the current
lander itself and the space station. The lander may
refuel from the space station, as long as there is fuel
remaining.
3) There is a time limit imposed upon each game.
4) There are a set number of missions (cargo runs
between the space station and lunar bases) that should
be completed during a game for the highest possible
score.
* Special Keys
During the game, the following keyboard keys are active:
1) ESC - abort current game and return to the options
screen.
2) 'P', 'p' or the spacebar - pause/resume the game.
3) 'Q' or 'q' - instantly abort the game and return to
the Workbench. Use this if you want to stop playing
before the end of the current game.
These keys will work on either game screen.
* Options
Following the intro animation and Shareware notification
screen, the options screen will be displayed. The player may
control many aspects of the game, to make it as easy or as
difficult as he wishes. The joystick is used to change the
following options:
* Default difficulty level (Easy-Medium-Hard) - These
are preset values to get the player started. This entry
displays 'Custom' when the player moves to the
following fields to set his own difficulty level.
* Number of landers (1-7) - This is how many landers the
player will have available during the game. A lander
may be destroyed by colliding with the space station or
lunar surface, or by running out of fuel.
* Maximum lander speed (Slow-Fast) - The lander is
easier to control at slower speeds, but the experienced
player will appreciate the faster speed when time is
running short during a game.
* Number of missions (1-5) - This is the number of
missions (cargo runs between the space station and
lunar bases) that should be completed during the game,
for the highest possible score.
* Lander fuel consumption rate (Slow-Fast) - This
determines how quickly the lander burns fuel. The
faster it burns fuel, the more often the player must
dock with the space station to fill up.
* Space station fuel level (Low-High) - This determines
how quickly the space station runs out of fuel for the
landers. Once the space station is empty, the landers
can no longer refuel.
* Maximum game time (1-6 minutes) - When time runs out,
the game is over.
Once the options have been set, pressing the joystick fire button
will start the game.
* Game Screen #1
The game begins at the space station, in orbit above the
lunar surface. At the top, left of the screen is the fuel
gauge. There are two fuel levels, labeled 'S' and 'L'. The
'S' entry is the current fuel level in the space station,
and 'L' is the fuel level in the current lander.
To the right of the fuel gauge is the number of landers
remaining. This will be updated each time the player
destroys a lander. To the far right is the time remaining
in the current game. At the bottom of the screen is the
number of missions remaining, and which lunar base the
current cargo should be delivered to (more on this later).
As the game begins, a lander will be filled half-full with
fuel (notice the fuel gauges) and brought out of the bottom
of the space station on autopilot. Once the lander has
cleared the space station, it is put on manual control. The
player may now rotate the lander left and right by moving
the joystick left and right, and fire the thrusters by
pressing the joystick fire button.
On each side of the space station there are two cone-shaped
cargo docking ports (four total). Each docking port has a
signal light which displays red or green. Only a docking
port with a green signal has cargo waiting, and can be
docked with. The lander will NOT dock with any docking port
signaling red.
To successfully dock with the space station, the TOP of the
lander must be facing the desired docking port. Once the
lander has gotten close enough to the docking port, is
moving slowly enough, and is in the correct orientation, the
autopilot will take over and attach the lander to the
docking port. The player should remember the following
facts when attempting to dock for cargo:
1) The top of the lander must be facing the desired
docking port.
2) The maximum speed allowed when docking depends on
the 'Maximum lander speed:' setting from the options
screen. If 'Slow' has been selected, then the lander
can dock with the space station when moving at maximum
speed. If 'Fast' has been selected, then the lander
must be moving no more than HALF the maximum speed when
docking is attempted.
3) The DIRECTION the lander is moving is not important.
It may be moving toward the cargo docking port,
parallel to it, or even away from it!
4) The player must get fairly close to the port before
the autopilot will engage and dock the lander.
Once docking is completed, the cargo will be transferred to
the lander, and the player will be notified which lunar base
is to receive it (the display on the bottom right of the
screen). The signal light for that docking port will turn
red, and the lander will be released from the port. As the
lander begins to drift backwards, control is on manual and
the player may continue maneuvering.
At the top of the space station is the docking port for
fuel. The procedure is the same as docking for cargo
except:
1) The lander MUST be moving parallel or towards the
fuel docking port! It cannot be moving away from the
port, or the autopilot will not engage.
[Special note: The game clock stops once autopilot takes
control and docks the lander. It starts again when the
lander is released. I did this to be fair to the player.
Since the autopilot/docked/cargo/fuel loading sequence is
there just for effect, and takes a few seconds to complete,
I didn't want to penalize the player. This is important
when time is short at the end of a game.]
When the lander leaves the left or right hand side of the
screen, it will reappear on the opposite side. The lander
cannot leave the top of the screen, because it does not have
the power to leave orbit. If the player tries to leave the
top of the screen, the lander will fall back into the game
screen. If the player leaves the bottom of the screen, then
they enter the second phase of the game, which is explained
later.
The lander can be destroyed by either crashing into the
space station or running out of fuel. If the lander runs
out of fuel on this screen, it automatically self-destructs
to avoid cluttering the space around the space station with
useless floating landers.
[Special note: I have the lander self-destruct on this
screen (but not on the second screen... see below) when it
runs out of fuel, because it is quite possible to have the
lander moving in a straight path (or even sitting still for
that matter) that will never cause it to collide with the
space station. In that situation, the player would be
unable to do anything with the lander and would just have to
wait until time ran out. Not much fun.]
When the lander is destroyed for any reason, the player
loses all the fuel remaining in that lander, and any cargo
that lander was carrying. Therefore, if the player crashes
AFTER docking and receiving cargo, then he must dock for
cargo again. As usual, the green signal will light on one
of the cargo docking ports to indicate where the lander
should dock.
* Game Screen #2
As the player leaves the bottom of the space station screen,
he is automatically taken to the lunar surface screen. At
the top left are the fuel gauges and other information that
appear on the previous screen.
There is gravity on this screen, and the lander will
constantly fall toward the surface when not being pushed
upward by the thrusters. There are three numbered lunar
bases on the surface, and these correspond to the
destination given the player when he docks to receive cargo.
The player may land on any lunar base, but the current
mission will not be completed until the cargo is delivered
to the correct base.
When landing on a lunar base, there are three rules to
follow:
1) The lander must be in the full upright position,
with the top of the lander pointing straight up.
2) The lander must be traveling at no more than half
its' maximum speed.
3) The lander must touch down within the green landing
grid on top of the lunar base.
No more than two lunar bases will be visible when the player
enters this screen. As the lander reaches the right or left
edge of the screen, the ground will scroll to reveal the
other base(s). Which bases are visible when the player
enters this screen is chosen entirely at random, as is the
destination base when the player receives cargo.
After the player successfully delivers the cargo to the
correct lunar base, he may blast off from the base and
return to the space station by leaving the top of the
screen.
On this second game screen, the lander can be destroyed by
crashing into the lunar surface, landing incorrectly (not
upright, too fast or not within the green grid) or running
out of fuel. If the lander runs out of fuel on this screen,
the lander will not self-destruct. Gravity will simply pull
it down to the surface where it will be destroyed. When the
lander is destroyed, the player is returned to the space
station screen and given another lander, if any remain. Any
cargo or fuel is lost, of course.
* End Game
The game ends when any of the following criteria are met:
1) All of the landers are destroyed.
2) All of the available fuel (including that in the
space station) has been consumed.
3) The time allotted for the game has expired.
4) All of the missions have been completed.
The final score is a percentage, based on the overall
success of the missions and the resources remaining at the
end of the game. The most important factors are the number
of landers remaining (the fewer destroyed the better), and
the number of missions completed. There is also a
difficulty factor involved, and is based on the options
chosen by the player at the beginning of the game.
If the player has a high score, he may enter his name into
the high score table. The high scores are based first on
difficulty level, and then percentage score. To be fair, a
difficulty level of X with a 50% or below score can be
beaten by a difficulty level of X-1 with a 75% or above
score. The top ten high scores are saved to disk.
The player may choose to clear the high scores (which also
clears them on disk), play another game (which returns the
player to the options screen) or quit.
